Alfred Hitchcock! bell hooks! The Ballad of Reading Gaol! The dramatic conclusion of our Pal Joey series finds Rabia, Felix and Henry bewitched, bothered and bewildered as they learn the end of Lorenz Hart's story and grapple with the very nature of love. In putting forth our dueling philosophies of love, can we get to the bottom of the thing that all of Sinatra's songs are about, the thing that has baffled philosophers since time began? What is this thing called love, anyway?!
For the second part of our Pal Joey deep dive, Henry leads Rabia and Felix through what made the original musical so groundbreaking and what makes the 1957 Sinatra film adaptation so bad. We also finally learn what "The Lady is a Tramp" is all about. Who's the mouse with the built? website: suddenlypod.gay contact: suddenlypod@gmail.com donate: ko-fi.com/suddenlypod
For part one of our Pal Joey deep dive, we look at the life of gay lyricist Lorenz Hart. We explore Hart's writings, philosophy, and history as a closeted artist living a painfully contradictory double life. We also discuss the benefits of irredeemable characters in art, setting the stage for a closer look at how the 1940 musical Pal Joey—and the 1957 Sinatra-starring film adaptation—came to be. Sources: The Art of Burning Bridges: A Life of John O’Hara by Geoffrey O’Brien Lorenz Hart: A Poet on Broadway by Frederick Nolan A Song in the Dark: The Birth of the Musical Film by Richard Barrios A Ship Without a Sail: The Life of Lorenz Hart by Gary Marmostein Pal Joey: The novel and libretto and lyrics, John O’Hara, Lorenz Hart, Richard Rogers Novellas by John O’Hara Selected Short Stories by John O’Hara Pal Joey, History of a Heel by Julieanne Lundberg Rodgers and Hart, Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered: A Dual Biography by Samuel Marx and Jan Clayton website: suddenlypod.gay contact: suddenlypod at gmail dot com donate: ko-fi.com/suddenlypod
The third and final part of our series about "I've Got You Under My Skin" and the AIDS crisis, in which we watch the Red Hot + Blue TV special from 1990 featuring the Neneh Cherry version of the song. We look at AIDS messaging of the time, learning from its bravery and mistakes, and also confront its inadequacy to deal with the current Long COVID crisis and the need to move on in the present. Source list will be added later. Watch AIDS 90 NOV RED HOT BLUE Videos, the original Michael Aldrich tape. email: suddenlypod at gmail dot com website: suddenlypod.gay donate: ko-fi.com/suddenlypod
The second part of our series about "I've Got You Under My Skin" and the AIDS crisis, in which we watch the first two hours of a VHS tape recorded by Michael Aldrich from his Dope Tapes archive. email: suddenlypod at gmail dot com website: suddenlypod.gay donate: ko-fi.com/suddenlypod
The first in a trilogy of episodes about "I've Got You Under My Skin" and the AIDS crisis. contact: suddenlypod at gmail dot com website: suddenlypod.gay donate: ko-fi.com/suddenlypod
This week, special guest Garrett Cash attempts to set a world record for the most preparation ever undertaken to appear as a guest on a single episode of a podcast. Meet Me in Las Vegas is a boring MGM film from 1956 set at the Sands casino in which Sinatra appears in a cameo as "Man at Slot Machine" for only a few seconds. You won't believe how far Garrett went to put this in its full context, spending over a year on the deepest dive yet undertaken for this show. Be prepared to learn a LOT about Las Vegas. We're thrilled to present not just a special episode of the show but also potentially a landmark in podcasting history. Full list of media consumed by Garrett Cash to prepare for this episode (backup link at Internet Archive) contact: suddenlypod at gmail dot com website: suddenlypod.gay donate: ko-fi.com/suddenlypod
It’s a simple idea with a long history: Woman is told her husband has perished at sea, so she remarries, then the original husband turns up alive and hijinks ensue! An old-timey excuse to show a throuple and a natural premise for comedy, this concept stayed resonant for many years and was remade a number of times – including as a classic screwball 1940 film, that was later itself in 1947 adapted into a hilarious and chaotic radio production starring Lucille Ball as the wife with Bob Hope and Frank Sinatra as the husbands. This week, we hear that radio production in full, and go on a deep dive beginning with a simple title which does not officially have an exclamation mark in it but absolutely should – Too Many Husbands! Referenced media: Black Mirror latest season (2025) Dale Beran - It Came from Something Awful (2019) Search Engine podcast episode, "What’s actually on teenagers’ phones?" (2025) Social Studies (TV documentary series, 2025) Erin in the Morning (Substack newsletter) A Minecraft Movie (2025) Prince - N.E.W.S. (2003) Origin of "Knock it into a cocked hat" from Wordhistories.net D.H. Lawrence - Samson and Delilah Caught in the Draft (1941) Paris Review on "Brownette" - "A Visit to the Max Factor Museum" by Sadie Stein (2014) "TOO MANY HUSBANDS" TIMELINE (incomplete... could be someone's PhD to work all this out, likely many strands missing) 1565 – Martin Guerre story published 1800s – Someone, somewhere, writes a story probably called “The Fisherman” about a fisherman who goes missing, is presumed dead, comes back and finds his wife has married. 1854 – Thomas Woolner is an English sculptor and poet visiting Australia, and while there he buys a lot of books. He then returns to England on board a ship called the Queen of the South and spends a lot of time reading. In one of those books he reads “The Fisherman”. We don’t know what book it is or who wrote it. He later passes it on to his friend Lord Alfred Tennyson. 1864 – "Enoch Arden", poem by Lord Tennyson, based on “The Fisherman” 1911 – Too Many Husbands, play by Anthony E. Wills 1914 – Too Many Husbands, film based on Wills’ play 1918 – Too Many Husbands, English film 1919 – Home and Beauty aka Too Many Husbands, play by Maugham 1938 – Too Many Husbands, British film 1940 – Too Many Husbands, American film based on 1919 play 1940 – My Favorite Wife, remake of 1940 film with genderflip 1947 – “Too Many Husbands” radio adaptation with Lucille Ball, Frank Sinatra and Bob Hope 1954 – “Too Many Husbands” episode of Rocky Fortune 1955 – Three for the Show, remake of 1940 film 1962 – Something’s Got to Give, aborted Marilyn project, remake of My Favorite Wife 1963 – Move Over, Darling, made instead of above 2020 – “Too Many Husbands”, song by Coriky contact: suddenlypod at gmail dot com website: suddenlypod.gay donate: ko-fi.com/suddenlypod
Not just the 1992 "Is Elvis Alive?" conspiracy theory special The Elvis Conspiracy (a sequel to 1991's The Elvis Files). Not just the specific airing of that special from Channel 7 in Adelaide, South Australia on 26 May 1992. The commercials from that airing. It's as granular as we've ever been, and we're joined by Adelaide's own David M. Green, host of VHS Revue, a show which specialises in commercials from Australian TV found on old VHS tapes. This was originally intended to be a bonus episode for the TCBCast After Dark Patreon-exclusive deep dive into "Is Elvis Alive?" that Rabia, Justin and Felix did in 2024. A bout of Long COVID meant it didn't end up happening at the time, but everyone's back on deck so here it is! Ads discussed include: The Adventures of Vicky, Mr. Footypunt, Jane Debster shoes, Bob Moran cars, promo for Memories of Elvis the following night, Yellow Pages ad with Roy Billing, Tip Top Bread with Andrew Jarman, Kellogg's Corn Flakes, TAB Telephone Betting, Hungry Jacks Ocean Catch, Light West End beer (Not gay), Farmer's Union Iced Coffee, Aussie Tile Fair, Zamel's Jewellers, Pedder's Suspension, Sizzler, AM Adelaide. The full Adelaide 1992 VHS recording on Internet Archive David M. Green's website Watch VHS Revue on YouTube TCBCast Patreon to hear the rest of TCBCast After Dark our website: suddenlypod.gay contact: suddenlypod at gmail.com
As Los Angeles burns, Henry checks in with the show from a Motel 6 in Palm Springs. websites: henrygiardina.com suddenlypod.gay contact: suddenlypod at gmail dot com
We're back, ahead of schedule, with an emotional first episode of 2025 after a long and personally very traumatic few months. This week we turn to Sinatra's classic 1956 album Songs for Swingin' Lovers! and explore how the album title inadvertently became a double entendre in the 1960s. Placing this album in the inadvertent context of the "swinging" sexual revolution throws new light on it and snaps the album's "concept" into focus. Mostly, this is just spectacular music and we're back to our roots of appreciating it. In particular, we spotlight the trumpet work of Harry "Sweets" Edison, a major part of the timeless sound of this era. Selected sources: "Music Hath Charms, Even Unto Motherhood", The Indianapolis Star, 25 March, 1962 Frank Sinatra: Portrait of an Album (1985) Interview with Harry "Sweets" Edison, conducted by Les Tomkin in 1970 for National Jazz Archive UK Hugh Rawson - A Dictionary of Euphemisms and Other Doubletalk (1983) All the Loving Couples (1969) Terry Gould - The Lifestyle: A look at the erotic rites of swingers (1989) Gilbert D. Bartell - Group sex: a scientist's eyewitness report on the American way of swinging (1971) Ray Connelly - A Girl Who Came to Stay (1975) Charles A. Varni - "An Exploratory Study of Wife-Swapping" (1972) contact suddenlypod at gmail dot com website: suddenlypod.gay donate: ko-fi.com/suddenlypod
In 1947, a musical premiered in which a conservative US senator is transformed into a woman by a farming commune of "rainbow people" in order to teach him a lesson. Brimming with queer and trans subtext, Finian's Rainbow is a difficult and exhausting watch today but it remains fascinating as an artefact of proto-feminism and postwar LGBTIQA+ history. Sinatra was originally slated to appear in an animated version in the 1950s and even worked on a soundtrack with Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald, but the project never eventuated - though he did go on to record "Old Devil Moon" on Songs for Swingin' Lovers! Frustrated by the infamous 1968 Coppola film adaptation, Rabia went in search of any random stage version off YouTube to watch instead - and found a gem in the form of the 2017 Usdan summer camp adaptation with a brilliant young cast, which we spend this episode dissecting. Modern feminists call Finian's Rainbow a whitewashed version of 1940s gender politics, but how does it really hold up today and do its "good intentions" matter? Also, we talk about Robbie Williams, his new biopic Better Man, Sinatra's influence on his work and the US/Commonwealth cultural divide as to whether or not he is famous. website: suddenlypod.gay contact: suddenlypod at gmail dot com donate: ko-fi.com/suddenlypod
I love my wife. The "I Love My Wife" timeline: "I Love My Wife" (unrelated song from I Do, I Do, 1966) Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice (1969) I Love My Wife (film, unrelated to the musical, 1970) Viens chez moi, j'habite chez une copine (French play, 1975) "I Love My Wife" (Sinatra single release of title song from musical, January 1977) I Love My Wife (book of original musical, 1977) I Love My Wife (musical, premieres March 1977) I Love My Wife (original cast recording, 1977) "I Love My Wife" (Bill Evans recording, 1978) I Love My Wife (South African cast recording, 1978) Viens chez moi, j'habite chez une copine (film of original French play, 1981) I Love My Wife (Australian cast recording, 1982) I Think I Love My Wife (film written by Louis CK starring Chris Rock, 2007) I Love My Wife (revival with Jason Alexander, 2008) I Love My Wife (amateur revival at Kraine Theatre, NY, 2018) I Love My Wife (Backers' Audition CD of original 1976 demo recordings, 2020) Other sources: Andy Propst - You Fascinate Me So: The Life and Times of Cy Coleman (2015) "After All, It's Not Gomorrah", Robert Cushman, The Observer, 9 October 1977 "Don't Go to Orgies in Deer Park" by Loveboner from the album Wet Sounds (2019) Charles L. Granata - Sessions with Sinatra: Frank Sinatra and the art of recordings (1999) "The Mystery of Frank Sinatra's Grave", David Lansing, Palm Springs Life, 26 April 2021 contact suddenlypod at gmail dot com website: suddenlypod.gay donate: ko-fi.com/suddenlypod
Melbourne's Medically Supervised Injecting Room (MSIR) in North Richmond opened in 2018. This was the result of a years-long grassroots campaign led by the local community, fed up with constant overdoses in the streets. The MSIR operates on principles of harm reduction which simply work and urgently need to be applied throughout the world. The stigma around drug use, and the criminalising of drug users, must end - and that begins with us. In 1955, Frank Sinatra made a historically significant contribution to the destigmatisation of drug use on film in Otto Preminger's The Man with the Golden Arm. In a depiction that is in many ways still radical today, Sinatra's character of Frankie Machine is a regular person who is trying his best to shake off a heroin addiction but is simply failed by a society that does not have the means to support him. A compelling and empathetic performance by Sinatra, and subject matter which openly defied the Production Code of its era, made this a memorable classic for many and contributed to a better world. This week on SUDDENLY, friend of the show Spike Vincent joins us to watch The Man With the Golden Arm, sharing his thoughts and personal experiences. Meanwhile, Rabia has been reading up on the MSIR and reports back on the experience of touring the facility to see what goes on first-hand. As a thematic wild card, we also watched an Australian DVD of the film called A Night at the Cinema with extra footage intended to replicate the experience of seeing this film in 1955 in a cinema in specifically Castlemaine, Victoria - including "God Save the Queen", a newsreel, cartoon, local ads etc - which leads us to compelling footage of the 1955 Maitland floods. Plus, an update on Bobby Long. Sources for this episode: * The Man with the Golden Arm (1955) (watch in full - public domain) * Jack Pearl - Robin and the 7 Hoods (novelisation) (1964) * Lou Reed interview, "Reed Goes Public on Velvet Underground", The Canberra Times, 4 October 1987 * Nobody Dies Here: Inside Melbourne's Medically Supervised Injecting Room (2023) podcast * Judy Ryan - You Talk, We Die: The Battle for Victoria’s First Safe Injecting Facility (2022) * Link to book tours of the MSIR (Melbourne Supervised Injecting Room) * Photo of the "You Talk, We Die" mural in North Richmond * Stimulant Treatment Program at St Vincents Hospital in Sydney * A Year to Remember - 1955 (1965) Newsreel including Maitland flood footage * Katie Carr, "The problem with the 'disabled villain' trope", The Nora Project, 7 October 2022. * Detective Pikachu (2019) * Where to obtain Naloxone - official advice from Australian Government * Brian Jeffery, "Gays come out of the closet", The Canberra Times, 13 March 1982 contact: suddenlypod at gmail dot com website: suddenlypod.gay donate: ko-fi.com/suddenlypod
In the final (?) part of our Wake Up and Live saga, Henry returns to the show to share his thoughts on Walter Winchell's legacy through the lens of the gossip landscape of 2024. Sources for this episode: * John Mosedale - The Men Who Invented Broadway (1981) * Neal Gabler - Winchell: Gossip, Power, and the Culture of Celebrity (1994) * Snopes article on the Elon/Zuck kissing photo * Better Offline podcast hosted by Ed Zitron, "The AI Bubble is Bursting" episode * Rehash podcast, "Is Anyone Up?" episode * Sullivan's Travels (1941) * Fresh Air (1999) * The Sweet Smell of Success (1957) * Scandal (1950) * Winchell (1998) * "Should Non-Jewish Actors Play Jewish Roles?" Henry Giardina, Hey Alma, 18 August 2022 Henry's official site - henrygiardina.com. contact: suddenlypod at gmail dot com website: suddenlypod.gay donate: ko-fi.com/suddenlypod
This week, we continue to act as if it were impossible to fail in part four of our exhaustive deep dive into Wake Up and Live. Picking up the story from the end of World War II, we look at the legacy of Dorothea Brande's book and the essentially identical self-help scam that generations of grifters have perpetuated on the world ever since. Wasn't this podcast meant to be about Frank Sinatra? Selected sources and references: Picture Search Video @ 139 Swan St, Richmond (IG: @picturesearchvideo) Teen Wolf (animated TV series) (1986) Stone Bros. (2009) The MousePack - Mickey and Friends Singing Classic Standards (2022) Jenny Nicholson - "The Spectacular Failure of the Star Wars Hotel" (2024) Philip J. Deloria - Becoming Mary Sully: Toward an American Indian Abstract (2019) Catherine Russell - "Wake Up and Live" (2012) Universal Opportunity League - Wake Up and Live (1950) Ayn Rand - Atlas Shrugged (1957) Earl Nightingale - The Strangest Secret (1956) The Secret (2006) Joanna Scutts - "Fascist Sympathies: On Dorothea Brande", The Nation, 13 August 2013 contact: suddenlypod at gmail dot com website: suddenlypod.gay donate: ko-fi.com/suddenlypod
The history books forgot about the 1944 radio adaptation of Wake Up and Live, a bizarre and disastrous production in which a fascist self-help book adapted into a comedy movie about duelling radio shows is adapted back into a radio show in which several other radio shows exist within the world of this radio show, and characters with real people playing themselves are altered back into fictional characters again. And THIS was Sinatra's second ever acting role of any kind, fresh off the back of the similary convoluted film Higher and Higher. On top of that, this was also the first time he recorded both "Embraceable You" and "Dancing in the Dark" and he delivers show-stopping performances of both, truly making this a historic moment in time. Yet all of this has essentially gone undocumented. This week on SUDDENLY, you'll hear the original radio broadcast in full as we try to make sense of what this all is - and we're not even done with Wake Up and Live yet. contact: suddenlypod at gmail dot com website: suddenlypod.gay donate: ko-fi.com/suddenlypod
Please note that the accompanying graphic for this episode has not been chosen lightly and is intended in the spirit of historical education, criticism and artistic commentary. In part 2 of our investigation into the saga of Wake Up and Live, we look at the original 1936 self-help book by Dorothea Brande, the toxic ideas that the book perpetuates and the author's ties to fascism and Nazism. To understand why fascism became popular in the United States during the 1930s is also to understand why Wake Up and Live became a bestseller. This week we take a close look at both, from the infamous 1939 Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden to the publication and editing career of Brande's husband, Seward Collins, before going over the horrible, horrible book in full detail. Selected sources for this episode: "Kendrick v. Drake, Beef of the century?" White People Won't Save You podcast episode, 10 May 2024. A Night at the Garden (2017) Nazi Town USA (2024) (PBS' American Experience, Season 36, Episode 1) Arnie Bernstein - Swastika Nation (2013) Joanna Scutts - "Fascist Sympathies: On Dorothea Brande", The Nation, 13 August 2013 Albert E. Stone Jr. - “Seward Collins and the American Review Experiment in Pro-Fascism, 1933-37”, American Quarterly, Vol. 12, No.1, Spring 1960 John Roy Carlson - Under Cover (1943) Henry Hoke - It's a Secret (1946) Michael Sayers - Sabotage! The Secret War Against America (1942) FBI investigation on Maria Griebl, via FOIA-requested documentation Review of Wake Up and Live in The Saturday Review of Literature, 2 May 1936 Hortense Finch - Classroom report on use of Wake Up and Live, from The English Journal, Vol. 27, No.2, Feb 1938 contact: suddenlypod at gmail dot com website: suddenlypod.gay donate: ko-fi.com/suddenlypod
This week we begin a three-part investigation into Wake Up and Live. What is it? Good question. It's a 1930s self-help book, a musical in which a real-life journalist/radio host plays himself, and later, a radio drama adapted from the film. All these things interrelate in a way that's confusing to make sense of in 2024. Just beneath the surface of Wake Up and Live lies an elaborate and shocking story we'll fully detail over the next three weeks. Sinatra won't enter the story until Part 3. What the hell is all of this? You're about to find out. contact: suddenlypod at gmail dot com website: suddenlypod.gay donate: ko-fi.com/suddenlypod
***SPOILERS AHEAD - LISTEN TO EPISODE 47 FIRST*** It is now post time. Selected resources and links mentioned this week: * Follow @covidconsciousqueersnaarm on Instagram * Godmother of Elvis Sightings video essay by Johnny Law & Order * TCBCast After Dark, Rabia's new side project with Justin Gausman, which you can hear by subscribing to the TCBCast patreon. * Art Cohn - The Joker is Wild (1955) * Chris Heath - Feel: Robbie Williams (2004) * Joe E. Lewis - "The Groom Couldn't Get In" (1948) * Joe E. Lewis - It Is Now Post Time (1961) * Son of the Mask (2005) * Heckler (Jamie Kennedy, 2006) * Footage of The Joker is Wild premiere * Episode of What's My Line with Joe E. Lewis, 8 October 1961 website: suddenlypod.gay contact: suddenlypod at gmail dot com donate: ko-fi.com/suddenlypod