THROWBACK THURSDAY: Joan Crawford’s “Velvet Lips”

Joan Crawford's "Velvet Lips" Were Once the Talk of Hollywood

If you are a movie/celebrity/Hollywood buff like I am, I cannot recommend the podcast "You Must Remember This" by author Karina Longworth enough. She tells stories of the secret and/or forgotten Hollywood legends. Her voice is spellbinding and she narrates every tale she tells brilliantly. Add to that the research and great writing that she crafts each episode with, and if you are not listening to this, you fucking should be. Trust me on this one.

She just finished an amazing series on "Charles Manson's Hollywood" detailing the doings of the Manson family, their brushes with celebrity, and how their crimes shook Hollywood's feelings of physical safety forever. If you are looking for something to binge-listen to, start there.  

Her current series is "MGM Stories" and the current episode is about studio executive/fixer Eddie Mannix. In the podcast, Longworth tells the story of superstar Joan Crawford's "Velvet Lips"—an explicit stag film of Crawford that had its existence confirmed by the FBI. Mannix was the man tasked with destroying the sex tape forever. He bought numerous prints of the film and eventually bought the master/negative of the film for $100,000. For more of the story of "Velvet Lips" and other bits of forbidden Hollywood, give Longworth's podcast your ear.