When They Were Making It

Patrick Rankin

The real human stories behind classic Hollywood's greatest films and legends. Marilyn Monroe. Casablanca. Audrey Hepburn. The Wizard of Oz. Charlie Chaplin. Breakfast at Tiffany's. Alfred Hitchcock. Sunset Boulevard. What do they all have in common? They had to make it first. Each week, we go beyond the legend to explore classic Hollywood's biggest icons and most beloved films. Not the myths. Not the takedowns. The whole human story. From the silent era to the early 1960s — the people, the films, and the impossible work of becoming a legend. WTWMI is written, produced, and hosted by Patrick Rankin. Original artwork by...

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When They Were Making It

Episodes (20)

Tue Sep 22nd Judy Garland's A Star Is Born (1954): Hollywood's Most Complicated Comeback — A Fragile Icon, Studio Butchering, and an Infamous Oscar Upset
Tue Sep 15th Veronica Lake: The Making and Unmaking of a Movie Star — Film Noir Stardom, a Fallen-Star Story, and the Woman Behind It All
Tue Sep 8th Charlie Chaplin, Part 2: The War Against Hollywood's Most Famous Man — Private Scandals, Political Persecution, and American Exile

When They Were Making It

Sep 22, 2026
2 hours
128 MB

By 1950, MGM was done with Judy Garland — and so, it seemed, was Hollywood. A Star Is Born was the film that was supposed to change all of that. After a devastating breakdown, the end of her studio contract, and an industry convinced she was finished, Garland spent the next two years rebuilding herself — on concert stages in London, Dublin, and New York. By 1952, she and her husband-manager, Sid Luft, were betting everything on one extraordinary project. This episode follows the making of the 1954 musical remake of A Star Is Born — the pictur...

When They Were Making It

Judy Garland's A Star Is Born (1954): Hollywood's Most Complicated Comeback — A Fragile Icon, Studio Butchering, and an Infamous Oscar Upset

Patrick Rankin

00:00 -01:33:07