The Way I Heard It with Mike Rowe - 109: The Biggest Name In Town

Episode Date: September 4, 2018

She was young and beautiful - and about to kill someone.

This is the way I heard it. High in the hills of a town without pity, a stubborn sun slowly set on a warm September evening as a young starlet walked up the shoulder of a canyon road and onto the property of the biggest name in town. She was apprehensive, understandably, partly because it was getting dark, partly because she was trespassing,

and partly because she was going to kill someone. For the record, the starlet was not violent by nature, But, desperate times call for desperate measures. The head of the studio, a feckless fool without taste or common sense, had cut her out of the film that would have made her famous. In the blink of an eye, her long-anticipated debut on the silver screen was reduced to a pile of worthless celluloid on the cutting-room floor. Could she have called, HR?

Could she have lodged a formal complaint with the studio? No, this betrayal could not be remedied with a hash. tag and a me too. This was personal. And so the young Starlet steeled herself for the task at hand, double-checked the contents of her purse, and approached the sprawling home of the biggest name in town. Five stories up, the legendary icon looked down as the Starlet approached. Her appearance was not exactly a surprise. Beautiful girls often came to this very spot, usually around sunset. This one, however, was a real looker. Twenty-four, flaxen hair, alabaster skin, eyes bluer than a Montana sky, and a body that wouldn't quit.

Oh yes, girls like her were drawn to this address like moths to flames. Pretty young things with stars in their eyes, happy to barter everything they had for the one thing they didn't. This one was more than welcome up here on the top floor of the legendary address. Five stories down, the Starlet was smiling, in spite of her dark purpose. It felt good to fight back. She recalled the role that launched her career, a small but essential part in a Broadway production of Hamlet. It was her character, who, at the King's demand, introduced the all-important, poisoned cup into the pivotal scene in Act 5. A poisoned cup intended for Hamlet, but consumed accidentally by Gertrude, the King's wife,

in Hamlet's mother. Oh yes, she remembered that performance very well. It was a performance worthy of an encore. But enough ruminating. Back to the task at hand. She knew the way in. She knew her target was on the top floor. In her mind's eyes, she could see herself ascending each step, carefully, one at a time. Up top, the view would be breathtaking. The sun was now beneath the horizon and the lights of Tinsletown would be twinkling all the way to the Pacific, but she would not be distracted. Her role tonight was that of a cold-blooded killer, and she would play the part to the best of her ability. She would betray nothing of her true intentions. She would simply wait till the moment was right, and then she would show the biggest

name in town what real power looked like. The Starlet checked the contents of her purse one more time and confirmed that everything was exactly where it should be. Then she began her careful climb up to the fifth story and delivered a performance worthy of an Oscar. Three days later, a hiker found the mangled body in a nearby ravine. Detectives were called, but you didn't have to be a hard-boiled gum shoe or a sunset boulevard Shamest to figure out who done it. The cops knew all about the Starlet's abrupt removal from 13 women, her first and last major motion picture. They knew all about the financial difficulties that followed and the naked photographs for which she was paid to pose. But it was the contents of her purse that closed the case

moments after it was opened, specifically a short note that read, I'm afraid I'm a coward. I'm sorry for everything. If I had done this a long time ago, it would have saved a lot of of pain. And so the curtain fell on the final act of Peg and Whistle, a gifted actress, who left a promising stage career to become a famous movie star. Alas, the only performance, for which she's still remembered, is the one she delivered on that warm September evening in 1932 at a famous address on the rocky slopes of Mount Lee, high in the hills of a town without pity. It was there at the end of a canyon road called Beachwood that poor Peg, her spirit broken by empty promises and shattered dreams, made good on her promise to kill someone

by climbing the rungs of a rickety ladder, scrambling onto the top of the giant H and throwing herself off the Hollywood sign. It was, after all, the biggest name in town. Anyway, that's the way I heard it. The story you just heard is true, at least the way I heard it. Thank you, Chuck Klausmeier, for producing this podcast. Matthew Zipkin, thank you for hitting the buttons over here at One Union Recording Studios. Thank you, gentle listener, for listening. And if you haven't subscribed and you would prefer not to miss a new episode, consider yourself officially invited to do that very thing. Talk to you next week. When you manage procurement for multiple facilities, every or

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