63: Pal Joey, Part 1 - The Beauty of Lorenz Hart
SUDDENLY: a Frank Sinatra podcast
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...
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BONUS: Beautiful or Tragic - The Untold Saga of 'Priscilla, Queen of the Desert'
SUDDENLY: a Frank Sinatra podcast
An emotional deep dive into the untold history of The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, a terrible, racist and transphobic film. Rabia looks at the lives of the three drag queens and one trans woman that it was based on (Cindy Pastel, Strykermeyer, Lady Bump and Carlotta) and the erratic behavour/Shakespearean motivations of troubled writer/director Stephan Elliott. Deep research uncovers a complex story with no clear heroes or villains - a tale as beautiful as it is tragic. This is a bonus episode that originally appeared on Totally Trans. Source notes for...
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62: I've Got You Under My Skin, Part 3 - Reality
SUDDENLY: a Frank Sinatra podcast
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 , the original Michael Aldrich tape. email: suddenlypod at gmail dot com website: suddenlypod.gay donate: ko-fi.com/suddenlypod
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61: I've Got You Under My Skin, Part 2 - Angel
SUDDENLY: a Frank Sinatra podcast
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
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60: I've Got You Under My Skin, Part 1 - Mentality
SUDDENLY: a Frank Sinatra podcast
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
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59: Meet Me in Las Vegas (with Garrett Cash)
SUDDENLY: a Frank Sinatra podcast
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...
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58: Too Many Husbands!
SUDDENLY: a Frank Sinatra podcast
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...
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Ramadan Radio: Rocky Fortune's Rocket Racket
SUDDENLY: a Frank Sinatra podcast
We're off for Ramadan and will be back soon. In the meantime, here's a classic episode of Rocky Fortune with a quick intro about some upcoming episodes. website: suddenlypod.gay contact: suddenlypod at gmail dot com donate: ko-fi.com/suddenlypod
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BONUS: "The Elvis Conspiracy" 1992 Channel 7 Adelaide Commercials (with David M. Green)
SUDDENLY: a Frank Sinatra podcast
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?"...
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57: Finian's Rainbow
SUDDENLY: a Frank Sinatra podcast
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...
info_outlineThe phrase "tender trap" essentially didn't exist before the mid-1950s, entering common usage from the film and song which were both popularised by Frank Sinatra. The image of being lured into your downfall by a thing pretending to be soft speaks to a basic element of what it is to be human, and people all over the world have projected their emotions, hangups and life experiences onto this simple concept. This week, we examine Sinatra's classic film and song, plus the original play, then take a look at the many manifestations of the "tender trap" ever since, exploring 70 years of human sexuality and emotion.
Selected references:
- Pamela Robinson Wojcik - The Apartment Plot: Urban Living in American Film (2010)
- The article about the musical they do in High School Musical
- Marjorie Holmes - I've Got to Talk to Somebody, God (1969) and Second Wife, Second Life (1993)
- Michael Walsh - How to Undo a Maiden (1971)
- Transvestia magazine, issue #110. "The Gift" by J. Reviere. (1971)
- Howard Cosell - Like It Is (1974)
- Seductress magazine, issue #6 (pornography) (1970s?)
- The Tender Trap (1978) (pornography)
- Gay Barchives - Interview with Doug Rehrer about The Tender Trap, Pittsburgh (2020)
- Ron Nyswaner - Blue Days, Black Nights (2004)
- Jay Matthews - “Youthful Lovers in China Find They Are Caught in a Tender Trap” 17 December 1978, Washington Post
- Alexander Abdennur - The Conflict Resolution Syndrome: Volunteerism, Violence, and Beyond
- The Sapphire Room (1997)
- Dave Damiani - "The Tinder App" (2016)
- Madeleine Davies - “Don’t Fall for the Tender Trap” 13 July 2017, Jezebel
- The Tender Trap (2021, New Zealand)
- Interview with Sharon Armstrong, Woman Magazine NZ, 1 March 2021
- Death Trap aka The Tender Trap (1974) starring Vincent Price
contact: suddenlypod at gmail dot com
website: suddenlypod.gay
donate: ko.fi.com/suddenlypod