Forgotten Hollywood

In this episode I spoke with author Kristen Lopez about her latest book "But Have You Read the Book? Romance Edition". What makes a good love story endure? Is it the courtship? The obstacles along the way? The happy endings (or in some cases, heartbreaking conclusions)? Author Kristen Lopez explores 40 beloved screen adaptations of the book world's great romances to reveal what makes these works r...

Guest Host James Lott Jr talks about looking back at all parts of Forgotten Hollywood! 

There is more to read than just the WIzard of Oz. James Lott Jr is the host. 

In this episode I spoke with the author and grandnephew to Greta, Scott Reisfield. Greta Garbo didn't just change film. She changed what it meant to be a woman. Long before "feminism" entered the mainstream, Greta Garbo was showing women around the world how to live, love, work, and claim independence on their own terms. Her performances felt startlingly real at a time when acting was still theatr...

There are two answers! James Lott Jr guest hosts and explains.

Follow Forgotten Hollywood on Facebook. Buy the books on Amazon. Doug Hess is the creator and producer, he shares some news with you all! 

For Pride Month June 2026, James Lott JR guest stars. The film most often considered the first major film to feature an explicitly gay character/storyline is Different from the Others (Anders als die Andern), a 1919 German silent film. It starred Conrad Veidt as a gay violinist whose relationship with a male student leads to blackmail and tragedy. It was also made with sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld...

This is the debut of a mini episode called FH Mini Spotlight. For this one we are spotlighting Sydney Pollack (listen to Episode 439) and his time as an actor on the hit TV show Will and Grace for Gay Pride Month. 

In this episode, I spoke with Patrick McGilligan who was one of the editors of the book "Sydney Pollack: Collected Interviews". Sydney Pollack was a true actor's director―a filmmaker who came up through the ranks, starting as a bit-part TV performer before turning to directing. From his debut feature The Slender Thread  (1965) to his final film, The Interpreter  (2005), Pollack built a reputation...

In this episode, Warren Croom joins me for a conversation with Cindy Mitchum, daughter of John Mitchum and niece of Robert Mitchum. We also speak with Joe Cornett, who is developing a limited series about the two Mitchum brothers.

In this episode, I spoke with author Marilyn S. Greenwald about her book "Jane Fonda: There's a Great Deal to Say". Since the late 1960s, Jane Fonda has identified as an activist first and an actor second, using her celebrity as a vehicle to convey her views and her advocacy. Few stars of her stature have been as simultaneously acclaimed and vilified as Fonda.

In this episode I spoke with authors Taylor Cole Miller and Alfred L. Martin Jr. about their book "The Golden Girls: Tales from the Lanai". The Golden Girls: Tales from the Lanai  is an accessible collection that explores the cultural, industrial, and historical impact of that beloved American sitcom. Edited by Taylor Cole Miller and Alfred L. Martin, Jr., this anthology brings together a diverse...

In this epiosde, I spoke with Andrew Lampert about his book "Jackie Gleason: Library of the Paranormal". "I want to make hypnotic therapy and psychology my livelihood when I get out of this racket…And I'm going to spend as much time as possible investigating psychic phenomena." ―Jackie Gleason,  Parade , 1952

In this episode, I spoke with author Samuel Garza Bernstein about his latest book "Roddy McDowall: An Actor's Life". As one of the very few naturally gifted child actors who graduated into adult roles with relative ease, Roddy McDowall exuded charm throughout a glorious Hollywood run that included film, television, and Broadway. John Ford’s 1941 classic  How Green Was My Valley  put Roddy on the m...

The first  crossover episode with the podcast Have You Heard of Me. Guest Host James Lott Jr talks about 10 episodes from TV's past that tackled Memorial Day or PTSD, casualties of war, etc. We honor the fallen who served!! 

In this episode I spoke with Peter Hoffman, former CEO of Carolco Pictures, and we discussed this book "Karmic Winds: Reflections from the "Smartest Guy in Hollywood".  KARMIC WINDS  is a memoir of power, collapse, and reckoning by Peter M. Hoffman, a Yale-trained lawyer and Hollywood insider who once stood at the center of the independent film boom and later found himself stripped of status, free...

In this episode, I spoke with Michael Benson about his book "Hollywood vs Nazis: How The Movie Studios Took On Nazis Infiltrating Los Angeles". The true story of Hitler’s plot to turn Hollywood’s Dream Factory into a Nazi propaganda machine—and the Jewish moguls’ clandestine operation to sabotage the Reich’s insidious reach.

In this episode, I spoke with author Tony Lee Moral about his book "A Century of Hitchcock: The Man, the Myths, the Legacy". For over a century, Alfred Hitchcock has remained one of the cinema's most influential directors. Known as the Master of Suspense, this visionary filmmaker directed more than fifty films over six decades. His thriller  The Lodger  (1927) marked the start of his signature sty...

In this episode I spoke with actress Kathy Garver who played "Cissy" in the television show "Family Affairs".  The sitcom ran from 1966-1971 and Terre Haute, Indiana is the established hometown on Cissy, Buffy, and Jody Davis.  Kathy has also written 5 books and also down voice acting and audiobooks.

Guest Host James Lott Jr, spotlights the first soap opera created for Radio, Painted Dreams and its successor Todays Children. Irna Philips created both and changed the course of dramas forever! 

In this episode I spoke with William Bernhart about his latest book "The Superman Wars: A Battle For Truth, Justice, and An American Icon". Almost everyone knows about the man from Krypton who, disguised as mild-mannered reporter Clark Kent working with the fearless Lois Lane, fights for the vulnerable and the oppressed. But few know the truth about this indelible character’s creation.

In this episode, I spoke with mobster expert Larry Gragg about the film "Bugsy". 

In this episode, I spoke with author Mayukh Sen about his book "Love Queenie: Merlie Oberon, Hollywood's First South Asian Star". A beautiful reclamation of a pioneering South Asian actress captures her glittering, complicated life and lasting impact on Hollywood.

In this episode, I spoke with author Joseph Hulihan about his book "Vietnam on the Big Screen: How the Vietnam War Changed Hollywood". America, it is said, deals with its trauma through the medium of Hollywood, and few experiences have been more traumatic than its involvement in the Vietnam War. As the last US helicopters fled the American Embassy compound during the fall of Saigon, they left behi...

In this episode, I spoke with author Robert Guffey about his Book "Hollywood Haunts the World".   In Hollywood Haunts the World: An Investigation into the Cinema of Occulted Taboos , Robert Guffey deconstructs the most powerful taboos of the twentieth century (and the initial decades of the twenty-first century) by analyzing how disturbing and transgressive ideas involving Theosophy, Gnosticism, F...