Two films, two journal entries.  “June 8th. My life has taken another turn again. The days can go on with regularity over and over, one day indistinguishable from the next. A long continuous chain. Then suddenly, there is a change.”  “I feel my life turning. All it needed was a direction. You drift from day to day. Years go by. Then a change comes. I am able to change. I can be a good person.

Folks, we made it. After four and a half years of building the Historians At The Movies community, I present to you our next step: the Historians At The Movies podcast. So much work went into creating this and delivering it to you. My first thanks is to my pal and producer on this mission, Fletcher Powell, who I’ve known since my days in Wichita. I also have to thank my friend Jason Busch, who is overseeing the website’s redesign.

In April, Grand Central Publishing will release The Fixer: Moguls, Mobsters, Movie Stars and Marilyn, a new biography of midcentury private investigator Frank Otash by Josh Young, who coauthors book professionally, and Manfred Westphal, an entertainment industry PR executive who has been attempting to write a book about Otash since 1990. A onetime vice squad cop, Otash became infamous as a fixer for Confidential magazine and later claimed to have spied on everyone from Rock Hudson to Marilyn Monroe, alleging that he was present when Hudson admitted to being gay and when Monroe died minutes after a physical altercation with Bobby Kennedy.

Welcome to the Brown History Newsletter. If you’re enjoying this labour of love, please do consider becoming a paid subscriber. Your contribution would help pay the writers and illustrators and support this weekly publication. If you like to submit a writing piece, please send me a pitch by email at brownhistory1947@gmail.com. Don’t forget to check out our SHOP and our Podcast. The common notion of Indian food is that it is rich in flavour.

Dear all, The words of the American poet Mary Oliver (1935-2019) have already deeply affected how I view life. They have inspired me in ways hard to describe. I wrote about how her famous quote from The Summer Day gave me the confidence I needed to travel solo. ‘Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life? This week, I came acro… ncG1vNJzZmigkaO7orTAp6qtnZVjwLau0q2YnKNemLyue89oq6GdXZ%2B8tr7NnrBmpZGnxm67y6Ktnqo%3D