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Transcript

Lana Del Rey: Three Dark Stories Inspired by an American Risk Taker (Rewind) · DISGRACELAND

0:00
Speaker 1: All right, disco's welcome back to the Archive. I wanted
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Speaker 1: to tell a story about Lana del Rey just because
0:05
Speaker 1: I'm kind of fascinated by Lana del Rey. This episode
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Speaker 1: came out back in August of twenty twenty four, about
0:13
Speaker 1: a month before Lana del Rey got married, so that
0:17
Speaker 1: was some news that happened after this episode was released.
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Speaker 1: So she's so polarizing, right, People love her, Her fandom
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Speaker 1: is super strong. People obviously have an emotional connection with
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Speaker 1: Lana del Rey, but people also cannot stand Lnda del Rey.
0:34
Speaker 1: And these are my favorite types of artists. I love
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Speaker 1: Kim Gordon, but I love the Kim Gordon can't stand
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Speaker 1: Lena del Rey. But at the same time, I can
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Speaker 1: appreciate Lana del Rey. And I was really interested in
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Speaker 1: true crime stories from the past that are connected to
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Speaker 1: the whole world, the imagery, the visual world, not just
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Speaker 1: the musical world that Lana del Rey has built. And
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Speaker 1: I thought that was a really interesting way to get
1:02
Speaker 1: into her story and to tell her story in a
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Speaker 1: way that would satisfy myself, fans of Lana del Rey
1:09
Speaker 1: and detractors. So with all that said, I hope you
1:12
Speaker 1: dig this episode. It's one of my favorites. Matt Boden
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Speaker 1: did a great job mixing this episode, scoring this episode
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Speaker 1: as well, just really fantastic. So, without further ado, here
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Speaker 1: is Lana del Rey.
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Speaker 2: This episode contains content that may be disturbing to some listeners.
1:27
Speaker 2: Please check the show notes for more information.
1:31
Speaker 1: Disgraceland is a production of Double Elvis. This is a
1:46
Speaker 1: story about one of the most compelling musical artists in
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Speaker 1: modern times. It's also a story about an illicit underage romance,
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Speaker 1: an abduction in an international manhunt, about sexual liberation, and
2:00
Speaker 1: a scandalous story that is almost too scandalous to talk about.
2:04
Speaker 1: It's a story about a starlet, sex appeal in psychopaths,
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Speaker 1: and it's also about an artist who doesn't fit into
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Speaker 1: a box. Lana del Rey, a musician who makes great music.
2:19
Speaker 1: Unlike that music I played for you at the top
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Speaker 1: of the show. That wasn't great music. That was a
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Speaker 1: preset loot from my mellotron called yacht Funk MK two.
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Speaker 1: I played you that loop because I can't afford the
2:34
Speaker 1: rights to We Found Love by Rihanna featuring Calvin Harris,
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Speaker 1: And why would I play you that specific slice of
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Speaker 1: hopeless cheese? Could I afford it because that was the
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Speaker 1: number one song in America on January thirty first, twenty twelve,
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Speaker 1: and that was the day that Lana del Rey released
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Speaker 1: her debut studio album, an album that announced a new
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Speaker 1: artist who wasn't afraid to risk it, to create her
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Speaker 1: own playbook and do it her own way, not how
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Speaker 1: anyone else expected or.
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Speaker 2: Told her to. On this episode Illicit.
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Speaker 1: Romance, an International Manhunt, Starlet's Psychopaths, Three Dark Stories, and
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Speaker 1: Lana del Rey. I'm Jake Brennan and this is Disgraceland.
3:57
Speaker 1: The title of this episode is three Dark Stories Inspired
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Speaker 1: by Lana del Rey, because Lana's music and image are
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Speaker 1: as evocative in compelling as the myths that she's built
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Speaker 1: around her. While researching Lonna del Rey the Artist or
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Speaker 1: Elizabeth Grant that's Lana's birth name, the person, I naturally
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Speaker 1: learned more about what inspired her twentieth century Americana, classic noir, melancholia, romanticism,
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Speaker 1: and the enduring legacy of the American risk taker. Throughout
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Speaker 1: this discovery, I found myself continually prompted to explore the
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Speaker 1: stories of other fascinating women whose histories I may not
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Speaker 1: have otherwise been interested in were it not for Lona
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Speaker 1: del Rey's powerful songs and visual imagery, these things inspired me,
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Speaker 1: drove my curiosity in Unearthed, three incredibly scandalous and true
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Speaker 1: stories about three incredibly scandalous in truly fascinating women Lana Turner,
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Speaker 1: Catherine the Great in Megan's Stammers. Each of their stories
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Speaker 1: seemed to me to be ripped straight from the lyrics
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Speaker 1: of a Lona del Rey song. Now, this episode might
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Speaker 1: have been titled three Dark Stories that Inspired Lonna Delray,
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Speaker 1: because given how well read and history minded Lonna del
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Speaker 1: Rey is, it's easy to see how the songwriter could
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Speaker 1: have heard these stories I'm about to tell you and
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Speaker 1: been inspired herself to weave them into her songs. But
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Speaker 1: I can't say that with any certainty because Lonna del Rey,
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Speaker 1: like all great artists, isn't particularly forthcoming regarding her lyrics.
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Speaker 1: She keeps it mysterious, which I appreciate because it allows
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Speaker 1: us to sit back and consider the artist, her music,
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Speaker 1: and her image more deeply. The mystery compels us to dream,
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Speaker 1: and let's be honest, Lonna del Rey's music has a
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Speaker 1: certain dreamlike quality to it. On January thirty first, twenty twelve,
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Speaker 1: Lana del Rey released her debut major label album, Born
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Speaker 1: to Die. As part of the recording of this album,
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Speaker 1: there is an unreleased track entitled Lolita, which is of
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Speaker 1: course a reference to the famous Vladimir Nabokov novel from
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Speaker 1: nineteen fifty five of the same name in the inspiration
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Speaker 1: behind the Stanley Kubrick film adaptation, the one with the
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Speaker 1: iconic imagery of actress Sue Lyon in those cherry red
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Speaker 1: heart shaped sunglasses on the movie poster, the same heart
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Speaker 1: shaped sunglasses Lama del Ray sang about on another unreleased song,
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Speaker 1: the demo every Man Gets His Wish, which contains the
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Speaker 1: lyrics he loves my heart shaped sunglasses, he loves the
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Speaker 1: shape my heart shaped ass is. The Lolita theme is
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Speaker 1: one that Lana has played with numerous times in numerous
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Speaker 1: songs and videos throughout her career. It's also the subject
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Speaker 1: of many think pieces and message board threads throughout Reddit.
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Speaker 1: In the Lana verse, Nabokov's Lolita character is very much
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Speaker 1: the victim. She's a twelve year old girl who has
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Speaker 1: taken advantage of by an obsessed, out of work male teacher.
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Speaker 1: But the Lolita characters Lana del Rey depicts are knowing,
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Speaker 1: willing participants in the illicit romances. They're entangled it, and
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Speaker 1: at least in Lana's depictions, these young women are not
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Speaker 1: without agency. And yet another unreleased Lana del Rey's song,
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Speaker 1: prom song Gone Wrong. The lyrics go I knew you
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Speaker 1: loved me by the way you looked in second period.
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Speaker 1: I'd see you in the halls like hello, Hello, up
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Speaker 1: against the wall, like let's go, let's go. And then
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Speaker 1: in another song entitled Boarding School, Lana sings, let's.
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Speaker 2: Do drugs make love with our teachers.
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Speaker 1: Boarding School was Kent School in Connecticut, where, if were
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Speaker 1: to believe the myth, Lna del Rey was sent to
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Speaker 1: attend as.
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Speaker 2: A fourteen year old in part to overcome.
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Speaker 1: Her alcoholism and bad girl behavioral issues. Lana graduated in
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Speaker 1: two thousand and three. Of her time there, she has
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Speaker 1: spoken about an older man, a teacher who had an
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Speaker 1: outsized influence on her, a man by the name of
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Speaker 1: Jeane Campbell, whom Lana says was her only friend in school,
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Speaker 1: a time when she was excessively lonely. He was twenty two,
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Speaker 1: she was fifteen. He could drive her around in his
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Speaker 1: car and turned around to music in literature. She'd never
8:37
Speaker 1: heard or heard of Tupac, Biggie Whitman.
8:41
Speaker 2: And Nomakov.
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Speaker 1: Lana has said about this teacher quote, we read Lolita
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Speaker 1: and it changed my world unquote. Neither Lana nor her
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Speaker 1: teacher has confirmed or denied any inappropriate relationship. But Lana's
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Speaker 1: quotes don't exactly picked a helpless Lolita. They describe a curious,
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Speaker 1: literary minded young girl, perhaps dangerously infatuated, much like another
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Speaker 1: young girl, a fourteen year old student from East Sussex, England,
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Speaker 1: named Meghan Stammers. There's no way for me to know
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Speaker 1: whether Lana del Rey is aware of the incredible story
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Speaker 1: of Megan's Stammers, or if Meghan's story inspired Lana in
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Speaker 1: any way, or whether Meghan was inspired by Lana's Lolita fascination.
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Speaker 2: But you can be the judge.
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Speaker 1: In twenty twelve, fourteen year old Meghan Stammers was a
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Speaker 1: normal sophomore at the Bishop Bell School in Coastal England.
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Speaker 1: She listened to music, kept up with her studies, and
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Speaker 1: exchanged crushes with boys her own age. Then she got
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Speaker 1: caught up in an obsessive and illicit romance with her
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Speaker 1: thirty year old math professor Jeremy Forrest. Jeremy was, by
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Speaker 1: fourteen year old girl standards, the cool professor. He had
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Speaker 1: a tattoo, he was in a nirvana. He fumbled the
10:07
Speaker 1: chords of Heart Shaped Box on acoustic guitar, and he
10:11
Speaker 1: even got up on stage locally for the occasional gig
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Speaker 1: where he mumbled what we can only assume.
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Speaker 2: He believed to be witty lyrics.
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Speaker 1: For songs titled all My Friends Are Astronauts and Arrows
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Speaker 1: and Hearts. Meghan was smitten. Jeremy showed her extra attention
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Speaker 1: on a school trip. Meghan couldn't believe that this older, mature,
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Speaker 1: seemingly worldly man would be interested in her.
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Speaker 2: She was obsessed.
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Speaker 1: She needed to know everything about him. She followed him
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Speaker 1: on Twitter, and he followed her back, and soon through
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Speaker 1: direct messages that had a separate line of communication outside
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Speaker 1: of the classroom. And it was through that separate and
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Speaker 1: direct line of communication that Meghan received an invitation from
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Speaker 1: Jeremy to go on a drive.
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Speaker 2: And that drive led.
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Speaker 1: To deep conversations, well as deep as a fourteen year
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Speaker 1: old and a thirty year old could get. I guess,
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Speaker 1: but Megan felt seen not. To this point, Meghan had
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Speaker 1: developed an eating disorder and hadn't told anyone but Jeremy,
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Speaker 1: and Jeremy apparently knew just what to say to Megan
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Speaker 1: to make her feel better about her situation. The drive
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Speaker 1: turned into subsequent drives, which turned into long walks by
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Speaker 1: the ocean in the seaside town where Meghan went to school,
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Speaker 1: and those walks eventually led to a first kiss just
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Speaker 1: after Megan's fifteenth birthday, to her teacher, a man twice
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Speaker 1: her age. Jeremy somehow convinced his wife that it was
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Speaker 1: okay for Meghan, his student, to hang around the house
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Speaker 1: to watch TV, do her homework, and listen to music.
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Speaker 1: Jeremy convinced Meghan that he was on the outside his
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Speaker 1: wife and that his marriage would soon be over. It
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Speaker 1: was in jeremy wife's spare bedroom where the teacher first
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Speaker 1: had sex with the fifteen year old student. That act,
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Speaker 1: in the subsequent times they had sex only increased Meghan's
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Speaker 1: obsession with her teacher. As she recounted the story, that
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Speaker 1: time in her life was a romantic blur of quote,
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Speaker 1: car rides kisses and out of town cinema trips.
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Speaker 2: Unquote car rides.
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Speaker 1: Kisses in cinema sounds like images from a Lana del revideo.
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Speaker 1: Meghan described this point in her relationship with Jeremy as
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Speaker 1: the point at which their escape fantasy took hold. They
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Speaker 1: dreamed lovingly of a life outside of the town where
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Speaker 1: they lived and worked and where everyone knew them, to
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Speaker 1: a place where they could live in love anonymously despite
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Speaker 1: their age difference, and they settled on France. Back in school,
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Speaker 1: of course, the rumors started to fly, and then the
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Speaker 1: police took an interest. Then and they questioned Meghan and
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Speaker 1: her mother, and then they questioned Jeremy and his wife.
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Speaker 2: The writing was on the wall.
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Speaker 1: The pieces started to click into place for Meghan's friends
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Speaker 1: and family, and the same went for Jeremy's colleagues all
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Speaker 1: that time that the teacher was spending with that young girl.
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Speaker 2: Of course, how had they not seen it? Judgment would
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Speaker 2: be swift.
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Speaker 1: From Meghan's point of view, The fact that she loved
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Speaker 1: Jeremy would have nothing to do with how authorities treated
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Speaker 1: the situation. Jeremy would go to jail, and Jeremy couldn't
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Speaker 1: have that. So Jeremy and Meghan went on the run
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Speaker 1: like some modern day Bonnie and Clyde, inspired not by
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Speaker 1: bank vault Riches, but by the illicit romance of Navacos Lolita,
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Speaker 1: Meghan and Jeremy racing through the night, away from that
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Speaker 1: dreary English town and off to France. The trajectory of
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Speaker 1: Meghan's young love life begins with her on an East
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Speaker 1: Sussex beach, like Lana del Rey in the music video
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Speaker 1: for her song West Coast, twirling on that beach with
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Speaker 1: an age appropriate crush, and then off into the dark,
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Speaker 1: fleeing in the passenger seat of an empiric older man's car,
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Speaker 1: like Lana del Rey in her Shades of Cool video,
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Speaker 1: Megan being driven off toward an uncertain future, the romance
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Speaker 1: of it all compelling her.
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Speaker 2: The missing schoolgirl.
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Speaker 1: And the thirty year old teacher who abducted her, triggered
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Speaker 1: an international manhunt in September of twenty twelve. It took
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Speaker 1: only seven days for authorities to find Megan and Jeremy
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Speaker 1: in the French city of Bordeaux. Their short lived life
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Speaker 1: on the run ended with Jeremy's arrest and Meghan's return
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Speaker 1: to her parents. Jeremy got five and a half years
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Speaker 1: in prison, but the sentencing didn't quell Megan's romance. She
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Speaker 1: wrote Jeremy multiple love letters that were intercepted by prison authorities,
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Speaker 1: and Megan even attempted to visit Jeremy in jail, but
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Speaker 1: she was denied. Meghan blamed herself for Jeremy's incarceration, saying
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Speaker 1: that she initiated the relationship and suggested they'd run away together.
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Speaker 1: It's funny what inspiration will do. As young adults. We
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Speaker 1: see ourselves in the songs and in the books that
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Speaker 1: we listen to and read. It's fantasy, its escapism. Megan
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Speaker 1: Stammers's obsession was inspired and was definitely misplaced, regardless of
15:31
Speaker 1: where it came from, be it Nirvana's heart shaped box
15:35
Speaker 1: or Lona del Rey and Lolita's heart shaped sunglasses. Lana
16:08
Speaker 1: del Rey enters the pool in slow motion in a
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Speaker 1: retro one piece bathing suit. It's a sexually charged moment
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Speaker 1: in a music video filled with sexually charged moments, Lama's
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Speaker 1: video for her twenty twelve single Blue Jeans. There's her lover, tall,
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Speaker 1: thin cut, fully illustrated in the flesh, with tattoos everywhere
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Speaker 1: over his hands and face. He strips down to his
16:38
Speaker 1: underwear before taking to the pool himself. His tattooed hand
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Speaker 1: reaches for Lana's neck, but then she takes his fingers
16:47
Speaker 1: into her mouth. The couple acts as though they are
16:51
Speaker 1: all alone in that pool, but they aren't. There's an
16:55
Speaker 1: alligator swimming below them. Lana is unfazed. Great sex, like
17:02
Speaker 1: great art, is sometimes a risk. As the video continues,
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Speaker 1: Lana breaks from her lover and swims with the alligator
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Speaker 1: beneath the surface. She ries in her bathing suit, pressing
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Speaker 1: her flesh against the animal's long, jagged tail. The interpretation
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Speaker 1: is that the violent looking, illustrated man is enough. Only
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Speaker 1: the savage man eating beast can satiate. Lanna del Rey
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Speaker 1: is mythbuilding the symbolism of the hinted bestiality. That power
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Speaker 1: dynamic inspired me to wonder what Lonna del Rey's thoughts,
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Speaker 1: if any, might have been during the making of this
17:46
Speaker 1: video about one of the most powerful women of all time,
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Speaker 1: Catherine the Great, and the mythology surrounding that particular royal
17:54
Speaker 1: sexual appetite and one of the most scandalous rumors of
17:58
Speaker 1: all time. It was July and it was hot, a
18:04
Speaker 1: rare early summer heat wave in Saint Petersburg, the seat
18:07
Speaker 1: of the Russian Empire. In seventeen ninety six, the young
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Speaker 1: man waited in the apartment located inside the palace.
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Speaker 2: He was unsure what.
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Speaker 1: To do with himself in his new home. He was
18:19
Speaker 1: even unsure about how long this would be his new home.
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Speaker 1: All he knew was that he could live here indefinitely,
18:26
Speaker 1: and he could do whatever he wanted, so long as
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Speaker 1: he made himself available at all times sexually to the Empress,
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Speaker 1: who lived in the adjacent apartment. The young man had
18:37
Speaker 1: not yet met the Empress, known as Catherine the Great.
18:40
Speaker 1: He'd only met her Countess, an encounter he enjoyed very much.
18:44
Speaker 1: Despite the Countess's age, she put the young man through
18:48
Speaker 1: his sexual paces. It was thrilling being with an older
18:51
Speaker 1: woman who knew exactly what she wanted and how to
18:54
Speaker 1: get it. The countess wasn't as old as the Empress,
18:57
Speaker 1: though the Empress.
18:59
Speaker 2: Was sixty sive.
19:01
Speaker 1: The countess's job was to give the young man a
19:03
Speaker 1: trial run to see if he was up to satisfying
19:06
Speaker 1: the Empress, and that meant two things, size and stamina.
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Speaker 1: The young man passed his royal audition on both counts.
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Speaker 1: So here sat this virile young man in his new apartment,
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Speaker 1: poundering the rumors he'd heard about his new lover, the
19:21
Speaker 1: Empress of Russia, whom he'd never met, The rumors that
19:25
Speaker 1: she was insatiable, that she demanded sex up to seven
19:29
Speaker 1: times a day, that the Empress, if it pleased her,
19:32
Speaker 1: would make a cast of his elephantine penis and use
19:35
Speaker 1: that to satisfy her on occasion as well, on those
19:38
Speaker 1: days when he her young lover wasn't able to keep
19:41
Speaker 1: up with her. What was true about the Empress and
19:45
Speaker 1: what was myth? Wasn't all that hard for the young
19:48
Speaker 1: man to sort out. Much of what Catherine the Great
19:52
Speaker 1: had accomplished in her sixty seven years was already part
19:55
Speaker 1: of the modern historical record. She married into the royal
19:59
Speaker 1: family and outsmarted, and some say overthrew, her dim witted,
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Speaker 1: sexually inadequate, and sadistic animal torturing husband, Peter the Third.
20:09
Speaker 1: Peter couldn't perform sexually. Every time he got hard, he
20:13
Speaker 1: experienced excruciating pain.
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Speaker 2: He took that pain out on.
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Speaker 1: Helpless animals, dogs and cats, dismembering them for fun, relishing
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Speaker 1: the pain he inflicted. Catherine mercilessly deposed him and set
20:27
Speaker 1: about to remake the Russian.
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Speaker 2: Empire in her own image. She conquered new lands.
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Speaker 1: In the south, she annexed Crimea and colonized large swaths
20:37
Speaker 1: of land for strategic outposts to fend off the Ottomans.
20:41
Speaker 1: She partitioned Poland and moved as far east as Alaska.
20:45
Speaker 1: She modernized much of Russia in lockstep with Western European progress.
20:49
Speaker 1: She was an early advocate of the smallpox vaccine, which
20:52
Speaker 1: saved countless lives. She was a patron of the arts,
20:55
Speaker 1: a correspondent, and a confidant of Voltaire, one of the
20:59
Speaker 1: great writers and thinkers of the day. And Catherine the
21:03
Speaker 1: Great acquired and wielded this great power while tearing through
21:06
Speaker 1: an extensive line of lovers, beautiful and sometimes powerful men
21:12
Speaker 1: whom she betted not only for sexual conquest, but sometimes
21:15
Speaker 1: for strategic purposes.
21:16
Speaker 2: As well, generals and nobles.
21:19
Speaker 1: Who helped quell palace coups and put down regional uprisings.
21:23
Speaker 1: The older Catherine got the younger her lover's gut. As
21:27
Speaker 1: a young man waiting dutifully in his new apartment, well
21:30
Speaker 1: knew she was insatiable. Youthful vigor was necessary to satisfy
21:36
Speaker 1: the aging Empress, and her satisfaction didn't go unrewarded. Many
21:41
Speaker 1: upon being discarded after fulfilling their duties, were rewarded handsomely
21:46
Speaker 1: for their efforts, but always materially, never with any real power,
21:51
Speaker 1: cash servants, homes, but never with anything that would diminish
21:55
Speaker 1: Catherine's reign in any way. From where the young man sat,
22:02
Speaker 1: it was tough to judge the sexual rumors surrounding Catherine.
22:06
Speaker 1: They called her a deviant, but really was any of
22:09
Speaker 1: her behavior worse than what was whispered about the men
22:11
Speaker 1: who'd reigned previously here in Russia or elsewhere. The Ottoman
22:16
Speaker 1: emperor Ibrahim the Mad was said to have had a
22:19
Speaker 1: harem of two hundred and eighty women on a whim.
22:22
Speaker 1: One day, he decided he was bored, so he had
22:24
Speaker 1: them all executed. Then he took their skin and sewed
22:28
Speaker 1: them into sacks. Rome's emperor Caligula was said to have
22:32
Speaker 1: been infatuated with all three of his sisters, each of
22:35
Speaker 1: whom he slept with, and King Herod. That story was
22:39
Speaker 1: possibly the most disturbing as it goes. He was supposedly
22:45
Speaker 1: driven so mad with jealousy by his wife Miriam, that
22:48
Speaker 1: he had her killed, then preserved her dead body in honey,
22:52
Speaker 1: and proceeded to have sex with it for seven more
22:55
Speaker 1: years after his wife died. So what if Than the
23:00
Speaker 1: Great made her armed guards erecked and paraded them past
23:03
Speaker 1: her for an expensive thrill. So what if she had
23:06
Speaker 1: replications of her favorite past lover's cocks.
23:08
Speaker 2: Carved into her wood furniture.
23:10
Speaker 1: So what if the Empress found herself dissatisfied with all
23:13
Speaker 1: of her lovers after a lifetime of sex on demand,
23:16
Speaker 1: numerous times per day, every day. And so what if
23:20
Speaker 1: Catherine the Great eventually turned away from men for satisfaction
23:24
Speaker 1: in favor of a horse. The sixty seven year old
23:31
Speaker 1: Empress lay there on the bed, fully exhilarated.
23:35
Speaker 2: The bed had been brought.
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Speaker 1: Down from one of the royal apartments into the barn
23:39
Speaker 1: adjacent to the stables, and the horse, suspended above her
23:42
Speaker 1: on straps, was being carefully lowered by a group of
23:46
Speaker 1: muscular royal guards.
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Speaker 2: The horse's member was larger. I can't do it. I
23:53
Speaker 2: won't do it.
23:54
Speaker 1: As much as I want to do it, I'm not
23:56
Speaker 1: going to do it. I'm not going to dramatize the
23:58
Speaker 1: death of Catherine the Great crushed by the horse she
24:01
Speaker 1: was attempting to copulate with. But that is the story,
24:06
Speaker 1: or rather the myth that this sixty seven year old woman,
24:10
Speaker 1: one of the most powerful women in the world has
24:12
Speaker 1: ever known, died in one of the most scandalous ways possible.
24:17
Speaker 1: I don't believe it. It's too lurid and honestly, too
24:20
Speaker 1: out of character. Catherine the Great may have been insatiable,
24:24
Speaker 1: but unlike King Herod Caligula and Emperor Ibraheim the Mad,
24:29
Speaker 1: Catherine wasn't deranged. Her actions indicate quite the opposite. She
24:35
Speaker 1: may have been ruthless at times, but she was measured, thoughtful,
24:39
Speaker 1: and strategic, all qualities that contravene derangement. Catherine the Great
24:45
Speaker 1: was not just a powerful woman in an age when
24:47
Speaker 1: powerful women were few and far between. She was a
24:50
Speaker 1: beacon of independence, standing tall and strong in a world
24:55
Speaker 1: designed to suppress women beyond her power. She was truly
24:59
Speaker 1: in dependent and sexually liberated, a testament to her strength
25:03
Speaker 1: and resilience. Catherine the Great died of a stroke, likely
25:09
Speaker 1: on her toilet, but that story wasn't scandalous enough. The
25:14
Speaker 1: rumors of her shocking demise with the horse and of
25:16
Speaker 1: her so called sexual deviancy are, in my opinion, nothing
25:20
Speaker 1: more than a historical smear campaign by jealous and petty
25:23
Speaker 1: men from that era aimed at discrediting one of the
25:27
Speaker 1: most accomplished women of all time. Catherine the Great's reign
25:31
Speaker 1: should not be fodder for discrediting myths. The Empress's illustrious
25:36
Speaker 1: reign should instead inspire freethinking women everywhere, as I believe
25:40
Speaker 1: it did. Lana del Rey, a woman who has been
25:42
Speaker 1: hell bent on making her own myths since, bursting on
25:45
Speaker 1: the scene with a borrowed name from another powerful woman,
25:50
Speaker 1: A woman with ties to another incredible story, this one
25:54
Speaker 1: also very scandalous, but this time very true.
26:02
Speaker 2: We'll be right back after this word were were.
26:11
Speaker 1: Lana Turner was so hot that men literally walked into
26:15
Speaker 1: walls when they saw her walking down Hollywood Boulevard. They
26:19
Speaker 1: drove off of the boulevard and crashed their cars into walls,
26:23
Speaker 1: and they flocked to movie theaters in droves to gawk
26:26
Speaker 1: at the curvy blonde starlet and imagine themselves alone with her,
26:30
Speaker 1: if for only a few seconds. This was due to
26:34
Speaker 1: Lana Turner's natural beauty and how director Mervyn Leroy chose
26:39
Speaker 1: to capture her with his camera in her first appearance
26:42
Speaker 1: on screen in his nineteen thirty seven film, They won't forget.
26:47
Speaker 1: The director filmed the actress very deliberately in a way
26:51
Speaker 1: that accentuated her body, which seems so obvious these days
26:54
Speaker 1: that it's not even worth mentioning. But in nineteen thirty
26:57
Speaker 1: seven it was revolutionary. Sidney Sweeney, Margot, Robbie Scarlett, Johansson,
27:04
Speaker 1: Kim Kardashian, hell, even Lana Delray. Pick your modern day
27:06
Speaker 1: a list sex symbol, and believe me, when it comes
27:09
Speaker 1: to their impact, none of them have their grip on
27:12
Speaker 1: the collective male libido like Lana Turner did back in.
27:15
Speaker 2: The forties and fifties.
27:17
Speaker 1: And this is the woman Lana del Rey chose to
27:20
Speaker 1: take her stage name from. When choosing a stage name,
27:25
Speaker 1: Lana del Rey had a vision, she said, she quote
27:29
Speaker 1: wanted a name she could shape the music towards. Del
27:32
Speaker 1: Rey is taken from the name of a car. Two cars, actually,
27:35
Speaker 1: but that's not important. The point is that del Rey
27:40
Speaker 1: sounds American and Lana sounds well hot. Lana Turner's hotness
27:48
Speaker 1: was a magnet for a long line of suitors. Tarzan's
27:52
Speaker 1: Lex Barker, one of the most famous men of the era,
27:55
Speaker 1: who ended up being Lana's second husband, Howard Hughes, Frank
27:59
Speaker 1: Sinatra allegedly and married Clark Gable, and, most infamously, the
28:04
Speaker 1: gangster Johnny Stompanado. Johnny Stompanado was a killer, a killer
28:11
Speaker 1: who worked for La crime boss Mickey Cohen. If you've
28:14
Speaker 1: seen the Academy Award winning film La Confidential, you'll see
28:18
Speaker 1: Johnny Stompinado depicted on screen getting his ball squeezed literally
28:22
Speaker 1: by Russell Crowe's Bud White character. Johnny is seated across
28:27
Speaker 1: from a woman playing none other than Lana Turner. Johnny
28:30
Speaker 1: was a bad guy, and not just on the street.
28:34
Speaker 1: At home, behind closed doors, he beat on his beautiful girlfriend.
28:38
Speaker 1: Lana had a hard time finding her way out of
28:40
Speaker 1: the relationship, so in nineteen fifty seven, she took an
28:44
Speaker 1: acting gig all the way over in London, starring opposite
28:47
Speaker 1: a handsome young actor named Sean Connery. It's long been
28:51
Speaker 1: rumored that the two quickly became involved romantically on the
28:54
Speaker 1: set of that film. Another Time, Another Place, and those
28:58
Speaker 1: rumors started way back in nineteen fifty seven, and Johnny
29:02
Speaker 1: Stompanado heard them all the way across the pond back
29:05
Speaker 1: in Hollywood. Incensed, he grabbed his gun and boarded a
29:09
Speaker 1: flight for London. He arrived on set, pulled out his
29:13
Speaker 1: gun and went straight for Sean Connery. Stompinado was a
29:17
Speaker 1: hard man, but Connery was a different type of tough.
29:21
Speaker 1: He'd grown up fighting off violent street gangs in Edinburgh.
29:24
Speaker 1: He was a truck driver, a lifeguard, a boxing instructor,
29:27
Speaker 1: a bodybuilder, a gym instructor in the British Army, and
29:31
Speaker 1: a tattooed fighter in the Royal Navy. Skinny Hollywood hoods
29:35
Speaker 1: with greasy pompadors and tiny pistols did not intimidate Sean Connery.
29:41
Speaker 1: Sean Connery was in the middle of filming a scene
29:44
Speaker 1: with Lana Turner and they were embracing on a couch.
29:48
Speaker 1: Johnny Stoppanado walked right into the chute with his gun
29:51
Speaker 1: drawn straight at Connery, telling him to get his hands
29:53
Speaker 1: off his girl. Connery quickly grabbed Stompanado's wrist and twisted
29:57
Speaker 1: it hard until he dropped his gun, walled him with
30:00
Speaker 1: a right hook and escorted him off the set and
30:03
Speaker 1: into the custody of Scotland Yard, which wasted no time
30:07
Speaker 1: in deporting Johnny Stompinado back to Los Angeles. When Lanna
30:12
Speaker 1: returned home, the real fighting began. As her relationship with
30:17
Speaker 1: the gangster progressed, so too did the volatility and violence.
30:22
Speaker 1: It was too much to handle for Lona's fourteen year
30:24
Speaker 1: old daughter, Cheryl, who lived with her. The fighting was endless,
30:29
Speaker 1: and Cheryl heard it all. When the beating ceased to
30:33
Speaker 1: have the effect he was looking for, Johnny would resort
30:35
Speaker 1: to threats. He told Lanna he would cut her face
30:39
Speaker 1: to ribbons with a knife if she didn't do what
30:41
Speaker 1: she was told, the point being he'd disfigure her so
30:45
Speaker 1: badly she'd never work in Hollywood again. Lana fought back,
30:50
Speaker 1: and Johnny took a razor blade to her cheek and
30:52
Speaker 1: held it there. Still, Lona was obstinate. Cheryl heard everything.
30:58
Speaker 1: She was living in constant fear. When Lana left her
31:02
Speaker 1: second husband, Tarzan's Lex Barker. Cheryl had been relieved by
31:06
Speaker 1: her mother's choice of the gangster Johnny Stompinado. Anything would
31:10
Speaker 1: be better than Lex, who repeatedly raped Cheryl as a
31:13
Speaker 1: young girl, But Stompanado's presence proved to be its own
31:17
Speaker 1: type of hell. Fear, ever present, violence, the constant threat
31:22
Speaker 1: of an anvil, hanging over her head. Johnny Stompinado was
31:27
Speaker 1: a twenty four to seven problem. When he wasn't beating
31:31
Speaker 1: on Cheryl's mother, he was threatening to slice her to pieces.
31:34
Speaker 1: And when Stompinado wasn't threatening Lana Turner, he was threatening Cheryl.
31:40
Speaker 1: Lona wouldn't listen, Lana wouldn't respond to the beatings. Lana
31:44
Speaker 1: wouldn't respond to the threats. Then Stompanado would threaten to
31:48
Speaker 1: cut up Lana's daughter as well. Cheryl couldn't believe what
31:53
Speaker 1: she was hearing behind closed doors. I'll cut you so
31:57
Speaker 1: bad that no one will be able to tell it
31:58
Speaker 1: to you anymore. You'll never work again, your daughter's next.
32:05
Speaker 1: It was unhinged, depraved, horrifying to the young girl who
32:09
Speaker 1: crept up to the door that separated her from the
32:12
Speaker 1: war going on on the other side between her mother,
32:15
Speaker 1: the movie star, and her mother's boyfriend, the gangster. Cheryl
32:21
Speaker 1: gripped tighter the knife she'd grabbed as she passed through
32:23
Speaker 1: the kitchen. It was just for protection, she thought, a
32:27
Speaker 1: last resort. As the screaming raged on the other side
32:31
Speaker 1: of the door.
32:32
Speaker 2: Cheryl stood there, helpless.
32:34
Speaker 1: Squeezing the knife.
32:36
Speaker 2: She couldn't open the door. She couldn't help her mother,
32:39
Speaker 2: she was paralyzed.
32:41
Speaker 1: But then the door burst open and Cheryl's mom, Lana,
32:45
Speaker 1: burst through it and passed by. Here, her psychopathic boyfriend,
32:48
Speaker 1: Johnny Stompanado, lunged after Lana and into the outstretched knife
32:53
Speaker 1: wielding hand of fourteen year old Cheryl Turner. The knife
32:57
Speaker 1: pierced the gangster's stomach, blood spilled out.
33:00
Speaker 2: Drenching his silk shirt. His eyes went wide.
33:03
Speaker 1: Cheryl's mouth fell open with a near silent gasp, and
33:07
Speaker 1: behind her Lana Turner screamed as her lover, Johnny Stompinado.
33:12
Speaker 2: Fell dead to the floor.
33:39
Speaker 1: Immature, shallow, messy, the worst concert experience of my life,
33:45
Speaker 1: A bad mashup of John Mellencamp and Kesha. All these
33:50
Speaker 1: criticisms and more have been hurled at Lana del Rey.
33:54
Speaker 1: Pitchfork called her debut major label album Born to Die
33:58
Speaker 1: quote the album equivalent of a fake orgasm. Actress and
34:04
Speaker 1: musician Juliette Lewis, after watching Lana del Rey's infamous debut
34:09
Speaker 1: Saturday Night Live performance, tweeted out, wow, watching this quote
34:13
Speaker 1: singer on SNL is like watching a twelve year old
34:16
Speaker 1: in their bedroom when they're pretending to sing and perform
34:20
Speaker 1: hashtag sign of our Times.
34:23
Speaker 2: Ouch.
34:26
Speaker 1: Some of this criticism was warranted, namely the bad reviews
34:29
Speaker 1: of Lana's SNL performance, but most of it is ridiculous.
34:35
Speaker 1: All art is subjective, but not All art needs to
34:38
Speaker 1: fit neatly into a box, which is what our critics
34:42
Speaker 1: want for our pop stars.
34:44
Speaker 2: But when Lana del Rey first.
34:46
Speaker 1: Burst into the mainstream with Born to Die, there was
34:49
Speaker 1: no obvious box. In fact, to the extent that there
34:53
Speaker 1: was a figurative box, it wasn't one that many critics
34:56
Speaker 1: wanted to touch. Lna del Rey was you never knew
35:00
Speaker 1: you wanted to have a Tumbler account come to life
35:04
Speaker 1: in the form of a pop star, a boardwalk.
35:07
Speaker 2: Bad girl, a Catholic school slut, a.
35:10
Speaker 1: Lolita with ap English smarts who swam with alligators and
35:13
Speaker 1: walked over beats in Nancy Sinatra's boots. Lana del Rey
35:18
Speaker 1: is the best kind of an artist, the kind who
35:21
Speaker 1: takes chances, the kind who isn't afraid to risk it.
35:25
Speaker 1: More importantly, she's unafraid to risk it in public, in
35:29
Speaker 1: front of us. For us failure falling down creatively, It's
35:35
Speaker 1: an unfortunate but inevitable outcome.
35:38
Speaker 2: For this type of artist.
35:41
Speaker 1: Yes, it is, as NPR said of Lana messy, but
35:45
Speaker 1: an artist shouldn't be criticized for being messy. Quite the opposite.
35:49
Speaker 1: The best examples of that include Bob Dylan, Kirk, Kobaine,
35:52
Speaker 1: and Prince I could go on and on. I believe
35:55
Speaker 1: that for all their pro feminism, the future is female
35:58
Speaker 1: trendy claims of girl power the mainstream press, at least
36:02
Speaker 1: when it comes to Lana del Rey, an artist playing
36:05
Speaker 1: with a nostalgic vision of America that the coastal elite
36:08
Speaker 1: media these days sees is reductive. The media's criticism of
36:12
Speaker 1: this female artist is well hypocritical and kind of misogynistic.
36:18
Speaker 1: It strikes me as weird that a twenty first century
36:21
Speaker 1: female artist with such a strong point of view and
36:24
Speaker 1: such obvious mass appeal would be so viciously criticized by
36:28
Speaker 1: a media that typically champions strong women.
36:31
Speaker 2: But Lana del Rey.
36:32
Speaker 1: Doesn't fit into anyone's box. Lonna Delray doesn't fit anyone
36:36
Speaker 1: else's vision of what a female pop singer should be.
36:40
Speaker 1: Lna del Rey has always had her own vision of
36:43
Speaker 1: who Lonna del Rey is. She creates from her own playbook,
36:48
Speaker 1: and that type of creator, that type of artist has
36:51
Speaker 1: always been hard for simple minded critics to understand. Nabokov's
36:56
Speaker 1: Lolita was panned. Shipments of the book were seized upon
37:00
Speaker 1: entering the United Kingdom. In France, critics called the book
37:03
Speaker 1: sheer unrestrained pornography. Yet the novel has lived on as
37:08
Speaker 1: one of the most enduring and consequential works of fiction
37:10
Speaker 1: ever written. We are still talking about it and referencing
37:14
Speaker 1: it and arguing about it to this day. Catherine the
37:17
Speaker 1: Great was such an effective female leader that her legacy
37:21
Speaker 1: was subjected to a century's long smear campaign, and Lana
37:25
Speaker 1: Turner her star power, her sexuality. The men in her
37:29
Speaker 1: life simply could not handle it, to the point where
37:32
Speaker 1: she was almost murdered, to the point where her fourteen
37:36
Speaker 1: year old daughter had to kill a man for the
37:38
Speaker 1: two women to survive. Whether these stories that I just
37:42
Speaker 1: told you were inspired by Lana del Rey or whether
37:45
Speaker 1: they inspired Lonna del Rey herself, the powerful female subjects
37:49
Speaker 1: at the center of them all share a common element.
37:53
Speaker 2: With Lonna del Rey. They broke the mold.
37:57
Speaker 1: Criticizing an artist for doing so would be a disgrace.
38:05
Speaker 2: I'm Jake Brennan and this is Disgrace lad.
38:20
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to this week's episode on Lana del Rey,
38:23
Speaker 1: a one of a kind artists who, as you can
38:25
Speaker 1: hear from this episode, was unfairly in my estimation, treated
38:29
Speaker 1: by the press. This week's question of the week to
38:31
Speaker 1: you guys.
38:31
Speaker 3: Is which entertainers, artists, rock stars, actors, athletes do you
38:35
Speaker 3: think have been unfairly treated by the media by the
38:38
Speaker 3: critics and why does the media seem to judge some
38:41
Speaker 3: entertainers differently than others, particularly female entertainers six one seven,
38:46
Speaker 3: nine oh six six sixty three eight, Leave me a voicemail,
38:48
Speaker 3: send me a text and let me know. You can
38:49
Speaker 3: also reach me at disgrace lamp pod as well on Instagram,
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Speaker 3: X and Facebook. Leave a review for the show on
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Speaker 3: Apple Podcasts through Spotify, and win some free merch.
38:57
Speaker 2: All right here comes some Credits.
39:00
Speaker 1: Was created by Yours Truly and is produced in partnership
39:03
Speaker 1: with Double Elvis. Credits for this episode can be found
39:06
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39:09
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39:56
Speaker 1: All right, thanks for checking up this archive episode on
39:58
Speaker 1: Lana del Rey Disco. Our next new episode coming up
40:01
Speaker 1: right now is our episode on Jim Morrison, his mysterious
40:05
Speaker 1: death and the mysterious count that Jim was associated with
40:10
Speaker 1: who may or may not have had something to do
40:12
Speaker 1: with his demise. You get to check out that episode
40:13
Speaker 1: to find out. Let me know what you think of
40:15
Speaker 1: all this six one seven nine O six sixty six
40:17
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40:20
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