Today In History with The Retrospectors

Sending rude mail was dealt a devastating blow on 3rd March, 1873, when the campaign against pornography, reproductive health, birth control, and abortion led by self-appointed ‘Special Agent’ of the US Postal Service Anthony Comstock went all the way to Washington. 

After the ‘Comstock Act’ became law, books were banned, ‘obscene’ pamphlets were destroyed, and, in Comstock’s home state of Connecticut, birth control was banned - even within a marriage.

In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly discover what Comstock thought of the women he met at the White House; reveal his earliest crackdowns on licentiousness; and uncover George Bernard Shaw’s trolling of ‘Comstockery’ in the New York press…

Further Reading:

• ‘How an Anti-Obscenity Crusader Policed America's Mail for Decades’ (HISTORY, 2022): https://www.history.com/news/comstock-act-1873-obscenity-contraception-mail

• ‘Anthony Comstock's "Chastity" Laws’ (PBS American Experience): https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/pill-anthony-comstocks-chastity-laws/#:~:text=In%20the%20late%201860s%2C%20Comstock%20began%20supplying%20the,the%20contraceptive%20industry%20as%20one%20of%20his%20targets.

• ‘The Man Who Hated Women: Sex, Censorship, and Civil Liberties in the Gilded Age’ (National Archives, 2022): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9IS0S-B5HU

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The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill.

Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Ollie Peart.

Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2026.

This episode originally aired in 2023.

#1800s #Politics #Publishing

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King Kong roared onto the silver screen on March 2nd, 1933, in an extraordinary simultaneous screening at Radio City and the Roxy, New York - attracting 10,000 viewers in one hit.

The buzz around the film was no accident — RKO Pictures had blitzed the public with an aggressive marketing campaign, including publishing a novelization before the film’s release and producing a radio serial that aired twice a week.

In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explain how animation genius Willis O’Brien brought Kong to life through a mixture of stop-motion and scale-models; reveal how Fay Wray was pitched her iconic role; and discover that contemporary critics weren’t as awed by the film’s lauded SFX as you might imagine…

Further Reading:

• ’King Kong - The History of a Movie Icon from Fay Wray to Peter Jackson. By Ray Morton’ (Applause, 2005): https://books.google.co.uk/books/content?id=UPXbsJLVgCcC&pg=PA78&img=1&zoom=3&hl=en&bul=1&sig=ACfU3U1G3kZHHv8P03ttnCr8p18YdlLsJw&w=1280

• ’The first (and original) King Kong’ (The Independent, 2005): https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/the-first-and-original-king-kong-518889.html

• ‘King Kong: The Practical Effects Wonder’ (Katie Keenan, 2023): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4sFn3Qiw9g

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The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill.

Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Ollie Peart.

Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2026.

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New Orleans witnessed its first modern Mardi Gras procession - kick-started by a group of students eager to revive the traditional masquerade, banned for six decades - on 27th February, 1827. 

The city’s parades and revelry can trace their origins back to ancient pagan festivals and European traditions, cemented by the arrival of French-Canadian explorer (and MASSIVE ‘Fat Tuesday’ fan) Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville into Louisiana in 1699. 

In this episode, The Retrospectors Krewe dig into the celebration’s impact on revenue and refuse; consider the discriminatory practices that accompanied the festivities until the late 20th century; and get angry about the British equivalent: Pancake Day… 

Further Reading:

• ‘Here's a Brief History of Mardi Gras and How It All Started’ (The Manual, 2024): https://www.themanual.com/culture/history-of-madi-gras/

• ‘Unmasking the History of Mardi Gras in New Orleans’ (The Crescent Magazine, 2022): https://tulanemagazine.com/unmasking-the-history-of-mardi-gras-in-new-orleans/

• ‘Mardi Gras New Orleans Louisiana 4K’ (Dan Usher Films, 2017): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Bv1mFl9SI4

We'll be back on Monday - unless you join CLUB RETROSPECTORS, where we give you ad-free listening AND a full-length Sunday episode every week!Plus, weekly bonus content, unlock over 70 bonus bits, and support our independent podcast.Join now via Apple Podcasts or Patreon. Thanks!The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill.Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Ollie Peart.Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2026.

This episode originally aired in 2024.
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The 89th Academy Awards reached its grand finale on 26th February 2017, with a balls-up that instantly entered Hollywood lore. Presenters Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway stepped onstage to announce Best Picture and declared La La Land the winner. Cast and crew flooded the stage, speeches began, and the orchestra swelled - but the true winner, of course, was Moonlight.

Beatty’s visible hesitation, replayed endlessly since, stemmed from a simple but catastrophic mistake: he had been handed the duplicate Best Actress envelope, reading “Emma Stone - La La Land”. Unsure how to proceed, he showed the card to Dunaway; believing he was prolonging the suspense, she read out the film’s title. Only as producer Jordan Horowitz was thanking his family did the truth ripple across the stage: “This is not a joke. Moonlight, you guys won Best Picture.”

The error was traced to PricewaterhouseCoopers partner Brian Cullinan, who had mistakenly handed over the duplicate envelope while distracted backstage, reportedly after tweeting a photograph of Emma Stone with her Oscar. The irony was sharp: PricewaterhouseCoopers had supervised the Academy’s voting process since 1935, originally engaged after controversy surrounding Bette Davis’s 1934 snub, and prided itself on meticulous safeguards, including identical sets of envelopes held on either side of the stage.

In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly force themselves to re-watch the excruciating moment repeatedly; consider how, following two years of #OscarsSoWhite criticism, the blunder landed at a particularly sensitive moment for the Academy; and admire the way the La La Land team somehow met this emotional rollercoaster with savviness and tact… 

Further Reading:

• ‘The Full Story Behind The 'La La Land' And 'Moonlight' Oscars Mix-Up’ (Forbes, 2017): https://www.forbes.com/sites/natalierobehmed/2017/02/27/the-full-story-behind-the-la-la-land-and-moonlight-oscars-mix-up/

• ‘How Scandal Started PwC's Oscars Vote Count, Envelope System’ (TIME, 2018): https://time.com/5182902/pwc-academy-awards-oscars-snub/

• ‘Oscars Mistake: Moonlight Wins Best Picture after La La Land Mistakenly Announced’ (ABC, 2017): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvK-g1rehpU&t=1s

#Mistakes #Film #2010s #Hollywood

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The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill.

Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Ollie Peart.

Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2026.

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Henri Landru, known as ‘Bluebeard’ to the French public, was executed by guillotine on 25th February, 1922, having murdered at least ten women he dated during the First World War.

He continued to protest his innocence throughout his sensational trial - despite having drawn a detailed doodle of the oven he had used to burn his victims’ bodies.

In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly unpick Landru’s disturbing methodology; uncover why France’s top defense attorney was attracted to the case; and explain what it all had to do with Rudyard Kipling… 

Further Reading:

• ‘The Story Of Henri Landru, France's Charming Bluebeard Serial Killer’ (All That’s Interesting, 2017): https://allthatsinteresting.com/henri-landru

• ‘Hidden for 100 years, the untold story of serial killer who preyed on lonely war widows’ (Mail Online, 2019): https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6511793/Hidden-100-years-untold-story-serial-killer-preyed-lonely-war-widows.html

• ‘Bluebeard's 10 Honeymoons’ (Anglo Allied Pictures, 1960): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrfmrucyKGo

Love the show? Support us! 

Join  🌴CLUB RETROSPECTORS🌴to DITCH THE ADS and get an additional full-length episode each SUNDAY… 

… Plus, get weekly bonus bits, and unlock over 100 bits of extra content. 

Join now with a free trial on Apple Podcasts or Patreon and support our show ❤️

The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill.

Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Ollie Peart.

Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2026.

This episode originally aired in 2022.

#20s #Person #Crime #War #Macabre #France
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