A Nude Horse…
Today’s tale begins on a flash forward to Monday January 21st 1985. The setting, a television set at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York. Phil Donahue, a television interviewer who cut his teeth interviewing everyone from presidential candidate John F Kennedy to the atheist Madeline Murray O’Hair was treading the boards, microphone in hand. Donahue was…
A Nude Horse (Patreon Bonus Episode) is Up.
Hey everyone, my latest Patreon bonus episode is up on the Patreon channel. My $2US a month patrons have access to a 15 minute podcast episode, and a full script. Non patrons, check out the 2 minute Video excerpt below. OR, For a Limited Time Only, why not try out a Seven Day Free Trial?This…
The Murder of William Desmond Taylor
The following is a murder mystery. The date? February 1st 1922. The setting? A posh bungalow at 404 B South Alvarado Street, Los Angeles. At around 7pm, the occupant – the acclaimed film director William Desmond Taylor – received a visitor in the form of his close friend, the actress Mabel Normand. Taylor and Normand…
The Roscoe ‘Fatty’ Arbuckle Incident
Content Warning: Discussion of rape occurs in this tale. The weeks leading up to Labour Day weekend 1921 must’ve been quite the roller coaster for Roscoe ‘Fatty’ Arbuckle. The comic icon had only just extended his million dollar a year contract with Paramount pictures – a contract which gave him creative and directorial control over…
Andrei Shkuro’s Carnival of Sorrows
Hey all just a quick reminder. 1. The Hollywood Trilogy is still running, part two set to drop this Wednesday2. This blog post is available as a podcast minisode on my Patreon. A short video excerpt is below. When thinking of the Kuban Peoples’ Republic in 1919, I get an image of a world sent…
Andrei Shkuro’s Carnival of Sorrows (Patreon Episode) is up!
Hey everyone, my latest Patreon bonus episode is up on the Patreon channel. My $2US a month patrons have access to a 15 minute podcast episode, and a full script. Non patrons, check out the 2 minute Video excerpt below. This week we travel to the Kuban People’s Republic in the midst of the Russian…
Olive Thomas – the poisoned chalice
Trigger Warning: This episode deals with premature death (I know, not unusual in this blog)… and sexually transmitted infections (somewhat more unusual in this blog). Situated northwest of downtown Los Angeles, and covering around 80 square kilometres, Hollywood is a far cry from the community envisioned by it’s founding family. The district was first settled…
Somebody’s Darling…
Hi all just a quick blog post today. I’ve got a trilogy of older blog posts set to run on the podcast in the coming weeks, so I thought I’d just write a little. Late in 2022, DNA evidence unravelled a couple of longstanding mysteries. First, we discovered the true identity of Australia’s Somerton Man.…
Somebody’s Darling (Patreon Episode) is up!
Hey everyone, my latest Patreon bonus episode is up on the Patreon channel. My $2US a month patrons have access to a 10 minute podcast episode, and a full script. Non patrons, check out the 2 minute Video excerpt below. This week we briefly discuss three John Does, Australia’s Somerton Man, the USA’s Boy in…
Railway War!
This week we’re riding the rails through Colorado. The date, February 26th 1878. Just before 7am, on a chilly winter day, two groups of men boarded a train from the bustling trading town of Pueblo headed for El Moro – a sleepy mining town near the New Mexico border. The men, both on urgent business,…
The Diaspora
In the year 751 AD an epic battle was fought between two mighty powers. We don’t know for certain if it happened in Taraz, modern day Kazakhstan; or Talas in Kyrgyzstan – around 180 kilometres away. Either way it became known as the Battle of Talas, as both cities are on the Talas River. On…
The Devil Comes to Milan (Patreon Episode) is Up!
Hey everyone, my latest Patreon bonus episode is up on the Patreon channel. My $2US a month patrons have access to a 10 minute podcast episode, and a full script. Non patrons, check out the 2 minute Video excerpt below. This week we travel to Milan, Italy, the year 1630 – to dissect the harrowing…
Mussolini’s Hat, and the rise of the Mob (Revisited)
Hi all, we’ve got a little unfinished business from last fortnight’s episode, so I’m revisiting this older episode, and giving it a serious rewrite. Last fortnight we discussed the Black Hand organisations that pre-dated the Mafia. This time let’s look at how the Mob we’ve all come to know through the gangster films arrived in…
The Black Hand
Hi everyone, today I thought we’d go to the opera. What you can hear in the background is Enrico Caruso’s Una Furtiva Lagrima – from Gaetano Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore. (Readers, if you’re adverse to hitting the play button on my podcasts, that’s okay… you can play the track here on YouTube.)Let me pause myself a…
Charles Delschau’s Memoirs (Patreon Episode) is up!
Hey everyone, my latest Patreon bonus episode is up on the Patreon channel. My $2US a month patrons have access to a 10 minute podcast episode, and a full script. Non patrons, check out the 2 minute Video excerpt below. This week we travel to Texas, to discuss Charles Delschau’s remarkable memoirs, and the Tale…
Roxelana
The following is the tale of a loving wife and mother. A philanthropist and a catalyst for change both within a stuffy old establishment, and among a wider nation. The tale of a figure of great fascination in her own time, especially to Europeans. It is the story of someone who rose from – well…
Update: Cyclone Gabrielle & (Probable) Delays
Hi everyone, just thought I’d drop a quick update. This week’s blog/podcast episode is likely to be a day or two late. You may know, New Zealand was pummelled last week by a tropical cyclone. I came out of it fine – myself and my loved ones are all safe and sound. None of us…
The Island
On January 1st 1739 the French ships Aigle and Marie were fumbling through the lowest, most inhospitable regions of the Southern Atlantic Ocean when they found something quite remarkable. Their captain, a young man named Jean-Baptiste Charles Bouvet de Lozier had set off with dreams of wealth, fame and power. He believed that somewhere south…
Yasuke (Patreon Episode) is up!
Hey everyone, my latest Patreon bonus episode is up on the Patreon channel. My $2US a month patrons have access to a 15 minute podcast episode, and a full script. Non patrons, check out the 2 minute Video excerpt below. This week we travel to the Japanese court of the warlord Oda Nobunaga, and meet…
The Dog Days King
Hi everyone welcome back, to season four of the podcast. This week we’re delving into the picaresque, and the life of one Jorgen Jorgensen – a man whose trajectory in life was akin to the character in Sinatra’s That’s Life. A puppet, a pauper, a pirate, a poet, a pawn and a King. Jorgensen was…
From Patreon: The Salmesbury Witches
Hey there readers and listeners, I’m on holiday till January 25th 2023, so I’ve programmed the following posts to drop weekly until I’m back. In September I went through my Patreon page, and re-recorded the episodes on there with new narration (I’d upgraded my podcasting rig a ways early in 2022.) While doing so I…
From Patreon: Owney Madden
Hey there readers and listeners, I’m going on holiday till January 25th 2023, so I’ve programmed the following posts to drop weekly until I’m back. In September I went through my Patreon page, and re-recorded the episodes on there with new narration (I’d upgraded my podcasting rig a ways early in 2022.) While doing so…
From Patreon: Otzi
Hey there readers and listeners, I’m going on holiday till January 25th 2023, so I’ve programmed the following posts to drop weekly until I’m back. In September I went through my Patreon page, and re-recorded the episodes on there with new narration (I’d upgraded my podcasting rig a ways early in 2022.) While doing so…
From Patreon: Puyi
Hey there readers and listeners, I’m going on holiday till January 25th 2023, so I’ve programmed the following posts to drop weekly until I’m back. In September I went through my Patreon page, and re-recorded the episodes on there with new narration (I’d upgraded my podcasting rig a ways early in 2022.) While doing so…
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Tales of History and Imagination 