20 celebrities who mysteriously disappeared and never returned. Fame, fortune, the spotlight. For most, these represent the pinnacle of success, the ultimate dream. But for a select few, that dream transformed into something far more mysterious. These are the stories that Hollywood doesn’t like to remember. The unexplained vanishings, the unsolved mysteries,…
Johnny Carson revealed the nine golden age guests he loved the most. For 30 years, Johnny Carson invited America into his late night living room. As host of the Tonight Show, he interviewed over 22,000 guests, from nervous newcomers to Hollywood legends. But among those thousands, Carson privately maintained a much shorter…
Nine golden age stars who were shockingly smart. The dumbest looking people in Hollywood were actually the smartest in the room. And the studios spent millions hiding that from you. The sex symbol they marketed as a beautiful airhead. She invented the technology your Wi-Fi uses while studio executives were still struggling…
Somewhere on the west side of Chicago, someone is being tattooed right now, a black diamond. Four points, simple shape. The kind of thing you’d see on a playing card or jewelry store window. Except this one means something different. This one has been showing up on forearms, on murals, on the…
February 19th, 2015. Chicago’s Southside. Barack Obama, President of the United States, a man whose political life was built block by block on Chicago’s Southside, stands at a podium and signs a proclamation. He is designating a neighborhood a national monument, the first National Park Service unit in the history of Chicago….
Nicky Santoro’s crew in Casino is a montage. That’s all Scorsese gave them. A handful of nameless guys cutting holes in roofs, grabbing furs, loading vans, background action behind Joe Pesci’s performance. The film doesn’t name them. It doesn’t tell you what happened to them. It treats them like set dressing for…
A woman walks toward a storefront on a side street in Queens. It is spring, the year 1980. She is 34 years old. She has two daughters at home. The man who sent her here, a man her children call Uncle Jimmy, told her there were stolen dresses waiting inside. A favor. A kindness in…
June 11th, 1976, Miami Beach. A 72-year-old man collapses in the parking lot of his daughter’s apartment building, clutching his chest, gasping for air in the humid Florida night. His name was Paul John Carbo, but the world knew him as Frankie Carbo. And for three decades, he’d been the most powerful…
Every film student knows the scene. Marlon Brando sitting in a darkened office. Cotton stuffed in his cheeks. Raspy voice barely above a whisper. I’m going to make him an offer he can’t refuse. Veto Corleone, the Godfather, the most iconic mobster in cinema history. Noble, honorable, a man of principle who protects his family…
September 10th, 1931, Park Avenue, New York City. Salvatore Marenzano stood at his office window, nine floors above the street, watching the morning sun glint off automobile hoods. He had just declared himself Capo de Capi, boss of all bosses, 6 months earlier. In his desk drawer lay a list of 40 men he planned…
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