How Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen Built Two Billion-Dollar Empires (Part 1)
About this episode
This episode revisits the story of how Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen built their billion-dollar empires, featuring insights from guest Dan Wakeford.
Back Row is on vacation this week, so we're revisiting one of the most popular episodes of the year: a two-parter on Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, in honor of The Row's 20th anniversary. Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen were on television before they could talk and millionaires before they could read. Former Us Weekly editor-in-chief Dan Wakeford, author of the new Celebrity Intelligence newsletter, joins Back Row to break down the Full House casting story, the Dual Star empire, the billion-dollar licensing machine, and the NYU years that changed everything. Part Two — revealing the secrets behind The Row — is available to Premium subscribers. Sign up at Back Row (https://www.backrow.net/subscribe) to get newsletter access included with your subscription, or in Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Find Part Two in Apple Podcasts here Find Part Two in Spotify here Chapters 00:00 Introduction 01:40 Dan Wakeford and Celebrity Intelligence 02:47 Why the Olsens are a unique case study 07:50 The Full House casting story 10:07 The reality of child stardom 16:22 How their personalities diverged early 19:49 From pennies to $80,000 an episode 26:27 The home video empire begins 33:28 The billion…
People in this episode
Host: Amy Odell
Guest: Dan Wakeford
Topics covered
- Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen
- child stardom
- The Row
- billion-dollar empires
- celebrity culture
Keywords
- Mary-Kate Olsen
- Ashley Olsen
- Dan Wakeford
- The Row
- Full House
- celebrity
- child stars
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Us Weekly, Celebrity Intelligence, The Row
Books & works: Full House
More episodes of Back Row with Amy Odell
- How the Very Rich Really Live, From Billionaires' Row to Lauren Sánchez Bezos
- The Met Cancels the John Galliano Retrospective (with Dana Thomas) [TEASER]
- 'The September Issue' Rewatch: Anna Wintour, Grace Coddington, and the Sienna Miller Hair Crisis (with Kate Casey)
- 'Matcha, Pilates, Alo' Enters Its Flop Era: Inside the Influencer Recession
- Is Fashion in Total Creative Collapse?
- John Galliano Is Finally Getting a Met Gala. Should He? (Teaser)
Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Back Row with Amy Odell podcast page.