About this episode

This episode explores the legal battle of Patricia Douglas against MGM after she accused a salesman of rape in 1937.

In 1937, twenty-year-old dancer Patricia Douglas accused an MGM salesman of raping her at a company convention attended by hundreds of studio employees and guests. When a grand jury declined to indict, she refused to back down, taking on one of Hollywood's most powerful studios in a legal battle that would last for years. In this episode, we examine the assault, the investigation, the court cases, and the woman who spent decades fighting to have her story heard. Source Materials Stenn, David. Girl 27 (Documentary Film). Red Letter Films, 2007. Stenn, David. “It Happened One Night... at MGM.” Vanity Fair , April 2003. Stenn, David. “The Systematic Crushing of a #MeToo Pioneer.” The New York Times , January 5, 2018. Abcarian, Robin. “A Hollywood Role She Never Asked For.” Los Angeles Times , January 19, 2007. Galloway, Stephen. “How a Hollywood Studio Got Away With Rape in 1937.” The Hollywood Reporter , November 13, 2017. Schatz, Thomas. The Genius of the System: Hollywood Filmmaking in the Studio Era . Henry Holt & Company, 1988. Contemporary newspaper coverage from June 1937, including The Independent (California) and other contemporary Los Angeles-area newspapers reporting…

People in this episode

Host: Lizzie

Topics covered

• Hollywood history
• sexual assault
• legal battles
• feminism
• true crime
• MGM

Keywords

• Patricia Douglas
• MGM
• rape
• legal battle
• Hollywood
• true crime
• 1937

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: MGM, Vanity Fair, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Hollywood Reporter

Books & works: Girl 27, The Genius of the System: Hollywood Filmmaking in the Studio Era

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