Hollywood has always had secrets.

This week on The Darkives, we step into the golden age of film, where the studios didn’t just make stars… they controlled the narrative. At the center of it all was Edgar “Eddie” Mannix, the powerful MGM general manager whose real job wasn’t just running a studio… it was making problems disappear.

Alongside publicist Howard Strickling, Mannix became Hollywood’s ultimate fixer, quietly handling scandals that could have destroyed careers and exposed the industry’s darker side.

We get into Mannix’s rise at MGM, the system that gave him that kind of power, and the stories that still raise questions decades later. Stories like the death of George Reeves, the fallout surrounding Thelma Todd, the hidden pregnancy of Loretta Young, and the disturbing Patricia Douglas case.

And then there are rumors like Nils Asther’s career troubles, and Joan Crawford’s alleged stag film, rumors that never quite went away.

How much of this was damage control… and how much was something darker? And how far will the movie industry go to protect an image?

This is the story of Eddie Mannix and the version of Hollywood the studios didn’t want you to see.

Serious history. Told not so seriously.

Email us: thedarkivescommunity@gmail.com

Follow us on- instagram

Sources:

• theshot.com
• grunge.com
• utterlyinteresting.com
• harlemworldmagazine.com
• goldenglobes.com
• 1900scrime.com
• atlasobscura.com
• history.com

Theme music: Ways of the Wizard-geoffharvey

Used with permission, Thank you Geoff!

licensed through: Pixbay

Other music used: licensed through Pixbay-used under the Pixabay Content License

This episode is hot! flaming!... sticky?

This week, Jamie and Leo dive into three bizarre disasters where history proved that sometimes the most dangerous floods don’t involve water at all.

First, we head to 1814 London and the infamous London Beer Flood, where a massive vat at a brewery burst open and unleashed a wave of beer that tore through the streets. Then we travel to the Dublin Whiskey Fire of 1875, where a whiskey warehouse blaze created a river of burning liquor flowing through the city. Finally, we arrive in Boston in 1919, where a storage tank collapse triggered the Great Molasses Flood. Millions of gallons rushed through the North End (moving faster than anyone thought possible) in one of the strangest industrial disasters in American history.

These are three moments when everyday goods turned into historical catastrophes.

What caused these disasters? How much damage did they actually do? Fill up a pint (or a boot) and find out.

Serious history. Told not so seriously.

Email us: thedarkivescommunity@gmail.com

Follow us on- instagram

Sources:

• historic-uk.com
• smithsonianmag.com
• irishtimes.com
• wineenthusiast.com
• boston.gov
• oldnorth.com

Theme music: Ways of the Wizard-geoffharvey

Used with permission, Thank you Geoff!

licensed through: Pixbay

Other music used: licensed through Pixbay-used under the Pixabay Content License

This week on The Darkives, we’re heading to one of the most infamous prison colonies in the British Empire, Port Arthur Historic Site in Tasmania.

Established in the 1830s, Port Arthur became a destination for some of Britain’s most hardened convicts. The prison developed a reputation for harsh discipline, psychological punishments, and a strict system of control. From silent confinement to brutal labor, authorities experimented with all kinds of methods they believed would reform criminals… or at the very least keep them in line.

For some prisoners, things got even worse. A number of convicts were sent to the nearby coal mines, where grueling work, miserable conditions, and a surprisingly creative list of punishments made life even harder. That said, even in a penal colony people still found ways to entertain themselves (sometimes in ways the guards definitely didn’t approve of).

Between the prison and the mines, Port Arthur became one of the harshest penal settlements in the colonial world.

But the site’s dark history didn’t end when the prison closed.

More than a century later, Port Arthur became the site of one of the most tragic events in modern Australian history, the Port Arthur massacre of 1996. The attack shocked the country and led to national gun law reforms across Australia.

In this episode, we look at the brutal punishments of the convict era, the harsh realities of the coal mines, and the modern tragedy that forever changed the legacy of Port Arthur.

Email us: thedarkivescommunity@gmail.com

Follow us on- instagram

Sources:

• portarthur.org#1
• australianconvictsites.au
• historicalragbag.com
• coalmines.org
• historyhit.com
• portarthur.org#2
• portarthur.org#3

Theme music: Ways of the Wizard-geoffharvey

Used with permission, Thank you Geoff!

licensed through: Pixbay

Other music used: licensed through Pixbay-used under the Pixabay Content License