Emanuele Berry

From WBEZ Chicago, it's This American Life.

I'm Emanuel Berry, sitting in for Ira Glass.

As a middle schooler, there was always one channel I wanted to watch, TCM, the Turner Classic Movie Channel, an entire channel dedicated to old movies from Hollywood's golden age.

I loved these films, The Lady Eve, On the Town, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, shout out to my boy Jimmy Stewart.

I was fascinated by the dramatics, the over-the-top slaps, the sultry looks, the glamorous makeup and hairstyles.

To my delight, I recently learned that I was not the only Black middle schooler spending her spare time glued to this channel.

Nicole Hill was also sad.

The behind the scenes.

Whenever I talk with Nicole, she always has some fact like this.

You mention some historical figure, an actor, heck, even a mutual friend, and she'll tell you some obscure detail that you've never heard before.

She's always clocking these things.

I think it's why, as a kid, she noticed something about these movies that I never did.

Hattie McDaniel plays Mammy, an enslaved house servant.

That's not well, that's not the way you you want to be out on the town with Marlon Brando.

And then what became this question that drove Nicole?

It stayed in her mind for years.

What would it look like if you got on the train and followed those characters home and went with those actors into their real lives offstage and the lives of their families, their community?

What was the Black version of the Diva on Diva Cheesecake Showdown, whose passions and jealousies were people gossiping about?

Where could she find those details, that drama?

A couple years ago, Nicole was searching through Black newspapers from the 1930s through 60s, researching for her job at the time.