WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.860 So I want you to imagine you're a 20 -year -old 00:00:01.860 --> 00:00:04.299 actress trying to make it in Hollywood. You're 00:00:04.299 --> 00:00:05.940 starting to get some traction running in these 00:00:05.940 --> 00:00:09.820 really glamorous circles, and then you make one 00:00:09.820 --> 00:00:12.380 mistake. Right, just one. Yeah. It's September 00:00:12.380 --> 00:00:15.240 1st, 1948. The police kick your door down in 00:00:15.240 --> 00:00:17.399 the early hours of the morning. You get arrested, 00:00:17.940 --> 00:00:20.239 your face is plastered across the front pages 00:00:20.239 --> 00:00:22.219 of literally every newspaper in the country, 00:00:22.420 --> 00:00:24.960 and you end up serving 60 days in a jail cell. 00:00:25.079 --> 00:00:27.780 Which is just devastating for a career. Oh, completely. 00:00:28.239 --> 00:00:30.780 When you finally get out, the entire studio system 00:00:30.780 --> 00:00:33.340 has blacklisted you. You're just completely broke. 00:00:33.889 --> 00:00:37.310 So what is your only option to pay the rent you 00:00:37.310 --> 00:00:40.469 agree to star in a cheap six -day movie Recreating 00:00:40.469 --> 00:00:43.270 the exact crime that ruined your life. Yeah, 00:00:43.270 --> 00:00:45.630 that is the brutal reality of the Hollywood machine 00:00:45.630 --> 00:00:48.130 right there I mean we often look back at the 00:00:48.130 --> 00:00:50.710 1940s film industry and picture this, you know 00:00:50.710 --> 00:00:54.390 pristine Perfectly lit studio portrait where 00:00:54.390 --> 00:00:56.509 the morals are clear -cut and the glamour is 00:00:56.509 --> 00:00:59.759 undeniable the classic Golden Age Exactly. But 00:00:59.759 --> 00:01:02.359 peel back that glossy layer and you find an ecosystem 00:01:02.359 --> 00:01:05.319 that was incredibly ruthless. It was operating 00:01:05.319 --> 00:01:08.799 on the shadow economy of scandal, exploitation, 00:01:09.219 --> 00:01:11.859 and absolute opportunism. And that brings us 00:01:11.859 --> 00:01:14.159 to today's deep dive. We are talking directly 00:01:14.159 --> 00:01:16.980 to you, the curious learner who really wants 00:01:16.980 --> 00:01:19.359 to understand the machinery hiding behind pop 00:01:19.359 --> 00:01:22.459 culture history. We are unpacking the story of 00:01:22.459 --> 00:01:26.200 a 1949 exploitation film called She Should Have 00:01:26.200 --> 00:01:28.659 Said No. Which is quite the title. It really 00:01:28.659 --> 00:01:30.939 is. On the surface, if you just glance at the 00:01:30.939 --> 00:01:33.299 poster, it looks like a standard low -budget 00:01:33.299 --> 00:01:35.819 morality tale of the dangers of marijuana. It's 00:01:35.819 --> 00:01:37.519 very much in the vein of the infamous reefer 00:01:37.519 --> 00:01:39.879 madness. Right. But underneath that facade is 00:01:39.879 --> 00:01:43.239 this wild collision of celebrity downfall, shameless 00:01:43.239 --> 00:01:46.159 marketing tactics, and government -approved moral 00:01:46.159 --> 00:01:48.239 panic. And our mission today is to explore how 00:01:48.239 --> 00:01:50.379 that real -life Hollywood ruin was transformed 00:01:50.379 --> 00:01:52.719 into a highly profitable piece of propaganda. 00:01:53.129 --> 00:01:55.030 We're going to break down what this one bizarre 00:01:55.030 --> 00:01:57.950 B -movie reveals about media manipulation, the 00:01:57.950 --> 00:02:00.010 mechanics of the exploitation cinema business 00:02:00.010 --> 00:02:02.670 model, and the underlying public anxieties of 00:02:02.670 --> 00:02:05.670 the late 1940s. Because it really is a perfect 00:02:05.670 --> 00:02:08.610 mirror reflecting how societal fears are packaged 00:02:08.610 --> 00:02:11.030 and sold. It absolutely is. OK, let's unpack 00:02:11.030 --> 00:02:14.150 this. Because to understand why she should have 00:02:14.150 --> 00:02:17.030 said no, even exists in the first place, we have 00:02:17.030 --> 00:02:19.509 to look closely at that raid in 1948. Right, 00:02:19.569 --> 00:02:21.770 the catalyst for the whole thing. Exactly. The 00:02:21.770 --> 00:02:24.030 20 -year -old actress whose door got kicked in 00:02:24.030 --> 00:02:27.150 was Lila Leeds. And she wasn't arrested alone, 00:02:27.229 --> 00:02:30.030 which is the crazy part. The police also swept 00:02:30.030 --> 00:02:32.629 up the incredibly famous movie star Robert Mitchum, 00:02:32.909 --> 00:02:35.789 along with two others. Yeah. And the charge was 00:02:35.789 --> 00:02:38.930 a marijuana conspiracy. They were caught smoking 00:02:38.930 --> 00:02:42.439 marijuana at her house. Now in 1948, this is 00:02:42.439 --> 00:02:44.780 not just a minor tabloid blip or a slap on the 00:02:44.780 --> 00:02:47.439 wrist. Not at all. This is a felony narcotics 00:02:47.439 --> 00:02:50.020 possession charge that triggers an absolute media 00:02:50.020 --> 00:02:52.639 circus. The fallout was immense, but what's fascinating 00:02:52.639 --> 00:02:55.599 here is that it was also incredibly disproportionate. 00:02:55.939 --> 00:02:58.199 Robert Mitchum, being an established bankable 00:02:58.199 --> 00:03:01.199 male star, essentially weathered the storm. He 00:03:01.199 --> 00:03:03.479 bounced right back. Pretty much, yeah. His career 00:03:03.479 --> 00:03:06.340 survived. Lila Leeds, on the other hand, faced 00:03:06.340 --> 00:03:09.340 severe consequences. She was sentenced to 60 00:03:09.340 --> 00:03:12.219 days in prison and placed on probation for five 00:03:12.219 --> 00:03:15.300 full years. Wow. And the mechanics of the Hollywood 00:03:15.300 --> 00:03:17.780 blacklist at that time meant her career was essentially 00:03:17.780 --> 00:03:21.020 over. The major studios held a total monopoly 00:03:21.020 --> 00:03:24.000 on production and distribution. So if you were 00:03:24.000 --> 00:03:26.719 deemed a moral liability by studio executives, 00:03:27.080 --> 00:03:28.939 you were entirely locked out of the industry. 00:03:29.080 --> 00:03:32.080 So 60 days in prison. and she steps out into 00:03:32.080 --> 00:03:34.360 a world where she is essentially radioactive. 00:03:34.939 --> 00:03:37.460 Yes. She has no income, no prospects, and it's 00:03:37.460 --> 00:03:40.379 massive legal stain on her record. So she signs 00:03:40.379 --> 00:03:43.699 on to star in a film, initially titled Wild Weed, 00:03:44.060 --> 00:03:45.819 which was produced by Franklin Productions. And 00:03:45.819 --> 00:03:47.560 they rushed this production, right? Oh, completely. 00:03:47.740 --> 00:03:49.560 They shot the entire thing in just six days. 00:03:49.919 --> 00:03:51.539 And the casting of Leeds wasn't a coincidence. 00:03:51.699 --> 00:03:53.599 It was the entire foundation of the project. 00:03:53.770 --> 00:03:56.870 The movie was semi -biographical, deliberately 00:03:56.870 --> 00:03:59.110 mirroring the very trauma that leads had just 00:03:59.110 --> 00:04:01.250 lived through. The producers were basically engaging 00:04:01.250 --> 00:04:04.150 in a very specific type of cinematic alchemy. 00:04:04.509 --> 00:04:06.810 They were taking the real -life pain and disgrace 00:04:06.810 --> 00:04:09.830 of a young woman and turning it into a ticketable 00:04:09.830 --> 00:04:12.569 commodity. Yeah. And they forced her to be the 00:04:12.569 --> 00:04:15.500 face of its justification. During the publicity 00:04:15.500 --> 00:04:18.879 tour for the film in 1949, Leeds was paraded 00:04:18.879 --> 00:04:20.920 around claiming that appearing in this picture 00:04:20.920 --> 00:04:23.399 was a public service. She told the press it was 00:04:23.399 --> 00:04:25.500 designed to keep other young people from trying 00:04:25.500 --> 00:04:28.980 drugs. It is literally the 1940s equivalent of 00:04:28.980 --> 00:04:31.839 a modern -day influencer apology tour. Oh, that's 00:04:31.839 --> 00:04:33.660 a great comparison. You see this today, right? 00:04:34.279 --> 00:04:37.300 When a disgraced reality TV star or a huge internet 00:04:37.300 --> 00:04:39.959 personality gets caught in a massive scandal, 00:04:40.360 --> 00:04:42.759 they lose all their brand deals, the algorithm 00:04:42.759 --> 00:04:45.620 punishes them. and their only move is to launch 00:04:45.620 --> 00:04:48.139 like a tell -all podcast or a highly monetized 00:04:48.139 --> 00:04:50.420 documentary about their own downfall. Right. 00:04:50.459 --> 00:04:52.199 They monetize their own disgrace because the 00:04:52.199 --> 00:04:54.519 primary ecosystem has shut them out. Exactly. 00:04:55.180 --> 00:04:57.079 And Leeds played along with the public service 00:04:57.079 --> 00:04:59.259 narrative for a while, but a few years later, 00:04:59.420 --> 00:05:02.579 in 1952, she wrote a piece for Collier's Magazine 00:05:02.579 --> 00:05:04.560 where she completely dropped the facade. What 00:05:04.560 --> 00:05:07.160 did she say? She admitted she had exactly one 00:05:07.160 --> 00:05:10.720 job offer. She knew the producers were just capitalizing 00:05:10.720 --> 00:05:13.259 on her notoriety from the Mitchum arrest. She 00:05:13.259 --> 00:05:16.920 explicitly wrote, I took it. I was broke. Wow. 00:05:17.500 --> 00:05:19.959 Well, that admission perfectly bridges the gap 00:05:19.959 --> 00:05:22.339 between the real world scandal and the fictional 00:05:22.339 --> 00:05:25.240 narrative. The film industry has long fed on 00:05:25.240 --> 00:05:28.100 its own controversies, but they always need a 00:05:28.100 --> 00:05:30.319 moral shield to present to the public. Right. 00:05:30.509 --> 00:05:32.990 Knowing that Leeds took the role out of pure 00:05:32.990 --> 00:05:35.910 financial desperation forces us to look critically 00:05:35.910 --> 00:05:38.709 at the actual story she was paid to act out. 00:05:39.449 --> 00:05:41.509 The script wasn't just a reflection of her life. 00:05:41.769 --> 00:05:44.290 It was a highly calibrated vessel for the prevailing 00:05:44.290 --> 00:05:46.430 social theories of the era. So let's look at 00:05:46.430 --> 00:05:49.029 how they constructed that vessel. In the movie, 00:05:49.490 --> 00:05:51.949 Leeds plays a character named Anne Lester. Anne 00:05:51.949 --> 00:05:53.850 is a young orphan, and she's trying to pay for 00:05:53.850 --> 00:05:56.069 her brother Bob's college education. She's basically 00:05:56.069 --> 00:05:58.569 the picture of nobility and innocence. Exactly. 00:05:58.970 --> 00:06:00.829 But then she meets a drug dealer named Markey, 00:06:01.350 --> 00:06:02.930 and Anne starts feeling the pressure to fit in 00:06:02.930 --> 00:06:05.269 with her social circle, so she goes to this tea 00:06:05.269 --> 00:06:07.790 party and tries marijuana for the first time. 00:06:07.870 --> 00:06:10.970 And the filmmakers make a very deliberate choice 00:06:10.970 --> 00:06:14.410 in this early scene. They show that Anne is completely 00:06:14.410 --> 00:06:16.629 unaffected by her initial experiment. Right. 00:06:16.629 --> 00:06:18.610 She doesn't freak out immediately. Exactly. She 00:06:18.610 --> 00:06:20.850 doesn't feel anything negative right away, which 00:06:20.850 --> 00:06:23.189 causes her to lose her fear of the substance. 00:06:23.689 --> 00:06:25.670 This is a crucial mechanism in the narrative 00:06:25.670 --> 00:06:28.509 because it establishes the deceptive nature of 00:06:28.509 --> 00:06:31.350 the threat. It suggests that the danger isn't 00:06:31.350 --> 00:06:34.470 immediate overdose, but the lowering of psychological 00:06:34.470 --> 00:06:36.870 defenses. That's a slow burn. But here's where 00:06:36.870 --> 00:06:39.620 it gets Really interesting, because from there, 00:06:39.959 --> 00:06:42.699 the escalation is incredibly rapid. The movie 00:06:42.699 --> 00:06:45.180 shows her losing her inhibitions with scenes 00:06:45.180 --> 00:06:47.699 heavily implying sexual promiscuity under the 00:06:47.699 --> 00:06:50.879 influence. She gets fired from her job. Desperate 00:06:50.879 --> 00:06:53.120 for cash, she starts dealing drugs for Markey. 00:06:54.519 --> 00:06:57.079 And here's where the script goes completely unhinged. 00:06:57.560 --> 00:06:59.420 Her brother Bob discovers that his sister is 00:06:59.420 --> 00:07:02.000 now selling drugs to pay for his college. His 00:07:02.000 --> 00:07:04.100 reaction to this news is to immediately hang 00:07:04.100 --> 00:07:06.660 himself. The leap in logic is just staggering 00:07:06.660 --> 00:07:09.079 by modern storytelling standards. It feels like 00:07:09.079 --> 00:07:11.480 a massive narrative whiplash. I have to push 00:07:11.480 --> 00:07:13.939 back on the sheer absurdity of that strip choice. 00:07:14.420 --> 00:07:17.459 I mean, how does a filmmaker take an audience 00:07:17.459 --> 00:07:21.180 from I try to join to fit in at a party to my 00:07:21.180 --> 00:07:23.300 brother is dead by suicide because I sell drugs 00:07:23.300 --> 00:07:26.339 now? It's a massive leap. This is such an extreme 00:07:26.339 --> 00:07:29.180 escalation. Yeah. How did audiences at the time 00:07:29.180 --> 00:07:31.759 swallow that kind of jump without, you know, 00:07:31.850 --> 00:07:33.769 just laughing out loud at the screen. Well, they 00:07:33.769 --> 00:07:35.350 accepted it because they were already primed 00:07:35.350 --> 00:07:38.379 for that exact nightmare. To understand why that 00:07:38.379 --> 00:07:40.439 plot point worked, we have to look at the post 00:07:40.439 --> 00:07:43.680 -World War II cultural landscape. OK. In 1949, 00:07:43.899 --> 00:07:46.360 the concept of a teenager was relatively new. 00:07:46.779 --> 00:07:49.379 Before the war, young people largely went straight 00:07:49.379 --> 00:07:51.660 into the workforce or helped sustain their families. 00:07:52.139 --> 00:07:54.939 But the post -war economic boom created a new 00:07:54.939 --> 00:07:57.500 demographic of adolescents who suddenly had allowances, 00:07:57.759 --> 00:08:00.339 leisure time, and access to cars. And that independence 00:08:00.339 --> 00:08:03.540 terrified parents. Exactly. There was a deep 00:08:03.540 --> 00:08:06.040 underlying suburban anxiety about what these 00:08:06.040 --> 00:08:08.180 kids were doing behind closed doors. So the movie 00:08:08.180 --> 00:08:10.639 is really just weaponizing that specific demographic 00:08:10.639 --> 00:08:14.319 anxiety. Precisely. The plot was the literal 00:08:14.319 --> 00:08:17.399 blueprint of the gateway drug theory, which posited 00:08:17.399 --> 00:08:20.079 that any youthful experimentation would inevitably 00:08:20.079 --> 00:08:23.620 snowball into madness, severe crime, and total 00:08:23.620 --> 00:08:26.319 family ruin. Wow. The tragedy of the brother 00:08:26.319 --> 00:08:28.180 wasn't meant to be a logical character beat. 00:08:28.240 --> 00:08:30.680 It was a sledgehammer of a warning directed at 00:08:30.680 --> 00:08:32.960 parents. And it was a warning that the government 00:08:32.960 --> 00:08:36.269 actively endorsed. The film gained official approval 00:08:36.269 --> 00:08:38.629 from the Federal Bureau of Narcotics to use its 00:08:38.629 --> 00:08:41.129 specific drug references. Yeah, and honestly 00:08:41.129 --> 00:08:43.830 the strangest detail here is that Federal Bureau 00:08:43.830 --> 00:08:47.139 of Narcotics connection. How does a federal government 00:08:47.139 --> 00:08:50.080 agency give a stamp of approval to a cheap B 00:08:50.080 --> 00:08:52.799 movie, especially when they don't even have legal 00:08:52.799 --> 00:08:55.320 censorship power over Hollywood? Well, the Bureau 00:08:55.320 --> 00:08:57.860 under its director Harry Anslinger was essentially 00:08:57.860 --> 00:09:00.820 fighting a massive public relations war to justify 00:09:00.820 --> 00:09:03.460 its budget and its strict policies. Right. They 00:09:03.460 --> 00:09:05.220 didn't have the legal authority to cut scenes 00:09:05.220 --> 00:09:07.039 from a movie, but they acted as a consulting 00:09:07.039 --> 00:09:10.220 body. Their approval was a symbiotic trait. A 00:09:10.220 --> 00:09:13.269 win -win. Yeah. The filmmakers got an official 00:09:13.269 --> 00:09:15.169 sounding endorsement that shielded them from 00:09:15.169 --> 00:09:18.250 local obscenity laws and the bureau got a giant 00:09:18.250 --> 00:09:21.269 megaphone to broadcast their exact gateway drug 00:09:21.269 --> 00:09:24.029 narrative to the masses. It basically told the 00:09:24.029 --> 00:09:26.730 audience the authorities verify that this is 00:09:26.730 --> 00:09:29.149 exactly how this substance destroys families. 00:09:29.789 --> 00:09:31.730 So with the government stamp of approval in place, 00:09:31.929 --> 00:09:34.669 the movie barrels toward its conclusion. After 00:09:34.669 --> 00:09:36.769 her brother's tragic death, Anne is arrested. 00:09:36.940 --> 00:09:39.539 She's taken on a tour of various psychiatric 00:09:39.539 --> 00:09:42.419 wards and jails, which the movie frames as the 00:09:42.419 --> 00:09:45.259 inevitable final destination for anyone who goes 00:09:45.259 --> 00:09:47.720 to a tea party. Naturally. She spends 50 days 00:09:47.720 --> 00:09:50.279 in jail, which is suspiciously close to the 60 00:09:50.279 --> 00:09:52.779 days the real Leela Leeds served, and emerges 00:09:52.779 --> 00:09:55.820 completely cleaned up. She cooperates with the 00:09:55.820 --> 00:09:58.240 authorities, snitches on Markie the dealer, and 00:09:58.240 --> 00:10:01.320 the movie ends. Crime, punishment, and eventual 00:10:01.320 --> 00:10:03.889 submission to authority. It wraps up the moral 00:10:03.889 --> 00:10:06.549 panic perfectly. But the fascinating twist in 00:10:06.549 --> 00:10:08.870 the story is that packaging trauma and government 00:10:08.870 --> 00:10:10.990 warnings wasn't actually enough to sell tickets. 00:10:11.269 --> 00:10:13.730 Under its original distributor, Eureka Productions, 00:10:14.169 --> 00:10:16.730 the movie struggled to find an audience. It was 00:10:16.730 --> 00:10:19.070 a financial flop. People simply weren't going 00:10:19.070 --> 00:10:21.289 to the theater to see a depressing morality tale 00:10:21.289 --> 00:10:24.070 called Wild Weed. Which forces the entrance of 00:10:24.070 --> 00:10:26.250 a master manipulator to save the investment. 00:10:26.690 --> 00:10:29.500 Enter a man named Kroger Babb. Quite the character. 00:10:29.679 --> 00:10:31.740 Oh, yeah. Bab runs a company called Hallmark 00:10:31.740 --> 00:10:34.899 Productions, and he swoops in to acquire the 00:10:34.899 --> 00:10:38.399 distribution rights. But he doesn't reshoot the 00:10:38.399 --> 00:10:40.840 footage. He completely overhauls how the movie 00:10:40.840 --> 00:10:43.179 is presented to the world. Good marketing. Exactly. 00:10:43.379 --> 00:10:46.320 Yeah. First, he tackles the title. Wild Weed 00:10:46.320 --> 00:10:49.500 is entirely too boring. So he renames it the 00:10:49.500 --> 00:10:52.860 story of Leela Leeds and her expose of the marijuana 00:10:52.860 --> 00:10:55.690 racket. A title that practically guarantees the 00:10:55.690 --> 00:10:57.769 audience is getting an inside look at a real 00:10:57.769 --> 00:11:00.169 celebrity's descent into the criminal underworld. 00:11:00.490 --> 00:11:02.990 Right, but even that didn't work. He failed to 00:11:02.990 --> 00:11:05.269 achieve success with that super long -winded 00:11:05.269 --> 00:11:07.669 title, so he goes back to the drawing board and 00:11:07.669 --> 00:11:10.450 finally lands on, she should have said no. Much 00:11:10.450 --> 00:11:13.559 punchier. Yeah. And he completely shifts the 00:11:13.559 --> 00:11:16.360 marketing strategy. He stops focusing strictly 00:11:16.360 --> 00:11:18.860 on the drug education angle and leans heavily 00:11:18.860 --> 00:11:22.000 into the sensuality of Lila Leeds. He commissions 00:11:22.000 --> 00:11:25.259 brand new promotional photographs showing her 00:11:25.259 --> 00:11:28.100 in scandalous poses. Of course he does. And he 00:11:28.100 --> 00:11:30.039 slaps a new tagline on the posters that reads, 00:11:30.960 --> 00:11:33.539 How bad can a good girl get without losing her 00:11:33.539 --> 00:11:37.100 virtue or respect? Wow. It is the 1940s equivalent 00:11:37.100 --> 00:11:39.700 of aggressive clickbait. It's like a YouTube 00:11:39.700 --> 00:11:42.259 creator relentlessly A -B testing their thumbnails 00:11:42.259 --> 00:11:45.080 and video titles. Will Wild Weed get clicks? 00:11:45.519 --> 00:11:48.080 No! What about the expose of the marijuana racket? 00:11:48.399 --> 00:11:50.879 Still no. Yeah. Okay, put a picture of a scandalized 00:11:50.879 --> 00:11:52.799 actress on the poster, call it She Should Have 00:11:52.799 --> 00:11:55.679 Said No, and watch the audience line up. He kept 00:11:55.679 --> 00:11:57.159 tweaking the presentation until the American 00:11:57.159 --> 00:11:59.080 public finally took the bait. If we connect this 00:11:59.080 --> 00:12:01.039 to the bigger picture, Babb's background was 00:12:01.039 --> 00:12:02.840 in the carnival and medicine show tradition, 00:12:03.240 --> 00:12:05.659 and he understood the brilliant, albeit entirely 00:12:05.659 --> 00:12:08.320 unethical, duality required to sell exploitation 00:12:08.320 --> 00:12:11.360 films. He was operating a classic bait and switch. 00:12:11.700 --> 00:12:14.919 To the paying audience, he was selling sex, sleaze, 00:12:15.320 --> 00:12:17.559 and the promise of seeing a disgraced Hollywood 00:12:17.559 --> 00:12:21.440 starlet behaving badly. But to bypass the strict 00:12:21.440 --> 00:12:23.779 moral censorship of the local town councils where 00:12:23.779 --> 00:12:26.279 he wanted to show the film, he had to sell civic 00:12:26.279 --> 00:12:29.100 duty. And the mechanics of how he bypassed that 00:12:29.100 --> 00:12:31.720 local censorship is where the shameless hustle 00:12:31.720 --> 00:12:35.000 reaches its absolute peak. Because the most audacious 00:12:35.000 --> 00:12:38.059 part of Bab's strategy was that he actually forged 00:12:38.059 --> 00:12:40.799 letters to local communities. Oh, this is wild. 00:12:40.980 --> 00:12:43.600 He created fake documents claiming that the United 00:12:43.600 --> 00:12:46.100 States Treasury Department implored Hallmark 00:12:46.100 --> 00:12:49.080 Productions to release the film. He told local 00:12:49.080 --> 00:12:50.779 mayors and police chiefs that the government 00:12:50.779 --> 00:12:53.259 wanted the movie shown in as many towns and cities 00:12:53.259 --> 00:12:55.879 as possible in the shortest possible time, strictly 00:12:55.879 --> 00:12:58.340 as a public service. And he backed up that forgery 00:12:58.340 --> 00:13:01.019 by attaching a square up text to the very beginning 00:13:01.019 --> 00:13:03.340 of the movie. A square up is a block of text 00:13:03.340 --> 00:13:05.679 specifically designed to justify the scandalous 00:13:05.679 --> 00:13:08.360 content that follows it. It stated that the producers 00:13:08.360 --> 00:13:11.740 wanted to publicly acknowledge the splendid cooperation 00:13:11.740 --> 00:13:14.980 of the nation's narcotic experts. It claimed 00:13:14.980 --> 00:13:18.009 that if the film saved just one boy or girl from 00:13:18.009 --> 00:13:21.070 becoming a dope fiend, its story had been well 00:13:21.070 --> 00:13:24.129 told. Unbelievable. This text served as a legal 00:13:24.129 --> 00:13:26.909 and moral shield, allowing theater owners to 00:13:26.909 --> 00:13:29.669 play a sleazy movie under the guise of an educational 00:13:29.669 --> 00:13:33.269 seminar. And Bab's distribution strategy was 00:13:33.269 --> 00:13:36.269 just as calculated as his marketing. Yeah. He 00:13:36.269 --> 00:13:38.649 didn't release this film the way a major studio 00:13:38.649 --> 00:13:40.830 would, you know, playing it all day for weeks 00:13:40.830 --> 00:13:43.389 on end. He handled the actual screenings very 00:13:43.389 --> 00:13:46.139 specifically. Yeah. David F. Friedman. Another 00:13:46.139 --> 00:13:47.960 distributor, who later worked with the film, 00:13:48.460 --> 00:13:50.940 noted that Babb often booked the movie purely 00:13:50.940 --> 00:13:52.840 as a midnight presentation, maybe just twice 00:13:52.840 --> 00:13:54.820 a week in a given town. Right. This is a practice 00:13:54.820 --> 00:13:57.740 known as floor walling. Babb would rent the theater 00:13:57.740 --> 00:14:01.019 outright for a flat fee during a dead time slot, 00:14:01.120 --> 00:14:03.600 like midnight, when the theater owner would otherwise 00:14:03.600 --> 00:14:05.919 be making zero dollars. Oh, that's smart. Because 00:14:05.919 --> 00:14:08.799 he paid the flat fee, Babb kept 100 percent of 00:14:08.799 --> 00:14:11.299 the ticket sales. But the limited midnight runs 00:14:11.299 --> 00:14:14.019 served another crucial purpose. It prevented 00:14:14.019 --> 00:14:17.299 word of mouth from Exactly the point. It was 00:14:17.299 --> 00:14:20.100 a cinematic hit -and -run. Bab was basically 00:14:20.100 --> 00:14:22.559 selling tickets to a circus tent based entirely 00:14:22.559 --> 00:14:25.360 on the wildly sensational poster outside. Yeah. 00:14:26.000 --> 00:14:28.159 The midnight showings ensured he could pack the 00:14:28.159 --> 00:14:30.700 tent, collect the cash, and pack the whole operation 00:14:30.700 --> 00:14:32.759 up before the audience realized there were no 00:14:32.759 --> 00:14:35.480 actual lions inside the tent. Because the movie 00:14:35.480 --> 00:14:38.220 itself was terrible? The movie itself was of 00:14:38.220 --> 00:14:40.080 terrible quality, but by the time the audience 00:14:40.080 --> 00:14:42.539 figured that out, Bab's crew was already driving 00:14:42.539 --> 00:14:45.919 to the next town. So... What does this all mean? 00:14:46.580 --> 00:14:48.980 Did this fabricated public service announcement 00:14:48.980 --> 00:14:51.860 wrapped in fake Treasury Department letters and 00:14:51.860 --> 00:14:54.980 sleazy taglines actually work? Financially, it 00:14:54.980 --> 00:14:57.389 was a massive triumph. According to Friedman's 00:14:57.389 --> 00:14:59.769 accounts, Bab's midnight presentations of this 00:14:59.769 --> 00:15:02.370 single cheaply made film often generated more 00:15:02.370 --> 00:15:04.529 revenue than the theater would make from a typical 00:15:04.529 --> 00:15:07.289 mainstream Hollywood film's entire multi -week 00:15:07.289 --> 00:15:10.129 run. That is insane. The exact dollar figures 00:15:10.129 --> 00:15:11.929 are lost to history because the exploitation 00:15:11.929 --> 00:15:14.830 genre was notorious for keeping very poor or 00:15:14.830 --> 00:15:17.470 entirely fictional financial records. But it 00:15:17.470 --> 00:15:20.610 was undeniably a cash cow. Critically, however, 00:15:20.889 --> 00:15:23.820 it was an absolute disaster. The film was eventually 00:15:23.820 --> 00:15:26.620 reviewed by the New York Times in 1957, and the 00:15:26.620 --> 00:15:30.019 critic delivered this legendary line. Never did 00:15:30.019 --> 00:15:32.820 Vice seem so devoid of enchantment. That review 00:15:32.820 --> 00:15:35.559 is a devastating critique, but it inadvertently 00:15:35.559 --> 00:15:37.740 highlights why Bab's aggressive marketing was 00:15:37.740 --> 00:15:40.759 so necessary. The actual footage wasn't enchanting, 00:15:40.899 --> 00:15:44.220 it was a drab depressing slog. The audience wasn't 00:15:44.220 --> 00:15:46.480 paying for cinematic art, they were paying for 00:15:46.480 --> 00:15:49.820 the promise of the forbidden. The financial success 00:15:49.820 --> 00:15:52.620 of She Should Have Said No was so undeniable 00:15:52.620 --> 00:15:55.299 that it prompted a wave of imitators. Producers 00:15:55.299 --> 00:15:57.120 saw the revenue and tried to copy the formula. 00:15:57.389 --> 00:16:00.769 In 1951, a similar film was imported from Argentina 00:16:00.769 --> 00:16:03.769 called The Marijuana Story. But that cloned totally 00:16:03.769 --> 00:16:05.990 flopped. Why did audiences line up around the 00:16:05.990 --> 00:16:08.190 block at midnight for Lila Leeds but completely 00:16:08.190 --> 00:16:10.750 ignore a very similar movie about the exact same 00:16:10.750 --> 00:16:13.389 subject just two years later? This raises an 00:16:13.389 --> 00:16:15.590 important question and it comes back to the core 00:16:15.590 --> 00:16:17.789 demographic of the fear we discussed earlier. 00:16:18.529 --> 00:16:21.210 The plot of the Argentine film centered on an 00:16:21.210 --> 00:16:24.090 adult professional, a doctor who goes undercover 00:16:24.090 --> 00:16:26.570 into the world of drug addicts to investigate 00:16:26.570 --> 00:16:29.250 his wife's death and ends up becoming addicted 00:16:29.250 --> 00:16:32.669 himself. It failed because the post -war American 00:16:32.669 --> 00:16:35.409 public wasn't generally terrified of grown adults 00:16:35.409 --> 00:16:38.289 making bad choices. They were terrified of corrupted 00:16:38.289 --> 00:16:41.289 youth. The nightmare was their innocent teenagers 00:16:41.289 --> 00:16:44.490 being lured into ruin. Ah, see. Shisheta said 00:16:44.490 --> 00:16:47.850 no, provided a visual manifestation of that specific 00:16:47.850 --> 00:16:50.549 parental terror. The failure of the Argentine 00:16:50.549 --> 00:16:52.710 film proves that these exploitation movies were 00:16:52.710 --> 00:16:55.370 successful entirely as targeted fear -mongering 00:16:55.370 --> 00:16:58.289 tools, not as pieces of entertainment. That distinction 00:16:58.289 --> 00:17:00.230 makes perfect sense. It's not about the substance. 00:17:00.330 --> 00:17:02.570 It's about who the monster in the closet is targeting. 00:17:03.029 --> 00:17:06.029 But eventually, this whole genre of exploitation 00:17:06.029 --> 00:17:10.440 drug films lost its momentum. Yes, it did. For 00:17:10.440 --> 00:17:12.839 decades, the major Hollywood studios operated 00:17:12.839 --> 00:17:15.440 under a rigid set of censorship guidelines called 00:17:15.440 --> 00:17:18.859 the Hayes Production Code. The code heavily regulated 00:17:18.859 --> 00:17:21.519 objectionable content, forbidding the depiction 00:17:21.519 --> 00:17:23.619 of drug addiction altogether. Right, which created 00:17:23.619 --> 00:17:27.220 the market for BAB. Exactly. Exploitation films 00:17:27.220 --> 00:17:29.660 like Babs only existed because they bypassed 00:17:29.660 --> 00:17:32.440 the major studios entirely, operating in independent 00:17:32.440 --> 00:17:35.180 theaters and hiding behind that educational loophole. 00:17:35.640 --> 00:17:38.099 The exploitation genre thrived in the margins 00:17:38.099 --> 00:17:40.400 because the major studios wouldn't touch the 00:17:40.400 --> 00:17:42.539 subject matter. Interesting. It wasn't until 00:17:42.539 --> 00:17:45.319 a mainstream, high -budget film came along, Frank 00:17:45.319 --> 00:17:48.420 Sinatra's 1955 film The Man with the Golden Arm, 00:17:48.759 --> 00:17:50.839 that the actual mechanics of Hollywood censorship 00:17:50.839 --> 00:17:53.859 changed. Oh, wow. Sinatra's film tackled addiction 00:17:53.859 --> 00:17:56.720 with nuance, high -profile talent, and major 00:17:56.720 --> 00:17:59.859 studio backing. The producers decided to release 00:17:59.859 --> 00:18:01.980 it without the production code's seal of approval, 00:18:01.980 --> 00:18:03.940 and it was a massive critical and commercial 00:18:03.940 --> 00:18:05.880 success anyway. So they just broke the rules. 00:18:06.059 --> 00:18:08.579 Yeah. That major studio defiance broke the dam, 00:18:09.019 --> 00:18:11.140 rendering the rigid censorship rules obsolete 00:18:11.140 --> 00:18:13.759 and taking away the exploitation genre's monopoly 00:18:13.759 --> 00:18:16.500 on taboo subjects. Though she should have said 00:18:16.500 --> 00:18:19.299 no. Didn't completely disappear into the cinematic 00:18:19.299 --> 00:18:22.500 void. Decades later have found a second life 00:18:22.500 --> 00:18:27.460 as a B -movie cult classic. In 1993, a company 00:18:27.460 --> 00:18:30.519 called Something Weird Video released it on VHS 00:18:30.519 --> 00:18:32.779 as part of their Roadshow Rarities collection. 00:18:32.799 --> 00:18:36.359 Of course they did. And true to form, they continue 00:18:36.359 --> 00:18:39.380 to use the salacious, exaggerated material as 00:18:39.380 --> 00:18:42.119 the primary selling point. Some marketing strategies 00:18:42.119 --> 00:18:44.400 truly outlive the generations that invent them. 00:18:44.559 --> 00:18:47.259 The hustle constantly adapts, but the core mechanics 00:18:47.259 --> 00:18:49.380 remain the same. Let's pull all these threads 00:18:49.380 --> 00:18:52.059 together. We started with a real -life police 00:18:52.059 --> 00:18:55.819 raid in 1948 that shattered a 20 -year -old actress's 00:18:55.819 --> 00:18:58.539 career while her famous male co -star walked 00:18:58.539 --> 00:19:01.640 away relatively unscathed. We watched the Hollywood 00:19:01.640 --> 00:19:04.019 machine force her into his six -day movie shoot 00:19:04.019 --> 00:19:07.200 to pay her rent. We saw that script weaponize 00:19:07.200 --> 00:19:09.900 post -war suburban anxiety to construct a wildly 00:19:09.900 --> 00:19:12.579 escalated government -approved moral panic. And 00:19:12.579 --> 00:19:14.579 finally, we watched a legendary carnival marketer 00:19:14.579 --> 00:19:17.079 named Proger Babb package the entire thing in 00:19:17.079 --> 00:19:18.940 forged treasury letters and hit and run midnight 00:19:18.940 --> 00:19:21.099 screenings to make an absolute fortune. That's 00:19:21.099 --> 00:19:24.160 an unbelievable playbook. It really is. And you, 00:19:24.319 --> 00:19:26.259 our listener, the next time you are scrolling 00:19:26.259 --> 00:19:29.160 online and you see a highly sensationalized headline 00:19:29.160 --> 00:19:32.740 or a true crime expose that insists it is strictly 00:19:32.740 --> 00:19:34.980 being presented as an educational public service. 00:19:35.660 --> 00:19:37.940 You should remember exactly where the mechanics 00:19:37.940 --> 00:19:40.420 of that hustle were perfected. It is a playbook 00:19:40.420 --> 00:19:43.299 built entirely on hypocrisy. And that leaves 00:19:43.299 --> 00:19:45.599 us with a lingering thought to consider, drawing 00:19:45.599 --> 00:19:47.599 directly from the history of the production code 00:19:47.599 --> 00:19:50.950 we just examined. She shoulda said no. thrived 00:19:50.950 --> 00:19:53.670 precisely because of censorship. It exploited 00:19:53.670 --> 00:19:56.750 the loopholes of moral outrage, selling sleaze 00:19:56.750 --> 00:19:58.829 disguised as education in the dead of night. 00:19:59.210 --> 00:20:01.109 But despite all its claims of public service, 00:20:01.210 --> 00:20:04.190 it didn't change a single societal rule. It was 00:20:04.190 --> 00:20:07.369 eventually mainstream, high -quality, serious 00:20:07.369 --> 00:20:09.470 art like Frank Sinatra's The Man with the Golden 00:20:09.470 --> 00:20:11.650 Arm that actually possessed the cultural weight 00:20:11.650 --> 00:20:14.450 to force the rigid Hollywood system to evolve. 00:20:14.890 --> 00:20:17.940 It really makes you wonder. Do trashy exploitation 00:20:17.940 --> 00:20:20.420 films actually just protect the status quo by 00:20:20.420 --> 00:20:22.539 keeping controversial topics hidden in the gutter 00:20:22.539 --> 00:20:24.839 while it takes genuine mainstream art to actually 00:20:24.839 --> 00:20:27.799 change society's rules? That is exactly the kind 00:20:27.799 --> 00:20:30.579 of question that turns a pristine Hollywood portrait 00:20:30.579 --> 00:20:33.519 into something much more complicated and honestly 00:20:33.519 --> 00:20:36.339 much more real. Thanks for joining us on this 00:20:36.339 --> 00:20:37.880 deep dive. We'll catch you next time.