Introducing: Death of a Starlet

Death of a Starlet

Wondery

True Crime, Josh Lucas, Tracy Pattin, Exhbit C, Hugh Hefner, Playboy, Peter Bogdanovich, Hollywood & Crime, Dorothy Stratten, Documentary, Exhibit C, Society & Culture, History

4.6 • 2.5K Ratings

🗓️ 12 September 2024

⏱️ 2 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Nineteen eighty was going to be Dorothy Stratten’s year. Playboy’s Hugh Hefner thought it might even be her decade. She was just 20 years old, the girl next door with the shy smile and whispery voice who didn’t know her own beauty. But to the men in her life -- magazine mogul Hugh Hefner, director Peter Bogdanovich, and small time hustler Paul Snider -- Dorothy represented the promise of better things -- a centerfold on her way to movie stardom, a muse who could help revive a dying career, and a ticket to the Hollywood dream.

But who was Dorothy really? And how did her rise to fame ultimately lead to her death?

This is a six-part series about love, sex and murder in 1970s Hollywood when glitter pants and roller skates were all the rage, and the Playboy mansion hosted the biggest party in town.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	I got a $65,000 Russian
0:05.5	a $65,000 Russian Sable Fur Coat
0:10.5	and a $25,000 check.
0:13.8	Dorothy Stratton was a rising star.
0:16.8	She was blonde and beautiful, a shy girl with a big heart
0:21.0	who worked at the Dairy Queen,
0:23.0	until she was plucked from obscurity
0:25.7	and put on the cover of Playboy Maggie.
0:28.1	I'm sure that this has been many a girl's dream
0:31.5	and it's been mine.
0:34.0	From centerfold to movie roles, and she was in love,
0:38.0	on the way to a Hollywood ending.
0:41.0	And then it all went terribly wrong.
0:48.0	A beautiful young woman living what was described as a Hollywood fairy tale.
0:52.0	But fairy tales don't always have a happy name. was described as a Hollywood fairy tale.
0:53.0	A fairy tale made of the year has been found shot to death,
0:57.0	killed apparently by her estranged husband may have shot his wife
1:00.0	because he was desponded over the breakup of their marriage.
1:04.0	Marilyn Monroe called Hollywood a place where they'll pay you a thousand dollars for a kiss and 50 cents for your soul.
1:11.0	Dorothy Stratton would find that out firsthand.
1:15.4	Playboy founder Hugh Hefner thought Dorothy was going to be his breakout star.
1:20.7	Legendary Director Peter Bogdanovich saw her S's muse, and her small-time hustler boyfriend
	...

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