Week 11, Meeting 1
Topics:
Introduction to the case.
Readings:
Find and read the following newspaper articles through Proquest Historical Newspapers, LA Times:
- “Full Testimony of Inquest: JURY CLEARS CHERYL AFTER LANA’S STORY Hearing Climaxed by Actress’ Account of Stompanato Violence Coroner’s Jury Clears Lana Turner’s Daughter INQUEST VERDICT ABSOLVES CHERYL,” Jones, Jack. Los Angeles Times (1923-Current File) [Los Angeles, Calif] 12 Apr 1958: 1.
- “Can’t Remember Stabbing Stompanato, Cheryl Says: Girl Gives Her Deposition at Hearing on Suit Lana Turner and Daughter Cheryl Arrive for Session on Death Suit,” . Los Angeles Times (1923-Current File) [Los Angeles, Calif] 24 June 1958: 2
- “Cheryl May Get Word of Fate Today: Due to Appear at Closed Hearing of Juvenile Court,” Jones, Jack. Los Angeles Times (1923-Current File) [Los Angeles, Calif] 24 Apr 1958: 2.
Find 3 other newspaper articles from the coverage of the case.
In-class Activity:
Come to class prepared to discuss the newspaper coverage of the case. How is Cheryl portrayed? Lana? The victim? Especially with regard to their gender?
Week 11, Meeting 2
Topics:
The challenges with memory
Readings:
Excerpts from Detour: A Hollywood Story by Cheryl Crane & Cliff Jahr
Wikipedia entry on Cheryl Crane.
Inside a Hollywood Scandal: The Cheryl Crane Story
Assignment:
In class, we’ll discuss how the case is being positioned in these sources. How are the participants being positioned? How are they positioning themselves? How is their gender being used? Can you identify sympathies or biases in the portrayals of any of these participants? Use the evidence from the week to support your argument.
Week 12, Meeting 1
Topics:
Women & the Domestic Ideal
Readings:
Blood on Her Hands, Chapter 7, pp 142-164.
In-class Activity:
We will watch either Dial M for Murder or Anatomy of a Murder in class.
Week 12, Meeting 2
Topics:
Single Motherhood, Marriage, and Domestic Violence
The Mafia
Readings:
Excerpts from Lee Bernstein, Greatest Menace: Organized Crime in Cold War America
Excerpts from Jessica Weiss, To Have and To Hold: Marriage, the Baby Boom & Social Change
Susan Hartmann, “Women’s Employment and the Domestic Ideal in the Early Cold War Years,” in Not June Cleaver: Women and Gender in Postwar America, 1945-1960, by Joanne Meyerowitz.
Assignments:
Write 200-300 words on how gender, marriage, single motherhood, and the domestic ideal may have impacted how family and domestic violence was discussed or portrayed during the course of the trial. Does the depiction of marriage and family from the movie correlate or contradict how it was portrayed in the press during the case? Use the readings and/or examples from the movie to support your argument.
Week 13, Meeting 1
Topics:
Since the records were sealed, what can historians actually know about the case?
Readings:
TruTV: Lana Turner and Johnny Stompanato, Hollywood Homicide
In-class Activity:
Come to class prepared to discuss what you think you actually know about this case based on all the readings so far. We’ll also discuss how historians handle scarcity of information and how we evaluate scholarly writings and “other” types of writing on a subject of historical inquiry.
Week 13, Meeting 2
Topics:
Discussion of projects, final essay
Readings:
None!
Assignments:
Come to class with questions about your projects or drafts for review.
