Did That Really Happen?

Did That Really Happen?
  • 4.2 (18)
  • History
  • Updated Monthly

The movie podcast for history nerds. In every episode, historians Jamie and Sofia talk about a different historical film and take a deep dive into the parts that did and didn't really happen. In each episode, we try to answer the big questions: Is this good history? Is this a good movie? And are those the same thing? To get in touch, send us an email at DidThatReallyHappenPod@gmail.com, or follow us on Twitter @ReallyHappenPod. You can also support the show by visiting Patreon.com/DidThatReallyHappen Our theme music is "Allon Gay Gay", performed by Jon Sayles.

  1. Aug 31

    First Cow

    This week we're traveling back to 1820s Oregon Territory with First Cow! Join us as we learn about baked goods, "soft gold", cats, and more! Sources: Washington Irving, The Beauties of Washington Irving, 1825. Excerpt available at https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Beauties_of_Washington_Irving_Esq/IgdCAQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=olykoek&pg=PA33&printsec=frontcover Dan Kois, "I Made the Oily Cakes from First Cow,' Slate, available at https://slate.com/culture/2020/03/first-cow-oily-cakes-recipe.html https://inliterature.net/sleepy-hollow/traditional-dutch-1800s-olykoek-recipe/ Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Cow RogerEbert.com review: https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/first-cow-movie-review-2020 Preston Lewis, How Feral Cats Fared in the Wild West. Hint: It Usually Didn't End Well. Available at https://historynet.com/feral-cats-wild-west/ Barton Barbour, "Fur Trade in Oregon Country,' in Oregon Encyclopedia (August 2024), https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/fur_trade_in_oregon_country/  "Beaver Trap," Oregon History Project, https://www.oregonhistoryproject.org/articles/historical-records/beaver-trap/  Melinda Jette, "Exploration & Fur Trade" Oregon History Project, 2003, https://www.oregonhistoryproject.org/articles/historical-records/exploration-amp-fur-trade-by-robert-gray/  Jennifer Ott, ""Ruining" the Rivers in the Snake Country: The Hudson's Bay Company's Fur Desert Policy," Oregon Historical Quarterly 104, no. 2 (2003): 166-95. https://www.jstor.org/stable/20615318

  2. Aug 17

    GLOW

    We don't have a new episode this week, so we're opening the Patreon vault to take you back to 1980s LA with GLOW! Join us as we learn about the wild world of 80s professional wrestling, including Hulk Hogan, the audition process, and more! Sources: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/original-gorgeous-ladies-of-wresting-glow_n_5953ff80e4b02734df2f98f2 https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2017/06/159777/glow-characters-gorgeous-ladies-of-wrestling-80s-photos#slide-1 Mrspikeshaw "Hulk Hogan - Say Your Prayers, Eat Your Vitamins," https://youtu.be/0-dI4Sl2rzE  Sam Migliore, "Professional Wrestling: Moral Commentary Through Ritual Metaphor," Journal of Ritual Studies 7:1 (1993): 65-84. https://www.jstor.org/stable/44398889  Conor Heffernan, "Representations of Hulk Hogan in the 1980s: Christianity, Masculinity, Xenophobia," Sport and Modern/Contemporary Visual Culture 12:1 (2023). https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0752/12/1/22  The Best Wrestling Promos of All Time, "Best Promos - Hulk Hogan "The ultimate sentence of Hulkamania," https://youtu.be/EA8ZAkvRgVo  WWE, "Hulk Hogan & Randy Savage join forces: Saturday Night's," https://youtu.be/rDWalFmERhY  WWE, "FULL MATCH - Hulk Hogan vs. Andre the Giant - WWE Championship Match: WrestleMania III" https://youtu.be/rz8q5ZjboXY  Metacritic, Glow Season 1 https://www.metacritic.com/tv/glow/season-1  Julia Raeside, "GLOW review - a riotous portrayal of the piledriving world of women's wrestling," The Guardian (22 June 2017). https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2017/jun/22/glow-review-a-riotous-portrayal-of-the-piledriving-world-of-womens-wrestling   Rotten Tomatoes, "GLOW" Season 1 (2017); https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/glow/s01  IMDB https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5770786/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

  3. Aug 3

    Brooklyn

    This week we've got a listener-requested episode on Brooklyn! Join us as we travel back to 1950s Ireland and New York and learn about Irish dances, golf, Coney Island, 1950s immigration, and more! Sources: Source Paul Rouse, How Golf Took Root in Ireland, Irish Examiner, available at https://www.irishexaminer.com/sport-columnists/arid-20472471.html John T. Ridge, Dance Halls of Irish New York, available at https://nyirishhistory.us/article/dance-halls-of-irish-new-york/ Linda Dowling Almeida, Irish Immigrants in New York City, 1945-1995 (Indiana University Press, 2001), https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt20060pn . The Beach in 1954: https://www.britannica.com/place/Coney-Island-amusement-area  Aaron Rose's Coney Island at the Museum of the City of New York: https://collections.mcny.org/asset-management/24UAKVQPB41?&WS=SearchResults&Flat=FP  Marta Gutman, "Race, Place, and Play: Robert Moses and the WPA Swimming Pools in New York City," Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 67, no.4 (2008): 532-61. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/jsah.2008.67.4.532  Carolina Bank Munoz, Penny Lewis, and Emily Tumpson Molina, "Brooklyn," in A People's Guide to New York City (University of California Press), https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv2j6xfj4.8  https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/brooklyn  Glenn Kenny, "Brooklyn," https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/brooklyn-2015

  4. Jul 13

    Benedetta

    In this definitely NSFW episode, we're traveling back to 17th century Italy with Benedetta! Join us as we learn about the trial of Benedetta Carlini, comets, convent theater, and more! Sources: https://daily.jstor.org/lesbianism-at-the-convent/ Judith C. Brown, Immodest Acts: The Life of a Lesbian Nun in Renaissance Italy (1986, Archive.org) Rudolph M. Bell, "Renaissance Sexuality and the Florentine Archives: An Exchange," Renaissance Quarterly 40, no.3 (1987): 485-511. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2862521  Image of the comet over Heidelberg: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C/1618_W1#/media/File:Comet_1618_Heidelberg.jpg Nicholas Kollerstrom, "Galileo vs. 1618's Great Comet: Fly Like an Eagle," DIO 21, 2018 Elisa Neckar, "Sept. 6, 1618: The First Comet Seen Through a Telescope," Astronomy, available at https://www.astronomy.com/today-in-the-history-of-astronomy/sept-6-1618-the-first-comet-seen-through-a-telescope/ Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benedetta_(film) Rotten Tomatoes Reviews: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/benedetta Blank Check Podcast (Paul Verhoeven Series) Elissa B. Weaver, Convent Theatre in Early Modern Italy: Spiritual Fun and Learning for Women. Cambridge University Press, 2002.

  5. Jun 29

    Kind Hearts and Coronets

    This week we're traveling back to Edwardian England with Kind Hearts and Coronets! Join us as we learn about man traps, municipal baths, executing nobility, suffragettes doing awesome stuff like smashing windows and flying hot air balloons, and more! Sources: National Trust Collections: Humane Mantrap with No Teeth: https://www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/object/832217 Henry Yau, "Student Spotlight #2: Man Traps," The Museum of English Rural LIfe: https://merl.reading.ac.uk/news-and-views/student-spotlight-2-man-traps/ Keith Fitzpatrick-Mathews, Man Traps and Spring Guns and Burymead, North Hertfordshire Museum, available at https://northhertsmuseum.org/man-traps-and-spring-guns-at-burymead/ https://www.criterion.com/films/357-kind-hearts-and-coronets?srsltid=AfmBOoqI6mqHSaktbVr3VfmjtvrX_EoEHYVpCazVLklhDJtp_Vz21UaE  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kind_Hearts_and_Coronets Philip Kemp, https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/414-kind-hearts-and-coronets-ealing-s-shadow-side  https://www.britannica.com/topic/Kind-Hearts-and-Coronets  David A. Ellis, Conversations with Cinematographers, 15.  https://www.springfieldspringfield.co.uk/movie_script.php?movie=kind-hearts-and-coronets   https://historicengland.org.uk/images-books/photos/item/PLA01/03/0063  https://www.victorianturkishbath.org/F0GLOSSARY/SFglossPages/Slipper_w.htm  Dave Day and Margaret Roberts, "Working at the Baths," Swimming Communities in Victorian England (2019), 157-201.  https://www.londonmuseum.org.uk/collections/london-stories/londons-public-executions/ https://capitalpunishmentuk.org/english-hangmen-1850-to-1964/  Colin Rhys Lovell, "The Trial of Peers in Great Britain," The American Historical Review 55, no.1 (1949): 69-81. https://www.jstor.org/stable/1841088  Execution of Lord Lovat (1747), https://www.londonmuseum.org.uk/collections/v/object-96988/a-representation-of-the-execution-of-lord-lovat/  https://www.scotsman.com/whats-on/arts-and-entertainment/the-beheading-of-clan-fraser-chief-watched-by-thousands-859749  Robin Eagles, "The Last Peer Hanged for Murder," https://historyofparliament.com/2022/05/10/the-last-peer-hanged-for-murder/  Andrew Thrush, "The execution of Thomas Howard, 4th duke of Norfolk," https://historyofparliament.com/2022/04/28/the-execution-of-thomas-howard-4th-duke-of-norfolk/  https://www.londonmuseum.org.uk/collections/v/object-547960/glass-smashing-for-votes-suffragettes-as-window-breakers/ https://bowstreetmuseum.org.uk/shattering-suffrage/ https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/suffragettes-on-file/window-smashing-campaign/ https://balloonteam.net/montgolfier/on-this-day-the-suffragette-airship/ https://blogs.loc.gov/families/2022/09/venturesome-ladies-trailblazing-female-fliers/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muriel_Matters#/media/File:The_London_Illustrated_News_(7th_November_1908.webp

  6. Jun 15

    A League of Their Own (2022)

    We don't have a new episode this week, so we're releasing a Patreon episode from the vault: 2022's canceled-too-soon series, A League of Their Own. Join us as we learn about the AAGPBL's weird code of conduct, WWII-era mail censorship, and more! Sources: Full text available at https://www.aagpbl.org/history/rules-of-conduct https://www.aagpbl.org/teams/rockford-peaches/1944  Lisa Taylor/Justina Moloney, "Passed Censor," Folklife Today: American Folklife Center & Veterans History Project, Library of Congress (28 August 2017). https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2017/08/passed-censor/  "Victory Mail," National Postal Museum, Smithsonian. https://postalmuseum.si.edu/exhibition/victory-mail and https://youtu.be/tj_LoG7wStY  Myron Fox, "Censorship!" American Experience, PBS (2000). https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/warletters-censorship/  "Letters Home: Wartime Correspondence from the Natale Bellantoni Papers," Hoover Institution Library & Archives https://histories.hoover.org/letters-home/#:~:text=Throughout%20World%20War%20II%2C%20the,hands%20should%20mail%20be%20intercepted. Devan Coggan, "Abbi Jacobson responds to angry reactions to A League of Their Own: 'Representation matters so much'" Entertainment Weekly (15 August 2022). https://ew.com/tv/a-league-of-their-own-reactions-abbi-jacobson-responds/  Rebecca Nicholson, "A League of Their Own review-- this gorgeous baseball drama is about something far bigger than sport," The Guardian (12 August 2022). https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2022/aug/12/a-league-of-their-own-review-baseball-drama-abbi-jacobson-madonna-movie-remake  Jenna Scherer, "A League Of Their Own serves up a whole new crop of Peaches," AV Club (10 August 2022). https://www.avclub.com/a-league-of-their-own-season-1-review-1849391265  Linda Holmes, "New Peaches, new problems: 'A League of Their Own' makes a successful move to TV," NPR (11 August 2022). https://www.npr.org/2022/08/11/1116855780/a-league-of-their-own-2022-amazon-prime-review  Riese, "32 Excerpts From Really Special "League Of Their Own" Reviews Written By Homophobes Who've Had Quite Enough," Autostraddle, (15 August 2022). https://www.autostraddle.com/32-homophobic-league-of-their-own-reviews/  https://youtu.be/1OvULWYcSjQ

  7. Jun 1

    Nuremberg

    This week we're traveling back to 1940s Germany (yup, this is a heavy one, folks) with Nuremberg! Join us as we learn about real-life figures like Douglas Kelley, Emmy Goering, Howie Triest, and more! Sources: James Wylie, "The Battle to Be 'First Lady of the Third Reich.'" Daily Telegraph (London), November 14, 2019, 22,23. EBSCOhost. Richard J. Evans. 2015. The Third Reich in History and Memory. Oxford University Press. EBSCOhost. George Mosse, Nationalism and Sexuality. New York: Howard Fertig, 1985 "Frau Goering Gets Year, but is Freed," New York Times, 22 July 1948, available at https://www.nytimes.com/1948/07/22/archives/frau-goering-gets-year-but-is-freed-court-also-confiscates-30-of.html https://www.pbs.org/wnet/secrets/the-err-and-the-nazi-partys-systematic-looting-of-europe-xmbqkk/8289/ https://www.errproject.org/jeudepaume/about/err.php Douglas Kelley, 22 Cells in Nuremberg, https://archive.org/details/22-cells-in-nuremberg-douglas-m-kelley-z-library/page/n7/mode/2up  Jack El-Hai, "The Psychiatrist and the Nazi," World War II 28, no. 5 (2014): 38-45.  Jack El-Hai, "The Nazi and the Psychiatrist," Scientific American, (2011), https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-nazi-and-the-psychiatrist/  Martin Levinson, "General Semantics and PTSD in the Military," ETC: A Review of General Semantics, 72, no.3 (2015): 258-64, https://www.jstor.org/stable/24762164 . Meilan Solly, "The True Story Behind 'Nuremberg,' a WWII Drama About Hermann Goring's Cat-and-Mouse Game With an American Psychiatrist," Smithsonian Magazine (2025) https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-true-story-behind-nuremberg-a-wwii-drama-about-hermann-gorings-cat-and-mouse-game-with-an-american-psychiatrist-180987621/  José Brunner, ""Oh Those Crazy Cards Again": A History of the Debate on the Nazi Rorschachs, 1946-2001," Political Psychology 22, no.2 (2001): 233-61, https://www.jstor.org/stable/3791925  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuremberg_(2025_film) Interview with James Vanderbilt, NPR: https://www.npr.org/2025/11/11/nx-s1-5487719/nuremberg-james-vanderbilt https://www.rogerebert.com/interviews/nuremberg-james-vanderbilt-interview Mario Cacciotollo, "Jewish Army Translator Who Got Close to the Nazis," BBC, available at https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-14706309

  8. May 18

    The Testament of Ann Lee

    This week we're traveling back to 18th century Manchester (and America!) with The Testament of Ann Lee! Join us as we learn about Ann Lee's life with her awful husband Abraham and fellow spiritual leader Jane Wardley, shaker spirituals, pacifism, and more! Sources: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/pacifism/ Ngram for Pacifism: https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=pacifism&year_start=1800&year_end=2022&corpus=en&smoothing=3 George Fox on peace: https://quaker.org/legacy/minnfm/peace/fox_1651.htm Tolstoy, "The Law of Violence and the Law of Love", 1908, available at https://www.marxists.org/archive/tolstoy/1908/the-law-of-violence-and-the-law-of-love/chapter-8.html https://divinity.uchicago.edu/news/pop-religion-hunger-and-thirst-embodied-religion-testament-ann-lee https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_testament_of_ann_lee Guy Lodge, https://variety.com/2025/film/news/the-testament-of-ann-lee-review-amanda-seyfried-1236503769/ Peter Bradshaw, https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/sep/01/the-testament-of-ann-lee-review-shaker-venice-film-festival-amanda-seyfried-mona-fastvold  Peyton Robinson, https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-testament-of-ann-lee-amanda-seyfried-film-review-2025  https://shakermuseum.org/learn/school-programs/shaker-music/ Nardi Reeder Campion, Mother Ann Lee: Morning Star of the Shakers (Brandeis University Press, 2026). https://www.jstor.org/stable/jj.37730392  Linda Fujie, ""Draw the Chords of Union Stronger": The Musical Life of the American Shakers," The World of Music 35: 3 (1993): 51-79.  Daniel Patterson, The Shaker Spiritual (Dover, 1979, 2000) https://archive.org/details/shakerspiritual0000patt/page/2/mode/2up . https://www.shakermuseum.us/tis-gift-simple-things-arent-simple-seem/?nocache=1  https://home.shakerheritage.org/let-us-labor-the-evolution-of-shaker-dance/ https://fineartamerica.com/featured/1-shaker-dance-and-worship-18th-century-photo-researchers.html   https://daily.jstor.org/the-rhythms-of-shaker-dance-marked-the-shakers-as-other/  EP Thompson, Making of the English Working Class BS Youngs, "The Testimony of Christ's Second Appearing," 1823, Full text available on Google Books Nardi Reeder Campion, Mother Ann Lee (2026) https://www.jstor.org/stable/jj.37730392.11  A summary view of the Millennial Church, or United Society of Believers (commonly called Shakers) : comprising the rise, progress, and practical order of the society, together with the general principles of their faith and testimony (1823), https://archive.org/details/asummaryviewmil02wellgoog/page/n4/mode/2up

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4.2
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About

The movie podcast for history nerds. In every episode, historians Jamie and Sofia talk about a different historical film and take a deep dive into the parts that did and didn't really happen. In each episode, we try to answer the big questions: Is this good history? Is this a good movie? And are those the same thing? To get in touch, send us an email at DidThatReallyHappenPod@gmail.com, or follow us on Twitter @ReallyHappenPod. You can also support the show by visiting Patreon.com/DidThatReallyHappen Our theme music is "Allon Gay Gay", performed by Jon Sayles.

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