Curated playlist
20th-century American businesswomen
- MadonnaMadonna arrived in New York in 1978 with thirty-five dollars. It was her first plane ride and first taxi.
- Janet JacksonJanet Jackson was seen at the 1983 American Music Awards wearing a hoop earring with a key attached to it. She has worn variations of that earring in music videos and live shows ever since. The pair she wore between 1987 and 1990 is now on…
- Reese WitherspoonReese Witherspoon walked into an open casting call in 1991 intending to read for a bit part. She left with the lead in The Man in the Moon, playing Dani Trant, a 14-year-old country girl in Louisiana. Thirty years later, in 2021, Forbes…
- BeyoncéOn the 13th of December 2013, Beyoncé released a complete album on the iTunes Store with no warning and no promotion. Within six days it had sold one million digital copies, a record for any album on iTunes at the time. The artist behind…
- Joan CrawfordA 1938 ad called Joan Crawford "box office poison," but Mildred Pierce later won her an Academy Award.
- Lucille BallLucille Ball's real-life pregnancy became an I Love Lucy episode, and CBS banned the word "pregnant."
- Kathleen Kennedy (producer)Assistant Kathleen Kennedy was supposed to take notes but set her pencil down to pitch ideas.
- Lady Bird JohnsonLady Bird Johnson was born Claudia Alta Taylor, and almost nobody ever called her that. While she was still an infant, her nursemaid, Alice Tittle, remarked that the baby was as pretty as a ladybird. The comment became a lifelong name. Her…
- Dolly PartonDolly Parton refused to give Elvis Presley half the publishing rights to "I Will Always Love You."
- Ivana TrumpIvana Trump, a Czech-born businesswoman, socialite and model, appeared as herself in the 1996 film The First Wives Club. Her one line was aimed straight at the audience: "Ladies, you have to be strong and independent. And remember: don't…
- Caitlyn JennerCaitlyn Jenner first drew a headline in 1972, when a newspaper in Eugene, Oregon, printed a three-word question: "Who's Jenner?" The Eugene Register-Guard asked it after a little-known decathlete, running the final 1500 meters at the…