Episode 364-"Death by Laughter: Female Hysteria and Early Cinema" with author Maggie Hennefeld

from Forgotten Hollywood · host JLJ Media

In this episode I spoke with author Maggie Hennefeld about her latest book "Death by Laughter: Female Hysteria and Early Cinema". Can you really die from laughing too hard? Between 1870 and 1920, hundreds of women suffered such a fate―or so a slew of sensationalist obituaries would have us believe. How could laughter be fatal, and what do these reports of women’s risible deaths tell us about the politics of female joy?

Episode metadata supplied by the publisher feed · Published Sep 18, 2025

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Episode 364-"Death by Laughter: Female Hysteria and Early Cinema" with author Maggie Hennefeld

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