EPISODE · Jun 4, 2022 · 16 MIN
The Showgirl and the Tobacco Heir
from Stories of Appalachia · host Steve Gilly, Rod Mullins
On November 23, 1931, 20-year-old Zachary Smith Reynolds of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, was divorced from his first wife. Six days later he married his second wife, Broadway showgirl Libby Holman, and six months later he was dead from a gunshot wound that may or may not have been self-inflicted. This was a tragedy, magnified in the media by the fact that Smith was the youngest son of tobacco magnate R. J. Reynolds.Today we tell that story.
What this episode covers
On November 23, 1931, 20-year-old Zachary Smith Reynolds of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, was divorced from his first wife. Six days later he married his second wife, Broadway showgirl Libby Holman, and six months later he was dead from a gunshot wound that may or may not have been self-inflicted. This was a tragedy, magnified in the media by the fact that Smith was the youngest son of tobacco magnate R. J. Reynolds.Today we tell that story.
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The Showgirl and the Tobacco Heir
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