Before viewers saw a badge or heard a suspect speak, four blunt musical notes announced that Dragnet had begun. The sound was severe, instantly recognizable, and perfectly suited to Jack Webb’s vision of police work. From its opening seconds, the series promised something more disciplined than an ordinary cops-and-robbers adventure.

Discover how Rudolph Valentino married actress Jean Acker after a whirlwind romance, only to be locked out on their wedding night, ending one of Hollywood’s strangest marriages before dawn arrived.

Discover how Police Woman transformed Angie Dickinson into a 1970s television icon, reshaped women’s roles in crime dramas, and concealed the devastating family heartbreak behind her enduring Hollywood glamour and image.

Mary Tyler Moore became one of the most important women in television history, but her success was never guaranteed.

Hollywood had a pretty clear idea of what a male star was supposed to look like—and these guys were not it. Then they became some of the biggest stars of the 60s and 70s anyway.

These women once filled theaters, bedroom walls and teenage daydreams. Today, most Millennial men probably couldn’t name a single one. How many do you remember?