In case you just tuned in, I am using the Wikipedia entry on Wallace Beery – alleging that he was involved in the death of Ted Healy – as a way to explore Wikipedia’s fundamental problems with accuracy and delve into Hollywood myths.  This is a slow, paragraph by paragraph analysis and, yes, it’s tedious. I hope the research drudges in the audience will find it interesting.

In Part 1, we found that Wikipedia had eight entries linking Beery to Healy’s death. Two of them were nearly identical and the rest contradicted one another – sometimes drastically. So much for Wikipedia being as accurate and reliable as an encyclopedia.

In Part 2, we began looking at the book that was cited in all the entries that listed a source: E.J. Fleming’s “The Fixers,” a book that failed to get a review from a single reputable news outlet. We also found that a main informant, Col. Barney Oldfield, most likely had no firsthand knowledge of the incident

In Part 3, we dissected a paragraph of “The Fixers” and found numerous problems.

In Part 4, we looked at a portion of another paragraph in “The Fixers” and found problems with the chronology in its version of Ted Healy’s death.

In Part 5, we contrasted the 2004 account in “The Fixers” with Albert Broccoli’s version of the incident, published in 1937, citing the Los Angeles Examiner. This is an account ignored by “The Fixers” – but not Jeff and Tom Forresters’ 2002 “The Three Stooges” – in  which  Ted Healy struck Broccoli, who didn’t fight back.

In Part 6, we examined this statement: “even more strange, the article indicated Healy died of ‘natural causes,’ the result of his alcoholism,” finding that there was nothing strange at all. The Times reported exactly the same thing.

In Part 7, we found that in contrast to the claim that “severe head injuries seen by his wife were ignored in the autopsy,” Healy’s wife, Betty, wasn’t immediately told of Healy’s death, never saw his body and did not even attend his funeral because she was in the hospital after giving birth to their son.

In Part 8, we found that in contrast to claims that Wallace Beery and his family left for New York “the next day,” they didn’t depart until about March 1 – after “The Fixers” says they returned.

Let’s take a look at some of the other claims:

A quick check of The Times clips shows that Gloria Blondell’s acting experience dated to at least 1932:

And on May 22, 1935, The Times said:

Let’s look at the claim that “Just a [few?] months later — Broccoli, who had no movie experience — was made an assistant director.” IMDB shows his first work (uncredited) as an assistant movie director wasn’t until 1942 on “The Black Swan,  which wasn’t even for MGM. It was done at 20th Century. His other credits from the 1940s include “The Outlaw” (Howard Hughes) and “The Song of Bernadette” (20th Century.)

There is one other tiny problem with this claim. Albert Broccoli and Gloria Blondell didn’t get married until 1940. Ted Healy died in 1937.

To be continued.