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.
The “Wallace Beery beat Ted Healy to death” yarn returns to Wallace Beery’s entry.
This photo of Marya Marco from “City Beneath the Sea” has been listed on EBay. You may recall that Marco came forward and identified herself as one of the women in photos released by Steve Hodel. which he found in his father’s belongings and which he claimed to be Elizabeth Short, therefore establishing a link between the two.
Here’s our mystery chap for Monday.
Update: In selecting a mystery movie, I usually avoid films that have just appeared on TCM, figuring that most Daily Mirror readers watch everything it airs. But this was such a bizarre discovery I had to break my rule.
In 2009, when I was doing the blog at The Times, I went through all of the clips on Raymond Chandler but somehow missed this little gem, so I wasn’t expecting anything other than a routine installment of the Falcon series — until I heard the name “Velma” and recognized Ward Bond as Moose Malloy.
Yes it’s Hans Conried… with a gun!
This ranks as one of the most peculiar movies I have seen and not just because Hans Conried has a gun. It’s so unlikely to see one of Chandler’s stories — which define Los Angeles — transplanted to New York.
Hollywood American Legion Post 43, courtesy of Mary Mallory.
World War I was a bruising, mentally jarring affair for returning American soldiers. Dazed, hardened, in pain, the men looked for an opportunity to gather together with like-minded individuals for camaraderie, comfort and counsel. The American Legion was formed in 1919 to give all veterans a place to congregate together in fellowship as well as memorial.
Hollywood formed its own post in 1919, chartered originally at Toberman Hall at 6416 Hollywood Blvd. Space was small in their rented facilities, so the group built a boxing arena called the American Legion Stadium at North El Centro Avenue and Selma Avenue to bring in a steady income and raise funds for constructing their own headquarters. Timing was perfect; boxing ranked among Americans’ favorite spectator sports and profits soared. Weekly, if not daily fights, occurred at the stadium, with boxing legend Max Baer and others throwing punches. Soon, Hollywood American Legion Post 43 ranked as one of the wealthiest branches in the country.
When I saw Philip DeJong’s photograph of Clare Bowen, I assumed it was a mistake because her left hand is on the trigger and her right hand is supporting the stock. But no. She is apparently left-handed.
For comparison, here is an unidentified African American Civil War soldier holding a similar rifle, obviously right-handed. (Right hand on the trigger, left hand supporting the stock).
Uh-oh!
Now you know why I use screen captures of Wikipedia rather than quoting it. One diligent individual using the handle Geni has edited the Wallace Beery entry to remove the story about him beating Ted Healy to death in the parking lot of the Trocadero – but the picture remains. So far.
The claim was removed by Geni yesterday.
Here is the now-missing version, saved in a screen capture:
My goodness! Geni has been busy! The Healy story is gone from the Thelma Todd entry.
It’s gone from the Albert Broccoli entry.
It’s gone from the Eddie Mannix entry.
It’s gone from the Howard Strickling entry.
It’s gone from the “Good Old Soak” entry.”
It’s even gone from the Trocadero entry, removed by user 2.103.219.187:
This is exactly how Wikipedia is supposed to operate. Which is good. But I am still troubled by the fact that claims can vanish so quickly. Now I’ll be watching for Wikipedia’s infamous “revert wars,” in which the material is restored.
That would be the Ted Healy entry:
In which Geni and DoctorJoeE slug it out in true Wikipedia fashion:
Note to DoctorJoeE: Adding the page numbers (Pages 175-178) is not going to make “The Fixers” any more accurate. The nonsense will just be easier to find.
This will be fun to watch!
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 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.
Look what turned up on EBay!
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 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.
Today, we are going to continue examining the book’s account.
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.
Wikipedia: Murder and Myth: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4
Music was an integral part of silent films, giving emotional texture or humorous voice to the films’ precious images. Different types of music and musicians accompanied them: orchestras, bands, photoplayers, pianists and organists. Leading the pack as one of Los Angeles’ premier silent film musicians was organist C. Sharpe Minor, a major talent with an attention-grabbing name.
Born June 24, 1885, in Louisiana, Charles Sulzer Sharpe Minor supposedly arrived in Los Angeles in 1907, but virtually nothing is known about him until he turns up in San Francisco with his wife Barbara Jane in 1917, accompanying films at the Rialto Theatre under the name C. Sharpe Minor. A few authors claim that he added his mother’s maiden name, Sharpe, realizing the eye-catching opportunities of employing this name on theatre marquees. Newspapers called him an extraordinary organist, and he played afternoon and evening shows adding a bit of entertainment with his trick effects and novelty arrangements.
Music: C. Sharpe Minor: “Parade of the Immortals.”
Minor worked at the Rialto for a year before being appointed a first lieutenant in the Army in September 1918. Immediately upon war completion, the organist returned to the theatre, for a short time accompanying films and giving concerts, before landing his first Los Angeles job at the Million Dollar Theatre in March 1919. Ads proclaim him a master organist, and he even earned his own slot in the stage show. By 1920, however, Minor played at San Francisco’s California Theatre.
An elaborate Wikipedia hoax involves a purported Soviet film director — who never existed. Among his alleged works is “Where the Tractors Roam.”
A world without Wikipedia? Not such a bad idea.
Novelist Amanda Filipacchi, writing in the New York Times, notes that the “citizen scholars” at Wikipedia have been moving women from the category of “American Novelists” to “American Women Novelists.”
She said Wednesday: The intention appears to be to create a list of “American Novelists” on Wikipedia that is made up almost entirely of men.
And since that initial criticism, she writes Sunday, her Wikipedia page has — surprise — been subjected to vandalism.
As soon as the Op-Ed article appeared, unhappy Wikipedia editors pounced on my Wikipedia page and started making alterations to it, erasing as much as they possibly could without (I assume) technically breaking the rules.
They removed the links to outside sources, like interviews of me and reviews of my novels. Not surprisingly, they also removed the link to the Op-Ed article. At the same time, they put up a banner at the top of my page saying the page needed “additional citations for verifications.” Too bad they’d just taken out the useful sources.
In 24 hours, there were 22 changes to my page. Before that, there had been 22 changes in four years. Thursday night, a kind soul went in there and put back the deleted sources. The Wiki editors instantly took them out again.
Check out the history of her Wikipedia page here.
And if you want to burn a lot of time, read the talk on her Wikipedia page.
Here’s a sample: “Wikipedia is not at war with women writers, though it may appear that we’re a bunch of idiots (and that is hard to deny).”
The L.A. Daily Mirror is continuing its own critique of Wikipedia and its eight dueling entries on Wallace Beery’s purported role in the death of Ted Healy.
Our old friend Parkey Sharkey appears in a photo that has been listed on EBay. Bidding starts at $19.99.
And in case anyone thinks that we have forgotten: No, nothing has been announced about the purported tests performed on soil from Dr. George “Evil Genius” Hodel’s purported murder HQ. I think it’s safe to say there are no results or if there are, they do nothing to bolster the contention that Elizabeth Short was killed there.
Apparently it was all just a publicity stunt.
PREVIOUSLY
Hodel Murder HQ Test Results? Day 5
Waiting for Test Results on Dr. George ‘Evil Genius’ Hodel’s Murder HQ, Week 2
George Hodel Murder HQ Soil Tests Overdue – Week 3
Several years ago, in a previous incarnation of the blog, I wrote about the film “Bad Charleston Charlie.” Someone emailed me in hopes of getting a VHS copy. They are rare, but one has finally surfaced on EBay. It’s included in a lot of eight movies and the bids stand at $100. That’s quite a bit for one movie, especially when the film in question is “Bad Charleston Charlie,” but there you go.
ladailymirror.com 