In case you just tuned in, I’m doing a little fact-checking as I go through Scotty Bowers’ “Full Service.” This will be fairly tedious except to a research drudge.

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.

All those posts about the life of Walter Pidgeon in 1946, the location of gas stations on Wilshire Boulevard and it was in front of me all the time.

Scotty Bowers says:

He swung the car onto a paved drive that led to a large house. As he turned the wheel he pointed out the imposing gates on the other side of the street.
“You like movie stars?” he asked.
“Sure, why?” I replied.
He gestured toward the opposite driveway and told me that it was the home of Harold Lloyd, the famous silent movie actor.

Fact-Checking “Full Service”: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15

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In case you just tuned in, I’m doing a little fact-checking as I go through Scotty Bowers’ “Full Service.” This will be fairly tedious except to a research drudge.

Let’s recall that it was 1946 and Scotty Bowers was working at a Union Oil gas station somewhere on Wilshire Boulevard (of course that’s not much help since Wilshire runs from downtown to the ocean). I identified  five Union stations in Part 7: Wilshire and Flower; Wilshire and Highland; Wilshire and Hobart; Wilshire and Virgil; and Wilshire and Wilton.

A couple of minutes later I found myself on the passenger’s side of the comfortable leather bench seat of Walter Pidgeon’s vehicle. With neither of us saying anything he pulled out of the station and headed west on Wilshire Boulevard….. About twenty minutes later we were driving up Benedict Canyon in Beverly Hills…..

He gestured toward the opposite driveway and told me that it was the home of Harold Lloyd, the famous silent movie actor.

Fact-Checking “Full Service”: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14

In case you just tuned in, I’m doing a little fact-checking as I go through Scotty Bowers’ “Full Service.” This will be fairly tedious except to a research drudge.

On Page 2 (I warned you this would be tedious) Scotty Bowers begins the tale of his first Hollywood encounter – purportedly with Walter Pidgeon. I spent the last two posts gathering the raw material for a timeline of Pidgeon’s life in 1946, the year the encounter allegedly occurred.

This time I’m going to expand on the last post to add information from The Times on when the local beaches were crowded. Recall that Bowers says:

It was a lovely, clear sunny day and I wasn’t expecting much traffic. In that kind of weather folks usually headed for the beach; they weren’t going to spend much time riding around in hot, stifling automobiles. I resigned myself to a potential day of boredom.

Next, I’ll try to figure out what it all means and how the historical record compares to the account in “Full Service.”

Fact-Checking “Full Service”: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13

Continue reading →