Anthony Cornero Stralla also known as "the Admiral" and "Tony the Hat" (August 18, 1899 - July 31, 1955) was an organized crime figure in Southern California from the 1920s through the 1950s. During his varied criminal career, he bootlegged liquor into Los Angeles, ran gambling ships in international waters, and operated casinos in Las Vegas.
Early life
Born in Lequio Tanaro, a small village in Cuneo Province in the Piedmont region of Northern Italy, Cornero and his family immigrated to the United States after his father lost the farm in a card game and a fire destroyed their harvest. Cornero's father died a few years later and his mother married Luigi Stralla, a former suitor from Italy. After their arrival in San Francisco, Cornero used the aliases Tony Cornero and Tony Stralla as he signed on to merchant ships bound for the Far East.
At age 16, Cornero was arrested for robbery. He pled guilty and was sentenced to ten months in reform school. He would accumulate a lengthy criminal record during the next ten years, including two counts of bootlegging and three counts of attempted murder. By the early 1920s, Cornero was driving a taxi cab for a living.
Prohibition
In 1923, with Prohibition in effect, Cornero became a rumrunner. His clientele included many high-class customers and night clubs.
Using a shrimping business as a cover, Cornero started smuggling Canadian whiskey into Southern California with his small fleet of freighters. One of Cornero's ships, the SS Lily, could transport up to 4,000 cases of bootleg liquor in a single trip. Cornero would unload the liquor beyond the three-mile limit into his speedboats, which would bring it to the Southern California beaches. His fleet easily evaded the understaffed and ill-equipped U.S. Coast Guard. By the time Cornero turned 25, he had become a millionaire.
However, in 1926 the law caught up with Cornero. Returning from Guaymas, Mexico, with an estimated 1,000 cases of rum, Cornero was intercepted and arrested. Sentenced to two years imprisonment, he jokingly told reporters he'd only purchased the illegal cargo "to keep 120 million people from being poisoned to death." While being transported by rail to prison, Cornero escaped from his guards and jumped off the train. Cornero boarded a ship for Vancouver, British Columbia and fled the U.S. Eventually reaching Europe, he spent several years there in hiding. In 1929, Cornero returned to Los Angeles and turned himself in to law enforcement.
In 1931, shortly after his release from prison, Cornero established the Ken Tar Insulation Company in Southern California. However, federal authorities soon discovered it was a cover for a large scale bootlegging operation and raided it. Cornero then moved his operations to a location in Culver City, California. Soon he was producing up to 5,000 gallons of alcohol a day. Federal authorities raided the Culver City site, but found no evidence of bootlegging; Cornero was probably warned about the raid.
Las Vegas
With the repeal of Prohibition, Cornero moved into gaming. He and his brothers Louis and Frank moved to Las Vegas, Nevada, and took an option to purchase a 30-acre (120,000 m2) piece of desert land outside the Las Vegas city limits. Cornero soon opened “The Green Meadows,” also known as The Meadows, one of the earliest major casinos in the Las Vegas area. As the Meadows started making big money, Cornero began investing in other Las Vegas casinos.
However, Cornero's success soon brought unwanted attention. Charles "Lucky" Luciano, boss of the New York Luciano crime family and his associates, casino owner Meyer Lansky and mobster Frank Costello, demanded a percentage of Cornero's gaming profits. Cornero refused to comply and a gang war briefly took place. After the New York mobsters torched the Meadows, Carnero sold his Las Vegas interests and moved back to Los Angeles.
Floating casinos
In 1938, Cornero decided to open a shipboard gaming operation off the Southern California coast. Sailing in international waters, Cornero would be able to run his gambling dens without interference from U.S. authorities.
Cornero purchased two large ships and converted them into luxury casinos at a cost of $300,000. He named the ships the SS Rex and the SS Tango. Cornero's premier cruise ship was the SS Rex, which could accommodate over 2,000 gamblers. It carried a crew of 350, including waiters and waitresses, gourmet chefs, a full orchestra, and a squad of gunmen. Its first class dining room served French cuisine exclusively.
The two ships were anchored outside the 'three mile limit' off Santa Monica and Long Beach. The wealthy of Los Angeles would take water taxis out to the ships to enjoy the gambling, shows, and restaurants.
In October 1939, the Los Angeles Zoo was facing a financial crisis. Always the good citizen, Cornero offered the zoo a day's proceeds from the SS Rex. Considering that his ships were earning $300,000 a cruise, this was no idle gesture. Although zoo officials seriously considered the offer, pressure from state politicians forced them to decline it.
The end of the fleet
The success of Cornero's floating casinos brought outrage from California officials. State Attorney General Earl Warren ordered a series of raids against his gambling ships.
On May 4, 1946, after Warren became governor of California, he issued a public statement declaring his intentions to shut down gambling ships outside California waters; Warren said he intended, "to call the Navy and Coast Guard if necessary." During his address, Warren specifically denounced the newly-built gambling ship owned by "Admiral" Tony Cornero. Warren stated "It's an outrage that lumber should be used for such a gambling ship, when veterans can't get lumber with which to build their homes."
The Battle of Santa Monica Bay
Despite battles with authorities over the legality of their entering international waters, the State of California found a way to circumvent the 'three mile limit.' The state refigured the starting point of the 'three mile limit' off the coastline and determined the ships were indeed in California waters. Without wasting any time, police boarded several U.S. Coast Guard craft and sailed out to Cornero's ships to close them down and arrest Cornero. However, when the police reached the ships, Cornero would not let them board. Reportedly, Cornero turned the ship's fire hoses on the police when they attempted to board and declared they were committing "piracy on the high seas." A standoff ensued for three days before Cornero finally surrendered.
Cornero eventually closed his floating casinos. He later tried to reopen land-based illegal casinos in Los Angeles; however, he was thwarted by mobster Mickey Cohen. Instead, Cornero returned to Las Vegas.
Murder attempt
In Las Vegas, Cornero contacted his friend Orlando Silvagni, owner of the Apache Hotel. Cornero made a deal with Silvagni to lease the hotel casino and rename it the "SS Rex" (after his former floating casino in California). The Las Vegas City Council, aware of Cornero's history with the Green Meadows casino and his floating casinos, voted 'no' on approving his gambling license. However, one councilman then changed his vote, the motion passed, and Cornero got his license. However, in a later vote, the Council revoked Cornero's gambling license, and he then closed the SS Rex.
Cornero and his wife left Las Vegas and moved back to Beverly Hills, California. Cornero made plans to invest in Baja California in Mexico. On February 9, 1948, two Mexican men came to Cornero's home in Beverly Hills. When Cornero answered the door, one man gave Cornero a carton and said "Here, Cornero - this is for you" and shot him four times in the stomach. Gravely wounded, Cornero underwent surgery that night and managed to survive the shooting.
The Stardust Resort and Casino
As soon as Cornero recovered from his wounds, he returned to Vegas to build a new hotel and casino, the Stardust Resort and Casino. He bought a 40-acre (160,000 m2) piece of land on the Las Vegas Strip and filed an application with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to sell stock in the hotel corporation. When the stock was issued, Cornero bought 65,000 shares for 10 cents apiece, giving him majority control of the corporation at 51% of all stock. Cornero then sold the remaining shares. Finally, he applied to the Nevada Gaming Commission for his gaming license and was turned down. The Commission rejected Cornero's application because of an old bootlegging conviction and the trouble that Cornero was having with the SEC. This rejection meant Cornero had invested his money in a half-built casino that he was not allowed to operate.
Not to be stopped, Cornero came up with a new plan. He asked his friend Milton B. "Farmer" Page, another Las Vegas casino owner, to take over the project. Page agreed on the condition that he be able to run it. In 1955, Cornero made the first of several presentations seeking loans from Moe Dalitz, owner of the Desert Inn hotel and casino, and Dalitz' partner, New York mobster Meyer Lansky. Dalitz decided to initially loan Cornero $1.25 million. This loan was followed by a second and third loans, with Cornero using the unfinished Stardust Hotel as loan collateral. Loans with United Hotels were then nearly $4.3 million. Despite these cash infusions, Cornero ran out of money again as the hotel construction was finishing.
Suspicious death
On July 31, 1955, Cornero told an investors' meeting in Las Vegas, "We need another $800,000 to stock the casino with cash and pay the liquor and food suppliers." Later that day, Cornero was playing craps in the Desert Inn Casino.[1] All of a sudden, he just dropped to the floor and died.
Rumors soon arose that someone had poisoned Cornero's drink. The rumors gained creedence when Cornero's body was removed from the casino floor before anyone contacted the coroner or the Clark County Sheriff's Department. Cornero's drinking glass was taken and washed; sheriff's deputies never had the chance to examine it. No autopsy was performed and a coroner's jury in Los Angeles determined that he died of a heart attack.
Aftermath
Cornero's mob role in Las Vegas was taken over by Jake "The Barber" Factor. Cornero was buried at Inglewood Park Cemetery in Inglewood, California. In 1958, the Stardust Resort and Casino finally opened and became the largest hotel in the world. The Stardust would remain a huge success until its demolition by implosion in 2007. Cornero is also credited with the lucrative concept of putting slot machines in the hotel lobby to lure guests as they passed by.
In popular culture
In the 1943 film Mr. Lucky, Cary Grant portrayed '"Joe 'The Greek' Adams," a character loosely based on Cornero.
In 1959, the film was adapted into a U.S. television series of the same name, starring John Vivyan, Ross Martin, and Pippa Scott. "Mr. Lucky" aired during the 1959-1960 season on the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) network.
Further reading
Henstell, Bruce. Sunshine and Wealth: Los Angeles in the Twenties and Thirties. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1984. ISBN 0-87701-275-X
Wolf, Marvin J. and Katherine Mader. Fallen Angels: Chronicles of L.A. Crime and Mystery. New York: Ballantine Books, 1988. ISBN 0-345-34770-6
References
Capeci, Jerry. The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Mafia. Indianapolis: Alpha Books, 2002. ISBN 0-02-864225-2
Reppetto, Thomas A. American Mafia: A History of Its Rise to Power. New York: Henry Holt & Co., 2004. ISBN 0-8050-7798-7
1.^ Moe, Albert Woods.: Nevada's Golden Age of Gambling, Puget Sound Books, 2001, ISBN 0-9715019-0-4
Harrison Gray Otis (February 10, 1837 – July 30, 1917) was the second publisher of the Los Angeles Times.
Biography
Born near Marietta, Ohio, Otis was part of the Republican National Convention that nominated Abraham Lincoln for president. After the American Civil War, he worked as a publisher before moving to Los Angeles, California in 1876, where he would eventually become affiliated with the Los Angeles Times. He wrote editorials and local news there before buying a half interest in the paper. He then named himself president and editor-in-chief.
He was married to Eliza A. Otis, "patriot, poet, philanthropist." [1] Mrs. Otis was a member of the staff at the Times working at such departments as "Woman and Home" and "Our Boys and Girls."[2] A daughter, Marian Otis, married Harry Chandler, the son-in-law who succeeded Otis as Times publisher. Otis was known for his conservative political views, which were reflected in the paper. His home was one of three buildings that were targeted in the 1910 Los Angeles Times bombing.
His support for his adopted city was instrumental in the growth of the city. He was a member of the San Fernando Syndicate, a group of investors who bought land in the San Fernando Valley based on inside knowledge that the Los Angeles aqueduct would soon irrigate it.
Military service
Otis volunteered for the Union army during the Civil War—entering as a private—and fought in William McKinley's regiment, the 23rd Ohio Infantry. He was wounded twice in battle, was "twice breveted for gallant and meritorious conduct," and promoted seven times[3]—ultimately receiving the rank of Brigadier General. When the Spanish-American War broke out in 1898, Otis asked his former commander, then President McKinley, for an appointment as Assistant Secretary of War. But Secretary of War Russell A. Alger did not want the conservative Otis serving under him. Otis thereupon again volunteered for the Army and was appointed brigadier general of volunteers. He served in the Philippines. He did not see any action against the Spanish, but commanded the 1st Brigade, 2nd Division, VIII Corps during the Philippine-American War. He died on July 30, 1917.
References
1.^ Photo of Mrs. Otis' burial inscription at Find-A-Grave
2.^ "Eliza A Otis." Magazine of Poetry: A Quarterly Review Oct. 1892: 375. Print. Vol. IV No. 4.
3.^ "Eliza A Otis." Magazine of Poetry: A Quarterly Review. Oct. 1892: 375. Print. Vol. IV No. 4.
Harrison Gray Otis and his wife Eliza are buried together at Hollywood Forever Cemetery.
Meyer Harris "Mickey" Cohen (September 4, 1913, in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, United States – July 29, 1976 in Los Angeles, California, U.S.) was a gangster based in L.A. and part of the Jewish Mafia from the 1930s through 1960s.
Early life
Mickey Cohen was born on September 4, 1913, of a Jewish family. His mother Fanny had immigrated to the U.S. from Kiev, Ukraine. At age six, Cohen was selling newspapers on the street; his brothers Sam or Isiack would drop him off at his regular corner. Soon Cohen and his brothers became involved in crime (Cohen's brother Paul, an Orthodox Jew, was an exception). In 1923, at age nine, Cohen was delivering alcohol to customers from a gin mill operated by his older brother in the drug store. Cohen was arrested that same year for this activity, but avoided prosecution due to his brother's connections.
As a teenager, Cohen began boxing in illegal prizefights in Los Angeles. He eventually moved to the East Coast to train as a professional boxer, doing fights in the Midwest along the way. His first professional boxing match was on April 8, 1930 against Patsy Farr in Cleveland, Ohio. This was one of the preliminary fights to the Paul Pirrone/Jimmy Goodrich feature event. On April 11, 1933 he fought against Chalky Wright in Los Angeles, California. Wright won the match and Meyer was incorrectly identified as "Mickey Cohen from Denver, Colorado" in the Los Angeles Times sports page report. His last fight was on on May 14, 1933 against Baby Arizmendi in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico. On June 12, 1931 Cohen fought and lost a match against World Featherweight Champion Tommy Paul, having been knocked out cold after 2:20 into the first round. It was during this round he earned the moniker "Gangster Mickey Cohen." Cohen lived first in Cleveland, where he met Lou Rothkopf, an associate of Moe Dalitz. Cohen moved later to New York, where he became associates with Tommy Dioguardi, the brother of labor racketeer Johnny Dio, and with Owney Madden. Finally, Cohen went to Chicago, where he ran a gambling operation for the Chicago Outfit, Al Capone's powerful criminal organization.
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Prohibition and the Chicago Outfit
During Prohibition, Cohen moved to Chicago and became involved in organized crime working as an enforcer for the Chicago Outfit, where he briefly met Al Capone. During this period Cohen was arrested for his role in the deaths of several gangsters in a card game that went wrong.
After a brief time in prison, Cohen was released and began running card games and other illegal gambling operations. He later became an associate of Mattie Capone, Al's younger brother. While working for Jake Guzik, Cohen was forced to flee Chicago after an argument with a rival gambler.
In Cleveland, Cohen again worked for Lou (Louis) Rothkopf, an associate of Meyer Lansky and Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel. However, there was little work available for Cohen in Cleveland, so Rothkopf arranged for him to work with Siegel in California.
From syndicate bodyguard to Sunset kingpin
Mickey Cohen was sent to Los Angeles by Meyer Lansky and Lou Rothkopf to watch Bugsy Siegel. During their association, Mickey helped set up the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas and ran its sports book operation. He also was instrumental in setting up the race wire, which was essential to Las Vegas betting, a Nevada attraction perhaps only second to the Hoover Dam. In 1947, the crime families ordered the murder of Siegel due to his mismanagement of the Flamingo Hotel, most likely because Siegel or his girlfriend Virginia Hill was skimming money. According to one account which does not appear in newspapers, Cohen reacted violently to Siegel's murder. Entering the Hotel Roosevelt, where he believed the killers were staying, Cohen fired rounds from his two .45 caliber semi-automatic handguns into the lobby ceiling and demanded that the assassins meet him outside in ten minutes. However, no one appeared and Cohen was forced to flee when the cops arrived.
Cohen's violent methods came to the attention of state and federal authorities investigating the Dragna operations. During this time, Cohen faced many attempts on his life, including the bombing of his home on posh Moreno Avenue in Brentwood (above now; below then). Cohen soon converted his house into a fortress, installing floodlights, alarm systems, and a well-equipped arsenal kept, as he often joked, next to his 200 tailor-made suits.
Cohen also briefly hired bodyguard Johnny Stompanato before his killing by actress Lana Turner's daughter. Cohen bought a cheap coffin for Stompanato's funeral and then sold Lana Turner's love letters to Stompanato to the press.
Mickey and Johnny
Stompanato ran a sexual extortion ring as well as a jewelry store. He was one of the most popular playboys in Hollywood. Singer Frank Sinatra once visited Cohen at his home and begged him to tell Stompanato to stop dating Sinatra's friend and ex-wife, actress Ava Gardner.
Later years
In 1950, Mickey Cohen was investigated along with numerous other underworld figures by a US Senate committee known as the Kefauver Commission. As a result of this investigation, Cohen was convicted of tax evasion and sentenced to prison for four years.
When he was released, he started again, and became an international celebrity. He sold more newspapers than anyone else in the country, according to author Brad Lewis. His appearance on television with Mike Wallace in the late 1950s rocked the media establishment. He ran floral shops, paint stores, nightclubs, casinos, gas stations, a men's haberdashery, and even an ice cream parlor on San Vicente Blvd. in Brentwood, according to author Richard Lamparski.
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In 1961, Cohen was again convicted of tax evasion and sent to Alcatraz. His heavily armoured Cadillac from this period was confiscated by Los Angeles Police and is now on display at the Southward Car Museum in New Zealand.[1] During his time on "the Rock," another inmate attempted to kill Cohen with a lead pipe. In 1972, Cohen was released from the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary, where he had spoken out against prison abuse. He had been misdiagnosed with an ulcer, which turned out to be stomach cancer. After undergoing surgery, he continued touring the U.S., including television appearances, once with Ramsey Clark.
As an elder statesman, Cohen even appeared on The Merv Griffin Show. Cohen knew everyone in Hollywood, from the entire Rat Pack to Marilyn Monroe. In politics, he befriended Richard Nixon. His pal Billy Graham once asked him to appear at an evangelistic rally in Madison Square Garden.
At the time of the abduction of Patty Hearst, Cohen claimed to know facts about Hearst's abductors and other circumstances of the case. However, journalists at the time dismissed this as way for the "gentleman mobster" to put himself back in the limelight. Mickey called Patty's father "Randy" (Randolph Apperson Hearst), and met with him and his wife at Gatsby's, a restaurant he controlled. Mickey had known William Randolph Hearst, with whom he maintained a long respectful friendship.
Cohen's girlfriend Liz Renay herself spent three years behind bars for refusing to squeal on him. One of his many other girlfriends, Candy Barr, served prison time for marijuana possession. Two of his other favorites were Tempest Storm and Beverly Hills, the former having her breasts insured with Lloyd's of London.
Mickey Cohen died in his sleep in 1976 and is interred in the Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver City, California.
Cohen has cousins who reside today in New Jersey, New York, Florida, Washington and Vermont.
In popular culture
Cohen appears as a character in some of James Ellroy's L.A. Quartet novels, especially the last three. He features prominently in The Big Nowhere, L.A. Confidential, and White Jazz.
In the 1990 film The Two Jakes, Cohen is fictionalized as Mickey Weisskopf, played by Rubén Blades.
In the 1991 film Bugsy, the highly-fictionalized story of Bugsy Siegel, Harvey Keitel plays Cohen.
In the 1997 film adaptation of Ellroy's L.A. Confidential, Cohen is played by Paul Guilfoyle.
In the 2005 novel The Lincoln Lawyer, by Michael Connelly, the lead character is a second-generation defense attorney whose father was Cohen's lawyer.
References
1.^ "Cadillac Gangster 1950". Southward Car Museum. http://www.thecarmuseum.co.nz/index.php?option=com_gallery2&Itemid=84&g2_itemId=524. Retrieved 2009-09-04.
Kelly, Robert J. Encyclopedia of Organized Crime in the United States. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2000. ISBN 0-313-30653-2
Phillips, Charles and Alan Axelrod. Cops, Crooks, and Criminologists: An International Biographical Dictionary of Law Enforcement, Updated Edition. New York: Checkmark Books, 2000. ISBN 0-8160-3016-2
Sifakis, Carl. The Mafia Encyclopedia. New York: Da Capo Press, 2005. ISBN 0-8180-5694-3
Sifakis, Carl. The Encyclopedia of American Crime. New York: Facts on File Inc., 2005. ISBN 0-8160-4040-0
Further reading
Ed Clark, "Trouble in Los Angeles", Life Magazine, 1950
Mickey Cohen and John Peer Nugent, In My Own Words (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1975)
Steve Stevens and Craig Lockwood, King of the Sunset Strip: Hangin' With Mickey Cohen and the Hollywood Mob (Cumberland House Publishing, 2006)
F. Murray, "The Charmed Life of M. Cohen", Front Page Detective, 1966, 30(3):44-45, 63.
George A. Day, JUANITA DALE SLUSHER alias CANDY BARR (ERBE Publishing Company, 2008 ISBN 978-0-9818220-0-6)
Kelly, Robert J. Encyclopedia of Organized Crime in the United States. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2000. ISBN 0-313-30653-2
Phillips, Charles and Alan Axelrod. Cops, Crooks, and Criminologists: An International Biographical Dictionary of Law Enforcement, Updated Edition. New York: Checkmark Books, 2000. ISBN 0-8160-3016-2
Sifakis, Carl. The Mafia Encyclopedia. New York: Da Capo Press, 2005. ISBN 0-8180-5694-3
Marie Dressler (November 9, 1868 – July 28, 1934) was a Canadian-American stage and screen actress and Depression-era film star.[2][3] She won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1930-31 for Min and Bill.
Dressler was born Leila Marie Koerber in Cobourg, Ontario, to parents Alexander Rudolph Koerber, who was Austrian and a former officer in the Crimean War, and Anna Henderson, a musician.[4] Her father was a music teacher in Cobourg and the organist at St. Peter's Church, where as a child, Marie would sing and assist in operating the organ.[5] Her first acting appearance was as Cupid at age five in a church theatrical performance in Lindsay, Ontario.[4] Dressler left home at fourteen and began her acting career as a chorus girl with the Nevada Stock Company when she was fourteen.[6] Her first job paid her $8 a week.[4] It was at this time that Dressler adopted the name of an aunt as her stage name.[4] Dressler's sister Bonita, five years older, left home at about the same time. Bonita also worked in the opera company.[7]
In 1892 she made her debut on Broadway. At first she hoped to make a career of singing light opera, but then gravitated to vaudeville. In vaudeville she was known for her full-figured body—fashionable at the time—and had buxom contemporaries such as her friends Lillian Russell, Fay Templeton, May Irwin and Trixie Friganza. She used the services of 'body sculptor to the stars' Sylvia of Hollywood to keep herself at a steady weight.[8] Dressler appeared in a play called Robber of the Rhine which was written by Maurice Barrymore. Barrymore gave Dressler some positive advice about furthering her career and she later acknowledged his help. Years later she would appear with his sons, Lionel and John, in motion pictures.
During the early 1900s, Dressler became a major vaudeville star, although she had appeared on stage in New York City earlier, for example, in 1492 Up To Date (1895). In 1902, she met fellow Canadian Mack Sennett and helped him get a job in the theater. For a time, Dressler had her own theatre troupe, which performed "Miss Prinnt" in cities of the American north-east.[9] Dressler performed in London, England from 1907 to 1909 before returning to New York. In addition to her stage work, Dressler recorded for Edison Records in 1909 and 1910.
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Dressler continued to work in the theater during the 1910s, and toured the United States during World War I, selling Liberty Bonds[4] and entertaining the American Expeditionary Forces. American GIs in France named both a street and a cow after Dressler. The cow was killed, leading to "Marie Dressler: Killed in Line of Duty" headlines, to which Dressler quipped "I had a hard time convincing people that the report of my death had been greatly exaggerated."[10]
Dressler had appeared in two shorts as herself, but her first role in a film came in 1914, at the age of 44. After Mack Sennett became the owner of his namesake motion picture studio, he convinced Dressler to star in his 1914 silent film Tillie's Punctured Romance. The film was to be the first full-length, six-reel motion picture comedy. According to Sennett, a prospective budget of $200,000 meant that he needed "a star whose name and face meant something to every possible theatre-goer in the United States and the British Empire."[11] The movie was based on Dressler's hit Tillie's Nightmare, a choice credited either to Dressler or to a Keystone studio employee.[12] Dressler herself claims to have cast Charles Chaplin in the movie as her leading man, and was "proud to have had a part in giving him his first big chance."[11] Instead of his recently invented Tramp character, Chaplin played a villainous rogue. Silent film comedienne Mabel Normand also starred in the movie. Tillie's Punctured Romance was a hit with audiences and Dressler appeared in two more Tillie sequels and other comedies until 1918, when she returned to vaudeville.
In 1919, during the Actors' Equity strike in New York City, the Chorus Equity Association was formed and voted Dressler its first president. Dressler was blacklisted by the theater production companies due to her strong stance. Dressler found it difficult to find work during the 1920s. She left New York for Hollywood in search of work in films.[4]
In 1927, Frances Marion, an MGM screenwriter, came to Dressler's rescue. Dressler had shown great kindness to Marion during the filming of Tillie Wakes Up in 1917, and in return, Marion used her influence with MGM's production chief Irving Thalberg to return Dressler to the screen.[10] Her first MGM feature was The Callahans and the Murphys (1927), a rowdy silent comedy co-starring Dressler (as Ma Callahan) with another former Mack Sennett comedienne, Polly Moran, written by Marion.[10]
The film was initially a success, but the portrayal of Irish characters caused a protest in the Irish World newspaper, protests by the American Irish Vigilance Committee, and pickets outside the film's New York theatre. The film was first cut by MGM in an attempt to appease the Irish community, then eventually pulled from release after Cardinal Dougherty of the diocese of Philadelphia called MGM president Nicholas Schenck.[13] It was not shown again, and the negative and prints may have been destroyed.[13] While the film brought her to Hollywood, did not establish Dressler's career. Her next appearance was a minor part in the First National film Breakfast at Sunrise. She appeared again with Moran in Bringing Up Father, another film written by Marion.[14] She appeared in an early color film, The Joy Girl. Dressler returned to MGM in 1928's The Patsy in a winning portrayal playing the fluttery mother to star Marion Davies and Jane Winton.[15]
Hollywood was converting from silent films, but "talkies" presented no problems for Dressler, whose rumbling voice could handle both sympathetic scenes and snappy comebacks (she's the wisecracking stage actress in Chasing Rainbows and the dubious matron in Rudy Vallee's Vagabond Lover). Early in 1930, Dressler joined Edward Everett Horton's theater troupe in L.A. to play a princess in Ferenc Molnár's The Swan. But after one week, she quit the troupe. She proceeded to leave Horton flat, much to his indignation.[16]
Frances Marion persuaded Thalberg to give Dressler the role of Marthy, the old harridan who welcomes Greta Garbo home after the search for her father, in the 1930 film Anna Christie. Garbo and the critics were impressed by Dressler's acting ability, and so was MGM, which quickly signed Dressler to a $500-per-week contract.
A robust, full-bodied woman of very plain features, Dressler went on to act in comic films which were very popular with the movie-going public and an equally lucrative investment for MGM. Although past sixty years of age, she quickly became Hollywood’s number one box-office attraction, and stayed on top until her death at age 65. In addition to her comedic genius and her natural elegance, Dressler demonstrated her considerable talents by taking on serious roles. For her starring portrayal in Min and Bill, co-starring Wallace Beery, she won the 1930-31 Academy Award for Best Actress (the eligibility years were staggered at that time). Dressler was nominated again for Best Actress for her 1932 starring role in Emma. With that film, Dressler demonstrated her profound generosity to other performers. Dressler personally insisted that her studio bosses cast a friend of hers, a largely unknown young actor named Richard Cromwell, in the lead opposite her. This break helped launch his career.
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Dressler followed these successes with more hits in 1933, including the comedy Dinner at Eight, in which she played an aging but vivacious former stage actress. Dressler had a memorable bit with Jean Harlow in the film:[17]
Harlow: Do you know, machinery is going to take the place of every profession?
Dressler: My dear, that is something you need never worry about.
Following the release of that film, Dressler appeared on the cover of Time magazine, in its August 7, 1933, issue. MGM held a huge birthday party for Dressler in 1933, broadcast live via radio. Her newly regenerated career came to an abrupt end when she was diagnosed with terminal cancer in 1934. MGM head Louis B. Mayer learned of Dressler's illness from her doctor and asked that she not be told. To keep her home, he ordered her not to travel on her vacation because he wanted to put her in a new film. Dressler was furious but complied.
Dressler appeared in more than forty films, and achieved her greatest successes in talking pictures made during the last years of her life. Always seeing herself as physically unattractive, she wrote an autobiography titled, The Life Story of an Ugly Duckling.
Personal life
Dressler's first marriage was to American George Hoeppert. According to Dressler's testimony, she married Hoeppert in Elizabeth, New Jersey in 1899, although biographer Matthew Kennedy puts the marriage date as May 6, 1894, and a divorce early in 1896.[18] Her marriage to Hoeppert gave Dressler American citizenship, which was useful later in life, when American immigration rules meant permits were needed to work in the United States, and Dressler had to appear before an immigration hearing.[1]
In 1907, Dressler met Maine business man James Henry Dalton, who would become her companion until his death in 1921. According to Dalton, the two were married in Europe in 1908.[19] However, Dressler later learned that the "minister" who married them in Monte Carlo was actually a local man paid by Dalton to stage a fake wedding.[20] Dalton's first wife Lizzie claimed that he had not consented to a divorce or been served divorce papers, while Dalton claimed to have divorced her in 1905.[21] By 1921, Dalton had became an invalid due to degenerated kidneys and would watch her from the wings in a wheel-chair.[22] After his death, Dressler was planning for Dalton to be buried as her husband, but Lizzie Dalton had Dalton's body returned to be buried in the Dalton family plot.[22]
Death
On Saturday July 28, 1934, Dressler died of cancer at the age of 65 in Santa Barbara, California. After a private funeral held at The Wee Kirk o’ the Heather chapel, Dressler was interred in a crypt in the Great Mausoleum in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale in Glendale, California.[23]
Dressler left an estate worth $310,000, the bulk left to her sister Bonita.[24] Dressler left her 1931 automobile and $35,000 in her will to her maid of twenty years, Mamie Cox, and $15,000 to Cox's husband Jerry, who had served as Dressler's butler for four years.[25] The two used the funds to open the Cocoanut Grove night club in Savannah, Georgia in 1936, named after the night club in Los Angeles.[25]
Legacy
Dressler's birth home in Cobourg, Ontario is known as "Marie Dressler House" and is open to the public. The home was converted to a restaurant in 1937 and operated as a restaurant until 1989, when it was damaged by fire. It was restored but did not open again as a restaurant. It was the office of the Cobourg Chamber of Commerce until its conversion to its current use as a museum about Dressler and as a visitor information office for Cobourg.[26] Each year, the Marie Dressler Foundation Vintage Film Festival is held, with screenings in Cobourg and in Port Hope, Ontario.[27]
For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Marie Dressler has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1731 Vine Street, added in 1960.[28]
Canada Post, as part of its "Canada in Hollywood" series, issued a postage stamp on June 30, 2008 to honour Marie Dressler.[29]
Quotes
"If ants are such busy workers, how come they find time to go to all the picnics?"[30]
"You're only as good as your last picture"[30]
References
Kennedy, Matthew (2006). Marie Dressler: A Biography, With a Listing of Major Stage Performances, a Filmography And a Discography. McFarland. ISBN 0-7864-0520-1.
Lee, Betty (1997). Marie Dressler: The Unlikeliest Star. University of Kentucky Press. ISBN 0-8131-2036-5.
Silverman, Steven M. (1999). Funny Ladies. Harry N. Abrams, Inc. ISBN 0-8109-3337-3.
Notes
1.^ "Actress Saw Two Marriages Fail in 14 years". Calgary Daily Herald. August 11, 1934. p. 5.
2. ^ Obituary Variety, July 31, 1934, page 54.
3. ^ Marie Dressler: North American Theatre Online
4. ^ "Famous Star Is Dead at 62". Montreal Gazette. July 30, 1934. pp. 1, 9.
5. ^ "Cobourg Mourning Marie Dressler". Montreal Gazette. July 31, 1934. p. 5.
6. ^ Lee 1997, pp. 11–12.
7. ^ Lee 1997, p. 13.
8. ^ Coons, R. Marathons Common To Movies, The Olean Herald, September 2, 1931.
9. ^ ""MISS PRINNT" AT ALBANY.; Marie Dressler Scores a Success in G. V. Hobart's New Play.". New York Times. November 5, 1900. p. 5.
10. ^ Silverman 1999, p. 23.
11. ^ Lee 1997, p. 103.
12. ^ Lee 1997, p. 105.
13. ^ Lee 1997, p. 165.
14. ^ Lee 1997, p. 166.
15. ^ Lee 1997, p. 167.
16. ^ Lee 1997, p. 173.
17. ^ Silverman 1999, p. 24.
18. ^ Kennedy 2006, pp. 27-29.
19. ^ Lee 1997, p. 64.
20. ^ Lee 1997, p. 65.
21. ^ Lee 1997, p. 102.
22. ^ Lee 1997, p. 148.
23. ^ "Marie Dressler Loses Long Battle For Life". The Portsmouth Times. July 29, 1994. p. 1.
24. ^ Associated Press (August 15, 1934). "Marie Dressler's Will Is Probated". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. p. 3.
25. ^ Associated Press (April 10, 1936). "Marie Dressler's Old Servants Open Night Club for Negros With Money Actress Left Them". The Evening Independent. p. 5A.
26. ^ "Marie Dressler House". Vintage Film Festival.
27. ^ "About the Marie Dressler Foundation". Marie Dressler Foundation.
28. ^ "Marie Dressler: Hollywood Walk of Fame". Hollywood Walk of Fame.
29. ^ "Westmount schoolgirl went on to win an Oscar". canada.com. April 7, 2008.
30. ^ "Biography for Marie Dressler". IMDB.
Further reading
Sturtevant, Victoria (2009). A Great Big Girl Like Me: The Films of Marie Dressler. Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0-252-07622-0.
William Wyler (July 1, 1902 – July 27, 1981) was a leading American motion picture director, producer, and screenwriter. He was regarded as second only to John Ford as a "master craftsman of cinema."
Notable works included Ben-Hur (1959), The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), and Mrs. Miniver (1942), all of which won Wyler Academy Awards for Best Director, and also won Best Picture. He earned his first Oscar nomination for directing Dodsworth in 1936, starring Walter Huston and Mary Astor, "sparking a 20-year run of almost unbroken greatness."[1]
Film historian Ian Freer calls Wyler a "bona fide perfectionist," whose penchant for retakes and an attempt to hone every last nuance, "became the stuff of legend."[1] His ability to direct a string of classic literary adaptations into huge box-office and critical successes made him one of "Hollywood's most bankable moviemakers" during the 1930s and 1940s.
Other popular films include Funny Girl (1968), How to Steal a Million (1966), The Big Country (1958), Roman Holiday (1953), The Heiress (1949), The Letter (1940), The Westerner (1940), Wuthering Heights (1939), Jezebel (1938), Dodsworth (1936), A House Divided (1931), and Hell's Heroes (1930).
Early life
Wyler was born Wilhelm Weiller to a Jewish family, a Swiss father and a German mother,[2] in Mulhouse in the French region of Alsace (then part of the German Empire).[3] His mother was a cousin of Carl Laemmle, founder of Universal Pictures. His father, Leopold, started as a traveling salesman which he later turned into a thriving haberdashery business.
During his childhood Wyler attended a number of schools and developed a reputation as "something of a hellraiser," being expelled more than once for misbehavior.[2] His mother often took him and his older brother Robert, to concerts, opera, and the theatre, as well as the early cinema. Sometimes at home his family and their friends would stage amateur theatricals for personal enjoyment.[2]
After realizing that William was not interested in the family business, and having suffered through a terrible year financially after World War I, his mother, Melanie, contacted her distant cousin about opportunities for him. Laemmle was in the habit of coming to Europe each year and finding promising young men who would work in America.
In 1921, Wyler found himself and a young Czech man, Paul Kohner (later the independent agent) on the same ship to New York. Their enjoyment of the first class trip was short lived as they found they had to pay back the cost of the passage out of their $25 weekly income as messengers to Universal Pictures in New York. After working in New York for several years Wyler decided he wanted to go to Hollywood and be a director.
Film career
Around 1923, he arrived in Los Angeles and began work on the Universal lot on the swing gang, cleaning the stages and moving the sets. His break came when he was hired as a 2nd assistant editor. His work ethic was uneven at best with Irving Thalberg nicknaming him "Worthless Willy". After some ups and downs (including getting fired) Wyler became focused on becoming a director. He started as a third assistant director and by 1925 he became the youngest director on the Universal lot directing the Westerns that Universal were famed at turning out. In 1928, he became a naturalized citizen of the United States.
He soon proved himself an able craftsman and in the early 1930s became one of Universal's greatest assets, directing such solid films as The Love Trap, Hell's Heroes, Tom Brown of Culver, and The Good Fairy. He became well-known for his merciless (some would say sadistic) insistence on multiple retakes, resulting in often award-winning and critically acclaimed performances from his actors. After leaving Universal he began a long collaboration with Samuel Goldwyn for whom he directed such classics as Dodsworth (1936), These Three (1936), Dead End (1937), Wuthering Heights (1939), The Westerner (1940), The Little Foxes (1941) and The Best Years of Our Lives (1946).
Laurence Olivier, whom Wyler directed to his first-ever Oscar nomination, for Wuthering Heights, credited Wyler with teaching him how to act for the screen, despite clashing with Wyler on multiple occasions during the making of the film. Olivier would go on to hold the record for the most nominations in the Best Actor category. Bette Davis received three Oscar nominations for her screen work under Wyler, and won her second Oscar for her performance in Wyler's 1938 film Jezebel. Charlton Heston won his only nomination and Best Actor Oscar for his work in Wyler's 1959 Ben-Hur. Barbra Streisand co-won 1968's Best Actress Oscar for her screen debut as entertainer Fanny Brice in Funny Girl. Audrey Hepburn won an Oscar in her debut performance in Roman Holiday.
In 1941 Wyler directed one of the key films that galvanized support for Britain and against the Nazis in an America slow to awaken to the threat in Europe, it was Mrs. Miniver (1942), a story of a middle class English family adjusting to the war in Europe. Mrs. Miniver won Wyler his first Academy Award for Best Director, as well as another five Oscars.
Wyler was such a perfectionist that he earned the nickname 90-take Wyler. On the set of Jezebel Wyler forced Henry Fonda through 40 takes of one particular scene, his only guidance being - ”Again!” - after each take. When Fonda asked for more direction, Wyler responded, ”It stinks”. Similarly, when Charlton Heston quizzed the director about the supposed shortcomings in his performance in Ben-Hur, Wyler dismissed his concerns with a simple, ”Be better”.[4]
World War II
Between 1942 and 1945, Wyler served as a major in the United States Army Air Forces and directed two documentaries The Memphis Belle: A Story of a Flying Fortress (1944) and Thunderbolt! (1947), with Lester Koenig and John Sturges, the story of a P-47 fighter-bomber squadron in the Mediterranean. Wyler filmed The Memphis Belle at great personal risk flying over enemy territory on actual bombing missions in 1943; on one flight, Wyler passed out from lack of oxygen. Wyler's associate, cinematographer Harold J. Tannenbaum was shot down and perished during the filming.[5]
Wyler also directed a film which captured the mood of the nation as it turned to peace after the war. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), the story of three veterans arriving home and adjusting to civilian life, dramatized the problems of returning veterans for those who had remained on the homefront. Wyler's most personal film, taken from his experiences away from his family for three years and on the front, The Best Years of Our Lives won the Academy Award for Best Director (his second) and Academy Award for Best Picture.
Postwar career
During the immediate postwar period, Wyler directed a handful of critically acclaimed and influential films, The Heiress which earned Olivia de Havilland her second Oscar, Roman Holiday (1953), which introduced Audrey Hepburn to American audiences and resulted in her first Oscar nomination and win, Friendly Persuasion (1956) which was awarded the Palme d'Or (Golden Palm) at the Cannes Film Festival, and Ben-Hur (1959) which won 11 Oscars (equalled only twice, by Titanic in 1997 and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King in 2003). Ben-Hur won Wyler his third Academy Award for Best Director.
Wyler's films garnered more awards for participating artists and actors than any other director in the history of Hollywood. He received twelve Oscar nominations for Best Director in total, while dozens of his collaborators and actors won Oscars or were nominated. In 1965, Wyler won the Irving Thalberg Award for career achievement. Eleven years later, he received the American Film Institute Life Achievement Award. In addition to his Best Picture and Best Director Oscar wins, thirteen of Wyler's films earned Best Picture nominations.
Wyler's style is (among auteurist critics) notoriously difficult to perceive. He did not build a stable of players like most directors, although frequent collaborators included composer Alfred Newman, and editors Daniel Madell and Robert Swink. He directed varied types of films without any trademark shots or themes, but in his choice of lighting, blocking and camera distance, and in the serious liberal tone of his work, a continuity of worldview is detectable.
Other Wyler pictures that appeared at this time include The Children's Hour, The Collector, Funny Girl (which earned Barbra Streisand the Best Actress Oscar), and his final film The Liberation of L.B. Jones. He planned other films, but bad health forced him to drop out of the movies and he spent more time with his family.
On July 24, 1981, Wyler gave an interview with his daughter, producer Catherine Wyler for Directed by William Wyler, a PBS documentary about his life and career. A mere three days later, Wyler died from a heart attack. Wyler's last words on film concern a vision of directing his "next picture...Going Home." Wyler is interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.
Wyler was briefly married to Margaret Sullavan (November 25, 1934 - March 13, 1936) and married Margaret Tallichet on October 23, 1938. The couple remained together until his death; they had five children, Catherine, Judith, William Jr., Melanie and David.
Awards
Wyler is the most nominated director in Academy Awards history with 12 nominations. In addition to that, Wyler has the distinction of having won the Academy Award for Best Direction on three occasions, for his direction of Ben Hur, The Best Years of Our Lives, and Mrs. Miniver. He is tied with Frank Capra and behind John Ford, who won four Oscars in this category.
William Wyler received the 4th AFI LIfe Achievement Award in 1976.
Academy Awards
1936 Dodsworth Best Director Nominated
1939 Wuthering Heights Best Director Nominated
1940 The Letter Best Director Nominated
1941 The Little Foxes Best Director Nominated
1942 Mrs. Miniver Best Director Won
1946 The Best Years of Our Lives Best Director Won
1949 The Heiress Best Motion Picture Nominated
Best Director Nominated
1952 Detective Story Best Director Nominated
1953 Roman Holiday Best Motion Picture Nominated
Best Director Nominated
1957 Friendly Persuasion Best Motion Picture Nominated
Best Director Nominated
1959 Ben-Hur Best Director Won
1965 The Collector Best Director Nominated
Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award Won
Directors Guild of America
1952 Detective Story Outstanding Directorial Achievement Nominated
1954 Roman Holiday Outstanding Directorial Achievement Nominated
1957 Friendly Persuasion Outstanding Directorial Achievement Nominated
1959 The Big Country Outstanding Directorial Achievement Nominated
1960 Ben-Hur Outstanding Directorial Achievement Won
1962 The Children's Hour Outstanding Directorial Achievement Nominated
1966 Lifetime Achievement Award
1969 Funny Girl Outstanding Directorial Achievement Nominated
Notes
1.^ Freer, Ian. Movie Makers: 50 Iconic Directors, Quercus Publ., London (2009)
2.^ Wakeman, John. World Film Directors: Vol. I, 1890-1945, H.W. Wilson Co., (1987)
3.^ Madsen 1973, p. 3.
4.^ http://www.palzoo.net/William-Wyler
5.^ Kozloff, Sarah. "Wyler's wars." Film History 20.4 (2008): 456 pp.
Bibliography
Anderegg, Michael A. William Wyler. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1979. ISBN 0-8057-9268-6.
Herman, Jan. A Talent for Trouble: The Life of Hollywood's Most Acclaimed Director. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1995. ISBN 0-399-14012-3.
Madsen, Axel. William Wyler: the Authorized Biography. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1973. ISBN 0-491-01302-7.
Marcus, Daniel. “William Wyler’s World War II Films and the Bombing of Civilian Populations,” Historical Journal of Film, Radio, and Television 29 (March 2009), 79–90.
Judith Eva Barsi (June 6, 1978 – July 25, 1988) was an American child actress. She began her career in television, making appearances in commercials and guest starring in television shows, and later appeared in films such as Jaws: The Revenge and provided voices for the films The Land Before Time and All Dogs Go To Heaven.
In 1988, after years of physical and mental abuse, her father, József, shot and killed Judith and her mother Maria in a double murder–suicide.
Career
Judith's mother, Maria Barsi, began grooming her daughter to become an actress,[1] and Judith began appearing in commercials at the age of five.[1][2] After appearing in minor roles, Judith appeared in several films, including Jaws: The Revenge, and provided the voice for the character of Ducky in The Land Before Time.
By the time she entered fourth grade, she was earning an estimated $100,000 a year, which helped her buy the family a three-bedroom house in the West Hills section of Los Angeles.[3]
Family history and death
Judith's father, József, fled Communist Hungary after the 1956 Soviet occupation. He eventually relocated to New York in 1964, and then to California,[4] where he met Maria Virovacz.[1] The two married, and Judith's birth quickly followed in Los Angeles, California, where Judith was raised.[5]
József was plagued throughout his life with alcoholism and low self-esteem.[4][1][5] As Judith's career success increased and József's mental illness worsened, József repeatedly threatened to kill Judith and Maria then himself.[6] His alcoholism worsened, and resulted in three separate arrests for drunk driving.[1]
Although he had stopped drinking by December 1986, he continued to threaten and abuse his wife and daughter. After breaking down in front of her agent during a singing audition for All Dogs Go to Heaven, Judith was taken by Maria to a child psychologist, who identified severe physical and emotional abuse and reported her findings to Child Protective Services.[1] The investigation was dropped after Maria assured the case worker that she intended to start divorce proceedings against József and that she and Judith were going to move into a Panorama City apartment she had recently rented as a daytime haven away from József.[7] Several other incidents followed in which József either made additional threats and/or physically abused both Maria and Judith.
On the night of July 25, 1988,[5] József shot Judith in the head while she was asleep in her room, and then shot his wife Maria.[3] József spent the next two days wandering around the house.[1][5] On July 27, he poured gasoline on the bodies and set them on fire.[8] He then went into the garage and shot himself in the head with a .32 caliber pistol.[9][10]
On August 9, 1988, Barsi and her mother were interred in unmarked graves at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles.[11] In June 2004, a fund was set up by Barsi's fan club to purchase headstones for their graves. Barsi's final film, All Dogs Go to Heaven, in which she voices the orphaned Anne-Marie, was released in 1989, a year after her death.[12]
Filmography
Year Title Role Notes
1984
Fatal Vision Kimberly (age 3) Miniseries
1985
Kids Don't Tell Jennifer Ryan Television movie
1985
Do You Remember Love Kathleen Television movie
1985
The New Twilight Zone Gertie Segment: "A Little Peace and Quiet"
1985
There Were Times, Dear Molly Reed Television movie
1985
The Fall Guy Little Girl Episode: "Escape Claus"
1986
Remington Steele Laurie Beth Piper Episode: "Suburban Steele"
1986
Punky Brewster Anna 2 episodes
1986
Trapper John, M.D. Lindsay Christmas Episode: "Life, Death and Dr. Christmas"
1986
Cheers Child #1 Episode: "Relief Bartender"
1986
Cagney and Lacey Shauna Bard Episode: "Disenfranchised"
1986
The New Gidget Little Girl Episode: "It's Only Rock & Roll"
1986
Eye of the Tiger Jennifer Matthews
1986
The Love Boat Christmas angel Episode: "The Christmas Cruise: Part 2"
1987
Destination America Amy Television movie
1987
Slam Dance Bean
1987
Jaws: The Revenge Thea Brody
1987
The Tracey Ullman Show Little Girl Episode #2.3
1988
The Tracey Ullman Show Karen Episode #2.17
1988
St. Elsewhere Debbie Oppenheimer Episode: "The Abby Singer Show"
1988
Growing Pains Young Carol Episodes "Graduation Day"
1988
ABC Afterschool Special Billie Foster Episode: "A Family Again"; Released posthumously
1988
The Land Before Time Ducky Voice; Released posthumously
1989
All Dogs Go to Heaven Anne-Marie Voice; Released posthumously
1992
Growing Pains Young Carol Episode: "The Last Picture Show, part 2"
(flashback only)
References
1.^ Johnson, John; Fuentes, Gabe (1988-08-07). "A Script of Fear: Repeated Threats by Father of Child Actress Carried to Tragic End". latimes.com. Retrieved 26 September 2011.
2.^ "Local News in Brief : Child-Abuse Files Ordered Opened". latimes.com. 1988-08-23. Retrieved 26 September 2011.
3.^ Donnelley, Paul (2005-11-01). Fade to Black: A Book of Movie Obituaries (3 ed.). Omnibus Press. p. 122. ISBN 1-84449-430-6.
4.^ Barsi, Ági (1999), What will you do?, A Better Life, ISBN 0967169399
5.^ DEATH OF A FAMILY - Judith Barsi's story (240p). Arnold Shapiro Productions. 1989.
6.^ "Girl who appeared on 'Growing Pains' told show's star: My dad says he's going to kill me!". The National Enquirer. 1988-09-16.
7.^ "Inquiry in Barsi Case Dropped Too Soon, Panel Says". The Los Angeles Times. 1988-09-07. Retrieved 26 September 2011.
8.^ "Local News in Brief : Bodies Identified as Child Actress, Mother". latimes.com. 1988-07-29. Retrieved 26 September 2011.
9.^ Fuentes, Gabe (July 28, 1988). "Three Dead in Apparent Murder-Suicide". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved February 10, 2012.
1
0.^ "Child Actress Is Slain, Apparently by Father". The New York Times. 1988-07-30. Retrieved 22 November 2009.
11.^ C. Phillips, Deidre (1988-08-10). "Child actress Barsi, mother buried". Los Angeles Daily News.
12.^ Beck, Jerry (2005). The Animated Movie Guide. Chicago Review Press. pp. 13–14. ISBN 1-55652-591-5.
Joaquin Murrieta (sometimes spelled Murieta or Murietta) (ca. 1829–July 25, 1853?), also called the Mexican or Chilean Robin Hood or the Robin Hood of El Dorado, was a semi-legendary figure in California during the California Gold Rush of the 1850s. He was either an infamous bandit or a Mexican patriot, depending on one's point of view.[2] Murrieta was partly the inspiration for the fictional character of Zorro. His name has, for some political activists, symbolized resistance against Anglo-American economic and cultural domination in California. The "Association of Descendants of Joaquin Murrieta" is devoted to putting forth that Murrieta was not a "gringo eater," but instead that "He wanted to retrieve the part of Mexico that was lost at that time in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo."[3]
Life and career
Bitter dispute surrounds the figure of Joaquin Murrieta, who he was, what he did, and many of his life's events. This is well summarized by the words of historian Susan Lee Johnson:
"So many tales have grown up around Murrieta that it is hard to disentangle the fabulous from the factual. There seems to be a consensus that Anglos drove him from a rich mining claim, and that, in rapid succession, his wife was raped, his half-brother lynched, and Murrieta himself horse-whipped. He may have worked as a monte dealer for a time; then, according to whichever version one accepts, he became either a horse trader and occasional horse thief, or a bandit."[2]
Early life
The place of Murrieta's birth is disputed. He was either born in Álamos[2] in the northwestern state of Sonora, Mexico, or in Quillota, Chile (near Valparaiso). He came from Mexican and native American lineage. His mother's side of his family came from California long before it was claimed by the United States or Mexico.
The citing of his birthplace as allegedly being in Chile seems to be a result of reports that Murrieta sided with Chilean miners during the "Chilean War." A portion of Ridge's novel was reprinted in 1859 in the California Police Gazette. This story was subsequently translated into French, and the French version, with a Chilean Joaquín Murrieta, was translated into Spanish by Roberto Hynne, who claimed to have been in California during the gold rush.
Becoming an outlaw
Some alleged he went to California in 1849 to seek his fortune in the California Gold Rush. But instead of opportunity, he encountered racism and discrimination. While mining for gold, he and his wife supposedly were attacked by American miners jealous of his success.[2] They allegedly beat him senseless, then raped his wife. However, the source for this series of tragic events is disputed as it was a dime novel written in 1854 (The Life and Adventures of Joaquin Murrieta by John Rollin Ridge).[2] Historian Frank Latta, in his book Joaquín Murrieta and His Horse Gangs contended that the band was made up of family and friends, and that they regularly engaged in illegal horse trade with Mexico, after helping Joaquín kill at least six of his tormentors.
Orders for arrest and his supposed death
Historically, Murrieta was one of the so-called "Five Joaquins" listed on a bill passed in the California state legislature in May 1853, whereby a company of 20 rangers were hired for three months to hunt down Joaquin Botellier, Joaquin Carrillo, Joaquin Ocomorenia, Joaquin Muriata [sic] and Joaquin Valenzuela, and their banded associates.
On May 11, 1853, Governor of California John Bigler signed a legislative act creating the "California State Rangers," led by Captain Harry Love (a former Texas Ranger). The California Rangers were paid $150 a month and stood a chance to share the $1,000 governor's reward. On July 25, 1853, a group of Rangers encountered a band of armed Mexican men near Pacheco Pass in San Benito County, 50 miles (80 km) from Monterey. A confrontation took place, and two of the Mexicans were killed. One was claimed to be Murrieta, and the other was thought to be Manuel Garcia, also known as Three-Fingered Jack, one of Joaquin's most notorious associates.[4] A plaque (California Historical Landmark #344) near the intersection of State Routes 33 and 198 now marks the approximate site of the encounter.
Murrieta's head
The Rangers severed Three-Fingered Jack's hand and the alleged Murrieta's head as proof of the outlaws' deaths, and preserved them in a jar of alcohol.[2] The jar was displayed in Mariposa County, Stockton, and San Francisco, and later traveled throughout California; spectators could pay $1 to see them. Seventeen people, including a Catholic priest, signed affidavits identifying the head as Murrieta's, alias Carrillo, enabling Love and his Rangers accordingly received the reward money.
However, 25 years later, O. P. Stidger claimed that he heard Murrieta's sister say that the head was not her brother's.[5] At around the same time, numerous sightings of old man Murrieta were reported. A few people claimed that Capt. Love failed to display the head at the mining camps, which was not true.[6] It was even alleged by an anonymous Los Angeles based correspondent to the San Francisco Alta California Daily, in August 1853, that Love and his Rangers murdered some innocent Mexican mustang catcher and bribed people to swear out affidavits. The preserved head was destroyed in the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake.
Legacy
Murrieta's nephew, known as Procopio, went on to become one of California's most notorious bandits of the 1860s and 1870s, and it was said that Procopio wanted to exceed the reputation of his uncle.
Joaquin Murrieta in media
Joaquin Murrieta has been a widely used romantic figure in novels, stories, and films, and on TV.
Joaquin Murrieta is depicted as a largely sympathetic character in the 1936 William A. Wellman film The Robin Hood of El Dorado [1].
The fictional character of Zorro was in part inspired by the stories about Murrieta. In fact, a character with his name appears in The Mask of Zorro, as do Three-Fingered Jack and Harry (here Harrison) Love. In the film, after Joaquin's death, his (fictional) brother, Alejandro (Antonio Banderas), becomes the new Zorro and later kills Captain Love in revenge. Joaquin was played here by Victor Rivers.
Throughout the Mother Lode region of California, there are dozens of saloons, bars, hotels, and places where Murrieta is said to have robbed, slept, or been.
Novel by John Rollin Ridge, "The Life and Adventures of Joaquin Murrieta" published 1854, a year after his supposed death.
Book by Walter Noble Burns, "The Robin Hood of El Dorado" published by Coward-McCann, Inc., New York, 1932
Book by Sid Fleischman
He makes an appearance in a novel by Isabel Allende, Hija de la Fortuna (Daughter of Fortune).
In 1954, the actor Rick Jason, later of ABC's military drama Combat!, played Murietta in an episode of Jim Davis's syndicated western television series, Stories of the Century.
His story is told in a play, Fulgor y Muerte de Joaquín Murieta (The Splendor and Death of Joaquin Murrieta), by Pablo Neruda.
The first Soviet and Russian musical (rock opera), Звезда и смерть Хоакина Мурьеты (Zvezda i smert’ Khoakina Mur’ety — The Star and Death of Joaquin Murrieta), 1976, by Alexei Rybnikov and Pavel Grushko, is based on the play. Published as double LP (1978) and movie (1982). Now available on CD and DVD, respectively.
A tribute song to this Chilean rebel can be heard in Premonición de la Muerte de Joaquin Murieta, performed by Quilapayún
Víctor Jara, Chilean singer-songwriter assassinated by the Pinochet regime in Chile, also wrote the song Así Como Hoy Matan Negros taken from Neruda and Sergio Ortega's collaboration "Fulgor y Muerte de Joaquín Murieta."
Both Víctor Jara and Quilapayún recorded the "Cueca de Joaquín Murieta" in the style of Chile's national dance, the cueca.
The Sons of the San Joaquin included a song called The Ballad of Joaquin Murrieta on their Way Out Yonder album.
Bob Frank & John Murry included a song called Joaquin Murrieta, 1853 on their World Without End album.[2]
The corrido version of Joaquin Murrieta's ballad states "... no soy chileno ni extraño en esta tierra que piso, de Mexico es California..." (I'm not Chilean or stranger to this land, California is Mexico...)
In The Mother Hips song 'Time-sick Son of a Grizzly Bear' : "Were you out in Monterey/ In Joaquin Murrieta's day/ Adobe huts in the cypress groves/ Is where the rich man now builds his homes" from the album Kiss the Crystal Flake
The story (and, supposedly, the actual severed head) of Joaquin Murrieta are featured in the 1980 film Faces of Death II
Writer T. Jefferson Parker casts Murrieta as the great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather of one of the main characters in his novel L.A. Outlaws and its sequel, Iron River.
The Fortune & Spirits song 'Archangel, the Murderer' is in large part a retelling and exploration of the morality of the legend of Murrieta [3]
Joaquin Zihuatenejo tells the story of Murrieta in his poem titled "This Is A Suit" presented on HBO's Def Poetry series (Season 5, Episode 4)[7]
Singer/Songwriter Dave Stamey performs "The Bandit Joaquin" depicting the life and death of Joaquin Murrieta, and questions the validity of his capture.
He is also immortalised in George Sherman's " Joaquin Murrieta" (Spain , 1965). Played by Jeffrey Hunter
Referenced in the movie "Blood in Blood Out" (also known as "Bound by Honor") a 1993 film directed by Taylor Hackford.
References
Vida y Aventuras del Mas Celebre Bandido Sonorense, Joaquin Murrieta: Sus Grandes Proezas En California, by Ireneo Paz, Mexico City, 1904; first English translation by Francis P. Belle, Regan Pub. Corp., Chicago, 1925. Republished with intro. and further translation by Luis Leal, Life and Adventures of the Celebrated Bandit Joaquin Murrieta: His Exploits in the State of California, Arte Publico Press, 1999.
Footnotes
1.^ Burns, Walter Noble, The Robin Hood of El Dorado Coward-McCann, Inc., New York, 1932.
2.^ Roaring Camp: The Social World of the California Gold Rush (Review). American Scholar January 1, 2000. Pg. 142 Vol. 69 No. 1 ISSN: 0003-0937.
3.^ Bacon, David (December 15, 2001). "Interview with Antonio Rivera Murrieta". http://dbacon.igc.org/TWC/mm02_Murrieta.htm. Retrieved 2010-06-16.
4.^ "California State Rangers". California State Military Museum. 1940. http://www.militarymuseum.org/CaliforniaStateRangers.html. Retrieved 2010-06-16.
5.^ See The Pioneer, Sat., Nov. 29, 1879. Also see History of Nevada County (Oakland : Thompson & West, 1880; rprt Berkeley: Howell-North Books, 1970), 115.
6.^ Democratic State Journal, Oct. 17, 1853, Calaveras Correspondence from W. C. P. of Mokelumne Hill; San Joaquin Republican, Oct. 20, 1853, correspondence from Sonora, Tuolumne Co.
7.^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19rZGO9Rggo&feature=related
Further reading
Roaring Camp: The Social World of the California Gold Rush by Susan Lee Johnson. Norton.
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