• IMDb versus the facts

    From Adam H. Kerman@3:633/10 to All on Sun Nov 30 06:01:19 2025
    For Eleanor Powell's birthday, I recorded Broadway Melody of 1936, her
    first huge movie at MGM, which got her from Fox. Not only was she the
    world's most talented and graceful tap dancer, she negotiated a top
    salary for herself. She was offered a non-dancing supporting part, which
    she didn't want to do, so she demanded a top salary and the female lead (thinking she'd be rejected) and got it. She's featured in two huge
    production numbers.

    I got this from her unsourced trivia note for the movie at IMDb. Is any
    of it true? Jack Benny is the star, playing a Broadway columnist
    spoofing Walter Winchell, who creates a ficticious French star no one's
    ever heard of to force Robert Taylor (world's youngest Broadway
    producer) to hire her. No one watches for the plot. Music by Music by
    Nacio Herb Brown and Lyrics by Arthur Freed.

    I glanced at the biography for Jack Benny. Here's what it says about his
    wife.

    He met his future wife Mary Livingstone while he was appearing
    at the Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles, and he regularly ate
    across the street at the lunch counter of the May Company
    department store, where Mary worked as a lingerie salesgirl.
    Jack Benny actually first met his wife Mary Livingstone in
    Vancouver British Columbia when he was appearing there, possibly
    at the Orpheum there as well.

    This paragraph is all mixed up.

    Married Sadie Morse.

    How do you get one of show business's best known love stories
    wrong? On the radio program, Jack met Mary whem she worked at the
    lunch counter at the May Company... in St. Louis. "Mary" was the name
    of the character. Eventually, Sadie would change her name legally. But
    her name was never Morse, but Marks. Her family knew the Marx brothers
    (no relation) who all knew Jack from the Vaudeville circuit. Her brother Hilliard would becoome a writer for Jack, and later, producer. Jack was introduced to Mary on several occassions before they started dating,
    once by Zeppo who brought Jack to their home in Vancouver for Passover
    seder; Mary was a teenager. They weren't being set up on a date. Later,
    Jack met her again when the two of them were paired up on a double date
    by her recently-married sister's husband who knew Jack.

    Yes, she worked at the May Company in Los Angeles selling lingerie;
    Jack ate at the lunch counter to see her.

    Is anything in IMDb true?

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.1
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From rhino@3:633/10 to All on Mon Dec 1 23:11:15 2025

    "Adam H. Kerman" <ahk@chinet.com> posted:

    For Eleanor Powell's birthday, I recorded Broadway Melody of 1936, her
    first huge movie at MGM, which got her from Fox. Not only was she the
    world's most talented and graceful tap dancer, she negotiated a top
    salary for herself. She was offered a non-dancing supporting part, which
    she didn't want to do, so she demanded a top salary and the female lead (thinking she'd be rejected) and got it. She's featured in two huge production numbers.

    I got this from her unsourced trivia note for the movie at IMDb. Is any
    of it true? Jack Benny is the star, playing a Broadway columnist
    spoofing Walter Winchell, who creates a ficticious French star no one's
    ever heard of to force Robert Taylor (world's youngest Broadway
    producer) to hire her. No one watches for the plot. Music by Music by
    Nacio Herb Brown and Lyrics by Arthur Freed.

    I glanced at the biography for Jack Benny. Here's what it says about his wife.

    He met his future wife Mary Livingstone while he was appearing
    at the Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles, and he regularly ate
    across the street at the lunch counter of the May Company
    department store, where Mary worked as a lingerie salesgirl.
    Jack Benny actually first met his wife Mary Livingstone in
    Vancouver British Columbia when he was appearing there, possibly
    at the Orpheum there as well.

    This paragraph is all mixed up.

    Married Sadie Morse.

    How do you get one of show business's best known love stories
    wrong? On the radio program, Jack met Mary whem she worked at the
    lunch counter at the May Company... in St. Louis. "Mary" was the name
    of the character. Eventually, Sadie would change her name legally. But
    her name was never Morse, but Marks. Her family knew the Marx brothers
    (no relation) who all knew Jack from the Vaudeville circuit. Her brother Hilliard would becoome a writer for Jack, and later, producer. Jack was introduced to Mary on several occassions before they started dating,
    once by Zeppo who brought Jack to their home in Vancouver for Passover
    seder; Mary was a teenager. They weren't being set up on a date. Later,
    Jack met her again when the two of them were paired up on a double date
    by her recently-married sister's husband who knew Jack.

    Yes, she worked at the May Company in Los Angeles selling lingerie;
    Jack ate at the lunch counter to see her.

    Is anything in IMDb true?

    I'm sure there are plenty of mistakes. I still remember the claim that Ira Levin,
    the author of Boys from Brazil and various other movies, was missing a finger that had been shot off during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, decades before he was born. I explained the absurdity of this to the folks at IMDB and they deleted that claim. Anyone with a bit of history knowledge would have known this was preposterous. By the way, I posted about that here a few years back and someone actually dug up a photo showing his hands with all fingers intact so it wasn't a case of getting the occasion of the shooting wrong; the shooting simply never happened.
    --
    Rhino

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.1
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Your Name@3:633/10 to All on Tue Dec 2 15:33:11 2025
    On 2025-12-01 23:11:15 +0000, rhino said:
    "Adam H. Kerman" <ahk@chinet.com> posted:

    For Eleanor Powell's birthday, I recorded Broadway Melody of 1936, her
    first huge movie at MGM, which got her from Fox. Not only was she the
    world's most talented and graceful tap dancer, she negotiated a top
    salary for herself. She was offered a non-dancing supporting part,
    which she didn't want to do, so she demanded a top salary and the
    female lead (thinking she'd be rejected) and got it. She's featured in
    two huge production numbers.

    I got this from her unsourced trivia note for the movie at IMDb. Is any
    of it true? Jack Benny is the star, playing a Broadway columnist
    spoofing Walter Winchell, who creates a ficticious French star no one's
    ever heard of to force Robert Taylor (world's youngest Broadway
    producer) to hire her. No one watches for the plot. Music by Music by
    Nacio Herb Brown and Lyrics by Arthur Freed.

    I glanced at the biography for Jack Benny. Here's what it says about his wife.

    He met his future wife Mary Livingstone while he was appearing at the >> Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles, and he regularly ate across the street
    at the lunch counter of the May Company department store, where Mary >> worked as a lingerie salesgirl. Jack Benny actually first met his wife >> Mary Livingstone in Vancouver British Columbia when he was appearing
    there, possibly at the Orpheum there as well.

    This paragraph is all mixed up.

    Married Sadie Morse.

    How do you get one of show business's best known love stories wrong? On
    the radio program, Jack met Mary whem she worked at the lunch counter
    at the May Company... in St. Louis. "Mary" was the name of the
    character. Eventually, Sadie would change her name legally. But her
    name was never Morse, but Marks. Her family knew the Marx brothers (no
    relation) who all knew Jack from the Vaudeville circuit. Her brother
    Hilliard would becoome a writer for Jack, and later, producer. Jack was
    introduced to Mary on several occassions before they started dating,
    once by Zeppo who brought Jack to their home in Vancouver for Passover
    seder; Mary was a teenager. They weren't being set up on a date. Later,
    Jack met her again when the two of them were paired up on a double date
    by her recently-married sister's husband who knew Jack.

    Yes, she worked at the May Company in Los Angeles selling lingerie;
    Jack ate at the lunch counter to see her.

    Is anything in IMDb true?

    I'm sure there are plenty of mistakes. I still remember the claim that
    Ira Levin, the author of Boys from Brazil and various other movies, was missing a finger that had been shot off during the Franco-Prussian War
    of 1870-71, decades before he was born. I explained the absurdity of
    this to the folks at IMDB and they deleted that claim. Anyone with a
    bit of history knowledge would have known this was preposterous. By the
    way, I posted about that here a few years back and someone actually dug
    up a photo showing his hands with all fingers intact so it wasn't a
    case of getting the occasion of the shooting wrong; the shooting simply never happened.

    The problem is that IMDB is user-edited, just like Wikipedia, and
    nobody official actually checks anything posted on such websites. That
    makes them absolutely useless for finding actual reliable facts.

    Simialrly, Google's recent addition of stupid AI summaries when
    searching for anything makes that an even far less reliable source then
    it was before.



    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.1
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From The True Melissa@3:633/10 to All on Tue Dec 2 10:43:07 2025
    In article <1764630675-3015@newsgrouper.org>, user3015
    @newsgrouper.org.invalid says...
    I'm sure there are plenty of mistakes. I still remember the claim that Ira Levin,
    the author of Boys from Brazil and various other movies, was missing a finger that had been shot off during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, decades before he was born. I explained the absurdity of this to the folks at IMDB and they deleted that claim. Anyone with a bit of history knowledge would
    have known this was preposterous. By the way, I posted about that here a few years back and someone actually dug up a photo showing his hands with all fingers intact so it wasn't a case of getting the occasion of the shooting wrong; the shooting simply never happened.


    Oh, man, I love me some Ira Levin. My favorite is This
    Perfect Day, but Rosemary's Baby is probably is best-
    known... or maybe The Boys From Brazil. Both are pretty
    famous at this point.


    Melissa


    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.1
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From The True Melissa@3:633/10 to All on Tue Dec 2 10:43:59 2025
    In article <10glj57$1tlah$1@dont-email.me>,
    YourName@YourISP.com says...
    The problem is that IMDB is user-edited, just like Wikipedia, and
    nobody official actually checks anything posted on such websites.


    I don't know about IMDB, but that's not true in the case
    of Wikipedia. Everything's fact-checked by dedicated
    editors, and there's a whole process. It's not a free-
    for-all.


    Melissa


    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.1
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Your Name@3:633/10 to All on Wed Dec 3 11:42:51 2025
    On 2025-12-02 15:43:59 +0000, The True Melissa said:
    In article <10glj57$1tlah$1@dont-email.me>,
    YourName@YourISP.com says...

    The problem is that IMDB is user-edited, just like Wikipedia, and
    nobody official actually checks anything posted on such websites.

    I don't know about IMDB, but that's not true in the case of Wikipedia. Everything's fact-checked by dedicated editors, and there's a whole
    process. It's not a free-for-all.

    Melissa

    Those "dedicated editors" are just other people with an account who are
    wannbe "experts". Anyone with an account can edit the pages, so there
    can easily be, and is, misinformation and inaccuracies galore.

    They are both completely worthless websites as sources of reliable information.

    I ran a test on Wikipedia a few years ago where I purposely put Sesame Street's Elmo as one of the cast members of a then-upcoming Star Wars
    film ... nobody picked it up for weeks, so it's anyone's guess how many
    fools who visited the site still believe Elmo was actually in a Star
    Wars movie. :-\




    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.1
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Rhino@3:633/10 to All on Tue Dec 2 21:06:17 2025
    On 2025-12-02 10:43 a.m., The True Melissa wrote:
    In article <1764630675-3015@newsgrouper.org>, user3015 @newsgrouper.org.invalid says...
    I'm sure there are plenty of mistakes. I still remember the claim that Ira Levin,
    the author of Boys from Brazil and various other movies, was missing a finger that had been shot off during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, decades before he was born. I explained the absurdity of this to the folks at IMDB and they deleted that claim. Anyone with a bit of history knowledge would
    have known this was preposterous. By the way, I posted about that here a few years back and someone actually dug up a photo showing his hands with all fingers intact so it wasn't a case of getting the occasion of the shooting wrong; the shooting simply never happened.


    Oh, man, I love me some Ira Levin. My favorite is This
    Perfect Day, but Rosemary's Baby is probably is best-
    known... or maybe The Boys From Brazil. Both are pretty
    famous at this point.


    Melissa

    I'm a fan of This Perfect Day too :-)

    --
    Rhino

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.1
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Rhino@3:633/10 to All on Tue Dec 2 21:09:11 2025
    On 2025-12-02 10:43 a.m., The True Melissa wrote:
    In article <10glj57$1tlah$1@dont-email.me>,
    YourName@YourISP.com says...
    The problem is that IMDB is user-edited, just like Wikipedia, and
    nobody official actually checks anything posted on such websites.


    I don't know about IMDB, but that's not true in the case
    of Wikipedia. Everything's fact-checked by dedicated
    editors, and there's a whole process. It's not a free-
    for-all.


    Look up "Wikipedia edit wars" in Youtube!

    --
    Rhino

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.1
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Ubiquitous@3:633/10 to All on Thu Dec 4 04:30:43 2025
    thetruemelissa@gmail.com wrote:
    YourName@YourISP.com says...

    The problem is that IMDB is user-edited, just like Wikipedia, and
    nobody official actually checks anything posted on such websites.

    I don't know about IMDB, but that's not true in the case of Wikipedia. >Everything's fact-checked by dedicated editors, and there's a whole
    process. It's not a free-for-all.

    Don't make me Troll-O-Meter you, bro!




    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.1
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From anim8rfsk@3:633/10 to All on Thu Dec 4 11:31:30 2025
    Ubiquitous <weberm@polaris.net> wrote:
    thetruemelissa@gmail.com wrote:
    YourName@YourISP.com says...

    The problem is that IMDB is user-edited, just like Wikipedia, and
    nobody official actually checks anything posted on such websites.

    I don't know about IMDB, but that's not true in the case of Wikipedia.
    Everything's fact-checked by dedicated editors, and there's a whole
    process. It's not a free-for-all.

    Don't make me Troll-O-Meter you, bro!

    Yeah, I gave up on editing Wikipedia when I found out how the scams work.
    For instance, somebody will want only their information up there so they?ll post an entry with their website listed and then under another name they?ll post a flame war entry. People will start screaming at the second postand
    it will get deleted and the last post before it becomes the newest post and
    is locked. And so the troll gets their website listed as the authority.



    --
    The last thing I want to do is hurt you, but it is still on my list.

    --- PyGate Linux v1.5.1
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)