Friday, October 30, 2009

Four For Friday - Halloween Version

This is the scariest blind I have and I actually first posted it way back in June of 2007. It took me forever to find it amongst the blinds, but it is one of my favorites and very appropriate for Halloween.

June 20, 2007

I've heard this before, and allegedly Very Bad Things is loosely based on it to some extent. However, I always thought of it as a Hollywood legend until I recently met someone in the producer's family. When I say family, there is one widow and one child. No other family. None.

A fairly minor producer died within the past month or so. It wasn't really noteworthy for the most part, but there were three or four very happy actors to see him pass. All of the actors are aging, but not George Burns old or anything. In fact, they are still A list at least by reputation. Could they carry a movie OR television show on their own anymore? Probably not. Are they regularly in movies AND television? Yes. See, back in the day there was a party like you could only have in Hollywood's glory days. Martinis, cigars and lots of beautiful women. Well it turns out that one of the beautiful women didn't go home at the end of the night. There was some incident involving either five or six actors. Two have died. Not knowing what to do, these actors got a studio gofer, now our dead producer and told him to get rid of the body and not tell anyone about it or tell anyone where the body was buried. Throughout the remainder of the producer's life, these actors took care of him, but were always afraid he would spill the secret because he was the only one who knew where the body was buried. No body, no case. Now, they are just worried that something will show up in the estate sale and some person will stumble onto a letter or some other evidence hidden in a desk drawer which will come back to haunt them. Maybe that's why one of the actors offered to buy the house with everything in it at a price that is twice what the place is worth. Still waiting to see if it will be accepted, but there won't be an estate sale yet for sure. The actors think they are being careful and that their true motives are unknown. Not at all the case, but the producer's widow is happy to take their money and be done with it. One hint is they have all been in at least one western. Although it could be on television OR in a movie.

53 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wait, so why aren't these people in jail? Obviously, if it's a blind item more people know who it is.

jbdean_79 said...
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jbdean_79 said...
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karen said...

So what happened to the woman? Did they rape her and then kill her or was it some violent sex game that went wrong?

trashtalker said...

Here's the original, with guesses (288 comments!!):
http://tinyurl.com/yza964k

RocketQueen said...

Agreed! WTH! If someone (Enty?!) knows who the woman and people responsible are, isn't there an obligation to at least make an anonymous call? Cause wouldn't there be a missing persons report for this person? Am I crazy?

jbdean_79 said...
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mooshki said...

jbdean_79, bite your tongue! If I'd been born a couple of decades earlier, Robert Vaughn would be my husband. ;)

shelly_bean said...

Very Bad Things is one of my favorite movies ever! I always felt a little guilty laughing, but now I really do. I can't imagine keeping a secret, especially one like that, for so long. I totally would've cracked.

MISCH said...

WHAT ABOUT THE MISSING WOMAN..... IS THIS THE 50'S, 60'S OR 70'S ?
SOMEONE MUST HAVE REPORTED HER MISSING...
THE ACTORS WERE VERY POWERFUL...AND WEALTHY..
I'LL NEVER GET IT...

ItsJustMe said...

yeah, what happened to the missing woman? Was there a search? Did no one alert the authorities that she was missing???

von said...

How awful. Why couldn't someone anonymously say something? It's disgusting.

jbdean_79 said...
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CarolMR said...

"Hollywood's glory days" makes me think it had to have been in the 1950s or late 40s. When I think of the 60s and 70s I don't think of cigars and martinis, I think of drugs.

Kara said...

I liked the Jo Durden-Smith guess. One kid. And the kid doesn't have to be the kid of the widow.

Anonymous said...

dominick dunne for the producer?

Unknown said...

Good lord!

Unknown said...

If its such a big secret how come enty knows. I call bullshit on this one.

West End Girl said...

Wow, how utterly depressing :(

Patty O. said...

The blind is from 2007, so it's not Dominick Dunne. Besides, he's not primarily known as a producer, and I don't think he'd keep this secret considering what happened to his daughter.

blankprincess said...

jbdean_79, just curious--who are you calling "the cute one from Bonanza," if not Michael Landon? Pernell Roberts is a damn fine man, but "cute" doesn't really describe him, so I was just wondering. :)

(And if I'd been born four decades earlier, Mr. Roberts would be MY husband. Yummmmmm.)

Ms Cool said...

From: http://www.einsiders.com/features/columns/jun07obituaries.php

Emmy-nominated producer Ed Friendly died of cancer at age 85. Mr. Friendly produced such TV shows as "Little House on the Prairie" and "Laugh-In." Mr. Friendly and George Schlatter co-created "Rowen & Martin's Laugh-In." The show was one of the most innovative and original series in TV history. He was nominated for two Emmy Awards. One for the mini-series "Backstairs at the White House" and another for the TV movie "Peter Lundy and the Medicine Hat Stallion." Mr. Friendly was the executive producer of the 1969 TV series "Turn-On." The comedy show was famous for being cancelled after just one episode! Ed Friendly served his country as an infantry Captain in the US Army during WWII.

Died June 17, 2007. Worked with Michael Landon. Friends with Lorne Greene. BUT has two children.

Obituary: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article2112787.ece

jbdean_79 said...
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Miss X said...

I am going to put in a guess for Bob Clark, though I don't know if he would be regarded as obscure, maybe just not a household name even if we know his movies.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Clark

My guess is based on his age, which is just about right, and he was a big guy (football) and could deal with disposing a body. More interestingly, he was killed along with one of his two sons in a car accident. I think the clue about "No other family. None." may refer to the fact that the second son died with the father, leaving only a widow and one child.

Donald Sutherland was in Clark's "Murder by Decree" and was in the "Dirty Dozen" and appeared in both TV and film around 2007. He is the only actor I could find who might fit.

Ms Cool said...

I was thinking Bob Clark, too, due to what Miss X said - No other family. None. However, I think his death was more noteworthy - he directed A Christmas Story and he and his son were killed by a drunk driver who wasn't in the country legally.

Miss X said...

Ms. Cool, yes this was sort of where I wasn't sure it would fit, and for exactly the reasons you say. Still, I think that clue about the family has to have some meaning.

PotPourri said...

Bob Clark is certainly not a Hollywood name, and it sounds like the guy was not really Hollywood anyway, but considering what he did for these men, they took him along in their careers. But the buddy system was huge in the 1950's. I was thinking Donald Sutherland too. The Dirty Dozen sounds about right, but who killed the girl? Any guesses?

Lisa (not original) said...

Coincidence that this is directly above Dennis Hopper's picture?

Stuart Rosenberg fits as the producer. He directed Hopper in Cool Hand Luke. Hopper was in True Grit with Robert Duvall. Lee Marvin was in Donovan's Reef.

Stuart Rosenberg - producer
Dennis Hopper - actor
Robert Duvall - actor
Lee Marvin - actor
John Wayne - actor

If we're talking the golden age of Hollywood westerns, then Lee Marvin and John Wayne have to be considered. Had to be someone pretty powerful involved. Just sayin...

Merlin D. Bear said...

I remember when you first posted this one...
And I've been literally dying to see if you'll reveal.
Are you going to?
And if not, any more old Hollywood stories/blinds?

Happy Samhain!

TheGoldenSockPuppet said...

I think the most interesting clue is
"I always thought of it as a Hollywood legend until I recently met someone in the producer's family"...and then telling us there's only the widow and child.

Ok, so obviously met the widow or the child -- but did they confirm it? Was their existance alone tacit confirmation?

Spoooooky!

B626 said...

Steve McQueen is my guess for one of the now deceased actors.
The still alive producer, Robert Evans, has NO love for that guy.

shakey said...

I thought of James Garner as well. Clint Eastwood? Chuck Connors, the actor from Gunsmoke ... James Arness.

I'm liking Lee Marvin and Yul Brynner for this.

Oh ... James Stewart was in a western or two. Wouldn't that be a shocker? Maybe even Gary Cooper?

I need to stop now, or I'll wind up naming every person I ever saw in a Western.

CarolMR said...

I'd hate to think that it was Bob Hope or Bing Crosby, but I was thinking it was way back in their heyday.

RJ said...

I figure the incident happened in the early 60s. The studio system and its biggest stars would have had just enough power left to have made sure that everything stayed quiet. Also agree with CarolMR, any HW party past 1965 would have been described as whiskey, drugs, and lots of women. Probably MGM stars involved because it is well known that MGM had its own whorehouse where its stars could safely whore around. The girl that was accidently killed was probably one of the MGM "girls" thus no one filed any missing persons reports. Her family, if she had much of one to begin with, had probably disowned her long before her death. Remember, we're talking late 50s early 60s here. As far as the "at least one Western" clue goes, that's not really much help. At that time, Westerns were what vampires are today. Everybody was in a western, both in movies and early tv. Personally, I'll be devasted if James Garner is involved. LOVE the old Maverick and Rockford Files reruns. He was smoking hot, especially in Maverick.

PotPourri said...

This one needs to be revealed. Wow.

Unknown said...
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Mango said...

WHN, call me when you grow one!

As for the BI, I got nuthin' (rather like WHN...lol)

Unknown said...

if it weren´t for the two kids, it would fit Aaron Spelling.

Unknown said...
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Chris said...

It's funny - I heard something along these lines relating to my grandfather, who used to write the captions in silent movies - he didn't go into detail, but a young woman died one night at a Hollywood party - I think it may have been the drugs/alcohol combination, and it precipitated my grandmother leaving him while pregnant with my father (unbeknownst to my grandfather - oh the dramz!) This was WAY back in the 20s...you think it's a Hollywood Urban legend now, or did this happen on more than one occasion?

Ms. Ramona Narrow said...

No way is it Dominic Dunne (as someone earlier suggested). His daughter was brutally murdered and the guy got off. Dunne was forever enraged that guilty people often didn't receive their punishments and was very open about his sympathies and commitments always beingwith the victim in any case.

abigail7881 said...

Don't think it could be Robert Evans for the producer, since its the producer that died, and RE is still alive, and it said a minor producer, so I would think its not a well known name.
But I have idea on who it could be.

Linnea said...

Wow. What a blind... I really have nothing to add, except for - I am sure people can be pro-victims rights and still have committed a crime...

CarolMR said...

Dominic Dunne just died a couple of months ago and this blind is from 2007 so the producer can't be him. And Dunne was much better known as a writer, not producer.

Unknown said...

On The Dead People Server website, it listed two producers that died in the blind Item's time frame.

Sidney Sheldon died on 1/30/07

Stan Daniels died on 4/6/07

I'm thinking Sidney Sheldon.

The concept that no one would report a murder or death doesn't shock me. People with power or a sesne of entitlement have done worse. It's also plausible that the woman that died was someone who had no one in her life that would report her missing.

WebMama! said...

Sidney Sheldon was NOT a fairly minor producer. If anything, he was prolific. Check him ouy in IMDB.

Icecat said...

Have you guys read the comments on the BI when it was originally posted??...Crazy Stuff.

sunnyside1213 said...

Chuck Connor was gay, so he probably wasn't involved.

Virtual Boricua said...

What also disgusting is that quite a number of movies have been produced about this premise which leads me to believe this is likely a well-known incident that's been capitalized on at the expense of some young woman.

empyrios said...

"Obituary: Richard Goldstone (1912-2007)
May 28, 2009

Thanks to a tip from author Jim Rosin, I’ve done some checking and verified the death of producer Richard Goldstone, on March 7, 2007. Goldstone was born on July 24, 1912, so he would have been 94 at the time. As far as I know, his death has not been reported anywhere until now.

Goldstone was a veteran screenwriter turned producer whose early career coalesced in MGM’s short subjects department during its heyday. After that his name appears on some good films noir, including Robert Wise’s The Set-Up, Gerald Mayer’s Dial 1119, and Anthony Mann’s The Tall Target..."

it goes on but this is the pertinent info...only thing missing is reference to a wife and child...

WBotW said...

If Enty knows who this is he should be strung up by his balls for not reporting this. A reveal is obviously out due to slander and libel issues but what possible excuse is there for keeping quiet?

*girl said...

But WBotW it's all hearsay, or rumours. Can you imagine what the cops would say if he went in with "so I heard this rumour about a bunch of actors and a dead woman..."

But if he did get confirmation from the widow/child, then shouldn't they be the ones who should report it? At least they have an actual connection through the producer.

That being said, I have absolutely no guesses.

BlahFrickinBlah said...

It's strange. When I have a comment about some bullshit topic like Britney Spears getting her hair dyed, my comments always go through however, when I post on something like this and how I feel it's quite fucked up that ENTY posts this SHIT about some poor girl like it's just another piece of gossip, it gets deleted or disappears. This is like the third time that this has happened. Like I said in my original post: Let's just pray that none of your loved ones have something like this happen to them because by the looks of it, no one will give a flying fuck about it and report it to anyone that can do anything about it. They will just put it up on some blog so a bunch of people will take a crack at it like it was just another "who fucked who's costar" piece of gossip. This girl was someone to somebody. She was loved and missed by someone - somewhere. If the producer's wife knows the situation and takes their money just the same, she too has a nice little seat in Hell waiting for her too.

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