Friday, January 10, 2020

Four For Friday - Old Hollywood - Mr. X

#1 - This alliterate supporting actor won one Oscar and was nominated for another. He also has a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame. He also created a national white supremacist organization and was one of the creators of the communist blacklist.

#2 - This alliterate actress every single one of you know for a character she played might not actually know her name. She was nominated for an Oscar, but not for the character you all know. She was married once to someone really important to the history of entertainment. Apparently our actress, after her husband died, decided to join two other women and live together as a throuple. She was secretive about it, but the other two were open, even though it was nearly a century ago.

#3 - Don't believe the hype. The secret box that can't be opened just contains medical records confirming a bipolar disorder diagnosis for the actress and the medial records for her mother are also included in the box.

#4 - During her single days, this actress, who was once one of the highest paid people in the United States, was starring in a movie at MGM. She insisted she needed to have sex with someone before she would continue filming. Someone was sent to find her someone. A guy shows up and was escorted directly to the dressing room of the actress. Apparently he was pretty good at what he did because she ended up marrying him. 


38 comments:

  1. 1)Charles Corborn
    4) Liz Taylor?

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  2. 2 is Billie Burke

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  3. Any chance 4 is Lucille Ball? Contract player at MGM at the time she married Desi, and def one of the richest in the world at one time.

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  4. +100000 @Moose, she played Glinda the Good witch and was married to Ziegfeild of the Ziegfield theater and follies.

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  5. #3 is Marilyn Monroe and #4 is Barbara Stanwyck

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  6. Agreed- Charles Coburn for 1 and Billie Burke for 2.

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  7. 1) CHarles Coburn on his wikipedia it says he was in a white supremacist group and fought against leftist takeovers in the cold war

    2) Billie Burke http://www.gsws.pitt.edu/blogs/mer67/it-easier-be-gay-hollywood

    3) Def Marilyn Monroe , they found box yesterday that belonged to her psychologist that cant be opened until 2039

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  8. I think #1 is John Wayne.

    Lots of rumors he secretly funded White Supremacy organizations.

    Plus, it doesn't say when he won his Oscar.
    And, he was nominate multiple times.

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    1. It’s all spelled out in Charles Coburn’s Wikipedia entry so hardly a blind item though still very interesting. He fathered seven the last when he was in his 80s.

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  9. 4 is liz taylor. she received a million dollars for cleopatra which was unheard of at the time.

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  10. Charles Coburn is SUCH A Disappointment. He played such fun, doddering old types.

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  11. 1. Piece of shit

    2. Billie Burke

    3. Marilyn

    4. I thought Lucille Ball at first, but I could see this being Liz.

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  12. Dear Mr. X

    I love this blind & I appreciate the CDANers being on the case.

    Thank you all!

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  13. I think Casey has it with #4 being Barbara Stanwyck. This is from her IMDB page
    "In 1944, when she earned $400,000, the government listed her as the nation's highest-paid woman."

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  14. Lemme guess. The secret box holds records that show Norma Jean has abandonment issues, which contributed to her mental illness (which is most often genetic). Big shocker. *yawn*

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    1. *had, autocorrect! She’s been dead for years.

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  15. Great Old Hollywood tidbits! Only one I knew was #3 being Marilyn. Sounds like our Super Sleuths got #1&2. #4 seems up for debate!

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  16. #4 -- This sounds to me like something Lana Turner would do. There are all kinds of stories about her demanding Fernando Lamas, cameramen, etc. to come to her dressing room.

    Stanwyck was a free-lance actress and very, very professional, I don't like her for it. None of Taylor's husbands fit as a guy they would trot in, and I also don't think this kind of demand is in her character; a demand for more money, maybe. It could also be Crawford - Phillip Terry.

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  17. Billie Burke's husband died in 1932. Nearly a century ago?

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  18. Anonymous8:20 PM

    #4 Stanwyck with the young actor brought to her being Robert Taylor, whom she later married.

    #3 Marilyn sounds correct but did they even call it bi-polar disorder back then?

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  19. Anonymous8:23 PM

    #4 could be Crawford with Phillip Terry also. She needed sex for a clear complexion.

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  20. For the last time, Barbara Stanwyk was a dyke.

    I like Norma Shearer. Married to Irving Thalberg, widowed and negotiated to get MGM earnings. Returned briefly to acting, married some unknown guy 11 years younger. A “ski instructor” in Hollywood.

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  21. Taylor was her co-star, not someone brought on later after filming started though

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  22. Except Norma Shearer is not alliterate.

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  23. Dang, super-bummed about Charles Coburn - I had never heard this about him. "The More The Merrier" is one of my favourite comedies, and he was delightful and brilliant in it. What a drag.

    I would have guessed Joan Crawford for #4 but some of the other guesses fit as well.

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  24. @gentlebreeze #4 is not designated alliterate, but thanks for playing.

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  25. Back in the day bipolar was called "manic-depressive".

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  26. Yeah, big mystery about Marilyn.

    This is from the online archive of California:

    https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt6w1024rs/

    Nobody "discovered" the box, they just looked in the finding aid of the collection. It's listed there in plain sight.

    It even gives the folder titles of the contents of Box 29, and says that some materials in the collection are restricted until 2039. This is all SOP for the papers of medical practitioners who died comparatively recently - in 1979, in Greenson's case. So somebody - probably his estate - imposed a 60 year restriction on some stuff. Big deal.

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  27. Sidney Poitier
    Doris Day
    Annette Funicello
    Shirley Temple

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  28. #4 is Vivien Leigh - she was known to be a nymphomaniac.

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