BITS & PIECES OF A MISPLACED LIFE: PEOPLE

JOHN DILLINGER

John Dillinger—
No need to linger
Over a very long bio.
He was shot outside the Bio
  graph movie theater.
**

Barbara Stanwyck was a Brooklyn girl named
Ruby Stevens who had risen above her background
and become both a movie star and a great lady…
among the Marrenners’ * neighbors were a couple
who had been good to the young Ruby when she was
struggling. Once a month now, without fail, during
these black days of the depression, the couple would
receive a check signed ‘Barbara Stanwyck,’ which
they would bring to Stokes’s butcher shop to cash, 
after, of course, showing it to the rest of their 
neighbors.”

*Edythe Marrenner was the birth name of Susan Hayward

Beverly Linet. Susan Hayward: Portrait of a 
Survivor (New York: Atheneum, 1980)

**
JAPANESE WOMEN BORN IN 1966

"The Japanese aren't superstitions as other
Asians, first ever for them 1966, the year
of 1966, the year of the Fiery Horses in the
60 year Chinese calendar, was considered bad 
luck. Females born in that year are called
man-eating women, hinos-e uma, literally
'Fiery Horse.'So many couples feared bearing
a girl in 1966 that the official birthrate
plummeted by more than 25 percent."

Deborah Fallows. "Japanese Women" in
National Geographic (April 1999)
**

GEORGE VILLIERS, SECOND DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM

Stiff in his opinion, always in the wrong;
Was everything by starts, and nothing long,
But in the course of revolving moon,
Was chymist, fiddler, statesman, and buffoon.

            John Dryden
**

MARILYN MONROE

“She was delicious. She was superb. She read comedy 
lines as well as anyone in the business. She knew the
Secret – that hard-to-learn secret – of reading comedy 
lines as if they were in a drama and letting the humor 
speak for itself.”

Jack Benny and His Daughter Joan. Sunday Nights at 
Seven: the Jack Benny Story (New York: Warner Books, 1990)
**


**

JOAN RIVERS

“If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember
 anything.”
                             -Mark Twain

“My mother (JOAN RIVERS) remembered everything; she 
had to. The woman loved to lie. Her relationship with 
the truth was  like Jennifer Aniston’s relationship with Angelina  Jolie – they weren’t close. I mentioned the 
‘lying thing’ to my mother once, and I even brought up 
the just-cited Mark Twain quote. Her response? ‘Where’s 
Mark Twain today? Dead, that’s where. Show’s what the 
fuck he knew.”

Melissa Rivers. The Book of Joan: Tales of Mirth, 
Mischief, and Manipulation (New York: Crown 
Archetytpe, 2015)

**

LEE TRACY --

SCANDAL IN MEXICO

“A bizarre circumstance during the filming of 
Viva Villa in Mexico caused  that film to be 
recast and the recasting to include me. In Mexico,
one of the actors,Lee Tracy, had stood naked on 
the balcony of his hotel and urinated onto the 
crowd below. A scandal!
 The MGM picture produced 
by David Selznick had to be taken back to Hollywood, 
with David salvaging what was possible but certainly 
finding a sober actor for the Tracy role.”

Fay Wray. On The Other Hand (New York: St. Martin’s 
Press, 1989).

**

“BOJANGLES”  BILL ROBINSON IN CHICAGO (1930s)

“A few of the small fry of the underworld attempted to intrude into the actors’ realm, offering protection.
Various performers received telegrams:

       YOU ARE ON OUR HONORARY LIST TO CONTRIBUTE 
$100 FOR THE SENATOR’S DINNER

“What senator?”
“Senator Holdup.”

Collections would be made at the stage door. Some of
the actors panicked and left for New York without 
notice or their laundry. Others paid. A few notified 
the police, which was silly. The big shots in their 
pockets. 
One individual , the late “Bojangles” Bill 
Robinson, met a caller for $100 at the stage door 
and held out, not an envelope with the cash, but 
a freshly honed razor on the ready. Exit collector.”

Pat O’Brien. The Wind at My Back: The Life and 
Times of Pat O’Brien by Himself (Garden City, NY:
Doubleday & Co., 1964) 

**
PABLO PICASSO & THE MONA LISA

"When the “Mona Lisa” was stolen from the Louvre 
on August 21, 1911, the art world immediately went 
into mourning — and began wondering who was behind 
the dastardly deed. One man soon under suspicion 
was none other than Pablo Picasso, whose name was 
given to the authorities by Honore-Joseph Géry 
Pieret, the former secretary of Picasso’s friend 
(and famed poet) Guillaume Apollinaire. Pieret 
had previously stolen at least two Bronze Age 
Iberian sculptures from the Louvre and sold them 
to the then-up-and-coming cubist artist, who 
used them as inspiration for his painting “Les 
Demoiselles d’Avignon.” (At the time, the Louvre 
security was rather lacking; the paintings weren’t 
even bolted to the walls.) A terrified Picasso 
and Apollinaire were eventually brought to court, 
where it was determined that Picasso was indeed 
in possession of stolen art — just not the “Mona Lisa.”
 (The Iberian statues were quickly returned, and 
the judge let both Picasso and Apollinaire off
 with a warning.)"

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JOHN HANCOCK

Hancock,John
Signed his name upon
Some document or other
That caused the British a lot of bother.