Welcome Scott Nollen to Discuss Glenda Farrell: Hollywood's Hard-Boiled Dame on 9/26 & 9/27

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Re: Welcome Scott Nollen to Discuss Glenda Farrell: Hollywood's Hard-Boiled Dame on 9/26 & 9/27

Post by moira finnie »

Scott,
I know that many members like the Torchy Blane movies with Glenda. How did she feel about the series? Did the casting help her career?
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Re: Welcome Scott Nollen to Discuss Glenda Farrell: Hollywood's Hard-Boiled Dame on 9/26 & 9/27

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moira finnie wrote:Scott,
I know that many members like the Torchy Blane movies with Glenda. How did she feel about the series? Did the casting help her career?
Glenda invented that tough-dame news reporter for MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM (1933), so the Torchy Blane series didn't offer her anything new for a characterization, but she didn't dislike the films at first, because at that point, she had no idea how many of them Warner Bros. was going to make. The fact that the studio made two films in the series without her, when Glenda had let her long-term contract with Warners lapse, and intended to begin freelancing as a film actress, to gave her the freedom of accepting quality stage parts, and then work a film in between stage roles here and there. So Glenda never planned on making that many films in a series. Ultimately--except for those two inferior episodes without her--the series did make her more of a household name, since she was the star--and she did enjoy working with Barton MacLane (who was a piece of work--here on the SSO, I won't type the nickname James Cagney called him), with whom she'd already worked at Universal, where a Farrell-MacLane series also was being planned at the time. They were great together, because she was just as tough as he was, and they had excellent chemistry, especially with respect to their talent for superb comic timing. But it was a B series, and, at that point, Glenda was ready for a change. She wanted to return to the stage, and didn't want to keep repeating herself in formula films. She had managed her money wisely, purchased two homes (one for herself and one for her father, who often looked after Glenda's son, Tommy), and provided for Tommy very well, including sending him to an excellent military school, which he apparently liked. Later on, of course, he became quite a prolific actor in his own right, mostly on television, in nearly every show you could name, including most of the plethora of Westerns that literally saturated TV during that period.

Personally, I enjoy the "Torchy" series, because I get to see Glenda throughout an entire film, and she's always good. I particularly like TORCHY RUNS FOR MAYOR because, at that same time, Glenda ran for Mayor of North Hollywood and WON in a landslide over Bing Crosby. One of the points I wanted to make strongly in my book is how much of a TRAILBLAZER Glenda was regarding the roles (both on- and off-screen) of women in Hollywood during the 1930s. In many respects, she was WAY ahead of all the other females. Indeed, she was just as unique in her personal life as she was on the screen, and she deserves to be recognized for it. (She just was not one to go around broadcasting it. She wasn't a REAL politician! She was a very humble, very kind, generous and sweet woman.) But if my book can do ANYTHING to teach a few people that fact of her pre-"Women's Lib" activities, then it was worth writing. It was worth writing on many levels, but this is one of the most important.
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Re: Welcome Scott Nollen to Discuss Glenda Farrell: Hollywood's Hard-Boiled Dame on 9/26 & 9/27

Post by hbenthow »

What was the most unexpected discovery about Glenda Farrell that you encountered during your research?

Was there any information that you found, but that didn't make it into the book?
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Re: Welcome Scott Nollen to Discuss Glenda Farrell: Hollywood's Hard-Boiled Dame on 9/26 & 9/27

Post by moira finnie »

Following up on Hardwick's excellent questions, when researching this book, were you able to be in contact with anyone who knew Glenda Farrell?
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Re: Welcome Scott Nollen to Discuss Glenda Farrell: Hollywood's Hard-Boiled Dame on 9/26 & 9/27

Post by Scott_Nollen »

hbenthow wrote:What was the most unexpected discovery about Glenda Farrell that you encountered during your research?

Was there any information that you found, but that didn't make it into the book?

Good evening to the most esteemed Mr. Hardwicke Benthow. I was hoping you'd drop in.

In general, the fact I found most interesting and surprising about Glenda was just HOW different she was from the fast-talking dames she usually played on the screen. Those roles of Glenda's were variations on a genius-level version of that type of characterization, but she actually was nothing like any of those dames. She was the best at that character type, and I don't think anyone would argue that she wasn't. Glenda actually influenced many actresses who came after her, especially with the MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM/TORCHY BLANE female reporter character. Even film historians talk about how revolutionary HIS GIRL FRIDAY (1940), with Rosalind Russell, is, but nothing can be further from the truth. Glenda had already created that female reporter several years earlier, but I never even heard her mentioned when I was in film school during the early 1980s. I did hear a lot of nonsense.

As to something that didn't make it into the book. you know darn well what it is!

Some new information has come to light, and I received it through that fine scholar and good friend, YOU, who are a major fan of Glenda, and have done a lot of research on her. You informed me that the Thomas Richards who worked as an editor at Warner Bros. was a different individual than Glenda’s first husband. (With all the various subjects I've written about, and the way my memory works (?) now, I don't recall where you got the information, so I just give you the credit.)

I always thought this whole issue seemed incongruous, with the “Thomas Richards” who had been married to Glenda briefly (and from whom she learned a good lesson about marriage, as proved by her subsequent behavior) also being sober and reliable enough to edit masterpieces such as THE MALTESE FALCON (1941)! That made absolutely NO sense whatsoever. But that is the information I found in a number of sources.

I’m pleased that this has come to light, but of course it surfaced JUST AFTER my book was published. These sorts of things happen to historians of all species a lot. In fact, similar instances have caused me some consternation over the years! But that’s life!

Any scholar cannot be selfish, has to share his work with others, and always hope that others will also make discoveries that add to the sum of knowledge about a subject. That’s teaching. That’s scholarship. And if any historical writer believes or behaves in any other way, he/she has no business being in the profession. In fact, people in every profession should act that way, but that is in direct conflict with the American system of competition. We scholars have to be collaborators, not competitors.

Thanks for asking, Hardwicke, old buddy, because I had that answer all ready to go! :lol:
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Re: Welcome Scott Nollen to Discuss Glenda Farrell: Hollywood's Hard-Boiled Dame on 9/26 & 9/27

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moira finnie wrote:Following up on Hardwick's excellent questions, when researching this book, were you able to be in contact with anyone who knew Glenda Farrell?
Unfortunately, no.

I tried to get back in contact with Julie Harris, but it had been many years since she and I had talked, and her health was failing quite badly. She passed away quite soon after I made my attempts.

Just the other day, I talked to a friend in Los Angeles who said she'd met Glenda at some affair, but it was just a casual "Hello" situation, nothing of substance.

When I began my career, a lot of people from Golden Age Hollywood were still living. In 2015, I'm actually glad I'm not planning to do much more of this, because, sadly, no one is really left. This is a subject that depresses me greatly, so I'll stop right here.

What the hell was I thinking when I decided to be a historian?

Good question, though. :D
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Re: Welcome Scott Nollen to Discuss Glenda Farrell: Hollywood's Hard-Boiled Dame on 9/26 & 9/27

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Scott_Nollen wrote:Glenda actually influenced many actresses who came after her, especially with the MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM/TORCHY BLANE female reporter character. Even film historians talk about how revolutionary HIS GIRL FRIDAY (1940), with Rosalind Russell, is, but nothing can be further from the truth. Glenda had already created that female reporter several years earlier, but I never even heard her mentioned when I was in film school during the early 1980s. I did hear a lot of nonsense.
Very true. Hildy Johnson wasn't the first or even the most influential female news reporter. It was Torchy Blane that inspired Lois Lane, the most famous fictional reporter to this day. Also, the influence of Torchy Blane in cinema (especially B-movies) became evident before His Girl Friday hit theaters. Nancy Drew, Reporter (1939) features Nancy Drew (Bonita Granville), inspired by movies she has seen, temporarily becoming a reporter. While the movie reporter she is emulating is not named, it's pretty likely that audiences at the time took this as a Torchy Blane reference. Mr. Wong in Chinatown (1939) features an unabashed Torchy Blane clone named Bobby Logan (Marjorie Reynolds), who is in a romantic relationship with a Steve McBride-esque policeman character named Bill Street (Grant Withers). Torchy Blane, Lois Lane, Nancy Drew in "reporter mode", and Bobby Logan all predate Rosalind Russell's portrayal of Hildy Johnson. And that's not even counting Glenda Farrell's pre-Torchy Blane reporter characters in Mystery of the Wax Museum and Hi, Nellie!
(With all the various subjects I've written about, and the way my memory works (?) now, I don't recall where you got the information, so I just give you the credit.)
Early this year, I found a record of Glenda Farrell's 1920 wedding to Thomas Richards. From this information, I learned that Glenda's middle name was Patricia, and that Thomas Richards' was John. I did not remember at the time that the name of Thomas Richards the film editor was Thomas Albert Richards, so did not give his middle name any further thought.

Here is the page where is discovered this information:

https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K8ZR-SRG

More recently, I was contacted via a pair of comments on my article "Glenda Farrell: Her Life and Legacy" by one Charles Edward Johnston, who provided me with some information about the two Thomas Richardses. His two comments are quoted below, and below that is a link to where his comments can be viewed in context.
According to the IMDb website, Glenda Farrell’s first husband was Thomas Albert Richards, a native of England and a movie editor at Warner Brothers. Yet according to a marriage record found on the FamilySearch website, one Glenda Patricia Farrell married one Thomas John Richards, a 21-year-old native of Pennsylvania, on May 3, 1920 in Los Angeles, California. Also according to the marriage record, Richards’ parents were William D. Farrell, a native of Pennsylvania, and Mary Hyland (apparently her maiden name), a native of England. At the time of the marriage, Richards was a resident of San Diego and apparently serving in the U.S. Navy.

I found various records of one Thomas Albert Richards on the Ancestry.com and FamilySearch website. According to his Declaration of Intention to become a U.S. citizen which was found in the U.S., Naturalization Records database on the Ancestry.com website, one Thomas Albert Richards was a 22-year-old resident of Los Angeles, California and was born on January 8, 1899 in Dalton, England. Also according to the record, Richards arrived in the U.S. during 1905, was not married and worked as a machinist at the time. On June 2, 1921 in the United States of America, Richards swore that the information on the record or document was true to a deputy clerk of the U.S. District Court, Southern District of California.

I found that one Thomas Richards, a native of England born about 1899 and living in Los Angeles County during 1930 and 1940. According to the 1930 U.S. Census, one Thomas A. Richards, a single man, was worked as a cutter in the motion picture industry. According to the 1940 U.S. Census, one Thomas Richards, a divorced man, worked as a film editor in a motion picture studio.

There are many other records pertaining to Thomas Albert Richards which can be found on genealogical websites. According to various, his parents were Thomas Albert Richards and Elizabeth Folkes (her maiden name). I did quite a bit of research on
Thomas Albert Richards because I had read that one Tommy Richards was a film editor at Warner Brothers and a former Pacific Coast lightweight boxing champion. Richards apparently praised the boxing ability of James Cagney around the time the latter was working on the film, Winner Take All. There was a Tommy Richards who was active as a featherweight or lightweight boxer in Los Angeles during the 1910s and 1920s. His record can be found on the BoxRec website.
I believe that I found out what happened to Glenda Farrell’s first husband, Thomas John Richards. According to marriage records found on the FamilySearch website, one Thomas John Richards, 37-year-old native of Pennsylvania, was married to one Gwendolyn Bayley, a 24-year-old native of Kansas, on July 6, 1937 in Culver City, California. It was the second marriage for Richards, a divorced man, and the first for Bayley. Richards and Bayley were dancers in the “Pictures” and on the stage respectively.

According to the Pennsylvania, Death Certificates, 1906-1963 database, one Thomas John Richards, a 40-year-old actor and a native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, died on November 1, 1939 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was determined that his death was due to suicide, which was described on the back of the certificated in graphic detail. His wife was one Gwendolyn Bayley (probably her maiden name).
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Re: Welcome Scott Nollen to Discuss Glenda Farrell: Hollywood's Hard-Boiled Dame on 9/26 & 9/27

Post by Scott_Nollen »

Thanks, Hardwicke,

I knew I would get some excellent detailed information from you on the Thomas Richards subject. I think that pretty well sums it all up.

Yes, indeed. Marjorie Reynolds as Bobbie Logan! Of course I am very familiar with her because of the MR. WONG films, each I've seen about two dozen times because of my 47-year love affair with Boris Karloff and how many endless years of my life dedicated to him including practically living in Sara Karloff's dining room in Palm Springs and sleeping under piles of correspondence in the guest room at her condo at Lake Tahoe (and waking up with Joan Crawford's signature right beside my head!). Those are some heady days I wish I could go back and relive--that was before my life starting plummeting down into a bottomless abyss that it has never crawled back out of--and won't at this point. But I just keep crawling--or rolling--on.

Thanks again, my friend. You've been extremely helpful to me during my entire Glenda Farrell book experience, and here you are again! :D
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Re: Welcome Scott Nollen to Discuss Glenda Farrell: Hollywood's Hard-Boiled Dame on 9/26 & 9/27

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Dear Scott,
We are so lucky to have you visit us and share your expertise with our membership here on The SIlver Screen Oasis.

As a working single mother, I am always fascinated with how the single mother in Classic Hollywood managed to raise a child. One of the quotes attributed to Farrell is "What set am I on today?" during the hectic pace of newly-developed "talkies," and I often experienced moments like that while working and taking care of my family. Can you share with us anything about Glenda's relationship with her son and grandson if you can?
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Re: Welcome Scott Nollen to Discuss Glenda Farrell: Hollywood's Hard-Boiled Dame on 9/26 & 9/27

Post by Scott_Nollen »

Sue Sue Applegate wrote:Dear Scott,
We are so lucky to have you visit us and share your expertise with our membership here on The SIlver Screen Oasis.

As a working single mother, I am always fascinated with how the single mother in Classic Hollywood managed to raise a child. One of the quotes attributed to Farrell is "What set am I on today?" during the hectic pace of newly-developed "talkies," and I often experienced moments like that while working and taking care of my family. Can you share with us anything about Glenda's relationship with her son and grandson if you can?
From all the research that I did over many years, everything points to the fact that the relationship between Glenda and Tommy was wonderful. Glenda had such a great relationship with her father that she bought him a house in Los Angeles so the three of them could see each other as much as possible. That also gave Glenda Tommy's grandfather as his father figure and male role model. When she was at Warners, she always knew that Tommy was with his granddad. Then, when he was old enough, they all made the decision that he would attend military school. She was a person who just did whatever it took to get the job done, and her comments about "what set," etc., reflect the fact that she was ALWAYS working during the days and making SO many movies during those studio-system days. I've always been amazed at how many good films were made at that speed. The studios were factories, but as far as I am concerned, the films were so much better than what we've gotten after the Supreme Court destroyed the studio system. Of course there have been a lot of fine films made after the late 40s, but that studio system was a wonder--and it was people like Glenda who made it that way.

As far as her relationship with grandchildren, I really don't have a lot of information about that. Since I never was able to connect with anyone who knew Glenda, I didn't get that far, unfortunately. To be honest, I am VERY surprised that I found enough material to be able to write a book on Glenda. That was always my one "fear," for want of a better word right now. But I just kept digging. I always say that my education as a historian was far more important than my education in film (I pretty well knew all that stuff before I went to a university). Being educated as a research historian made me closer to what/whom I always wanted to be as a teenager (Sherlock Holmes!), because after I hit bedrock, I keep on going. Either you can solve a mystery, or there just isn't enough AVAILABLE evidence to solve it.

About my answer of last night that seemed to derive from "depression" or whatever: For the last seven years, I've struggled to hold onto an existence; the thought of an actual "life" pretty well ended in 2008. I use a lot of humor, often to mask how I'm really feeling, but it sometimes can reach the JAMES WHALE variety (and, oh, how I LOVE Jimmy!)--gallows humor. Moira was concerned about it. I fell asleep, woke up in a pain-riddled haze, read Hardwicke's lengthy and wonderful account (his trademark--he's a GREAT researcher), and passed out again. I guess I didn't realize what I wrote would alarm anyone. As the great STAN LAUREL said, "Honesty is the best politics!" That's how I run my life: I'm honest: sometimes it's positive; sometimes negative, but it's HONEST. And I don't act any differently for anyone--I'm the same for strangers as I am for people who've known me for 40 years. I don't like role playing, because that is LYING. Today I feel like HELL, but it helps me to struggle to type on this laptop. It's much better than just lying down, letting my 24/7 brain just think about what I wish I could be doing. (If I postponed this because I'm sick, I'd never do it, because I never really feel good--I just try as hard as I can!)

Absolutely delighted to be here, and I'll do my level best to answer any more questions about my beloved GLENDA! 8)
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Re: Welcome Scott Nollen to Discuss Glenda Farrell: Hollywood's Hard-Boiled Dame on 9/26 & 9/27

Post by moira finnie »

Thanks to PT, Hardwicke, and Christy for your great questions and contributions to this topic. I hope that everyone reading this will post more if you would like.

If you don't mind Scott, I'd like to ask a bit about how you write.

In your interview with Cliff Aliperti about this book, you mentioned two current projects:

--A book on the film I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang for The McFarland Press.

--The essays you (and other historians) are writing for The Library of Congress about movies that were recently added to The National Film Registry.

Without giving away too much, can you mention which films you are writing about for the LOC? How do you balance the need to give the general reader factual information about the subject and the desire to express your own passionately held POV?

Have you found that research has gotten easier over time, especially with the development of the internet? Have you developed a network of human contacts to turn to for help? Could you please describe any instances when your subject or attitude toward a person changed as a result of something you unearthed?

I recently encountered a historian who writes everywhere--even on the subway and standing in line at a grocery store. Do you have a particular place or time of day to write? When you immerse yourself in a subject do you gather as many related objects as you can for inspiration?

Do you recall the most memorable reactions you have had from readers of your books? Did one subject evoke greater responses than any other?

Thanks very much for returning today, Scott. I know you might not express pride in your accomplishments, but for many others the range and quality of your work is admirable.
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Re: Welcome Scott Nollen to Discuss Glenda Farrell: Hollywood's Hard-Boiled Dame on 9/26 & 9/27

Post by Scott_Nollen »

moira finnie wrote:Thanks to PT, Hardwicke, and Christy for your great questions and contributions to this topic. I hope that everyone reading this will post more if you would like.

If you don't mind Scott, I'd like to ask a bit about how you write.

In your interview with Cliff Aliperti about this book, you mentioned two current projects:

--A book on the film I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang book for The McFarland Press.

--The essays you (and other historians) are writing for The Library of Congress about movies that were recently added to The National Film Registry.

Without giving away too much, can you mention which films you are writing about for the LOC? How do you balance the need to give the general reader factual information about the subject and the need to express your own passionately held POV?

Have you found that research has gotten easier over time, especially with the development of the internet? Have you developed a network of human contacts to turn to for help? Could you please describe any instances when your subject or attitude toward a person changed as a result of something you unearthed?

I recently encountered a historian who writes everywhere--even on the subway and standing in line at a grocery store. Do you have a particular place or time of day to write? When you immerse yourself in a subject do you gather as many related objects as you can for inspiration?

Do you recall the most memorable reactions you have had from readers of your books? Did one subject evoke greater responses than any other?

Thanks very much for returning today, Scott.

You're very welcome, Moira, and these are some very good and, for me, difficult questions.

I've been writing since I was four years old, so it's always been something that I've just DONE. I haven't really taken that much time to analyze it, although during my 10 years with the National Archives (1991-2001), I taught writing classes to people, from second graders to senior citizens. Honestly, I don't remember how I did it! But they kept asking me to do these seminars, so either (1) I did a good job; or (2) nobody else wanted to do it! The latter actually happened a lot, because the phrase, "Just get Nollen to do it!" became a running gag around there. I just have a very strong work ethic and, if I think I'm capable of doing something, I won't say, "No." Back then, I could pull off that sort of thing. My father raised me never to resist a good challenge. (He was on Search and Rescue in the Coast Guard, so I've always had a lot to live up to, and I could NEVER touch that man's greatness--not a chance. He's 85 and out mowing the lawn right now.)

But to try to answer some of your questions:

I have never written on a schedule, like it's a "real job." Everything I've written (except what I did for REAL jobs) has been of my own conception, so I have to FEEL it. It has to be some sort of artistic muse for me. I am now working pretty steadily on I AM A FUGITIVE FROM A CHAIN GANG (Glenda again!), which is another of "the books that have been in my head" for the past 30+ years (and it's almost the last one--there's one more, which I also will do, if I'm up to it).

I was "retired" (ha, ha), but I had signed a contract years ago with McFarland, and they still wanted CHAIN GANG. And then I realized that I HAVE to write this book for several reasons. I needed something to DO with myself now that I'm disabled, and I literally only go outside my room (maybe) once per month, and that's for a doctor's appointment or possibly to shop a little (which CAN be fun!). Also, the subject of this book isn't REALLY the film. I am using the film I AM A FUGITIVE FROM A CHAIN GANG (with full coverage, as I always do) as the centerpiece for the COMPLETE story of Robert E. Burns, the actual fugitive: his biography, before, during and after the film. The film obviously only covers his life up to 1932--and that ENDING, as far as I'm concerned, is THE GREATEST film ending of all time because it is TRUE.

Burns' troubles were just BEGINNING at the end of that film, so I will be completing the story from 1932 until his death in 1955. The book I AM A FUGITIVE FROM A GEORGIA CHAIN GANG actually was ghost-written by his brother, Rev. Vincent G. Burns, who later was the Poet Laureate of Maryland (until his death in the 70s). I also have the sequel (published in 1942), OUT OF THESE CHAINS, a first edition hardcover from Vincent's own stash that is beautifully inscribed and signed to a good friend of his, and also contains some signed poetry of his. Unfortunately, the binding is falling apart because of all my heavy use--gotta break some eggs, right?

So this SHOULD be an "important" book. It's not just about a film or filmmaker, it's about how we humans treat each other; and, as we all know, much of the time, it's not very good, is it?

So, now I wake up every morning with REALLY something to do; and, IF I feel well enough, I write for a couple hours, take a break and/or a nap, and then repeat the process. The book also will be filled with some pretty amazing photos. I'm not only going to tell the rest of Burns' story, but I also am going to include a chapter about the "progeny" of CHAIN GANG: subsequent films inspired by, or just ripped off from, the original.

A unique story, a unique film, a unique project after writing 21 other books; and my proofreading stages (I usually proofread about 10-12 times to make the prose more lean) this time will be to fashion the style in an almost novelistic style. No two of my books are the same. Some are pretty good; a couple I don't think much of anymore--but they're all different. I am going to try my damnedest to make this one the best, or there's no use doing it.

When I was mobile, I used to write everywhere, also. On napkins in bars, ATM receipts out on the streets, on the subway and buses, etc. So I can definitely identify with the other person you mentioned. Often you'd better get it down, or it's GONE! :x

I wrote two essays for the LOC that are on their website: STAGECOACH and THE QUIET MAN. For some reason, it wasn't that difficult to refashion these for a different audience. I also wrote essays on THE EMPEROR JONES and THE SEARCHERS, but I could never whittle them down enough--so these are in limbo right now. I will say that the LOC (they don't pay anyone, but that's par for the course for us writers, right?) can be very rude. They don't thank you, and they don't answer questions to make the process any easier. I guess just the "honor" of being asked is supposed to be enough. I already wrote and made films for the Fed many years ago, so being asked, yes, was nice, but once they hook you, you're just a fish. And, obviously, I'm not afraid to voice this (or anything else) in public, if it's the TRUTH. :D

Some aspects of doing research have become MUCH easier because of the internet, but I really did enjoy those days when folks like us/scholars had to physically look through all those publications, huge bound volumes, boxes of stuff, stuff and more stuff. To have that actual tactile sensation from the research material. For me, personally, now I CAN'T do that anymore, so what is on the internet (and that's a lot) makes it possible for me to keep writing.

For CHAIN GANG, I already put together all the physical evidence many years ago--and it's a good thing I did, too.

One thing that has become much worse are the fees and regulations that archives and libraries now have. "Back in the day," all that stuff was free. Today many "pennilesscholars" (to borrow a term from my "pal," Robert Louis Stevenson) can't afford to DO the work anymore. Even if I was mobile, I also am quite poor (in material things, a lot of it by choice--I give a lot of stuff away), so I can't afford to do research at the institutions anymore. For example, I have a friend in L.A. who was going to look through the CHAIN GANG file at USC, but the restrictions and fees were so ridiculous, I told everyone to forget it. I'm just going with what I have--and it's plenty! :D

All of my book projects have been "passion projects." BUT, if I am writing about someone, and I run into something I don't like personally about someone, that doesn't affect my writing. As a historian, it is my JOB to report the FACTS and hopefully do it in a manner that is interesting. For instance, I love WARD BOND as an actor; but as a human being, not so much--but that didn't affect my writing about him. The only people who have not liked my FORD, WAYNE, BOND book are right-wing extremists, and I KNEW they wouldn't like it before I wrote it. My book has been accused of being "Liberal." People can put whatever labels they want on something, but it is the artist's own INTENT that is the TRUTH. I wrote that book in the manner in which I was educated: to be as objective as possible. Honestly, how can anyone in 2015 defend the BLACKLIST? Might as well bring back slavery and take the vote away from women. That's just an example of how people can read your work through filters, rose-colored glasses, whatever their particular viewpoint is. Try to absorb things with an OPEN MIND and you just MIGHT LEARN SOMETHING. Come at something with your "mind" already made up, and you'll always remain as IGNORANT as you were when you exited the womb. Read to learn. If it's real garbage, anyone will know that. If it's well done, give it a chance! :idea:
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Re: Welcome Scott Nollen to Discuss Glenda Farrell: Hollywood's Hard-Boiled Dame on 9/26 & 9/27

Post by Scott_Nollen »

I forgot to mention that I also wrote a chapter on Robert Louis Stevenson, TREASURE ISLAND and KIDNAPPED for a new two-volume set called THE DISNEY VERSIONS (Scarecrow), which is in the editing process now. I think I am the only RLS scholar still living. My book on Stevenson, I STILL LIKE! :lol:
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hbenthow
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Re: Welcome Scott Nollen to Discuss Glenda Farrell: Hollywood's Hard-Boiled Dame on 9/26 & 9/27

Post by hbenthow »

By all accounts, Glenda Farrell was a very generous person. Is much known about any sort of charity projects she was involved in?
Sue Sue Applegate wrote:Can you share with us anything about Glenda's relationship with her son and grandson if you can?
There is a very interesting interview of Tommy Farrell at the bottom of the page linked to below. It provides some very interesting insight into his relationship with his mother. Not much is known about her relationship with any of her grandchildren.

http://web.archive.org/web/200301021603 ... rrell.html
Scott_Nollen
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Re: Welcome Scott Nollen to Discuss Glenda Farrell: Hollywood's Hard-Boiled Dame on 9/26 & 9/27

Post by Scott_Nollen »

hbenthow wrote:By all accounts, Glenda Farrell was a very generous person. Is much known about any sort of charity projects she was involved in?
Sue Sue Applegate wrote:Can you share with us anything about Glenda's relationship with her son and grandson if you can?
There is a very interesting interview of Tommy Farrell at the bottom of the page linked to below. It provides some very interesting insight into his relationship with his mother. Not much is known about her relationship with any of her grandchildren.

http://web.archive.org/web/200301021603 ... rrell.html
Glenda was involved in charity her entire adult life, and was the BEST kind of giver: a person who didn't BROADCAST the charitable things she did (in this aspect, she was very much like Frank Sinatra). On the weekends, during her time in Hollywood, she would have parties for Tommy, his friends and other children of her friends she worked with at Warner Bros. A special occasion wasn't always required. She would lay out quite a feed, plus cakes, candies, and gifts for the children.

On a larger scale, Glenda became involved in several major rallies for War Bonds during WWII. She usually was on the organizing committees of these events. Since she always kept an apartment in New York, as well as her home in Hollywood, she could get involved in events on both coasts (such as running for Mayor of North Hollywood in 1939; although it was an honorary position, she was involved in all sorts of community improvement efforts, such as landscaping along the streets, planting trees, etc.). After she married Dr. Ross, she became involved in similar community projects, often involving ecology, in Brewster, New York. In 1977, Dr. Ross donated (in honor of Glenda) 38 acres of their estate, now known as the "Glenda Farrell-Henry Ross Preserve" in Putnam County, New York. (There is a website for the Putnam County Land Trust, listed at the end of my book: http://www.pclt.net)

All of these charitable events are included in my book. I almost forgot to mention that I now have an Ebay store, where you can get personally inscribed copies of my books, including GLENDA: http://www.ebay.com/itm/GLENDA-FARRELL- ... RK:MESE:IT

Hardwicke: Yes, that interview with Tommy Farrell is terrific. You sent it to me when I was writing the book, and I do quote from it several times. Thanks again, my friend! :D
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