Thank You, Weird Hollywood!

by Paula Bosse

by Paula Bosse

Thank you, Joe Oesterle, for the very flattering post on your (great) Weird Hollywood Facebook page! His mystery photo of the Gunther Castle was a lot of fun to research (the “castle” was at 2308 Pacific Avenue in Long Beach, California), and, yes, as a matter of fact, I’d love to help you research a building or person or old news story or mystery photo. I CAN be bought! If you have inquiries, please click the “Contact” tab at the top of the page and send me an email. If there’s something I can help you with, we’ll talk turkey.

As this is a blog devoted to Dallas history, the Hollywood stories are a bit scarce (even though classic Hollywood and entertainment history is a passion of mine), but there are a few. These Flashback Dallas posts might appeal to those new visitors more interested in Hollywood than Dallas: (click title to see post):

“Nardis of Dallas: The Fashion Connection Between ‘The Dick Van Dyke Show’ and the Kennedy Assassination”: FINALLY, a sitcom has been dragged into the assassination literature!
“Orson Welles in Dallas — 1934-1940”: Welles first came to Dallas as a teenage actor in 1934 (GREAT photo), then returned in 1936 to stage his “black Macbeth” at the Texas Centennial, and came back again in 1940 to lecture at SMU after having wrapped filming of Citizen Kane only a week or two previously (during this visit he made a side-trip to San Antonio to meet H. G. Wells!).
“Lucy, Desi, Dallas — 1956”: Lucy & Desi visited Dallas and Fort Worth on a promotional tour for their movie Forever Darling. A helicopter was involved.
“The Shooting of ‘Bonnie & Clyde’ — 1966”: The Bonnie & Clyde movie was shot in and around Dallas (hometown of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow); this post has a couple of location photos, but for me it was most interesting to read local reviews of the movie, one obviously written by a man who clearly remembered what the “rat punks” were like in real life and was disgusted by the glamorization of the Barrow Gang in the movie.
“Jerry Scoggins, From WFAA Staff Musician to Pop Culture Icon”: I would hazard a guess that every single person reading this can sing almost all of the lyrics of this man’s most popular recording. You many not know his name, but you know his song, and just hearing his voice will cause a deployment of all sorts of Proustian flashbacks.

Thanks again for the kind words, Joe! And keep Hollywood weird!

Flashback : Dallas