And the Mystery is Solved!

For all of you that were following Intigator’s blog the other day about the Timmy/Shimmy mystery (or wanted to, but didn’t have the time to invest) you’ll be glad to know that the secret has been revealed. According to Entertainment Lawyer, this is how it went...

Film star Alice Brady was the daughter of William Brady, a big time movie mogul. She wanted very much to act, but was plagued with illness and would often have to back out of acting roles because of broken bones or other ailments. One day, William Brady saw a young actress perform that looked very much like his daughter and approached her about helping his daughter as a stand-in for roles when she didn't feel well. He went backstage to find the actress was in fact a female impersonator - Arthur Blake. As the story goes, Brady asked Arthur to spend time with his daughter and perfect his 'act' then assist her by taking over for her when she couldn't act. This started with with Gay Divorcee and continued on through her film career. As she grew sicker, Arthur had to take on larger parts of the films. He even started a secret relationship with Cesar Romero, who was his co-star in Metropolitan. Toward the end of filming In Old Chicago, Alice became very sick and could do almost none of the later scenes. When she was nominated for an Academy Award for the role, she broke her foot and was unable to attend. Its rumored that Arthur's lover attended in their place and accepted the award, although one was never found. When she died shortly after, Arthur returned to his career as a female impersonator.

Read EL's blog for the full story.

Crazy. Of course, I doubt there’s much proof to back it up, but it would be interesting if it were true. Entertainment Lawyer threw in a bunch of red herrings to make it harder to figure out and even made it seem like this was a man who invented a female character and won an AA for it when it was in fact only a stand-in situation. I was a little disappointed, but it was a fun ride. I have to say its inspired me to write something about the days of old Hollywood. After I finish my current one, of course.

Now that its all over, I can return to my regularly scheduled life already in progress. Thank you for your time. Back to the writing challenge. I’m over the hump and on my way down. I hit page 300 yesterday. If only I wasn’t running out of scenes to write. I think the last 20 or 30 pages are going to be the result of revisions and edits. Boo.

So, did you get wrapped up in the Life and Times of Timmy? Do you believe the story is true? Are you going to log onto Netflix and get a copy of In Old Chicago? Have you heard any good Hollywood legends that you could share? I’m a little let down that its all over now.

SP