Bob Birchard wrote:Richard M Roberts wrote:. . . this was a thread meant to help plug Grapevine’s great product, not an opportunity for you to split pointless hairs in your grudge against me. Go take your nap.
RICHARD M ROBERTS
Richard, far be it from me to crimp Jack Hardy's sales. I urge everyone to be the first on their block to pick up Grapevine's Big Boy DVD set. And also, many thanks for the information regarding the press sheets for the first three Big Boy comedies. I appreciate your taking the time to set me straight. It is clear you are correct, that Educational billed the lad as Malcolm Sebastian early on. I equally agree that if one were to continually refer to the man well-known and widely recognized as Cary Grant by the name Archie Leach, “most folk won’t know who you’re talking about because he was billed as Cary Grant.” I doubt that one in several hundred thousand knew what the character Walter Burns was talking about in “His Girl Friday” when he referred to his “old friend Archie Leach.”
But I don’t think the analogy is apt, and if you took the time to analyze the evidence you might realize that Educational’s “campaign” to make the public aware of Malcolm “Sebastian” was at best a dismal failure—in a fair sampling of newspapers in the years 1924-1930, as I wrote, not a single one made reference to anyone named Malcolm Sebastian (Big Boy or no). For whatever reason the “Sebastian” campaign was also short-lived. The first Big Boy release was in October 1925, and the last in the series was released in August 1929—forty-six months later. By as early as December 1926, little more than fifteen months into the series, Educational press releases were referring to Malcolm Sabiston—and papers did pick up stories with the Sabiston moniker. So, while Educational may have initially used the “Sebastian” spelling, they dropped the conceit early on and Malcolm Sabiston was never well-known or widely recognized as Malcolm Sebastian.
And you've been obsessing about it for days and were determined to have the last word and madly started digging. Birchard, get a life.
You're still trying to split hairs about something completely pointless. Malcolm Sebastian was known primarily as Big Boy, he was never widely recognized as either Sebastian or Sabiston, and your trying to make an issue of it is a complete straw man pile of crap. As other mafians here have said, it just was not that big a deal to Hollywood or the press to be that anal in spellings of many actors, especially when they went by nicknames or other monikers.
Actually, by 1926, Educational’s press sheets were just referring to him as “Big Boy”, it really does look like they were not working hard to get either his real name or his different spelling moniker before the public, in press interviews, it could go either way, neither Malcolm or his Mother seemed to be setting any hard and fast rule by it. I think by then it was obvious that Malcolm was not really interested in pursuing a film career after the Big Boy Comedies ended, so who cared how his last name was spelled? Educational was obviously going to drop the series once talkies came in anyway.
Once again, you’re trying to find an absolute where there is not one and you’re arguing with someone who can care less, you’re also showing nothing but a sad desire to be right on something where there is no one right answer. Go argue with the IMDB and get them to change his main spelling to Sabiston if you want to talk to someone who might care. This rigid need to have an absolute and the pathetic need to want to be able to say “Heh, I showed that Roberts a thing or two” to your cronies (who also probably can care less) shows you to be a rather sad old man, with a rigidity bordering on senility, or perhaps a cry for attention to someone who really wants nothing to do with you anymore Bob. In any event, this Godfather has ruled the argument over. Future words on this will be pulled and any attempts by you to continue this nonsense will be dealt with. Give it up and go try to have a Happy Thanksgiving.
This is your last warning.
RICHARD M ROBERTS