Bob Birchard wrote:While it may not be definitive, I did a Lantern search on the media history digital database for the years 1924 to 1930 and also on newspaperarchive.com for all states over the same period of time and could not come up with a single reference to any Malcoln Sebastian (or Sebastion), nor to a Big Boy Sebastian (or Sebastion). But there were, if not numerous, at least more than several references to Malcolm Sabiston as well as Malcolm Big Boy Sabiston and Big Boy Sabiston, including this 1928 Educational Film Exchanges, Inc. ad that appeared in Photoplay magazine, stating: "'Big Boy,' whose real name is Malcolm Sabiston . . . "
http://lantern.mediahist.org/catalog/ph ... 4movi_0443In the shorts I've seen (admittedly not a huge number) he's simply billed as Big Boy. So, if as you say he was billed as 'Malcolm "Big Boy" Sebastian in the shorts,' perhaps you could cite some examples. I'm always up for erudition from the know it all of silent comedy.
Ah Bob, once again being the time-wasting, anal-retentive, mean spirited asshole that you are, you go to Lantern and pull the one of two references to Malcolm Sabiston that there is in the entire database (and that reference even refers to “whose real name is Malcolm Sabiston"), and your sad petty little brain thinks “Oh boy, I’ll get Roberts on this one, that will make me be sooooo cool!”.
Well Bobby-Boy, in your actual limited film comedy knowledge, you are, as usual, grasping at straws. If you had even bothered to come to Malcolm’s appearance at the 1993 Cinecon, you would have heard him speak the words “Our last name was really Sabiston, but no one knew how to spell that so they changed it to “Sebastian” to make it easier for everyone”.
And indeed, they usually refer to little Malcolm as “Big Boy”, but if you’d bother to take a look at the Educational Press releases, but that would mean a little more research than hitting a few keystrokes, you’d see that they also refer to him as “Malcolm Sebastian”. I have the press sheets for BABY BE GOOD, BACHELORS BABIES, and SEA SCAMPS all in front of me and they do indeed say “Malcolm Sebastian” on their page two cast lists.
In fact, you can see the one for SEA SCAMPS on Rob Stones Al Joy Fan Club blog if you can bother to even do that much actual searching:
http://www.aljoyfanclub.blogspot.com/20 ... edies.htmlNow just go to number six of the 20 pages of press sheets there and you’ll have your answer…….
Now, if you type in the words “Malcolm Sabiston” to the imdb, you get a page that simply reads “friend of Lon Chaney”, and then you are referred to “Malcolm Sebastian” as that was his screen name. Even Steve Massa, on page 319 of his book LAME BRAINS AND LUNATICS lists him as ‘Malcolm Sebastian (originally Sabiston)” and if you go to the index, he’s listed under “Sebastian (aka Sabiston see Big Boy)”, so this rigid behavior of yours that comes with old age and a lifetime of social misfitry is just making you look a fool Bob. You can think yourself cool only referring only to Archie Leach in conversations, but most folk won’t know who you’re talking about because he was billed as Cary Grant.
And I hate to tell you, but, if you persist in this sort of pointless troublemaking with this small amount of limited actual expertise, the Godfathers may have to reconsider your membership here at the club. Perhaps you should bone up on the actual rules of the Mafia, and rethink your position. Unlike Nitratevile, which pretends to be this bastion of good-will and free-speech, even though it isn’t, we have never claimed to be a democracy here. Now, you have wasted enough of our time for today, 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