Combat Sports Historian and Martial Artist
Sherlock Holmes Faces Death (1943) is loosely based on The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual. The short story was published in The Strand Magazine during May 1893. It was later compiled in The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes. In the story, the Musgrave Mansion held a secret that even it’s inhabitants did not know. This film follows the same plot line
Few events shocked St. Louis like the line of duty death of Lt. Sidney Sears in June 1924. For almost 30 years, Lt. Sears was considered the best pistol shot on the St. Louis Police Department. In 1904, Sears was also National Pistol Champion of the United States. For someone to kill Lt. Sears in a shootout was considered impossible.
Kate Chopin, daughter of a prominent French family and at the time local author, collapsed at the St. Louis 1904 World’s Fair on August 20, 1904. Madame Chopin was only 54 years old and suffered a brain hemorrhage or aneurism. She died at her home on McPherson Avenue on August 22, 1904. Kate Chopin was born Kate O’Flaherty in St.
I’ve been on an Alan Ladd kick lately. When I was still in college, I watched a number of Alan Ladd films one summer. I’ve been watching them over again the last few weeks on Amazon Prime. I’ll share some of these films over the next few months. The first film I watched was Thunder in the East (1951) starring
Dominant champions like William Muldoon often had to accept handicap conditions to get fans interested in watching them wrestle. Since fans only considered Clarence Whistler skilled enough to really threaten his reign, Muldoon would often generate interest by either performing feats of strength or taking on the challenge of handicap conditions. On May 5, 1885, Muldoon met Matsuda Sorokichi, who
Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome (1947) is the final entry in “B” film series. RKO Pictures took the series over from Republic Pictures, who released the original Dick Tracy serials in the late 1930s and early 1940s. RKO Pictures released the film to theaters on September 26, 1947. RKO brought Boris Karloff in to play Gruesome, one of Dick Tracy’s arch
On Tuesday, July 4, 1916, former St. Louis Chief of Detectives William Desmond passed away after an illness of two years. Desmond was in Alexian Brothers Hospital from October 1915 until his death on Independence Day 1916. The 59-year-old Desmond left a 12-year-old son, William Desmond, Jr. Chief Desmond’s wife died several years before him. For 17 years from 1890
When Twentieth Century-Fox decided to drop the Charlie Chan series after Castle in the Desert (1942), Sidney Toler purchased the rights to the series and took it to Monogram Pictures. After making 11 films with Twentieth Century-Fox, Toler would make 11 Charlie Chan films with Monogram Pictures. Shadows Over Chinatown (1946) was the ninth film that Toler made for Monogram
When Frank Gotch retired as World Heavyweight Wrestling Champion after beating Georg Lurich in his last match, promoters scrambled to find a successor. Samuel Rachmann tried to put forth his own champion by hosting the 1915 International Wrestling Tournament in New York City. Rachmann wanted his challenger Aberg to win the tournament and be recognized by the public as the
1909 was probably the worst year of Parker Lonzo Bator Zimmerman’s life. He lost both his ten month old daughter Ida May Zimmerman and his second wife Mellie Bollinger Zimmerman. Before Parker’s death in the Cape Giraurdeau Tornado of 1949, he would bury two more of his children. Both of them were adults. I can only imagine how hard 1909