Monday, May 28, 2007
Lucille Ball, Commies and the FBI...
The blog Long Live Lucy has highlighted comments on the FBI's file on actress Lucille Ball that are reproduced in Celebrity Secrets. The FBI made some intriguing observations and comments in its records on Ball's links with Communism that - unlike with so many other Hollywood stars - were actually shown to be true, as the actress herself admitted.
Friday, May 25, 2007
Celebrity Secrets Podcast
Last month radio host and author Joshua P. Warren interviewed me extensively about my Celebrity Secrets book for his show Speaking of Strange.
The episode is now on-line: listen to it here.
We covered a wide range of the scandals, cover-ups, and sensational secrets of Hollywood's most famous figures.
The episode is now on-line: listen to it here.
We covered a wide range of the scandals, cover-ups, and sensational secrets of Hollywood's most famous figures.
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Marilyn, UFOs and Roswell
In Celebrity Secrets, I included a chapter on the FBI’s surveillance files of dead Hollywood actress Marilyn Monroe.
In that chapter I devoted a brief section to a discussion of a controversial document that - if genuine, of course - suggests that Monroe had secretly been told aspects of the Roswell, New Mexico "crashed UFO" story by the Kennedy brothers, John and Robert - as well as other official secrets, too, such as plans to assassinate Cuba's Fidel Castro.
More disturbingly, the alleged CIA document refers to a threat by Monroe to spill the beans on what she knew; something that never happened, of course, as a result of her still-controversial death.
And while I only included a chapter on this affair in Celebrity Secrets, researcher Don Burleson wrote a whole book about it; and he has just been interviewed about his research into the Monroe-UFO story.
The document falls into the gray area that most UFO data inhabits. Namely that it’s certainly intriguing, but actually proving anything is near impossible.
In that chapter I devoted a brief section to a discussion of a controversial document that - if genuine, of course - suggests that Monroe had secretly been told aspects of the Roswell, New Mexico "crashed UFO" story by the Kennedy brothers, John and Robert - as well as other official secrets, too, such as plans to assassinate Cuba's Fidel Castro.
More disturbingly, the alleged CIA document refers to a threat by Monroe to spill the beans on what she knew; something that never happened, of course, as a result of her still-controversial death.
And while I only included a chapter on this affair in Celebrity Secrets, researcher Don Burleson wrote a whole book about it; and he has just been interviewed about his research into the Monroe-UFO story.
The document falls into the gray area that most UFO data inhabits. Namely that it’s certainly intriguing, but actually proving anything is near impossible.
Friday, May 18, 2007
Celebrity Secrets on the Radio
John Greenewald, keeper of the Black Vault, interviewed me today for his on-line show, Black Vault Radio.
The subject: my Celebrity Secrets book. We cover such characters as John Lennon, Abbott & Costello, Rock Hudson, and more.
Check it out here.
The subject: my Celebrity Secrets book. We cover such characters as John Lennon, Abbott & Costello, Rock Hudson, and more.
Check it out here.
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Celebrity Anniversaries: Wayne & Sinatra
This month marks key anniversaries in the lives (and deaths) of a couple of celebrities whose FBI files are disclosed in my Celebrity Secrets book.
May 14 was the ninth anniversary of the death of cool rat-packer Frank Sinatra - whose FBI files runs to thousands of pages and cover such topics as mob and underworld links, hookers, booze, wild parties with JFK; and also, interestingly enough, rumors that the FBI followed up on (and took very seriously) suggesting that Ol' Blue Eyes had tried to bribe a doctor to declare him unfit for service in World War Two!
And, incredibly enough, May 26 will mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of Hollywood cowboy John Wayne. Yep: a century! Again, his formerly secret FBI file is a notable one - with the strangest entry related to allegations that Wayne was somehow involved in a 1950s plot to overthrow the Panamanian Government! Weird...
May 14 was the ninth anniversary of the death of cool rat-packer Frank Sinatra - whose FBI files runs to thousands of pages and cover such topics as mob and underworld links, hookers, booze, wild parties with JFK; and also, interestingly enough, rumors that the FBI followed up on (and took very seriously) suggesting that Ol' Blue Eyes had tried to bribe a doctor to declare him unfit for service in World War Two!
And, incredibly enough, May 26 will mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of Hollywood cowboy John Wayne. Yep: a century! Again, his formerly secret FBI file is a notable one - with the strangest entry related to allegations that Wayne was somehow involved in a 1950s plot to overthrow the Panamanian Government! Weird...
Thursday, May 10, 2007
The Calgary Herald Reviews The Book
The Calgary Herald's website includes a review of Celebrity Secrets (you'll need to register to read it, though).
Sid Vicious - Happy 50th!
As I noted a few days ago, my Celebrity Secrets book provides evidence that elements of British Intelligence - namely MI5 - had secret opened files on the British Punk Rock band, the Sex Pistols back in the late 1970s.
Today would have marked the 50th birthday of Pistols bass-guitarist Sid Vicious (who replaced original bassist Glen Matlock in 1977), had he not overdosed on heroin at the age of 21 in 1979.
MI5, I'm sure, could not care less; but I raise a glass to stupid Sid on his birthday, who - for all of his flaws and complete inability to actually play the damned bass! - didn't deserve to go out in the fashion that he did.
As Laurence Binyon said: "They shall not grow old as we who are left grow old. At the going down of the sun, and at the dawning of the day, we shall remember them."
Today would have marked the 50th birthday of Pistols bass-guitarist Sid Vicious (who replaced original bassist Glen Matlock in 1977), had he not overdosed on heroin at the age of 21 in 1979.
MI5, I'm sure, could not care less; but I raise a glass to stupid Sid on his birthday, who - for all of his flaws and complete inability to actually play the damned bass! - didn't deserve to go out in the fashion that he did.
As Laurence Binyon said: "They shall not grow old as we who are left grow old. At the going down of the sun, and at the dawning of the day, we shall remember them."
Monday, May 7, 2007
"Memphis: The City Magazine" Reviews Celebrity Secrets
Memphis: The City Magazine has reviewed Celebrity Secrets. Not surprisingly given where the magazine is located, their review focuses on the chapter in my book on the FBI's files on Elvis Presley.
A strange file, most of it is tedious in the extreme; but it does contain a few genuinely weird, intriguing and amusing entries.
A strange file, most of it is tedious in the extreme; but it does contain a few genuinely weird, intriguing and amusing entries.
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
Louie Louie - A Threat to the US Way of Life? No, Of Course Not!
In Celebrity Secrets, I tell the absurd, crazy and complete and utter exercise in time-wasting that was the FBI's secret investigation of the Kingsmen's classic song Louie Louie.
Did it contain obscene lyrics? Well, no actually it didn't.
But that didn't stop the FBI launching its own inquiry after emotionally repressed and stunted members of the public with apparently nothing better to do with their time grumbled and ranted to the boys at the Bureau that the song's lyrics would utterly corrupt the morals of America's youth.
And no doubt in the deranged minds of these same complainers, and as a direct result, chaos would soon rule supreme, cities would fall, Satan would rise up, man and animal would engage in carnal activities, and Armageddon would be looming ominously on the horizon.
Right.
In Celebrity Secrets, I cited a handful of documents on the strange affair. But, incredibly enough, the FBI's case file itself actually runs to nearly 120 pages.
It can be read here in PDF format in all its mind-numbing glory.
Someone remind me to mail the FBI a copy of So What? by the Anti-Nowhere League. The G-Men will have a collective fit when they listen to that one.
Did it contain obscene lyrics? Well, no actually it didn't.
But that didn't stop the FBI launching its own inquiry after emotionally repressed and stunted members of the public with apparently nothing better to do with their time grumbled and ranted to the boys at the Bureau that the song's lyrics would utterly corrupt the morals of America's youth.
And no doubt in the deranged minds of these same complainers, and as a direct result, chaos would soon rule supreme, cities would fall, Satan would rise up, man and animal would engage in carnal activities, and Armageddon would be looming ominously on the horizon.
Right.
In Celebrity Secrets, I cited a handful of documents on the strange affair. But, incredibly enough, the FBI's case file itself actually runs to nearly 120 pages.
It can be read here in PDF format in all its mind-numbing glory.
Someone remind me to mail the FBI a copy of So What? by the Anti-Nowhere League. The G-Men will have a collective fit when they listen to that one.
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