If Charmian slightly exaggerated the events of Apr 5, 1910, so
did my father. The San Francisco Call-Bulletin, Sat Jan 4, 1936, p.
5, cols. 2-4, theatrical column The First Nighter, reports:
"...Marie Hicks Davidson and Mrs. Charmian London were drawn
as stage jurors last night. And after tne verdict it developed
that Detective Harry Hollingsworth in tbe play knew Mrs. Lon-
don's famous husband, Jack.
"Remember that day at the ranch, Mrs. Londo," he recall-
ed when you and Jack were entertaining our theatrical troupe?
Jack offered us beer and everyone humiliated him by asking for
milk." (See also San Francisco Chronicle, Fri Jan 17, 1936, p.
14, col.6.) This was just short of 26 years after the event.
Herbert Rawlinson, a1so in Night of January 16, knew the Londons too.
He had starred in 1913's Sea Wolf for Universal.
Of couse the troupe did not go out to the ranch. Harry was eith-
er misquoted, did not remember correctly, or was using "dramatic lic-
ense" to make a better story for the Press. (Has no place in factual
historical research, Dad! Even if it's boring as hell, tell it like it
was. Dear old Dad and I would have argued that point heatedly.)
The above is the complete account of the brief meeting on Tuesday
April 5, 1910, of Harry Hollingsworth, with Jack London. I first read
the Independent clipping in Dad's scrapbook in January, 1960. It took
me many years to get off my duff and pursue it to completion. Most of
my success is due to Mr. Russ Kingman, Jack London Book Store, Glen
Ellen, California, for his months of sympathetic help and research,
and to Mrs. Sibylle Zemitis, reference librarian, California State Li-
brary, Sacramento, California 94237, for Inter-library Loan help.
EDITORIAL Delay has been due to three problems: (1)Influenza,
(2) backlog of all kinds of work, and (3) poor stencils. The first two
are self-explanatory. No. 3 raises the blood-pressure every time we
think about it. Two full quires of stencils were rotten. The "os" all
punched out - a sure sign of age - and tore apart like generic toilet
tissue. This is pretty disheartening when one has typed out several
full pages. This paticular page is being typed the fifth time! (Uh!
Heap much paleface cuss words offered up to Great Spirit, you betchum.)
Only somebody who has used "old fashion mimeo stencils" can sympathize
fully. In the progressive city of Los Angeles, being inexorably sucked
into the Great Vortex of enforced obsolescence by the Gurus from Tokyo
and elsewhere, few there are who care a tinke's dam about it. But
HR's editor still holds to the concept of the ever serviceable Rolls-
Royce, hating every word ever uttered by 19th/20th Century labor cham-
pions like Karl Marx and (puke) Sam Gompers! Thanks, readers. Not one
of you has written to ask the cause of the delay.
Rosemary Shields, formerly of L.A., came across The Gregg Geneal-
ogy(1979) at the Loudoun County (Virginia) Historical Society recent-
ly and brought us pages 12-19. They contain many connections to the
Valentine Hollingsworth family, which we had not seen in one collect-
ion before. The pages we have do not have documentation, however, and
this should be kept in mind before accepting the data as fact.
The most interesting item, at least, to this writer, is the state-
ment that William Gregg and wife Alice were the parents of a daughter
Ann, who married John Houghton, they, in turn, being parents of a
continued on page 59 |
return to 25-4 index |
return to main index