Friday, October 09, 2009


Latest Examiner story--Ferdinand Pinney "Affinity" Earle surely would have been a regular feature of "Entertainment Tonight" if it had been around in 1909. Check out the story of this early Hollywood artitst's marital and extramarital adventures here.

6 comments:

Elizabeth said...

Now that's a wild story. I love the "affinity" spin.

steve on the slow train said...

Elizabeth--It's amazing what one can learn from reading through century-old newspapers.

Olivia said...

Hehe. That reminds me on what I just read in my book on the 1920s: the story of Harry and Caresse Crosby, his many lovers, and dying in a suicide pact with his "Fire Princess".

Anonymous said...

I saw the references to "artist and poet" yet none of his artistic/poetic works are mentioned. Is that because he was more of a "lifestyle addict" than a real creative person?

Sounds like a tail-chasing philanderer to me more than anything else.

steve on the slow train said...

Olivia--I just checked the Harry Crosby story in Wikipedia. There are similarities, but Earle was not so hopelessly romantic.

Gerry--I thought about reprinting one of Earle's sonnets. They're derivative of Keats and Shelley, but will never share an anthology with them.

gerry rosser said...

I'm guessing that before the Hollywood "star making" machine got into full swing, followed by our primary religion of Celebrity Worship, gossip columns about those who had "connexions" were popular. I noted that pretty much everyone involved in your column were, if tangentialy, "society" folks.