Wikipedia:Reference desk/Entertainment

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September 14

Information on famous one-legged trick cyclist?

Hi people. About 10 years back I asked here whether anyone had any information on a Charles G. Kilpatrick, a one-legged trick cyclist who was internationally famous in the early 20th century. To show that I am nothing if not tenacious, I'm still looking. What I would love is an obituary on Kilpatrick, who I think died on 30 September 1927, that comes from behind a paywall, as I am confident I've found everything freely available on Kilpatrick.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated: note that Charles Kilpatrick (athlete) is a different person, who had one more leg than the Charles Kilpatrick I am researching. Thanks! --Roisterer (talk) 09:54, 14 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Typing "one legged cyclist kilpatrick" into Google was rather fruitful. These were the first four book results: [1] [2] [3] [4]. Maybe following this strand you can find more. --Jayron32 12:45, 14 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks but already found them. As mentioned, I'm confident I've found everything freely available on the net on Kilpatrick. Surely though there's got to be an obit somewhere behind a paywall ... --Roisterer (talk) 14:02, 14 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]
On ancestry.com, a pay site, I'm seeing this from the Illinois deaths list:
Name: Charles G. Kilpatrick
Father: James D. Kilpatrick
Mother: Mary E. Cole
Birth: 11 Sep 1869 - Danville, Vermilion, Illinois
Death: 30 Sep 1927 - Danville, Vermilion , Illinois
Occupation: Insurance salesman
Does this mesh with what you know? ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrotsβ†’ 01:32, 15 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]
However, I also found this Charles G. Kilpatrick, complete with a circus poster depicting him riding a bicycle with his one good leg (the other being a stump above the knee). Parents are the same as above, so it must be the same guy with a birthdate discrepancy (not at all uncommon in that era):
Birth: 17 Aug 1867 - Danville, Vermilion, Illinois, USA
Death: 30 Sep 1927 - Danville, Vermilion, Illinois, USA
This one also has a minimalistic Findagrave entry.[5] ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrotsβ†’ 01:41, 15 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks: Yes, I've got 11 September 1869 - 30 September 1927 with Danville as place of birth and death, and while insurance salesman was by far the most boring job he ever had, he specialized in selling insurance to circus people and the like. It's odd that I find papers following his career up to almost his death but nothing resembling an obituary. --Roisterer (talk) 23:34, 15 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]
With a known death date and place, you might want to contact the Danville library and see if they have archives of their local newspapers. And given how long ago it was, you might be able to obtain a death certificate. I also recommend that you contact the cemetery and see if they have more details than what the Findagrave user posted. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrotsβ†’ 23:53, 15 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]
(edit conflict)I've searched through the couple of newspaper archives I have access to and came up the same. Quite a few articles on him from the 1890s and 1900s but nothing past 1908. Maybe he used a different name later in life? You could also ask at Wikipedia:WikiProject Resource Exchange/Resource Request. clpo13(talk) 00:01, 16 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks. I've got a reference from an Australian newspaper in 1926 that refers to him as Charles Kilpatrick (he declared that in 1927 he was going to travel around the world "for the purpose of securing data for a special story"). Of course he died in the US in 1927 so presumably his health went down hill but, as mentioned, I can't find anything referring to illness or death. --Roisterer (talk) 00:15, 16 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]
If you're in Australia, that kind of precludes your paying a visit to Danville, IL. However, you could still try sending an email to the local library. They might be able to find something. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrotsβ†’ 01:54, 16 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]
One can contact the library or historical society there and ask for a photocopy of the paperwork or other info, however. No harm comes from asking. --Jayron32 13:33, 16 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

September 15

she's totally not a spy

What's this story? The protagonist is a young woman whose father was a spy, or the like, and taught her the tricks of the trade: how to shake a tail, find a bug, pick a lock. Though these skills are irrelevant to her chosen career, she is forced to apply them when she finds herself entangled in the plot, perhaps by helping someone in danger.

That's all I remember; can't even say whether it was a book, a movie, a webcomic ... a dream ... β€”Tamfang (talk) 00:58, 15 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Could be Hanna (film) Wymspen (talk) 14:38, 15 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks but no, that's still deep in my Netflix queue. β€”Tamfang (talk) 08:20, 16 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]
There is a list of Father/Daughter movies here - http://www.allmovie.com/characteristic/theme/fathers-and-daughters-d1616 - have a browse to try and spot the one you want. Wymspen (talk) 11:57, 16 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]
I think this one's father is dead. β€”Tamfang (talk) 03:28, 18 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Song from the 1980's

Greetings my friends. I have been around here for eight years and not as active as I used to be, Regardless, I need help identifying a song someone shared with me last year. I gazed the video on youtube just enough that the basic feel got stuck in my head. Here we go. Certainly an 80's band, but not a huge hit song, at least not in the USA. Female lead singer, male band. It is a band, not a solo artist. I want to think they are Scottish, Irish or British. She has blonde hair, caucasian the video is set at night, a campfire. A bit of a US western theme. Mid tempo song, guitars are not loud. Not punk or hard rock, The drum beat is similar to Aerosmith "Walk This Way" but the song is absolutely nothing like that. A nice flowing love admiration type song, she twirls around Stevie Nicks style. The song is upbeat, a groove but not Motown. I consider my self a guru of music knowledge, so this is driving me insane that I cannot place it. Any help is deeply appreciated. ( it is not the Sundays, etc,) 1980's mid to late. Thanks and cheers 10draftsdeep (talk) 01:25, 15 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

The CranberriesΒ ? Irish band formed in 1989, female Caucasian singer, male band-mates. Modest success in the US. She alternates her hair between dark and blond.
Here's a video of one of their songs, Animal Instinct: [6], where she does have blond hair. That doesn't sound much like the video you described, but at least you can decide if that might be the right band. StuRat (talk) 03:29, 15 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]
I thought of Texas, but I don't think Sharleen was ever blonde. DuncanHill (talk) 01:03, 17 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]
The Darling Buds had a blonde female singer who liked to twirl around a lot. I don't know their videos well enough to comment on the rest but they're a possibility. The Primitives and Transvision Vamp were both blonde female-fronted too. Now and then T'Pau (band) looked a bit Western-y and, although their singer is redhead, she could look blonde in the right light.Keresaspa (talk) 02:46, 17 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]
Lone Justice was fronted by a blonde woman in the 1980s (her hair is darker now). The Cardigans came a bit later (early 1990s), but Nina Persson was definitely blonde before she dyed her hair. --Xuxl (talk) 21:39, 17 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

September 16

Searching for...a book

Honestly speaking I am not even sure if I should be asking this hereΒ : but is there a source anywhere on Net where I can get John Grisham's The WhistlerΒ ? Yeah, it's yet to be released.Β Jon AsctonΒ Β (talk) 01:13, 16 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

You're right: you should not be asking. We don't give support to copyright violation. --Tagishsimon (talk) 01:15, 16 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]
If it's not released yet, it's not just copyright violation, it's outright theft. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrotsβ†’ 01:53, 16 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]
Amazon has the release date as October 25th, you will just have to wait until then to purchase it from your local bookstore or from an online distributor. uhhlive (talk) 14:56, 16 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Name of fantasy story

I'm trying to remember the name and author of a story I read at least 30 years ago. I think it was a short story but it might have been part of a novel. The protagonist acquired some magical device, a box I think, which he was trying to determine how to open. This required saying a magic spell of three syllables. Unable to think of any other approach, he started reciting all possible combinations of three syllables, alphabetically I think. He assumed this would take years, but when he finally hit on the correct first syllable, the box responded in some way (very poor security obviously), so he was able to stop searching for the first syllable and move on to the next one. Does this ring a bell with anyone? CodeTalker (talk) 20:43, 16 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

That story line doesn't ring a bell for me, I'm afraid, but the plot outline immediately made me think of Roald Dahl, specifically his short stories for adults. Do any of the titles at Roald Dahl short stories bibliography sound familiar? - Cucumber Mike (talk) 09:43, 19 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

September 17

Looking for a movie

I have seen a Mexican thriller movie information on imdb.com several weeks ago. I am looking for it again, but can't seem to find it. The title starts with "All of us.....". The synopsis of movie goes like this - Two women were raped by several thugs. Later the two women were looking for vengeance. Any help regarding finding this movie will be appreciated.--NAHID 21:11, 17 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

September 18

B-Movie to ID

I'm trying to track down a terrible movie; I'm almost positive that it was shown as part of Elvira's Movie Macabre during that show's original run, though I haven't been able to pick it out from the list provided there. I don't recall much of the film, but it was one of those cheapo horror/sci-fi movies with terrible colouring that got cranked out in the 60s and 70s. The main piece I recall was that the central character was obsessed with capturing a person's soul upon death. The gimmick being that the soul gets released with the last breath. The movie may also have given a nod to the soul having a specific weight, a la Duncan MacDougall's 21 grams, but I don't see anything familiar in that article either and I could just be conflating the concepts. Ring any bells? A lot of the flicks in the Elvira article are redlinked (and probably for good reason), so I could well click through every single link and still not find the one I want. Alternately, if there's a better online forum for obscure stuff like this, I'd give that a go as well. Matt Deres (talk) 00:11, 18 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

You might be thinking of The Asphyx. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrotsβ†’ 05:28, 18 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]
There are aspects I don't remember, but that's got to be the one. Thank you! Even weirder, it doesn't show up in the Elvira list and I can't think of any other way I would have seen a film like that. Unless the list is incomplete? I blame the guy who started that article. Could I ask how you tracked it down? Or did you just happen to remember it? Matt Deres (talk) 13:54, 18 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]
And then I find the answer a minute later. EMM showed the film under the name The Horror of Death, which was unlinked. Link has been included now. Matt Deres (talk) 13:58, 18 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]
The producers might have decided that maybe the public had no clue what an "asphy" is. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrotsβ†’ 04:56, 19 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

September 19