Project grants/Golden Hollywood

Basic information

Project details

Full project name

Golden Hollywood

Project start date (include month, day, and year)

When books are received

Project completion date (include month, day, and year)

Ongoing

Please describe the project in 1–2 sentences

To get a series of articles related to Classic American cinema, (Golden Hollywood) from 1920s-1960s up to Good Article status. Frank Sinatra’s article to Good Article status for 100th anniversary by December 12, 2015.

Amount requested

Ongoing.

Project lead details

Are you an individual or an organisation?

Individual

Are you currently a member of Wikimedia UK?

Yes

Project lead name

Dr. Blofeld

Project lead username or email

Dr. Blofeld

Project lead title (position), if any

Goals and measures of success

Project goal

To get a series of core articles which are on the Vital Articles lists up to Good Article status in the long term, primarily the top classic Hollywood film stars of the 1930s-1960s era, but possibly also the odd director or film too. Most of the real core biographies like Frank Sinatra, Cary Grant, Jimmy Stewart, John Wayne, Elizabeth Taylor, Ava Gardner etc are nowhere near the good quality that they should be in a 15 year old project. They all get a lot of traffic daily.

Measures of success

Each project will be a success once the article reaches Good article status. For Frank Sinatra in particular, getting it to Good Article status and appearing on the front page as a top DYK or Featured Article on December 12th.

Budget and resources

Project budget breakdown

Frank Sinatra

Frank Sinatra

Request for the following books all from Amazon (including postage cost):

1. His Way: The Unauthorized Biography of Frank Sinatra (£10.50) (Y Received, used and returned)
2. Sinatra in Hollywood (£2.81)(Y Received, used and returned)
3. Lady Blues Eyes: My Life With Frank Sinatra (£2.80) (Y Received, used and returned)
4. Frank Sinatra: My Father (£2.80)(Y Received, used and returned)
5. Frank:The Voice (£13.72) (Y Received, used and returned)
6. Sessions with Sinatra (£14.43) (Y Received, used and returned)

Total cost: £47.06

Good article? Y

Maureen O'Hara

Maureen O'Hara

Request for the following books all from Amazon (including postage cost):

1. Tis' Herself (£14.69) (Y Received, used and returned)
2. Maureen O'Hara: The Biography (Screen Classics) (£13.22) (Y Received, used and returned)

Total cost: £27.91

Good article? Y

Cary Grant

Cary Grant

Request for the following books all from Amazon:

1. A Class Apart by Graham McCann (£0.01) (Received)
2. Cary Grant Biography by Marc Eliot (£1.94)
3. Cary Grant: The Lonely Heart (£0.01) (Received)
4. Cary Grant: Dark Angel (£24.03) (Received)
5. Good Stuff: A Reminiscence of My Father, Cary Grant (£1.32)
6. Cary Grant: In Name Only (£0.01)
7. Cary Grant a Life in Pictures (£25)
8. Cary Grant: The Leading Man (Kindle Edition) (£3)
9. Evenings With Cary Grant: Recollections in His Own Words and by Those Who Knew Him Best (£2.78)
10. Dear Cary LP: My Life with Cary Grant (£0.01)
11. Affair to Remember, An: My Life with Cary Grant (£0.01)
12. Cary Grant: A Celebration of Style (£23.39)
13. Cary Grant by Pamela Trescott (£0.01)
14. A Touch of Elegance by Warren G. Harris (£0.01)
15. Cary Grant by Jerry Vermilye (£0.01)
16. Complete Films of Cary Grant (£0.01)

Total cost: £81.55 excluding P&P

Possible future articles: Ginger Rogers, Humphrey Bogart, Richard Burton, Ava Gardner.

Non-financial assistance requested

Impact and benefits

Frank Sinatra in particular is the sort of biography that I view as a sort of "penthouse" of biographical articles on wikipedia, if you pardon the Las Vegas pun. It doesn't get bigger or bolder than Sinatra. Arguably the most popular entertainer overall of the 20th century, certainly one of the world's most charismatic and enigmatic entertainers, who seemed to be a different person on many different levels, from singer to Hollywood actor to mob connections. He gets more than twice as many daily hits as cinema giants like Cary Grant and Jimmy Stewart, two others I'm interested in at some point. Monthly he currently gets about 160,000 views, so in ten years this article will be seen by 20 million people, probably more as traffic grows each year, it might be nearer 50 million by 2025! I think it's one of those core articles wikipedia really must have a good article for.

Maureen O'Hara, one of the most beautiful and earthy actresses of classic cinema, frequently worked with director John Ford and John Wayne. Her most famous films are Miracle on 34th Street (1947) and The Quiet Man (1952).. Recently passes away at 95 and was one of the last living actresses of the Golden period. Usually she gets around 25,000 views a month, though will have significantly more in late October and November due to death.

Cary Grant is one of the most charismatic, charming and greatest actors of not just classic cinema, but of all time. Frequently worked with directors like Alfred Hitchcock, Howard Hawks and Leo McCarey. Some of his most famous films include The Awful Truth (1937), Bringing Up Baby (1938), His Girl Friday (1940), Suspicion (1941), Arsenic and Old Lace (1944), Notorious (1946), Monkey Business (1952), To Catch a Thief (1955), North By Northwest (1959) and Charade (1963). He usually gets around 60,000 views a month, probably more as traffic grows each year.

Discussion

Hello!

Sorry to let you down Richard Nevell (WMUK) and Karla Marte(WMUK) but for several reasons I've decided to semi retire from wikipedia for the time being https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Dr._Blofeld. I haven't retired fully yet, I'm still planning on making a grant proposal later in the year to WMF which might change things, which I hope WMUK will be happy to be a part of, but I've given way too much of my time and goodwill to the site for so long and got little back in return. I know that if I promote Audrey Hepburn I'll only continue to be faced with trolling and mass heartache I've faced with Kubrick and Sinatra. It just isn't worth the effort, and I don't think I'm valued enough to want to be able continue at the moment. Dr. Blofeld (talk) 19:18, 6 January 2017 (GMT)

Hi Dr. Blofeld, I only just noticed that as we talked about this over email I never left a reply here. There is of course no let down. The work on Sinatra, Grant, and O'Hara has been an enormous effort which benefits hundreds of thousands of readers every month. Let's leave the final peak for someone else to scale. Richard Nevell (WMUK) (talk) 12:51, 27 March 2017 (BST)