Boy, sometimes I think this month will never end. I was reading about Lena Horne a few days ago - her birthday is this Friday, January 181st - which led me to read about her daughter Gail Buckley who was married to Sidney Lumet until 1978, and then their kids, specifically Jenny Lumet. Several discursions later I ended up here:
Captain Haggerty, according to Wikipedia:
Born in The Bronx on December 3, 1931, it is said that Captain Haggerty made dog training the respected profession it is today. Raised in the Bronx while other children played stick ball, he begged his parents to take him to dog shows. He had an affinity to Boxers, Doberman Pinschers and German Shepherds. He wanted to become a show dog handler.
We all know Wikipedia is crowdsourced and often unreliable, but this entry felt off. I've read some entries which were poorly written, but this was the first one that read like a book report by a reluctant thirteen year old. It's a short entry that should have been shorter. It felt padded.
In the early 1970s he began supplying dogs for film, television and Broadway. In the Burt Reynolds' movie Shamus, not only did they use his dogs for many scenes, the producer loved his look and put him in front of the camera. He became known as Mr. Clean with his bald head and blue eyes. Some of his movie credits include: Married to the Mob, Honeymoon in Vegas, The Last Dragon and a memorably gruesome appearance in the opening scenes of director Lucio Fulci's horror classic Zombi 2 as a rotting, shambling zombie that attacks a coast guard officer on a derelict boat. His television credits include guest appearances on various talk show such as The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, The Morton Downey Jr. Show and David Lettermanwhere he and his dog students appeared 26 times pioneering Stupid Pet Tricks.
This part especially seemed like it could maybe have been shortened to one or two sentences:
According to Haggerty, his dual profession of being a character actor and dog trainer caused some confusion among his dog school clients and his friends in the film industry. When he would show up on a film set with or without dogs to train and act with them in front of the camera, people and fellow actors would recognize him and would say to him: "Oh, I didn't know you were an actor. I thought you trained dogs". At his dog training school, clients would recognize him from his film and TV commercial appearances and say to him: "Oh, I didn't know you trained dogs. I thought you were an actor." Since he was known as 'Captain Haggerty' at his dog school, and then known as Arthur Haggerty on film sets, he decided to legally change his name to Captain Haggerty in order to combine both of his professions so that people would know who he really was on and off camera.
If you're charitable, you might say it sounds folksy. Perhaps it was scribed by the town's part-time newspaper EIC, who'll maybe spend more time at the paper once the wheat's been reaped and the corn's been shucked, but for now he's gotta write up this obituary on a fella he barely knew. [forlorn harmonica from neighboring porch]
Anyway he served in the Korean War as a captain of the K9 corps and had also written three books on dog training. He was from a bygone era and not known for his sensitivity. I can only imagine his training system was a little rougher than whatever methods are currently in vogue.
I enjoyed the entry. Most of Wikipedia is usually a little more competent, sometimes even professional. This was a breath of fresh air. Hey, let's keep the internet untamed and unedited.
Here's the link in case you want to read it, but if you read the quotes here, you've already read 3/4 of it:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Haggerty
The reading experience is enhanced with good music. I recommend Ashokan Farewell if you want that Ken Burns' experience while reading, and who doesn't want that? I prefer Piazzolla myself, just cuz.
What's going on with you?
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