Talk:John Shelton (actor)

Marriages of John Shelton (Edward Sheppard Price)
Eric as me in a very nice manner, how I knew John Shelton was married 5 times. He pointed out that my source of IMdb was not a good one. I saw his point and devoted hours to searching the internet for better citations. I could not find any marriage certificates or indexes of marriages on ancestry.com, which would be the best way to document these marriages. The next best would be contemporary articles. The third best would be family records (oral tradition) and finally un referenced records or biographies like Imdb or Wikipedia.

There are five marriages of John Shelton that I believe definitely happened
 * Sally Sage - King Features says their marriage was ending (Aug 1940) and again that this ex wife of John Sheldon was marrying again (Nov 1940).
 * Zelma Kathryn Elizabeth Grayson Hendrick bios of Grayson says she eloped to Las Vegas, not sure when maybe 1941.
 * Marti Stanley - Hedda Hopper refers to her as bride of John Sheldon in 1946.
 * Irene Winston m 11 Sept 1948 UP says they were married in Las Vegas.
 * Lorraine Ludwig m 3 Oct 1953 family information.

The compiled records never list all five wives together - guess that is why not to trust them:
 * Hollywood.com lists 4 wives:
 * Has identical Bio to Hollywood.com lists a different set of 3 wives
 * Lists two roles and one wife:
 * lists just Marti Shelton

None of these are great sources. The search goes on! Rcollman (talk) 03:33, 5 March 2017 (UTC)

A list of contemporary sources for each wife:

Marriage to Sally Sage
Motion Picture Magazine Feb - Jun 1941 This is contemporary source "John Shelton is separated from Sally Sage, Bette Davis' stand-in. Is not in circulation as he just got him- self engaged to Carole Gallagher." Feb 1941 page 85. When this separation happened is not clear. "...Surprise of the evening came when the guests found small cards tied to the stems of their cocktail glasses announcing the engagement of John Shelton and Carole Gallagher . . . John, the star of the picture, had been "keeping company" in more ways than one, because he and Carole only met about six weeks ago..." March 1941 page 13

King Features Syndicate said "Another Hollywood marriage between John Shelton and Sally Sage, is headed..." on 9 Aug 1940 in The Evening Independent from Massillon, Ohio.

King Features Wire Service said "John Shelton's ex-wife, Sally Sage, was married in Las Vegas recently to Cliff..." on 4 Nov 1940 in The Evening Independent from Massillon, Ohio and the Wilkes_Barre Record PA.

Marriage to Zelma Kathryn Elizabeth Hendrick (Kathryn Grayson)
bio of Carole Gallagher has more gossip bits Private Live... "By November, she was engaged to John Shelton – they celebrated in the Ciros nightclub and they had her mother’s approval. That turned out to be one big fat zero, as Shelton married Kathryn Grayson just a year later (and he managed to sandwich Lupe Velez in between! Boy was that Shelton something, ey?)."

Who's who at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer 1944 - Actors - 119 pages. Page 53 "In 1940 Miss Grayson was married to John Shelton, an actor."

Marriage to Irene Winston
13 Sept 1948 "Hollywood Honeymoon. Las Vegas, Nev (U.P.) Movie Actor and Producer John Shelton and New York Stage Actress Irene Winston were honeymooning Monday.  They were married Saturday at the Wee Kirk of the Heather chapel." this would be 11 Sept 1948.

Marriage to Marti Stanley
Hedda Hopper's column published in the Chicago Times 27 Nov 1946 says "John Shelton's bride, Marti Stanley, is being tested by Metro". If you can't believe Hedda, whom can you believe.

Lorraine Elise Ludwig
His last marriage and the only one that produced 5 children. She was one of 3 daughters of Morris and Rose (Newman) Ludwig, a Hollywood family. Billboard "Shelton-Ludwig"  John Shelton actor-writer and Lorraine Ludwig, niece of film director Eddie Ludwig, Oct 3 in Kingman Ariz." Billboard 24 Oct 1953.

Updated Rcollman (talk) 17:17, 6 March 2017 (UTC)Rcollman (talk) 16:03, 6 March 2017 (UTC)