Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2013 October 31

= October 31 =

UK children's book about winged people
This is possibly an obscure question in the extreme, so apologies ^^; In the late 1990s/early 2000s there was a series of books (the Oxford Reading Tree Treetops) being used in primary schools in the UK, and there was one in the higher stages of the system which was set in a world of winged humans, that treated the wings as being totally normal and from what I remember was a fairly nice slice-of-lifey story about a boy who's useless at flying but learns to get better at it. I can't for the life of me remember the title though, and in the absence of access to old books teaching children to read, does anyone else remember this and know where I could find it? 5.151.78.220 (talk) 00:39, 31 October 2013 (UTC)


 * I'm not from the UK and I've never heard of the series, but I did some digging. First, this site has a lot of the fiction books form the series- amazon does too- here's the OUP page for them . After an hour of looking through titles, tons of permutations on obvious google searches, and trying to dig up summaries, I couldn't find the book you were looking for- nothing seems to jump out as being that story, and summaries seem hard to locate en masse. At any rate, this, appears to have all of their publications, organized so you can track what you read, maybe one of the titles will "jump out" for you (it is broken down by stages, so that could be useful). Sorry I couldn't be of more help- if you remember anymore details, let me know, I'd be willing to give it another go (is it possible it is from another series?)- if you do find the title, please post it, it frustrates me to not be able to find something! Good luck:-)Phoenixia1177 (talk) 08:46, 31 October 2013 (UTC)
 * What Phoenxia said...although I only spent less than an hour on it.--Mark Miller (talk) 21:24, 31 October 2013 (UTC)

Enotris Johnson (+ Little Richard)
Enotris Johnson is listed as one of the 3 creators of Long Tall Sally.
 * Questions:


 * Is/Was this a real person?
 * Here "Around this time, popular disc jockey Honey Chile introduced Robert to a young girl named Enotris Johnson who had the notion of writing a song for Little Richard to record to raise money for an operation needed by her Aunt Mary."
 * Here (careful...) "A teenaged girl named Enotris Johnson walked from Appaloosa, Mississippi to New Orleans to find Little Richard and sell him an idea for a song, because her aunt was sick and they needed the money to put her in the hospital."
 * Here "Enotris Johnson and his wife, Ann Johnson, devout white Seventh Day Adventists, adopted and raised a total of a dozen children, both black and white. One of these was Richard Penniman, who took on the stage name of Little Richard in the '50s."
 * Here there is general doubt.
 * So - any additional information?
 * Does anybody have access to the Social Security Death index (if "16 years old" she must have been born around 1940)? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Grey Geezer (talk • contribs) 12:00, 31 October 2013 (UTC)
 * How about the first name Enotris? Rare? Insider joke? Probable or unique ?
 * Thanks for any clues!  GEEZER nil nisi bene 07:34, 31 October 2013 (UTC)
 * The last story appears to be bunk. Little Richard's bio in Rolling Stone says "He moved in with a white family, Ann and Johnny Johnson, who ran Macon's Tick Tock Club" after he was kicked out of his own family at 13. Clarityfiend (talk) 12:20, 31 October 2013 (UTC)
 * Part of the "walk from Appaloosa" long tall tale is repeated in Rolling Stone (no mention of her poor sick auntie), this time in its article about the song itself. Clarityfiend (talk) 12:33, 31 October 2013 (UTC)
 * Seems to be a real name. This site claims there are 4 Enotrises in the US, three in Texas and one in Mississippi. Just in case those peoople were named after a fictional Enotris Johnson, I can also offer Enotris Mercer, born 1904 in Mississippi.  Card Zero  (talk) 23:10, 31 October 2013 (UTC)
 * So, it is a female name, right? --Krächz (talk) 23:54, 31 October 2013 (UTC)
 * ... and it is used mainly in the South.
 * Card Zero can you have another look in the SSDR? Is this 1904 Enotris - a potentially 50 year old woman in the mid fifties - the only Enotris there? Thanks  GEEZER nil nisi bene 06:38, 1 November 2013 (UTC)
 * Of the sources listed, I'd be more likely to assume Allmusic.com is the most reliable - it usually gives fairly accurate information - but, in this case, apparently not. I've checked on Ancestry.com, and there is a record of Enotris J. Johnson living at Bogalusa, Louisiana.  Unfortunately, the record gives no gender and is undated - it comes from "U.S. Public Records Index, Volume 2 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.  Original data: Voter Registration Lists, Public Record Filings, Historical Residential Records, and Other Household Database Listings".  However the detail of Enotris Johnson living in Bogalusa is confirmed by a plausible if not definitive post here - again undated but pre-dating its re-posting in 2009: "'What happen to Enotris Johnson, the song writer that almost became a star? She loved the music industry very much and still does. She says that Little Richard was her brother back then. She married a preacher back in September 10, 1956; that ended all of her musical dreams because he was a man of God and he could not have his wife singing the blues. You can only think of what was expected of a housewife back in the 1950’s. Enotris now lives in Bogalusa, Louisiana. She is now 72 years old. She has one daughter, Wilma Dunn, [who] resides in Asheville, North Carolina, with her husband. Enotris is a warm loving mother and friend and still supports her husband. Every once in a while you can hear her wailing on that piano and singing in the middle of the night. You would just love to sit around her and hear her tell all the stories from back in the day when all of the old singers were at their humble beginnings. Enotris Johnson has lived a full and happy life with her husband and being the idea preacher’s wife.'"  Ghmyrtle (talk) 09:27, 1 November 2013 (UTC)
 * Also, there is a reference here to the funeral of Money L. Johnson, 60, died October 3, 2000: "He is survived by two sisters, Mrs. Enotris Johnson, wife of Rev. W.J. Johnson... of Bogalusa; and one brother..". Rev. W.J. Johnson is associated with the Tree of Life Baptist Church in Bogalusa, details here.  Ghmyrtle (talk) 09:37, 1 November 2013 (UTC)
 * This story is quite dubious. I know a woman named Ann Johnson took her in and Enotris' name was brought up as a child but I haven't seen actual confirmation of her. Unless Enotris was Ann Johnson's middle name? It's a bit weird. BrothaTimothy (talk · contribs) 14:46, 1 November 2013 (UTC)
 * @BrothaTimothy - when you say "took her in", do you mean took Richard in? It's interesting that the source I quoted says "Little Richard was her brother back then".  Could she have been Ann Johnson's daughter (adopted?).  Several sources refer to Enotris as Ann Johnson's husband, but I think that's an error - more reliable sources refer to him as John(ny) Johnson. (Or, could "Johnny Johnson" have been the name that Enotris Johnson was known by? - that is, were they one and the same person?)  This source refers to Enotris as a "nonprofessional female lyricist", citing Charles White's 1985 bio The Life and Times of Little Richard - but, White may not be a very reliable source.  Ghmyrtle (talk) 17:06, 1 November 2013 (UTC)
 * By the way, at BMI, Enotris Johnson is credited with 16 titles, including "Jenny, Jenny" as well as "Long Tall Sally". Ghmyrtle (talk) 17:32, 1 November 2013 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the answers so far!  GEEZER nil nisi bene 08:11, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

French film on colonialism in French Polynesia
Are there any famous French films on colonialism in French Polynesia?--The Emperor&#39;s New Spy (talk) 14:40, 31 October 2013 (UTC)
 * I suggest asking this question at the French Wikipedia reference desk. The machine translated question would be: "Yat-il des célèbres films français sur le colonialisme en Polynésie française?". I believe the page is called "The Bistro" . (You can use Google translate to read any answer.)--Mark Miller (talk) 23:48, 31 October 2013 (UTC)
 * Bistro is more like our Village Pump. Their version of the Reference Desk is [the Oracle. (Also, they probably won't know any more about the subject that we would here, just because it's a lot less active. And maybe avoid using the machine translation :)) [[User:Adam Bishop|Adam Bishop]] (talk) 02:19, 1 November 2013 (UTC)
 * Maybe...but if a machine is all you have...--Mark Miller (talk) 02:24, 1 November 2013 (UTC)

I found Category:Films set in French Polynesia although not many of them seem to be French. I'll have another try later, when I have more time. Alansplodge (talk) 08:47, 1 November 2013 (UTC)
 * This page may provide some leads. Ghmyrtle (talk) 09:06, 1 November 2013 (UTC)
 * (ec) I searched around as well, with little luck; there is an equivalent category in the French wikipedia to that mentioned by Alansplodge, but it's not any more helpful (Catégorie:Film_se_déroulant_en_Polynésie_française). This page about films shot on location in French Polynesia only mentions one that fits the OP's criteria, Alain Corneau's Le Prince du Pacifique, a 2000 film that is set in 1918 but does not sound too realistic (the IMDB entry is here ). I'm surprised that there isn't more, but that's all I can find using various search terms in French. --Xuxl (talk) 09:11, 1 November 2013 (UTC)
 * Reading Ghmyrtle's link above, I searched to see if "Le mariage de Loti" by Pierre Loti, a relatively well-known French novel set in 19th-century Tahiti, was ever turned into a movie, but I couldn't find anything. --Xuxl (talk) 09:15, 1 November 2013 (UTC)
 * The closest thing I can find is L'Ordre et la Morale, about the Ouvéa cave hostage taking in New Caledonia in 1988. That's not French Polynesia, but it is a French territory in the Pacific... Adam Bishop (talk) 09:37, 1 November 2013 (UTC)
 * Even in English, the pickings appear to be slim. The only ones I can recall that aren't totally obscure are F. W. Murnau's Tabu (1931) and John Ford's The Hurricane (1937). Clarityfiend (talk) 12:11, 1 November 2013 (UTC)
 * You missed Donovan's Reef--TrogWoolley (talk) 12:54, 1 November 2013 (UTC)
 * I didn't. The OP asked for famous. While I thought it was okay, DR is one of the Duke's lesser-known films. Clarityfiend (talk) 23:44, 1 November 2013 (UTC)
 * It's near the top of my personal list of favourite JW films. It's a short list.  --   Jack of Oz   [pleasantries]  00:13, 2 November 2013 (UTC)
 * 'Fess up. It's Mike Mazurki in those shorts, isn't it? Clarityfiend (talk) 02:40, 2 November 2013 (UTC)
 * Erm, no. If only you knew what really turns me on. --   Jack of Oz   [pleasantries]  08:30, 2 November 2013 (UTC)
 * And The Devil at 4 O'Clock. (Which apparently has nothing to do with Le diable à quatre.  Supposedly.) --   Jack of Oz   [pleasantries]  18:56, 1 November 2013 (UTC)