Wikipedia talk:Requests for arbitration/Onefortyone/Proposed decision

Statement by Onefortyone

I was on vacation for a few days, and I am very astonished to see the "proposed final decision" by the arbitrators. Therefore, it would be very helpful if you could exactly explain why you think that User:Onefortyone should be placed on Wikipedia:Probation with respect to the biographies of celebrities.

Verified information

Contentious facts which cannot be verified as having been published in a reputable source cannot be included in a Wikipedia article Wikipedia:Verifiability, see especially Wikipedia:Verifiability#Dubious_sources. Information should have been published in a reliable source Wikipedia:Reliable sources. In the case of unusual or scandalous assertions this becomes even more important, see Wikipedia:Reliable_sources#Exceptional_claims_require_exceptional_evidence

• I have used several independent sources to support my view that some Hollywood celebrities were bisexual or gay and that Elvis seems to have had an affair with actor Nick Adams. Among these sources are an unpublished manuscript book by Elvis's stepmother, Dee Presley (who has also written a summary of her accusations for a newspaper), and two published books (one of which, written by Elvis's second cousin, who served as the singer's press agent for a long time, saying that Adams and Elvis had "intimacies"; the other stating that "Adams, who since Jimmy's death had admitted that they had been lovers during the shooting of Giant, later claimed that he had had a brief affair with Elvis after Elvis had 'agreed to be his date' for a preview performance of his 1956 film, The Last Wagon "). See [1] and [2] It is a fact that such claims exist and are even discussed by Elvis fans. I find it appropriate therefore, that a short, critical note concerning these claims may be placed on the Elvis Presley page. On the Workshop page, arbitrator Fred Bauder says, "I don't see any problem with appropriate cites to Bret's book." See [3]

Probation

Users whose activities are disruptive with respect to particular articles or topics may be placed on Wikipedia:Probation which permits administrators to ban them from those articles where their activities have been disruptive.

• I do not understand why my activities should have been disruptive, as I have only tried to discuss the topics on the talk pages and repeatedly reinstated passages deleted by Ted Wilkes and Wyss. What is your opinion about the aggressive behavior of Ted Wilkes, who frequently deleted my contributions without commentary, repeatedly accused me of spamdexing, vandalism, being a liar, etc., and biasedly tried to denigrate all the existing sources I have used? Wilkes repeatedly violated the 3RR in the past and was blocked for doing so. See, for instance, [4]. On 19 September 2005, Wilkes even falsely claimed to have moved content from the Talk:Elvis Presley/Homosexuality page I had created to a Talk:Elvis Presley/Sexuality page, but the content, which was a summary of facts supporting my view has been totally deleted by this user. See [5]. Certainly several of Wilkes's accusations are personal attacks which are not allowed according to the Wikipedia guidelines. Significantly, administrator Ed Poor warned Ted Wilkes to refrain from his personal remarks against me. See [6].

Sources cited by Onefortyone

The sources cited by Onefortyone vary in quality, some being of doubtful reliability, see Wikipedia:Requests_for_arbitration/Onefortyone/Workshop#Sources_cited_by_Onefortyone

• On the workshop page, arbitrator Fred Bauder confirmed that my sources are "surprisingly good" and some of my edits "seem appropriate". See [7]

One example:

Some months ago, on the request of User:Wyss, I have created a new article on the Hollywood screenwriter and biographer, Gavin Lambert. Ted Wilkes denigrated this author (claiming that all what he has written is mere gossip) and repeatedly deleted an additional information from the article that Lambert was an insightful chronicler of Hollywood. See [8] In my opinion, the only reason why Wilkes constantly denigrates this source is that Lambert, himself homosexual and part of the gay Hollywood circles of the 1950s and 60s, has written that actor Nick Adams was gay, a statement Wilkes and Wyss do not like. In fact, author Gavin Lambert and his biography on Natalie Wood was praised by several reviewers and Wood's daughter:

'The Guardian says, "For bitchy, witty and perceptive high-class gossip about Hollywood, there was no better source than the critic, screenwriter, novelist and biographer Gavin Lambert." See also this lengthy Guardian review: [9].

Film historian Professor Joseph McBride wrote (see [10])

The novelist, screenwriter, and biographer Gavin Lambert, a British expatriate who has lived in Los Angeles since the 1950s, is a keenly observant, wryly witty chronicler of Hollywood's social mores and artistic achievements.

Natasha Gregson Wagner, daughter of Natalie Wood, calls Lambert's book "a wonderful biography on my Mom ... that we are all involved with - everybody that knew my Mom and was close to her - and that will really be the one I hope everyone reads. It will be the definitive biography on my Mother." Michelle Merryweather states, "Drawing exclusively on private papers and interviews with those who knew her best - including her husband Robert Wagner - Lambert presents us with the richest imaginable portrait of this beguiling, tragic woman." And Publishers Weekly says:

Lambert follows her (Wood) from such childhood triumphs as Miracle on 34th Street to her breakthrough adult part opposite James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause. Wood's overlapping affairs with Rebel director Nicholas Ray and cast member Dennis Hopper, and brief romance with Elvis Presley, will be familiar material to aficionados. But Lambert reveals deep sensitivity and understanding of her development as an actress, and he's one of the few authors to capture the depth and beauty of her relationship with Robert Wagner. Lambert also effectively highlights Wood's shrewd professional moves, including her pretense to boss Jack Warner that she didn't want to star in Splendor in the Grass, because she knew he would refuse to let her appear in it if she displayed enthusiasm. The shooting of Wood's film with Robert Redford, Inside Daisy Clover, has special authenticity, since Lambert wrote the screenplay and witnessed her frustrations after several crucial voice-overs were cut from the final print. Details regarding Wood's tragic drowning are inevitably speculative and vital questions remain unanswered. But Lambert eloquently clarifies the self-destructive reasons behind Wood's addictions and insecurities, and in the end, readers will feel they truly know the subject more than they do in most biographies.

Therefore, I do not understand why Ted Wilkes and Wyss still denigrate this author and delete all my additional contributions to the article.

Original reseach by Onefortyone

In some instances Onefortyone has used sources as material to support conclusions which he has arrived at himself, see Wikipedia:Requests_for_arbitration/Onefortyone/Workshop#Original_reseach_by_Onefortyone

The conclusions drawn by Onefortyone, while not unreasonable, are not actually set forth in the source material in so many words. Fred Bauder 20:54, 1 October 2005 (UTC)

Gavin Lambert says in his biography on Natalie Wood:

Her first studio-arranged date with a gay or bisexual actor had been with Nick Adams, whom the publicity department considered a more likely "beau" than Sal Mineo for the New York premiere of Rebel. (p. 199)

This undoubtedly proves that Nick Adams must have had homosexual leanings. Other sources also support this view. See Talk:Nick_Adams/Archive_1#Discussion_of_sources

David Bret says in his book on Elvis:

That Elvis was obsessed with James Dean during his formative years as an actor cannot be denied. He later confessed how he had seen Rebel Without a Cause 44 times before stepping on to a film set, and that he had purchased an original copy of the script so that he could learn Jimmy's lines by heart. He subsequently became involved with two of the late star's friends, Nick Adams and Natalie Wood. Adams, who since Jimmy's death had admitted that they had been lovers during the shooting of Giant, later claimed that he had had a brief affair with Elvis after Elvis had 'agreed to be his date' for a preview performance of his 1956 film, The Last Wagon. (p. 19)

Earl Greenwood, Elvis's second cousin, says in his Elvis biography of the singer's relationship with Nick Adams:

Elvis still hated sleeping alone, and he grew close enough to Nick to ask him to stay over on nights he was feeling particularly blue but not up to a sexual confrontation with a woman. ... Elvis talked about how close they had been, particularly after a couple of foursomes, and admitted he had 'spurned' Nick's friendship later, saying he had needed 'room to breathe,' because Nick had wanted 'too much, ya know?'...

The author adds that "some pointed comments were made about the two of them years later by a disgruntled hand Elvis just fired..." and even mentions "intimacies" between Elvis and his friend Adams (see pp. 284-286).

As these passages are accurate quotes from books, i.e. published secondary sources, I do not think that I have used sources as material to support conclusions which I have arrived at myself.

Citing of nonexistent sources by Onefortyone

Onefortyone, in at least one instance, cites a source which does not exist in the form cited [11], see Wikipedia:Requests_for_arbitration/Onefortyone/Workshop#Citing_of_nonexistent_sources_by_Onefortyone

• I have used the World Entertainment News Network as a source for my contribution: See [12] and [13]. As I was not in the possession of a copy of the book at that time, I was led toward thinking through the quotation marks that the reviewer had accurately cited from the book. Is it really true that these are not direct quotes from the book? It could well be that there are different editions of Bret's book, as it was published in 2001 in England and, perhaps in a revised version, in 2002 in the USA. An Amazon search proves that parts of this quote are accurately cited. Be that as it may, direct quotes prove that passages from the Amazon version of the book I have now used are very similar in content to the quotes presented by the World Entertainment News Network:

...at least two accounts of Elvis's 'friendship' with Nick Adams were sold to scandal-rags during the paranoic moral mid-fifties. These stories were bought back by his manager in an attempt to keep the wholesome Presley image intact, also allowing the controlling force, 'Colonel' Tom Parker, to manipulate Elvis for another twenty years. Parker knew only too well that, had a story hit the press implying that Elvis had so much as associated with a wildly promiscuous homosexual, ... not only would Elvis's career have ended abruptly, so too would have Parker's seemingly limitless source of income. (Introduction)

In addition, it is stated on the back cover of the book that the author has unearthed "the truth about the powerful hold exercised over Elvis by 'Colonel' Tom Parker, which revolved around Parker preventing a leak about Presley's relationship with another man from going public and then using this knowledge as a persistent threat to ensure his protégé's loyalty."

I think that this is very close to this version:

[According to] BRET, the legendary rocker's "greedy" manager COLONEL TOM PARKER blackmailed him into virtual slavery by threatening to leak reports of the romance. Bret says, "Parker held secret information about a homosexual affair between Elvis and actor NICK ADAMS over his head like a sword. He made it clear that... if Elvis didn't toe the line, he'd let it get out. At that time, it could well have ruined his career. That's why Parker had so much control over him." Presley's sexual experimentation began with a "teenage crush" on actor JAMES DEAN that grew into an obsession, says the book. The star saw REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE 44 times and eventually became close pals with Dean's Rebel co-star Nick Adams. Bret says, "Adams claimed that he had a brief affair with Elvis after Elvis 'agreed to be his date' for a preview of Nick's 1956 film THE LAST WAGON." Presley, by then a sex symbol sending legions of women swooning, became smitten with Adams and even tried unsuccessfully to get him a part in his first movie LOVE ME TENDER, says Bret. In 1958, "Nick Adams and Elvis stayed in the same room of the same hotel in New Orleans while Elvis was filming KING CREOLE there," the author reveals. Many journalists' attempts to 'out' the star in the past were thwarted by his manager.

So I don't think that I have deliberately fabricated texts, as Ted Wilkes repeatedly claimed.

There may be different opinions about Elvis's sexual leanings, which can be critically discussed on the Elvis Presley page, but what about the other Hollywood celebrities? May I ask you why the following, accurately researched paragraphs should not be included in the Nick Adams and James Dean articles:

• In 1972 gay actor Sal Mineo said Adams told him he had an affair with James Dean. [14] Boze Hadleigh's book, Hollywood Gays (1996) states that before his success as an actor Adams was a male prostitute catering to men. This is in line with remarks by reputed Elvis Presley biographer Peter Guralnick, who confirms in his Elvis book that twenty-five-year-old Nick Adams was a "Hollywood hustler". [15] Such statements are also related to similar rumours about James Dean who is claimed to have been involved in this with Adams. [16] In his 2004 biography Natalie Wood: A Life, Gavin Lambert, who was part of the gay Hollywood circles of the 1950s and 1960s, wrote that Wood's "first studio-arranged date with a gay or bisexual actor had been with Nick Adams..." Given Adams' widely known (and sometimes salaried) friendship with Elvis Presley, Earl Greenwood's biography, The Boy who would be King (1990) and David Bret's book Elvis: The Hollywood Years (2001) even claim that Adams had an affair with Elvis Presley. However, there are no court records, contemporary letters or statements attributed to the actor to support any rumors that Adams was homosexual.

• Decades after Dean's death, author Boze Hadleigh, an expert on Hollywood gays, published a 1972 interview with Sal Mineo in which the actor said, "Nick (Adams) told me they had a big affair." [17] Further sources support the view that Dean had homosexual leanings. [18] [19] Bit actor and writer John Gilmore, a member of Dean's "Night Watch" motorcyle riders, wrote a book on James Dean claiming they had a homosexual encounter. In his Natalie Wood biography, the reputed Hollywood expert Gavin Lambert, himself homosexual and part of the Hollywood gay circles of the 50s and 60s, describes Dean as being bisexual. In her memoir of her brief affair with Dean, actress Dizzy Sheridan states Dean had an affair with Rogers Brackett, a radio director for an advertising agency whom Dean met in the summer of 1951 while working as a parking attendant at CBS. In Val Holley's James Dean: the Biography (1997) gay studies scholars will also find rich factual evidence of Dean's homosexual social life, and of the crucial role gay patrons like Rogers Brackett played in Dean's rise to stardom. Last not least, Live Fast, Die Young – The Wild Ride of Making Rebel Without a Cause, a recent book by Lawrence Frascella and Al Weisel, says that Rebel director Nicholas Ray knew Dean to be bisexual.

In my opinion, these paragraphs are well supported by statements from several independent books. So I do not understand why the arbitrators conclude,

===Enforcement of probation===

Should Onefortyone edit any article he is banned from he may be blocked for a short period of time (up to a week in the case of repeat offenses).

Perhaps some members of the arbitration committee can explain their decision to me. Furthermore, I do not understand why there is no comment by the arbitrators on the false accusations against me by Ted Wilkes.