The Brady Bunch

Regarding the viral saga of Timmy/Shimmy started on the "Crazy Days and Nights" blog by "Ent Lawyer", all has been revealed.

I'll cut to the chase: "Timmy" was Arthur Blake, and "Shimmy" was indeed Alice Brady. Although the original blind item alluded that Blake "took over" completely for Brady at some point (at least that's how I read it), that was not the case after all. Blake, a natural mimic, stepped in for Brady on those occasions when the frail actress was too ill to work, which was apparently often.

Therefore, both Brady and Blake reportedly appeared in Brady's Oscar nominated role in My Man Godfrey and a few other films, most notably her Academy Award-winning role as the infamous Mrs. O'Leary in In Old Chicago (pictured above in the "center square" of my Brady Bunch-esque homage to Brady. Fittingly, that was maid Alice's spot on the beloved sitcom, as we all know). Cesar Romero was the closeted gay star who met Brady/Blake while filming Metropolitan, leading to a secret love affair with Blake that lasted a few years.

As I stated previously, who knows if this is indeed true or not (either way, it sure is fascinating), and it will be interesting to see if any "legitimate" media picks up the story, or if anyone truly "in the know" will come out to confirm it. Then there is the intriguing question of whether the Academy will respond.

Regardless of any future developments, "Ent" brings up a good point regarding all his readers who were so obsessively involved with cracking this "Old Hollywood" BI. It has turned on many people to an interest in classic film, and, hopefully, they will actually watch some of these often forgotten treasures that they have read about; if anything else, I'm sure In Old Chicago has jumped to top of many people's Netflix queues as a result of all this. I know it has in mine.

Click here to purchase In Old Chicagoon DVD from Amazon.com.
Links via CrazyDaysAndNights.net and Imdb.com.