Talk:Wilson Mizner

Blackie Nolan

I was just informed, by Carl Nolte, writer for the San Francisco Chronicle, as they feature his series commemorating this 100th anniversary of the April 18, 1906 Quake and Fires, that Wilson Mizner was the real-life basis for the character "Blackie Nolan", played by Clark Gable in the 1936 film classic "San Francisco". I am now researching him a little bit, and welcome discussion here on this and related facts. 14:25, 14 April 2006‎ 67.177.171.12

Yes. In Kiss Hollywood Goodbye, Anita Loos writes that she and Bob Hopkins "wrote that movie to the glory of Wilson Mizner... we named the Mizner character 'Blackie Norton' [sic]." Ubiquity (talk) 20:38, 8 May 2022 (UTC)

Anita Loos

Near the end of her Kiss Hollywood Goodbye Anita Loos talks about her relationship with Mizner and offers some more quotes. No I don't have them handy. Sorry. 70.109.170.42 21:11, 19 June 2006 (UTC)

I have this book. Yes, she provides some quotes, but none are particularly notable. They are mostly in Chapter 12, "It's love that makes the world go square." Ubiquity (talk) 20:10, 8 May 2022 (UTC)

Unsourced

Wikiquote no longer allows unsourced quotations, and they are in process of being removed from our pages (see Wikiquote:Limits on quotations); but if you can provide a reliable, precise and verifiable source for any quote on this list please move it to Wilson Mizner. --Antiquary 12:59, 19 September 2009 (UTC)

• A drama critic is a person who surprises the playwright by informing him what he meant.

• I've been seeing Hollywood films for years and I think the real heroes are in the audience

• Gambling: The sure way of getting nothing for something.

• God help those who do not help themselves.

• He'd steal a hot stove and come back for the smoke.

• I can usually judge a fellow by what he laughs at.

• I hate careless flattery- the kind that exhausts you in your effort to believe it.

• I never saw a mob rush across town to do a good deed.

• I've known countless people who were reservoirs of learning, yet never had a thought.

• Most open minds should be closed for repair.

• Over in Hollywood they almost made a great picture, but they caught it in time.

• The best way to keep your friends is not to give them away.

• The days just prior to marriage are like a snappy introduction to a tedious book.

• The gent who wakes up and finds himself a success hasn't been asleep.

• The life of the party almost always winds up in a corner with an overcoat thrown over him.

• The only sure thing about luck is that it will change.

• The worst tempered people I have ever met were those who knew that they were wrong.

• Those who welcome death have only tried it from the ears up.

• When a woman tells you her age, it's all right to look surprised, but don't scowl.

• Why should I talk to you? I've just been talking with your boss.
  • On his deathbed, to a priest

• Working for Warner Brothers is like fucking a porcupine: it's a hundred pricks against one.

• You sparkle with larceny.

• You're a mouse studying to be a rat.