From the E-Mailbag…

A couple of readers have sent me info on books that argue that O.J. Simpson was innocent of the double murder. They're pretty obscure, small press books that received no attention because their conclusions (most pinned the killing on Mark Fuhrman or on Simpson's son Jason) were so inane and poorly supported. The point is that O.J. Simpson never got behind any alternate theory of the killings, nor did F. Lee Bailey or any of Simpson's other attorneys, nor did any prominent journalist or anyone with a smidgen of credibility. If one of them had crafted even a semi-logical case, they could have cleaned up. But no one could.

Regarding the movie Stop! Look! And Laugh!, a person who wishes to remain anonymous sends the following…

Is it possible there are two versions? I had never seen the movie until one Saturday afternoon, around 1984, when it was being broadcast on the old WNEW Metromedia station, in New York. I was paying special attention to the Winchell-Mahoney-Knucklehead Smiff scenes, as I had fallen in love with the performer, and his characters, nearly two decades earlier. But in the movie, when Winch left the kitchen, I was stunned, as the Jerry Mahoney puppet got up from the breakfast table, and walked to the sink, in full view of the camera…

Obviously, it was a little person, or child, in a Jerry Mahoney wardrobe, and rubber mask, but it was still almost kind of chilling, if only because of the surprise. When the movie was next broadcast, a couple of years later, I set the VCR to record it — more for the wonderful Winchell scenes, than anything else. I had the Stooges shorts, and really wanted a copy of the amazing — to me, at least — Jerry walks sequence. But when I checked the tape, WNEW had shortened the dining room material, cutting the scene out.

Years later, when I encountered a bunch of hard-core Stooges fans on the internet, they told me they had never seen the scene I described. And when I bought Stop! Look! And Laugh!'s prerecord, the sequence was also gone. Do you, or any of your readers, recall any such scene?

I don't, at least in that movie. I do recall an episode of The Jack Benny Program that creeped me out when I was a small boy. Jack visited Edgar Bergen at his home and saw Charlie McCarthy and Mortimer Snerd walking about. (They were both reportedly played by Billy Barty in masks.) It was very bizarre.

I have a vague memory of Winchell doing something similar on some show, though I have the feeling it may have been not a small person in a mask but a marionette. Perhaps someone with better info will write in and tell us.