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Now for nineteen fifties "DOA" starring Edmond O'Bryan and Pamela Britton. But first a trivia
question for you. Let me extricate it from its paper prison. The question: what does
the term DOA represent? Now the prize, the only prize for the correct answer, one pat
on the back that you'll have to administer to yourself. Now certainly a heck of a lot
better than slap on the belly with a wet trout, isn't it? And is that your answer? Dead on
arrival, right! Too darned easy! Now "DOA" actually was shot in San Francisco and Los
Angeles. It starred Edmond O'Bryan as an accountant who had notarized the sale of the rare Earth
element Iridium, ten thousand dollars worth that had been stolen. And he's been marked
for ***. Now it turns out that he was given a slow acting poison and only had a day or
two to live to find the man who murdered him. But superb acting, he certainly deserved an
Academy Award for this performance. He did get one in nineteen fifty-three for "The Barefoot
Contessa" for the best supporting actor, but this was by far his best role. Now a number
of the scenes were shot in Los Angeles at the Bradbury building known for its' beautiful
ornamental work. Turns out that in eighteen ninety-two the architect George Wineman was
offered the commission for that, but he refused it because he was too busy. But one night
while he and his wife were working a Ouija board trying to make contact with his dead
brother Mark, who had passed away six years before, they received a message that said
'take that commission, it will make you famous'. He acted on that, and he did indeed become
a very famous architect, even though the building is named for Bradbury and not Wineman. Interestingly
sci-fi and horror guru Forrest Ackerman is the grandson of George Wineman and has that
original communication from beyond the grave. How about that?