Bad Actor’s Body of Work Took a Really Long Time to Get Its Due Recognition

No one would be more surprised than drunken outlaw Elmer McCurdy that two biographies would be written about him nearly a century after he was gunned down by an Oklahoma posse. But McCurdy’s literary appeal lay not just in his sad-sack life (1880-1911) but in the colorful, if complicated, journey that his mummified corpse took afterward.

That journey came to an end in 1976 when crew members from TV’s “The Six Million Dollar Man” tried to move him at the old Nu-Pike amusement park in Long Beach. They thought he was a dummy (as did the Nu-Pike) until his arm came off. As Mark Svenvold, McCurdy’s latest biographer, relates in “The Misadventures in Life and Afterlife of an American Outlaw,” an investigation (aided by the bizarre discovery of theater tickets in the mummy’s mouth) found that after his death he had been used as a sideshow freak at numerous shows.

His corpse even broke into the movies, where it was used as a prop in several exploitation films, billed as “Elmer McCready, The Dope Addict.” And, so, the message to you struggling actors out there is clear: Don’t be discouraged. You never know when you’re going to get that big career break.

The same was true of Elmer: While we’re on the subject, Alan Simon of Sherman Oaks sent along a warning that only appears to relate to the human anatomy (see above). Actually, it was on the box of a disposable camera.

Another body mix-up: Pat Wilson of Corona saw a newspaper story that really isn’t about the treatment of a flower with the sniffles (see above).

Tired of having your toilet laugh at you? Lisette Hepler of Long Beach found a parts-maker who says he can silence that mocking fixture (see above).

What a concept! That was the reaction of Dani Wawrzenski of Palos Verdes Estates when she read the small print at the bottom of an ad for a CD case (see above).

MiscelLAny: When Elmer McCurdy’s corpse was found on the set of “The Six Million Dollar Man,” Variety headlined the story: “Bionic Man Meets Dummy Mummy.”

*

Steve Harvey can be reached at (800) LA-TIMES, Ext. 77083, by fax at (213) 237-4712, by mail at Metro, L.A. Times, 202 W. 1st St., L.A. 90012 and by e-mail at steve.harvey@latimes.com.