Comments on: Scandal! The Wanger-Lang Shooting of 1951

By: Medusa

Medusa — Sun, 17 Dec 2006 16:10:19 +0000

I'm so pleased that this tawdry little incident has titillated the imagination of our morlock readership! I know it's often on my mind — which is sick, I know. Thanks to Zontar for digging up that choice nugget from the suave Mr. Cerf. The language is a bit more…er…anatomical…than I might have expected from that normally very proper man of letters, but it certainly tells the tale!Huzzah for groin shootings!

By: klondike

klondike — Sat, 16 Dec 2006 22:36:58 +0000

I think it's plain hilarious that the shooter's name was "Wanger"!Almost as ironic as Lorena BOBBIT!

By: Zontar

Zontar — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 22:20:44 +0000

I can't find the limerick to which you allude, but Wikipedia yielded the following, the opening lines to an epic poem inspired by the incident: In Hollywood did Jennings LangA lovely movie star seduce,When Walt, the cuckhold husband, shot, Through trousers tailored to a man,Down to his scrotum's seed. It is credited to Bennet Cerf.

By: Joey Gee

Joey Gee — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 17:04:33 +0000

That article read like a satisfactory film noir, which was a popular genre at the time. I'm surprised someone didn't embellish the story and make a movie out of it.

By: Medusa

Medusa — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 15:49:58 +0000

I forgot to mention that the Carol Heiss incident allegedly happened during the filming of "Snow White and the Three Stooges."

By: Medusa

Medusa — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 15:48:29 +0000

The whole thing is just hilarious, Lang's wounded nether region nothwithstanding. I, too, am amazed that there wasn't a rash of groin attacks — or groin rash, come to think of it — unless there were a flurry, of course, and studio flacks kept them under wraps! And I do believe the "Oh my aching groin!" was a bit of a Stooge catchphrase, as I recall hearing the titular Hercules utter the same line when Curly Joe DeRita popped him one in "The Three Stooges Meet Hercules." I think the whole thing was started when Carol Heiss flubbed a double axle and accidentally landed her iceskate perilously close to Moe's boys. Leave it to the Stooges to turn a near-disaster into comedy tradition!Great comments, everybody!

By: Dr. Stuckey

Dr. Stuckey — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 14:53:45 +0000

Is this where the line "Oh my aching groin" came from or was that "The Three Stooges in Orbit" when Moe kicked Larry in the G region?

By: RHS

RHS — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 22:23:05 +0000

I'm surprised, really, that groin shootings never really caught on in Hollywood.

By: classicdiva08

classicdiva08 — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 21:56:41 +0000

I'm sorry but somethings (no matter how dangerous and serious they are) are just funny. The fact that Joan Bennett really yelled "For God’s Sake, Walter, he’s only an agent!” makes the whole thing funnyas hell. I think that they could make a great comedy just about that one line.