This month (October 3rd to be exact) we honor Webmaster Rush Glick as he celebrates 20 years since launching his Charlie Chan Family Home Website. And in recognition of this benchmark we’ll look inside just one of the 27 separate page links on the site, “The Study.” Why this page? Because there you will find 272 Panama Hats, each one leading to a world, within a world, of wonderful inside dope, minutia, trivia, and fiddle-faddle germane to Detective Charlie Chan of the Honolulu Police!
Now I ain’t just yakin’ or jawin’ atcha. Seriously! You can get lost inside this “Study” for days, weeks, months going from one article to the next. The site is a collection of 20 years research into all things Charlie Chan, and “The Study” is my favorite place to find: newspaper articles, video clips, book and video reviews, Broadway play brochures, photos, interviews, past events, side issues and complete examination of the Chan movies in the film proper and so much more!
Here’s the breakdown of topics inside “The Study” and number of factoids you’ll discover within each one when you try on a Panama Hat–new items being constantly added:
- APANA, Chang…………………………..9
- BIGGERS, Earl Derr…………………..14
- CHAN, Charlie…………………………..44
- FONG, Benson……………………………8
- HONG, James…………………………….1
- LUKE, Keye……………………………….18
- MORELAND, Mantan…………………4
- NAISH, J. Carrol…………………………2
- (THE) NEW Adventures of Charlie Chan…..4
- OLAND, Warner………………………..31
- TOLER, Sidney…………………………..11
- TOM, Layne Jr……………………………3
- WINTERS, Roland………………………6
- YUNG, Victor Sen………………………..5
- BOOK REVIEWS…………………………8
- CAST (others)……………………………..8
- FILMS……………………………………….43
- VIDEO RELEASES……………………..16
- MISCELLANEOUS……………………..37
Under the MISCELLANEOUS section here’s a hat that takes you to a 2-week Chan film festival, 1968, in New York. Just click on the Panama Hat titled Charlie Chan at the Museum of Modern Art, HERE. And if that doesn’t fit how about this hat titled The New York Times, July 5, 1973, under YUNG, Victor Sen, HERE. Read how the actor (Son No. 2 to Sidney Toler’s Chan and TV Bonanza’s star Hop Sing) was shot during an airline hijacking of Pacific Southwest Airline flight 710, Sacramento to Los Angeles.
Or try this Hat under OLAND, Warner titled, The Warner Oland Scrap Book HERE, to find a unique scrap book (possibly compiled by Oland’s wife Edith or other close relative.) This personal treasure contains 142 pages of rare often esoteric newspaper, magazine, and trade paper clippings that were meticulously collected, pasted, and documented, all focusing on Warner Oland (the first actor to successfully portray the detective on film.) The clippings date from February 25, 1916 and run through March 5, 1932 – 16 years’ worth of material!
So there you have it. A tiny peak inside “The Study”: Just one of the 27 pages to investigate inside this fascinating website that’s been going strong for 20 years.
Author Earl Derr Biggers only wrote six Detective Charlie Chan mysteries, yet his creation was catapult to world fame; his books translated into 23 languages with Hollywood producing 47 films among many other accolades.
CONGRATULATIONS TO RUSH GLICK for reaching this pinnacle of success! And for keeping our detective alive and well, we most humbly say…
“Life would be a dreary waste, if there was no thing called loyalty”
Charlie Chan, The Chinese Parrot (1926), Chapter 2
(P.S. An exigent announcement from The Family Home Webmaster, Mr. Rush Glick):
OUR CONTINUING SAGA… Our Charlie Chan Family Website has, for over 20 years, been supported by Tripod, a Website-building support that offered “Trellix” as a tool by which to build and maintain our site. HOWEVER, Tripod has not fully supported its Trellix tool for some time now, and, as time passes, it is becoming less and less reliable. This has brought about something of an emergency need to move on to some other support ASAP! We are, with the help of some of our Charlie Chan Family members, looking into alternatives. The worst case scenario would be that the entire site would need to be reconstituted painstakingly from scratch. This would be the proverbial mammoth undertaking, and, hopefully, this will not be what eventually happens! It is still hoped that we can “migrate’ our site to another support. Thank you so much for your understanding if you experience errors or old information as well as a lack of new information growing at our present site.
At this time a new support for our site, WordPress, is being explored, tested, and hopefully its inherent mysteries will be satisfactorily solved so reconstruction may begin!
The Postman on Holiday 