Rollie's Younger Brother Dan

As I watched the hugely entertaining "Remember Last Night?" on TCM last
night (a movie best viewed drink-in-hand since all the characters, excepting
Edward Arnold, are either sloshed or hung-over), I noticed one of the
writing credits belonged to Rollie's brother Dan Totheroh. According to
IMDB, he had a long screen and TV writing career stretching from 1929 to
1954, with The Dawn Patrol and The Devil and Daniel Webster being his
best-known films. Did other family members have Hollywood careers, David?
--
Rob Farr
www.slapsticon.org
July 20-23

Rob Farr (when replying change nine to ix) wrote:
> As I watched the hugely entertaining "Remember Last Night?" on TCM last
> night (a movie best viewed drink-in-hand since all the characters, excepting
> Edward Arnold, are either sloshed or hung-over), I noticed one of the
> writing credits belonged to Rollie's brother Dan Totheroh. According to
> IMDB, he had a long screen and TV writing career stretching from 1929 to
> 1954, with The Dawn Patrol and The Devil and Daniel Webster being his
> best-known films. Did other family members have Hollywood careers, David?

That depends on your definition of "Hollywood career" I guess. I've
long touted, tongue in cheek, my father's (Rollie's son) record setting
acting career. Having been the title character in Broncho Billy
Anderson's "The Bachelor's Baby" released in July 1915, and playing a
'cameraman' in Attenborough's 1992 "Chaplin," I'm waiting for evidence
that his isn't the longest film acting career in history. (My neice and
I also had bit parts in "Chaplin" and I was Marissa Tomei's stand-in
for a day, but even *I* wouldn't stoop low enough to count that) Of
course, the joke always was that there was nothing in between for my
father. But thanks to Sam Gill's eagle-eyed research, it turns out that
my dad was also in at least one Fox Sunshine comedy, from 1922. The
director of that film, Al Herman, (a family friend from Niles days)
gave my grandmother a role in that film and also a writing credit.
Since it was at the time that my grandparents got divorced, I have no
doubt that it was a charity offer on Al's part. David Kiehn has also
discovered that my grandmother appeared in a few Broncho Billy
Andersons and Essanay Snakeville Comedies.

So, the serious answer is that brothers Rollie and Dan were the only
ones with Hollywood careers. Dan also wrote the novel, and screenplay,
for Ida Lupino's "Deep Valley" and on a timely note, he also wrote a
play, later novelized by him, "Once Upon an Earthquake" about the
family's experience living through the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.