Ask American Profile 2/1/2009

Mike Rowe, Brooke Shields, The Black Cat, Alfalfa Switzer

Q I’d like to know about Mike Rowe of Dirty Jobs. He may have a dirty job, but he seems like a really neat guy!
—Dee Archer, Loveland, Colo.

Rowe, 46, was born in Baltimore and attended nearby Towson State University for six years, constantly changing his major. Before Dirty Jobs, he sang professionally with the Baltimore Opera, sold simulated diamonds on the QVC network and appeared in several dozen Tylenol commercials. Single, he lives in San Francisco, where he hosted the Discovery Channel’s Egypt Week! and narrated the network’s Deadliest Catch before tackling Dirty Jobs.

Q I really enjoy watching Brooke Shields on Lipstick Jungle, but I hear she also writes children’s books. Is that true?
—Lola Kanakaredes, Skokie, Ill.

HarperCollins Publishers approached Shields with the idea of writing a children’s book about a young girl waiting for her baby sister to be born. Shields, 43, knew just where to turn for inspiration. “Basically, my daughters wrote it and I am taking all the credit,” says the mother of Rowan, 5, and Grier, 2. “Rowan literally walked in when (Grier) was brought home from the hospital, made this grand gesture and said, ‘Welcome to your world, baby.’” Welcome to Your World, Baby is in bookstores now, soon to be followed by The Best Day Ever, Dad, a story about the girls’ bond with their father, Hollywood producer Chris Henchy.

Q The 1941 movie The Black Cat opens with a scene of a cat on a tree branch with a mansion in the background. That same scene appears in Catman of Paris (1946) and as the opening scene in The Creeper (1948). I’m guessing that the scene was stock footage. Can you shed any light?
—Duke Moore, Fairhope, Pa.

You’re probably right, although it’s almost impossible to know for sure. It’s likely that the scene you remember from all three movies was indeed stock, or reusable footage, from one of the studio’s archives or from a stock-footage library. For decades, filmmakers have used stock for reasons of simplicity, time or budget. “All of the major studios had stock libraries,” says Joe Lauro, president of the Historic Films Archive, which houses more than 30,000 hours of clips for use by filmmakers. “It’s likely they were just cutting corners.”

Q Did “Alfalfa” Switzer ever appear in any John Wayne movies? A Red Lobster dinner is riding on the answer.
—Domonic Florino, Boone, Iowa

Switzer, most famous for his childhood role as Alfalfa in the Our Gang comedies, appeared with Wayne in Island in the Sky in 1953. He also played the obnoxious “Freddie” at the high school dance in It’s a Wonderful Life, and Switzer’s photo is used in White Christmas to depict an Army buddy of characters played by Danny Kaye and Bing Crosby. He died in 1959 at the age of 31, shot to death in an argument over a dog.

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