Here's another one you will probably want to add the huge list of bo-gus "neon histories." Take a look at the educational program being sold for several years now to school children. Ahhh yes. If you're gonna B.S. them, why not start out with the gullible kids, huh?
THIS wild fantasy claims that Mr. Anthony erected the first sign "on top of his Packard dealership on the corner of LaBrea and Wilshire Blvd" in Los Angeles. Wow. Of course, then other "histories" have parroted this same "history" back on their web sites and publications and it goes on and on and on.
But the truth is... there was NEVER a Packard dealership on that corner. Much less an ECA one. Where was Mr. Anthony's dealerhsip in the 1920s? Miles away downtown-not uptown in the Wilshire District! AND the closest Packard dealership (ON La Brea) did not open until the mid-1930s... and had the further distinction of being the very first in L.A. NOT to be associated in any way with Earle C. Anthony, Inc. But again, we can't let the facts get in the way of wild story telling...right?
By the way, the most recent issue of The Packard Cormorant magazine (available via the Packard Club) chronicles the history of this very dealership on La Brea.
Oh. And then there is the almighty Wikipedia... where anyone can make up and say anything they want... and publish it on the internet where it will be quoted and quoted and re-quoted as...uh...fact! READ the fine print on Wikipedia....
There is no truth detector on the internet... which is why Snopes was invented. Imagine that. A web site to tell you whether what you are reading on web sites is real or B.S. And that shouldn't be necessary. But it is.
I always marvel over some individuals' capacity for work. Such is the case for Edison, Dr. Albert Schweitzer (does anyone even know who Albert Schweitzer was?), and Earle C. Anthony. My heavens! Earle C. Anthony must have been a human dynamo, considering his prolific career and prodigious output. I feel like an absolute slug when I compare my work ethic to those of Anthony, Schweitzer, and Edison.
