Lifestyle of the Rich and the Infamous

Behind the gates in the Hills of Los Angeles are million dollar cars, billion dollar homes and money, just flowing right into the banks of these wealthy individuals. Some work extremely hard and take pride in their efforts to maintain such a lavish lifestyle. Others might be so lucky and find that lifting a finger a day is too much work.

Jesse James Hollywood was a rich man. He lived on a street in the San Fernando Valley where people drove Mercedes, Porches, Maserati and Beemers. Hollywood fit right in with his neighbors with the millions he was making by the age of 19 all thanks to marijuana.

In 2007, a film based on Hollywood's story called "Alpha Dog," was released. Before I get into the story, I should let you know that the characters' name in the movie was changed due to legal purposes. Just so I don't ruin the movie, I'm just going to share the true story of what Alpha Dog was based on. When you watch the movie, you'll know the real names behind the pseudonyms.

Hollywood was feared and respected to a certain point by his "posse," those who dealt drugs for him, those who partnered up to do business with him, and those who owed him money for coming up short at the end of a business cycle. People believed Hollywood's bad boy image and feared not only that they were going to hated by Hollywood, but that Hollywood's father, Jack, would come after them as well. Jack Hollywood was also a wealthy man. Though he had a legitimate career, Jesse was thought to have gotten his drug supplies from his father, a man also to be feared by many.

Hollywood was well-known within his residential community. Neighbors knew that there were illegal activities in Hollywood's house, but no one ever reported. Even with cars pulling up to the house day and night or with the loud parties filled with music and laughter, no one ever called the police on them. Seems awfully strange, but maybe that shows the degree of how neighbors didn't want to get involved in what they saw was a dangerous man.

Hollywood became the headline, not only nationally, but globally. He was wanted for kidnapping and killing 15-year-old Nicholas Markowitz. Nick's older step-brother, Ben, was one of the few who worked for Hollywood and did not fear him. Ben would often come up short with money and was unable to pay Hollywood with the supply of marijuana given to him. Instead of apologizing to Hollywood, Ben would mouth off when Hollywood harassed him for the money. Words soon turned into physical violence.

Hollywood began looking over his shoulders the day after Ben Markowitz vandalized his house, breaking every glass there was and taking whatever was valuable to them. Some believed that Hollywood was all act and when it came to Ben, Hollywood would himself to be the one fearing for his life.

Nick Markowitz was abducted by Hollywood and a couple of other guys one day when he was walking on the streets. Hollywood wanted revenge on what was done to his house, so he saw a chance to get back at Ben by stealing Nick. Nick didn't care and was given several chance to get on the bus to go home, but he never took that chance. He thought he was doing his brother a favor, not to mention, he was having the time of his life. For three days, Nick was partying with an older group, drinking, smoking, playing video games and having sex. It's was a change away from his clingy mother that Nick had been wishing for.

The gang treated him well. Most of the time, Hollywood wasn't even in sight. He was afraid of being seen with Nick and knew that he would get in trouble for it. So most of the time, Nick stayed with Jesse Rugge. Rugge grew fond of the boy and was happy when Hollywood told him that they were sending Nick home. Earlier that day, Hollywood explained a hypothetical situation to Rugge that if Rugge was to kill the boy, Hollywood would give him money and everyone would be free from trouble and prison. When Rugge refused, Hollywood laughed off the "hypothetical situation" he was thrown at Rugge and hired Ryan Hoyt to be the hit man.

Hoyt was known as Hollywood's servant because Hoyt had owed so much money to Hollywood. Hollywood told Hoyt that his debt would be paid off if he would kill Nick for him. Hoyt took the job and on August 9, 2000, Nick was told he was going home, but instead brought up to San Padre National Forest by Hoyt, Rugge and Graham Pressley. Pressley stayed in the car while Hoyt and Rugge drugged up the boy and took him to a shallow grave Hoyt had dug earlier that night. The two men taped Nick up, knocked him out with a shovel and put nine bullets in his body with a semi-automatic.

Nick's body was found days later by hikers and Hollywood was on the run for years. America's Most Wanted broadcasted this story during Hollywood's wanted years. Investigators and police from several countries worked together to find this notorious criminal. Hollywood was found in 2005 in Brazil, living under an alias with his girlfriend and their unborn child.

Presently, Hollywood is locked up in Brazil for his hearing in February of next year. Rugge is serving life, Hoyt is in San Quentin waiting to be executed and Pressley is in juvenile detention hall until the age of 25 since he was convicted as a minor at the age of 17 (he should be 25 sometime this year or next).

Alpha Dog was a distrubing movie and there's no doubt in my mind that the horrific events actually took place. There was no ghosts or demons involved, and that's what makes it so scary, that human beings who live among us are committing these terrifying acts. This movie is definitely not reccmmended for children. Even I had a hard time watching it because it was graphic.

The Perfect Mother

Last week, I got the chance to finally see "Changeling" starring Angelina Jolie. I'm not a Jolie fan, but I loved the idea of a movie based during the early 1900's. Before I go into the plot of the story, I just have to say, whoever cast her as the lead could not have made a better choice.

"Changeling" is a story about Christine Collins, a single mother living the suburbans of Los Angeles with her son, Walter. Her world crashed when she came home from work one day and couldn't find her son. She searched high and low for him and even when filing a police report, Collins never completely let the police take over and continued searching for young Walter.

A year after Walter's disappearance, the Los Angeles Police brought back a boy from another state, claiming that this boy was her son. Collin's first reaction was not of what people would think a mother would have when being reunited with her long lost son because she knew that wasn't her Walter. Yet, the little boy insisted on being Walter and even calls her "mommy."

Not wanting to look bad in front of the crowd of press, the police said in a low tone of voice to Collins for her to take the child home and "test" the child out as children often appear different after a year of being missing.

This movie showed a series of events that eventually lead up to the boy admitting that he was not Walter, to the Los Angeles police finding a mass murderer by chance because of a complaint that there was an illegal immigrant from Canada, whom turned out to be the cousin of the mass murderer.

Most of the events in this movie were actually true. The Los Angeles Police Department was as corrupted as shown in this film. The officers involved in Walter Collin's search were depicted based on accuracy. There was testimony the event of the police officer telling Collins to "try" the boy out in the movie was the actual words spoken by the chief of LAPD.

The press coverage by Los Angeles Times, shown in the movie, were actual articles that were written in the 1930's. As cool as I thought it would be to see those articles, I didn't want to pay to retrieve them from LA Times' archives. But, they are available with stunning headlines such as, "Collins' boy missing" and "Mass murderer admits to killings," which all referred or tied in with the case of Walter Collins.

There were some information that were left out or not made clear in the movie. In the beginning the of the film, we see Walter asking his mother where his father was. Collins answers him with "he left with a little box filled with responsibilities." However, a census showed that Collins was living with her husband in the late 1920's. There were also listening of the Collins' family living in Venice Beach where three residents shared the home.

A very important character was left out of this movie. The film only showed one mass murderer living on the Wineville Chicken Farm, however, that was not true. Not as depicted, the Gordon Northcott was not solely responsible for the death of dozens of children. In fact, he wasn't even the real mastermind behind the murders. His "mother," Louisa Northcott, was actually the one making sure all the kidnaps were done properly and even made sure that the children were dead by chopping them up into pieces.

Though Gordon referred to Louisa as his mother, officials later find out that Louisa was actually his grandfather, however, since Gordon was an incest product of his father and his sister, his grandmother (or aunt, or mother, as he referred to her), Louisa, raised him.

It's uncertain why Clint Eastwood left Louisa out of the film. Many critics say that the film was based fairly accurately. Walter Collins was never found, and it was never confirmed that the Northcotts had murdered him since none of Walter's remains were found during the investigation. Though Louisa Northcott admitted to killing Walter, a boy that the Northcott admitted to killing was found alive years later.

Some interesting history was shown in this movie. After the murderers were caught, Wineville decided to change their name into what the city is presently known as, "Mira Loma." The notorious farm was actually found and people believe that there are residence on the property. Interesting, I wonder if they know the history of that farm. The film also showed the history of corruption in the city of Angels. Those who was suppose to serve and protect, not only do not compete their job, but also teamed up with the Los Angeles gangsters to intimidate the citizens.

Christine Collins had her time in the spotlight for a couple years. Just as Jolie depicted in the film, Christine Collins never gave up looking for her son. What happened to Christine Collins years after this horrific incident was uncertain. Collins kept a low profile in the community, but records showed that she continued to work at the telephone company she was seen working at in the movie.

This movie showed a courageous mother who wouldn't give up looking for her son. Collins was shown in the film as a woman who changed the history of child investigations. She also was not afraid to go against what, at the time, was the most corrupted police department in California. Collins later on sued the captain of LAPD for negligence and won. Though Collins never found Walter, she changed lives for many in the community. She gave other parents who's child was missing, hope and inspiration to never give up.

Blood is Thicker Than Water

Sibling relationships in Hollywood can often be exaggerated, whether it'd be sister rivalry, or sisterly love. It's not often that both of these types of relationships are found in one pair of sisters--which would make the Boleyn sisters one of few pairs that struggle between love and contempt for each other.

In the 2008 movie, "The Other Boleyn Girl," sisters Mary and Anne Tudor are shown in the beginning of the film to be best friends who shared every moment of joy and happiness together. The opening of the movie shows the two sisters chasing and teasing each other in an open field of grass. We begin to see sibling rivalry when the two sisters sought after the same man, King Henry VIII. However, the film closes with the two sisters reunited spiritually, because the movie shows the audience that bitterness and contempt can never erase the bond sisters are born with.
While the movie deserves praise for realistic depiction of certain church scenes, scenes of birth giving, and the type of clothing for the time setting, many historians found it hard to accurately recreate events that were not documented.

Some of the inaccuracies in this movie included events that did not follow chronological order on the timeline, made-up scenarios and a failure of including important people who were involved in the drama between Anne, Mary and Henry.

The movie shows Mary and Anne as two girls from the countryside. Though it was mentioned in the movie that Thomas Boleyn, the girls' father was some-what ranked in royalty, as far as the audience can see, Mary and Anne were two simple girls who stayed in the countryside. However, this was untrue because Mary used to travel to France with Henry's sister, Mary. Mary Tudor was exposed to royalty quite often when she attended parties in France. In fact, Mary and Henry met through Henry's sister, despite the fact that the film showed Mary and Anne's first encounter with Henry at the Tudor's residence.

Mary is shown as the older sister of Anne, but historians say that Mary may be the older of the two, but not more than 12 months. Regardless, Henry did fall in love with Mary the moment he set eyes on her, as shown in the film. At the time when Henry was courting Mary, she was already married to William Carey, man with no land, no money and had no connection to royalty. Carey eventually became Henry's good friend, which was left out of the movie's storyline. Henry did eventually have an affair with Mary that Carey was aware of.

Mary's second pregnancy was said to be the bastard son of the King. In the movie, the event of the child birth was taken place in the King's palace. However, the real setting of the birth is unknown. It could have been somewhere in the palace, but not in the chambers next to the King's bedroom as shown in the film. Mary and Henry's affair was also over by the time Mary gave birth to her son, Henry Carey. By the time Henry Carey was born, Henry had already lose interest in the older Boleyn daughter and had his eyes set on Anne.

The movie portrayed Anne just as historians had described her to be. Anne had no intentions of being a mistress to the King, instead, she wanted to be the Queen of England. Henry continued to chase after her for years until he asked her to be his wife. With Anne's royalty status as the most powerful woman in England, her father, Thomas Boleyn was knighted Earl of Wiltshire, her brother, George, became Viscount Rochford while Mary, the mother of Henry's alleged bastard son, was nothing and never received the respect she deserved for bearing the King's son.

It was not out of the ordinary that Mary was treated as no one in the royal family. Henry previously had an affair with Bessie Blount before he met Mary. Blount's son, Henry Fitzroy, was said to be Henry's illegitimate son as well. Blount, like Mary, was never honored for giving the King a son. Witnessing her sister out casted from the royal family, Anne knew the downfall would happen to her as well and never agreed to anything less than owing the queen of England's crowd.

Henry eventually grew tired of Anne and wanted someone more quiet and docile by his side. The courts convinced him the only way to get rid of Anne was to accuse her of something treasonous. Henry eventually accused Anne of adultery, something that was believed to be made-up. Anne was charged with committing adultery with six men, one of them being her own brother, George. Audiences were not given the chance of seeing Anne's innocence. The film depicted Anne's crime as a fact when some believed otherwise. A testimonial given by Lady Rochford, George's wife, was not shown in the movie. It would have made a compelling case had she been included in the movie because she had testified against George, stating that she knew he was having sexual relations with his sister. However, Lady Rochford was known to have hated both her husband and Anne, therefore, making her testimonial questionable.

Anne was found guilty of committing treason against the country and the King. The movie showed Mary gazing at her sister from a large crowd as Anne was facing the last minutes of her life. This was fiction and it has never been confirmed whether Mary witnessed her sister's execution. Because of Anne's broken promise to Henry that she would deliver a son and Henry's wandering eyes on other women, Anne Boleyn was executed in 1536.

No doubt that this movie left a lasting impression. The audience got a small glimpse of what life was like as a royal member and the drama that happened behind closed doors. Through thick and thin, Mary and Anne remained to love one another because of the sisterhood that could not be broken. Whether Mary was present in Anne's last minute on earth might have been questionable, but historians said that the sisterly love the Boleyn girls had for each other remained throughout the drama and betrayal.


Photographs courtesy of assets1.indy.com, clashofthetitans.files.wordpress.com, tudorhistory.org, englishhistory.net and bbc.co.uk.

One of History's Infamous Female Killer

In 2003, Aileen Wuornos’ story of her life as a prostitute was told through director, Patty Jenkin’s movie, Monster. The film was set nine months between the years 1989 to 1990 when she was prostituting and killing her clienteles. The movie’s main focus was on Wuornos’ lover, a girl name Shelby, whom she had met in a Daytona Beach bar. Charlize Theron, who played Wuornos, eventually won awards for her role in this movie. What viewers saw on screen was merely a nine months period of Wuornos’ life. True, Theron did a spectacular job portraying an aging prostitute, or at least, what an aging prostitute is thought to have been like, but ‘Monster’ did not show the audience who Wuornos was before she began killing along with many other facts, including people who have influenced Wuornos’ life before and after her arrest.

Critics who studied the life of Wuornos’ may say that her difficult childhood might have been the reason to her promiscuity, which eventually led to Wuornos’ reasoning behind the murdering of several men. Wuornos was raised by her grandparents after her mother had abandoned her and her brother. Wuornos’ mother had her when she was 15. Wuornos’ father was a convicted psychotic child molester who left before Wuornos was born. When Wuornos was raised by her grandparents, she was abused as she was beaten with a belt several times. Her grandmother was an alcoholic and neglected Wuornos was a child.

Wuornos was a troubled child from early on, however, her behavior got worse when she was 12 and found out that she was actually abandoned by her parents. Wuornos claimed that she was sexually active at an early age, and even admitted to have a sexual relationship with her brother, Keith. She was pregnant by 14 and gave her son up for adoption after his birth. Wuornos eventually dropped out of school during the same year as the birth of her son and ran away. She began prostituting and moved to Florida when her grandfather committed suicide after her brother died of cancer.

Wuornos met Lewis Fell when she was 20 and the two got married for a brief period. Fell was a wealthy Yacht Club president who gave Wuornos the high-class lifestyle. However when Wuornos kept up with her old promiscuity ways of doing drugs and selling her body for money, Fell divorced her, leaving her suicidal. She didn’t succeed in killing herself when she shot herself in the stomach. Wuornos found herself in and out of abusive relationships as she continued prostituting.

In 1986, Wuornos met a girl name Tyria Moore, who was Shelby, played by Christina Ricci in the film. It is unknown why producers changed Moore’s name, but critics say that Moore resembled nothing from Ricci’s depiction of Shelby in the movie. The movie began its storyline here, when Wuornos met Moore at a Daytona Beach bar. ‘Monster’ showed Shelby’s dedication to Wuornos when Shelby, a young lesbian, left home to hitchhike and live off of Wuornos’ wage as a prostitute. Moore, the real life Shelby, was known to have loved Wuornos, just as the movie had shown. However, the real Wuornos never admitted to being a lesbian in real life, contrasting the film’s depiction of Wuornos and Shelby’s lesbian lifestyle.

During Wuornos and Moore’s relationship, Wuornos found herself committing her first murder when she was working on the streets. She had been picked up by a man who began to sexual assault her. Wuornos said that she killed because of self defense and murdered all the other men because of the same reason. The film did a great job of making the audience sympathize with Wuornos as she is seen being raped on screen by her clients. Jenkins took Wuornos’ side of the story over the jury that eventually convicted her of being a serial killer.

Wuornos was arrested in 1991 at a bar in Port Orange, Florida. There were no weapons that directly linked Wuornos to the killings of the men found by police. However, there was DNA evidence of bodily fluid found on or near the men on condoms. Eventually, Moore was able to make Wuornos confess to all six murders she was accused of. During Wuornos’ time in prison, she had met a girl named Arlene Pralle, who wrote to Wuornos after seeing her picture in the paper. Wuornos and Pralle began writing letters to each other, as well as visits to Wuornos from Pralle. By this time, Wuornos and Moore had already separated and Wuornos grew closer to Pralle day by day. Pralle began doing all she could to defend Wuornos and her innocence. She was the second woman Wuornos ever loved and it was said that Wuornos was adopted by Pralle and her husband while she was in jail.

Wuornos was executed on October 9, 2002. Many believed she died for wrongful reasons. She insisted that she acted out of self defense while the jurors saw otherwise. It was not until a year in prison that Wuornos was diagnosed with being mentally incompetent. Before her indictment, Wuornos never showed evidence that she was serial killer, as many had thought she was. Some experts define a serial killer was someone who killed for the pleasure of killing, however, since Wuornos insisted she killed out of self-defense in a short period of time, she was seen more as a “spree killer.” She was never diagnosed with a mental illness as many serial killers were diagnosed with and until a couple weeks before her execution, Wuornos was mentally aware of her surroundings.

But Wuornos did lose her mind towards the end of her life and even begged to be put to death. Some say that Wuornos never got a fair trial because of who she was and how she made her money. Just watching the movie, I could have never guessed the important details that the movie had left out to what lead and became of Wuornos before and after her life as a prostitute.


An Interview with Wuornos by Nick Bloomfield one day before Wuornos' execution - courtesy of YouTube
Jenkin’s depiction of Wuornos’ murders was fairly accurate. There isn’t much of a debate on how and where the men were murdered since she had actually based the scenes on Wuornos confessions. The film ended when Wuornos was arrested at the Last Resort Bar in Port Orange. Theron’s award comes from her resemblance to Wuornos throughout the movie, but the Last Report Bar owner told the Daily Star newspaper that Theron was “on target” portraying Wuornos in the last scene when she was arrested. This movie leaves audiences with the truth of what happened to Aileen Wuornos, unfortunately, the film only shows a couple months of her life when the real Aileen Wuornos’ whole life needed to be shown to truly understand that she wasn’t just a prostitute, but a person with a troubled past.

Photographs courtesy of movies.com and home.comcast.net/~corkymcg/crime/aileen.html

The Real Story of Christopher Gardner

In 2006, Columbia Pictures Corporation released the movie, "The Pursuit of Happyness," which depicted a short span of Christopher Gardner's life as he struggled to make ends meet for his family, as well as himself.

The film introduces Gardner (Will Smith), his wife, Linda (Thandie Newton), and young seven-year-old Christopher Jr. (Jaden Smith), living in a small apartment with very few possessions. Gardner was a salesman who sold portable bone density scanning units. He would go from medical offices to hospitals to try to convince the doctors of this terrific gadget he was trying to sell. Quickly, the audience can see that Linda and Gardner did not have the perfect marriage. They argued about money constantly and argued about who was going to take care of Chris Jr. when both of them had to work long hours into the night.

About 15 to 20 minutes into the movie, Linda leaves Chris and takes their son with her. Chris manages to find them and persuades Linda to let him take care of their son. Gardner takes Chris Jr. back to the small apartment the family had shared before Linda left, only to find out they were being evicted for not paying rent for several months. Gardner and his son started living in hotels until Gardner had completely emptied out his savings account.

One day, Gardner was walking in downtown and saw a man getting out of a red Ferrari. He asked the man what he does and he said that he was a stockbroker. That man ended up being Dean Witter, a prominent stock broker who earned $80,000 a month. From taking care of his son, to finding public places to sleep at night, Gardner decides to take on a unpaid training position at the firm after he was accepted into the program. With no income, Gardner struggles to feed his son and keep a roof over their heads.

At the end of the movie, Gardner's struggle to pass the test gained him the only spot into the financial firm that Dean Witter was offering to all the trainees. A truly inspiring film for all as one of the last frame of the movie was Gardner, holding his son's hand, walking past a man in a business suit, depicting that Gardner's hard work was going to pay off as he is going to be the millionaire man in the suit one day.

That was Hollywood's depiction of the life of Christopher Gardner. In reality.... Gardner's wife's name wasn't Linda. It was said that Linda was actually a depiction of two women that Gardner had been with in the past: Sherry and Jackie. Sherry was the first wife of Gardner where shortly after the marriage, Gardner cheated on her with a neighbor down the street, Jackie. Gardner felt he was giving up his innate sexual ways when he married Sherry. He discovered that he could be intimate with Jackie, the way he liked it, so Gardner eventually left Sherry for Jackie because of the physical intimacy he and Jackie were having, but also because he found out that Jackie was pregnant with his son, Chris Jr. who was born in 1981.

Gardner did really sell portable bone density scanning units, however, that wasn't his primary source of income. Gardner was also a drug dealer who was a substance abuser himself. In fact, another reason why Gardner was able to fulfill his sexual fantasies with Jackie while he was married to Sherry was because he and Jackie would use cocaine almost everyday during their affair. During Gardner's marriage to Jackie, he was also arrested for domestic abuse. It was at the station when he found out he had an outstanding amount of $1,200 in parking tickets. The movie showed his arrest for only the parking tickets and failed to mention that he had often abused his wife at home.

Jackie did leave Gardner, just as Linda had left him in the movie. However, Gardner did not find her or his son after they left. He was evicted out of their small apartment and lived with a friend for a couple months. That was when he met Dean Witter, the man in the red Ferrari. However, it was in a parking lot of a hospital, not in the streets of downtown, in front of Witter's firm. Witter met with Gardner for lunch and spoke to Gardner about the possibilities of him becoming a stock broker. The movie showed Gardner sharing a cab ride with Witter, where Gardner was able to prove to Witter his mental abilities by solving a rubric's cube, which never happened.

Gardner did get accepted into Dean Witter's firm after getting pass the interview. The movie showed that Gardner was taking care of his son, which was untrue because Gardner did not know the whereabouts of Jackie and Chris Jr. for the first four months of his training. Eventually, Gardner did find Chris Jr., and it's unknown how or why Jackie gave Chris Jr. up to Gardner. It wasn't until Gardner found his son that they started sleeping in public places. Gardner never emptied out his savings account and was earning money by scamming hotels by telling front desk that their vending machines had taken his money. Gardner also found unexpected kindness from prostitutes as they would sometimes give Chris Jr. a twenty-dollar-bill.

Gardner eventually did pass the training course, as well as his test to become a stock broker. However, Dean Witter accepted almost all the trainees, who passed the test, into his firm. Christopher Gardner's life does go on after the movie. He became a successful stock broker, where he began his own firm with offices in New York, San Francisco and Chicago. He also went on to writing a book about his life and was featured in many magazine and news articles, as well as appear on many shows, such as the Oprah Winfrey Show. He's not only an example of a hardworking man to many, he's also one of the riches people in America.


In the film, the man in the business suit, not only was what Will Smith's character wanted to be one day, that man was the real Chris Gardner, making a cameo appearance. His story has influenced many that it is possible to go from rags to riches. However, Hollywood's depiction was not the complete story, as there wasn't any major distortions. Regardless of Gardner's personal lifestyle, his story does inspire people that working hard pays off.

Photographs courtesy of timeout.com, atrader.com and impawards.com.

Walk the Line

In 2005, FOX Pictures came out with the movie, "Walk the Line," portraying the life of Johnny Cash and his romance with June Carter, starring Joaquin Phoenix as Cash and Reese Witherspoon as Carter. Anyone who see this movie would fall in love with it completely... that is, until the real story is revealed.

The movie starts off showing a young 11-year-old J.R. Cash with his best friend, his brother, Jack, on their family's Arkansas farm. The film quickly shows J.R.'s life before Jack passed away and fast forwards to the day J.R. leaves for the Air Force. In the Air Force, J.R. was forced to pick a first name in replacement of the "J," that's when J.R. chose the name, "John." From then on, J.R. was known as John R. Cash.

The movie never showed Cash meeting his first love, Vivian Liberto. The movie never showed that he cared about her much, only that he made one phone call to her when he was in the Air Force and asked her to marry him. In the movie, she seemed skeptical and said they barely knew each other, but then accepted his proposal.

In reality, Cash was deeply in love with Liberto. He wasn't allowed to call her at all from the base, so he would write her love letters almost every day, literally. These letters can be read from Liberto-Cash's book, "I walked the line--My Life with Johnny Cash." Cash actually met Liberto before he left to serve the country and even though they didn't know each other because of being physically apart, Liberto and Cash learned from each other through the on-going letters they wrote each other. Cash eventually did propose while he was in the Air Force, but it was never over the phone. He wrote and sent her a ring through mail. She accepted the ring immediately.

The movie goes on to showing the terrible life the Cash family were having after they got married. They were poor and were raising a baby in a tiny apartment. Cash was a door-to-door sales man and Vivian would stay at home and take care of their baby, Rosanne. The movie depicts Vivian as a cold-hearted woman who didn't love John as she would give him a hard time when he wasn't selling and bringing home any money. The movie shows that Cash secretly went to Sun Records to try out for the owner, Sam Phillips, and when Phillips wanted to sign Cash, making Cash the hero of the family.

Cash's stage name, "Johnny Cash," was given to him by Phillips. Phillips thought it sounded better and wanted him to use "Johnny" for the tour. In the movie, Cash began to wear black during concerts because he had nothing else to wear. He started going on tours and being far away from home. Vivian was seen in the movie, again, as a cold-hearted wife when Cash would call her during his tour. She would seem distant and in some ways, jealous, that he was away for so long. In one scene, Cash was telling Vivian that he loved her while she decided to hang up the phone while he was talking. He was out on tours, she was at home with two daughters, it was bound to happen, right?

WRONG! Yes, it was true that Cash wasn't bringing home money when he was a salesman. I'm sure that Vivian's attitude towards him was completely exaggerated. Cash actually had passed by Sun Records a couple times before he told Vivian about it. She encouraged him to go audition for Sam Phillips and was ecstatic when Phillips wanted to sign Cash. Cash did not initially wear black during concerts because Vivian used to made-make white suits with gold trimmings for him and his band. In fact, in between concerts, Vivian would fix Johnny's suits while they were on tour. Yes, Vivian went with Johnny on tour in the beginning of his career! Their daughters, Rosanne and Tara were with Vivian's parents while Vivian and Johnny were away.

Eventually, Vivian couldn't go on tour with Cash anymore because she was pregnant with their third child. Vivian began staying at home more while Cash continued to perform in concerts. Cash actually met June Carter when Vivian was touring with him. In fact, Johnny, Vivian and the Carter Family all used to hang out after the concerts. The movie shows that June was touring by herself along with Johnny and his band. But the truth is, her family of singers were also there. The movie also shows June's initial lack of interest in Johnny. But Johnny continues to approach her and once she found out about his drug addiction, she stayed by him to help him conquer the evil drugs.

What really happened was... June liked Johnny from the first time she saw him. In fact, one of the reasons why Vivian tried to stay with Johnny in the tour for as long as she could was because Carter once said to Vivian, "He will be mine," referring to Johnny. When Vivian stayed at home in California, she would talk to some of Johnny's band members where they would tell her on several accounts that they witness Carter trying to make an advance on Johnny. In the beginning, Johnny would politely decline her offers, but as the drugs took over, June was seen going into Johnny's room and leaving the next morning. The movie showed that it was Johnny that went into June's room late at night, but the truth was far from that.

The movie portrayed June Carter to be a saint, a "God-fearing Christian woman." What a load of baloney. True that Carter stayed by Cash's side during his period of drug addiction. The reason why Carter stayed was because she had an addiction herself. Carter and Cash would often take pills together. After Vivian and Cash's divorce, Cash and Carter would pick Vivian and John's four daughters up to take them for the weekend. Vivian would refused to let them take the children because they would show up high on drugs.

I'm not sure how Carter overcame her drug phase, or if she ever did, but Johnny eventually stopped taking pills. The movie showed that it was the consistent efforts of June Carter and her parents. But in reality, Cash had in-house nurses and doctors that stayed with him 24-hours a day. Carter never single handedly save him, as the movie depicted.

Lastly, the title of this movie, "Walk the Line" was the title to a song Johnny wrote in the beginning of his career, before he met June Carter. BEFORE he met June Carter, just in case there was any misunderstandings. Which means, Cash wrote that song for his first wife, Vivian. Cash didn't have to walk any lines for June. They were already wealthy, touring and having fun when Cash and Carter met. Cash walked the line for Vivian when he was struggling to make their lives more comfortable, for her and for their daughters.



Courtesy of YouTube - Johnny Cash singing, "Walk the Line" in 1959
By the end of the movie, Cash was calling Carter his wife. While as sweet as the memories of Johnny Cash and June Carter was, as portrayed in this film, I found out that the executive producer was John Carter Cash, the son of Johnny and June. Yes, that explains why June was an Angel while Vivian was the demon. That also explains why June's addiction was never shown in the movie and how if it wasn't for her, Johnny would still be popping pills left and right. Oh yes, the movie also didn't show how June stole someone elses husband, a man who already had four children at home.

Some recommended reading: "I Walked the Line. My Life with Johnny Cash" by Vivian Liberto-Cash and "Man in Black" by Johnny Cash. I haven't read any books by John Carter Cash, but there is one he wrote of his mother. Judging by this movie and how John Carter Cash depicted the characters, I don't think I want to support him by buying and reading his books. I guess, unless he's going to come out and finally tell the truth.

Photograph courtesy of Mark D. Roberts @ MarkdRoberts.com