# Alright, Ike—Let the Lupe Velez Jokes Begin!
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alright-ike-let-the-lupe-velez-jokes-begin/46563
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [December 20, 2000, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alright-ike-let-the-lupe-velez-jokes-begin/46563 "2000-12-20T19:50:32Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2000, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alright-ike-let-the-lupe-velez-jokes-begin/46563/1 "2000-12-20T19:50:32Z")
EAGLE RIVER, Wis. (AP) - A woman who was found dead with her head in a toilet last year was probably killed by her husband and did not commit suicide as was first thought, a judge ruled Wednesday. The husband denied any wrongdoing . . .
Genell Plude died at her home in Land O’ Lakes. Doug Plude, 33, testified during the inquest that he found his wife on the bathroom floor with her head in the toilet . . . Her parents, Ken and Lil Johnson, said their daughter had planned to divorce her husband.
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### Author:  [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2000, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alright-ike-let-the-lupe-velez-jokes-begin/46563/2 "2000-12-20T20:41:07Z")
I can just picture that, too.
“Hey, Honey! Come look at _this_ one! It’s a beaut!”
_shove
whooooosh!
gurgle
thump_
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### Author:  [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2000, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alright-ike-let-the-lupe-velez-jokes-begin/46563/3 "2000-12-20T20:47:45Z")
Dr. J.—HAhahahaha! Or, alternately, “Officer—she was just so upset over our goldfish’s death . . .”
Ah, yes, what better way to cheer up a gray afternoon than by laughing at someone else’s tragic death?
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### Author:  [@Trion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trion)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2000, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alright-ike-let-the-lupe-velez-jokes-begin/46563/4 "2000-12-20T20:49:12Z")
Time to eradicate a little of my own ignorance. Who is/was Lupe Velez (he asks sheepishly).
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### Author:  [@yojimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yojimbo)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2000, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alright-ike-let-the-lupe-velez-jokes-begin/46563/5 "2000-12-20T21:08:27Z")
From [http://www.nigelcoop.mcmail.com/lavvy.htm](http://www.nigelcoop.mcmail.com/lavvy.htm)
> [@](#):
>
> The 36-year-old Hollywood screen actress Lupe Velez, the “Mexican Spitfire,” attempted to commit suicide by overdosing on sleeping pills in 1934. Ms Velez underestimated the dosage, however, and suddenly felt violently sick. As she made a dash for the bathroom she slipped on the tiled floor and was flung head first into her toilet. Her maid found her the next day with her head jammed down the bowl, drowned.
A seemingly full bio. can be found at [http://www.mdle.com/ClassicFilms/FeaturedStar/perfor81.htm](http://www.mdle.com/ClassicFilms/FeaturedStar/perfor81.htm)
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### Author:  [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2000, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alright-ike-let-the-lupe-velez-jokes-begin/46563/6 "2000-12-20T21:09:36Z")
Okay, **Trion,** I’ll take the plunge (snicker).
LUPE VELEZ, the “Mexican Spitfire,” broke into films in 1926. She made an impression as the leading lady in Douglas Fairbanks’ THE GAUCHO, and enjoyed affairs with John Gilbert and Gary Cooper before marrying Johnny Weissmuller (hubba hubba!). Her career hit the skids in the mid-'30s.
In 1944, deeply in debt and pregnant, Lupe carefully staged her Last Night on Earth. She ordered huge masses of expensive flowers, invited two girlfriends over for a big Mexican dinner, and, alone at 3 AM, lit by dozens of scented candles, swallowed 75 Seconals. She lay down on her bed in a prayerful attitude, envisioning a final photo tableau of exquisite loveliness.
But the sleeping pills didn’t mix too well with the burritos. Staggering to the john, leaving a trail of vomit, Lupe slipped on the tiles and crashed headfirst into the toilet. Her chambermaid discovered the corpse later that morning.
(paraphrased from Kenneth Anger’s HOLLYWOOD BABYLON II, Dutton, 1984)
…now, **Eve** HATES that story, and says it just ain’t true.
I claim that, if it isn’t, it sure ought to be.
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### Author:  [@scratch1300](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scratch1300)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2000, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alright-ike-let-the-lupe-velez-jokes-begin/46563/7 "2000-12-20T21:15:13Z")
What – you mean Lupe Velez was _real_?! I figured it was just a _Simpsons_ joke…
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### Author:  [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2000, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alright-ike-let-the-lupe-velez-jokes-begin/46563/8 "2000-12-20T21:16:20Z")
…but I’ll admit…no matter how drunk or stoned you are…how the heck can you manage to drown yourself in a toilet?
You’d have to actually support yourself with your arms to keep your head in the water, no? How could you do that if you’re unconscious?
Who’s up for a little experimenting at the next Dopefest?
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### Author:  [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2000, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alright-ike-let-the-lupe-velez-jokes-begin/46563/9 "2000-12-20T21:17:55Z")
[bitch-slapping Yojimbo and Ike, who are tied to the bed like Blanche Hudson] “IT NEVER HAPPENED!”
OK, The Straight Dope on Lupe Velez. Ike got the career part down pretty well—though I might add that I have seen a lot of her movies, and she was a very good dramatic actress, as well as one of the funniest comediennes of her day.
Kenneth Anger made up the toilet story for his “All Lies—All The Time” Hollywood Babylon. I wrote an article about Lupe, and the toilet story appears nowhere in print till Anger made it up in the early 1960s. And—as the judge in Wisconsin obviously recognizes—you cannot kill yourself or drown accidentially in a toilet! As soon as you pass out, your body weight will drag you back out.
I’m just waitin’ for Kenneth Anger to die, so I can start a rumor that he expired while eating a ham sandwich and having sex with a horse with his head in a toilet, and was partially devoured afterward by his pet poodle . . .
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### Author:  [@Trion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trion)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2000, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alright-ike-let-the-lupe-velez-jokes-begin/46563/10 "2000-12-20T21:18:08Z")
Thanks to both **yojimbo** and **Ike**. That’s a heck of a story.
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### Author:  [@Trion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trion)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2000, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alright-ike-let-the-lupe-velez-jokes-begin/46563/11 "2000-12-20T21:23:29Z")
…and thanks to **Eve** for the rest of the story. Am I to understand that the drowning-in-a-toilet part didn’t happen but the taking-a-lot-of-pills part did?
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### Author:  [@yojimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yojimbo)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2000, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alright-ike-let-the-lupe-velez-jokes-begin/46563/12 "2000-12-20T21:41:40Z")
I didn’t know that story was a UL. I even searched snopes before posting it. I’m perfectly willing to believe **Eve**.
BTW **Eve** is there any other UL’s that really annoy you that I can push here. I like the sound of the punishment 😉 Yes M’lady, may I have another.
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### Author:  [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2000, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alright-ike-let-the-lupe-velez-jokes-begin/46563/13 "2000-12-20T21:49:56Z")
[. . . I’d elaborate, but I’m having too much fun writing episodes of “Timmy and Halvsie” in another thread, which everyone is politely ignoring . . .]
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### Author:  [@Persephone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Persephone)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2000, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alright-ike-let-the-lupe-velez-jokes-begin/46563/14 "2000-12-20T22:46:49Z")
Aw c’mon, Eve!
I’ve heard the story about Lupe Velez too (I, um, well, I read _Hollywood Babylon._ I’m so ashamed). But I just saw a special about her on (dammit Eve, I’m sorry again) E! about her that mentioned the OD as well, and I think they also mentioned the bathroom story. I don’t think E! Made it out to be quite as revolting as Kenneth Anger did, though. I got the impression that really she just passed out & whacked her head or something, and died on the floor, not with her head actually in the bowl.
I wanna hear the real story! 😃
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### Author:  [@Akatsukami](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Akatsukami)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2000, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alright-ike-let-the-lupe-velez-jokes-begin/46563/15 "2000-12-20T23:06:02Z")
**Eve** writes:
> [@](#):
>
> Kenneth Anger made up the toilet story for his “All Lies—All The Time” Hollywood Babylon. I wrote an article about Lupe, and the toilet story appears nowhere in print till Anger made it up in the early 1960s. And—as the judge in Wisconsin obviously recognizes—you cannot kill yourself or drown accidentially in a toilet! As soon as you pass out, your body weight will drag you back out.
Now, the Holy One, blessed be He, knows that I would never contradict **Eve** (not if I cared to live, anyway). Indeed, one would have to have a very large or very peculiarly-shaped head to get it stuck in a contemporary toilet bowl. However, ISTR P.J. O’Rourke writing a allegedly-true story (and mentioning the anecdote on at least one other, definitely non-fictional occasion) about his passing out with his head in a toilet bowl (although he obviously did not drown, but merely thought that he had gone blind from methanol poisoning).
Of course, Peej is not to be placed on a pedastal next to the Perfect Master’s as a reliable font of knowledge. Is the “passing out with head in the toilet” theme so widespread, however, that we may reasonably expect to see it from two independent sources?
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### Author:  [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2000, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alright-ike-let-the-lupe-velez-jokes-begin/46563/16 "2000-12-20T23:21:37Z")
…the toilet was overflowing?
…you were balancing your weight on the bathtub next to it?
…The lid was heavy enough to hold you in place?
…you were playing some weird bondage game and tied yourself to the toilet?
…you were a dog with two legs and couldn’t balance very well?
…the room was too cramped to slide off very far once you passed out?
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### Author:  [@DRY](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DRY)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2000, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alright-ike-let-the-lupe-velez-jokes-begin/46563/17 "2000-12-21T07:50:52Z")
What do Lupe Velez and **ChiefScott** have in common?
::fleeing::
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### Author:  [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2000, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alright-ike-let-the-lupe-velez-jokes-begin/46563/18 "2000-12-21T14:03:36Z")
Poor Lupe did indeed die of a drug overdose—she was Catholic, unmarried, pregnant and a movie star—NOT a good combination, years before Ingrid Bergman made being knocked up a cause celébe. Additionally, the cad who had his way with Lupe refused to marry her . . .
As I said above, NO sources—official or unofficial—mentioned the toilet story till Kenneth Anger came along; then everyone picked it up. Since there are SO MANY other outright lies and inaccuracies in his book (I once wrote an entire magazine article on them), one can safely assume the Lupe Velez story is one of them.
By the way, look her up on IMDB and try to rent some of her films or catch her on cable—she really is a treat!
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### Author:  [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2000, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alright-ike-let-the-lupe-velez-jokes-begin/46563/19 "2000-12-21T14:27:55Z")
Hey, any of you guys ever see SCORPIO RISING?
Damn, what a great movie!
{sidling out}
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### Author:  [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)
#### Post date: [December 21, 2000, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alright-ike-let-the-lupe-velez-jokes-begin/46563/20 "2000-12-21T14:30:26Z")
Oh, and according to the IMDB bio, one of the reasons for Lupe’s suicide was not that the guy who knocked her up wouldn’t marry her, but that the IDEA of marrying him had the poor lil’ spitfire in a deep depression.
I guess, after having Johnny Weismuller (who probably would have been called “The Body” if Hollywood gave nicknames like that to men), just about anything else was a comedown.
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