On the trail of 'Slim' Whitaker | (Leota Whitaker Gandrau Collection) 1920s photo of a very young 'Slim' Whitaker. |
(Leota Whitaker Gandrau Collection) Above is a 1930s photo of Ethel and Slim at the front porch of their Hatteras Street home in North Hollywood, California. Their neighbor was Billy Barty. |
Was Slim a cook at Jerry's Cafe ?
There's two bits of controversy and both relate to information on Slim Whitaker's death certificate. The death certificate notes he was "a cook at Jerry's Cafe". Secondly, the death certificate shows the spelling of his middle name as "Orbie".
As noted above, there's a bit of controversy over Whitaker's middle name being "Orbie" or "Orby". |
(Leota Whitaker Gandrau Collection) No date or info on this photo which shows Slim third from the left. That certainly looks like a fire engine ladder truck in the background and none are wearing gunbelts and carrying sidearms. Closeup of Slim's face shown below. Tom Bahn writes: "At the time he may have been working for the studios as a guard or fireman. Based on the family movies I've seen, I'm going to guess that this was taken two or three years before he died." Webmaster's note: I took the above photo and showed it to our local Fire Chief and asked him about the badge/emblem on the hats. His response was immediate - is the "Iron Cross" which has been used for years by Fire Departments everywhere. |
'Slim' Whitaker's movie stats. A very busy guy. Slim's movie work from silents - 1949 in westerns, serials, shorts, and other films. No TV roles for Slim. His busiest years were the 1930s and are highlighted in red. I've used the RELEASE dates (not filming dates) from the Internet Movie Database so the results may be a little skewed. Total film count in this chart = 361. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
10 |
16 |
16 |
8 |
9 |
7 |
8 |
23 |
23 |
20 |
19 |
38 |
29 |
26 |
18 |
18 |
12 |
15 |
13 |
14 |
8 |
1 |
2 |
5 |
2 |
1 |
1913- 1924 |
1925 | 1926 | 1927 | 1928 | 1929 | 1930 | 1931 | 1932 | 1933 | 1934 | 1935 | 1936 | 1937 | 1938 | 1939 | 1940 | 1941 | 1942 | 1943 | 1944 | 1945 | 1946 | 1947 | 1948 | 1949 |
Although some of the data is incomplete or inaccurate, the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) has information on Slim Whitaker: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0924307/
The Family Search website (free), Ancestry.com (subscription), California Death Index, death certificate, and funeral notice provide more on 'Slim' Whitaker and family. I've also highlighted his middle name of "Orbie" in this color.
Find A Grave website has Charles O. Whitaker interred at Valhalla Memorial Park, North Hollywood, California: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/5823509/charles-orby-whitaker