Template:Did you know nominations/Sessue Hayakawa: Silent Cinema and Transnational Stardom

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by Allen3 ^talk 10:17, 17 March 2015 (UTC)

Sessue Hayakawa: Silent Cinema and Transnational Stardom[edit]

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~~... that Sessue Hayakawa: Silent Cinema and Transnational Stardom is the biography of the "only non-Caucasian star of the American cinema from the mid-teens to the 1920s" (pictured)?~~

Reviewed: Chaar Sahibzaade

Moved to mainspace by Skr15081997 (talk). Self nominated at 12:03, 11 January 2015 (UTC).

Length, date, hook checks out. Subscription-required reference accepted AGF. Photo on Commons. No copyvio or close paraphrase found in spot checks. --Soman (talk) 13:02, 11 January 2015 (UTC)

There is quite a lot of information here to make a more interesting hook, piping the link into something like a biography of Sessue Hayakawa. Yoninah (talk) 22:48, 31 January 2015 (UTC)

Yoninah Here's another hook:
ALT1 ~~... that the biography of Sessue Hayakawa (pictured) is the first major study on his film career?~~--Skr15081997 (talk) 05:45, 1 February 2015 (UTC)

Personally, I prefer the original hook, the hook is about the book, and Hayakawa's status as first non-White US movie star is a more notable fact. --Soman (talk) 07:16, 1 February 2015 (UTC)

Thank you, @Skr15081997:, ALT1 is AGF and cited inline. @Soman:, I just felt that the overlong book title followed by an overlong quote isn't so hooky; now that we've expanded the queues to 8 hooks per set, it will really get lost. Another alternative is to keep the piped link and write the quote the way you did, although the article doesn't say anything about him being the "first" non-white US movie star:
ALT2: ~~... that the biography of Sessue Hayakawa (pictured) documents the career of the only non-white Hollywood film star of the 1910s and 1920s?~~ Yoninah (talk) 10:32, 1 February 2015 (UTC)

Looks good to me.--Skr15081997 (talk) 11:41, 1 February 2015 (UTC)

I'm ok with ALT2 as well. --Soman (talk) 13:19, 1 February 2015 (UTC)

Great. Since I can't approve my own hook, could you? Yoninah (talk) 13:32, 1 February 2015 (UTC)

for ALT2 --Soman (talk) 14:01, 1 February 2015 (UTC)

Sorry, but I pulled this from prep because this extraordinary claim (ALT2) needs an extraordinary source. The article cites to a book review of a scholarly book, not to the book itself. Book reviews need to be used with caution (WP:RS) and, in fact, when you look at the book itself it says "there were some popular non-Caucasian actors and actresses in the silent era, but they had mostly supporting roles...". This may or may not be the same as saying they weren't "stars", but in any event this seems to be a restatement in the book review not (apparently) found in the book -- at least not with that wording. We'll either need to restate the hook somehow or find a different hook. Too bad since it's an interesting topic. EEng (talk) 21:11, 7 February 2015 (UTC)

Here's ALT1 ~~... that the biography of Sessue Hayakawa (pictured) is the first major study on his film career?~~--Skr15081997 (talk) 13:22, 8 February 2015 (UTC)

Well, that's certainly harder to find fault with, but can't something more like the "only non-white" hook be found? Like I said, it's an interesting topic. EEng (talk) 13:58, 8 February 2015 (UTC)

Adding icon to prevent this from showing up as verified. Also noting that ALT1 was struck above as "isn't so hooky", so a new hook should be found; I've just struck ALT2 because it was pulled from prep as unacceptable. BlueMoonset (talk) 16:33, 9 February 2015 (UTC)

ALT3... that the biography of Sessue Hayakawa (pictured) won Duke University's John Hope Franklin Book Award?--Skr15081997 (talk) 16:12, 10 February 2015 (UTC)

*ALT4... that the biography of American silent film star Sessue Hayakawa (pictured) won Duke University's John Hope Franklin Book Award? EEng (talk) 16:23, 10 February 2015 (UTC)

Reviewer needed to check the above two ALT hooks. BlueMoonset (talk) 16:26, 10 February 2015 (UTC)

IMO, the ALT hooks are too bland. How about:
ALT5: ... that a 2007 biography of Hollywood silent film star Sessue Hayakawa (pictured) explains why the Japanese-American actor was usually cast as a villain?
The article also needs copyediting. I tried to smooth out the Summary section, but didn't do the rest. Yoninah (talk) 22:23, 16 February 2015 (UTC)

Now that's an interesting hook (I copyedited slightly -- hope you don't mind). EEng (talk) 22:32, 16 February 2015 (UTC) Perhaps he got grilled on the witness stand?

New reviewer needed for ALT hooks. I made some minor copyedits in the rest of the article, and hope it's ready now (reviewer should check). Thanks. BlueMoonset (talk) 00:17, 11 March 2015 (UTC) Co

Good 2 go on ALT 3 only (stated in the article and sourced online). ALT4 and ALT5 struck by me because Hayakawa was not limited to silent film. His career in film was active for three decades past the silent era, including an Academy Award nomination in 1957. Original hook and ALt 1 and ALT2 were struck before I pulled this up. — Maile (talk) 00:12, 17 March 2015 (UTC)

I'm not sure "silent film star" so strongly implies "silent only" that we need to worry about it, but how about this

ALT6 : ... that a 2007 biography of early Hollywood star Sessue Hayakawa (pictured) explains why the Japanese-American actor was usually cast as a villain?

EEng (talk) 04:41, 17 March 2015 (UTC)