Kathryn Sergava "obituary" [with a correction

Stuart Sweeney · **Posted:** Tue Dec 02, 2003 2:06 am

Kathryn Sergava

Kathryn Sergava, who has died aged 94, was the sloe-eyed Russian siren taken up by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to replace Greta Garbo when the great actress decided to retire from Hollywood in 1934.

After Garbo's announcement that she was settling permanently on a secluded mountain estate in Sweden, MGM scanned many supposed lookalikes; and when it found a Russian ballet dancer with little screen experience but who was attractive and glamorous in a convincing Garbo way, it immediately put her under contract.

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<small>[ 17 December 2003, 04:12 PM: Message edited by: Stuart Sweeney ]</small>

mehunt · **Posted:** Tue Dec 16, 2003 10:43 am

Not that I read the NY Post all the time, you understand, but... interesting correction to this story. Apparently Sergava is NOT dead. (And the NY Times STILL needs more fact checkers...)

Quote:

DEAD WRONG
By TODD VENEZIA, KEITH J. KELLY and MARIANNE GARVEY

December 5, 2003 -- Many status-conscious New Yorkers dream of having their obituary run in The New York Times. Most, however, would rather have the Gray Lady wait until they're dead.

The city's "paper of record" jumped the ghoulish gun on one Gothamite yesterday when it ran the obituary for a 90-something dance great from Greenwich Village who is very much alive. The Times reported that ballet star Katharine Sergava, a one-time Hollywood rival to Greta Garbo, died Nov. 11 in Palm Springs, Calif., "where she had settled in the mid-1960s." But yesterday The Post found the star of the groundbreaking 1940s "Oklahoma!" ballet at the Kateri Residence nursing home on Riverside Drive. Its president, Lascelles Bond, said Sergava lives there.

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Azlan · **Posted:** Tue Dec 16, 2003 5:14 pm

Oh my... another faux pas... How many can the NY Times endure in one year?

Stuart Sweeney · **Posted:** Wed Dec 17, 2003 12:11 am

Not many have the chance to read their own obituaries. It is the classic newspaper error and the story does seem to have started in the Daily Telegraph. The Telegraph has a good reputation, but they have run two other false obits in the past five years:

Dave Swarbrick

In the early morning of Tuesday the 20th of April 1999, the Daily Telegraph hit newspaper racks throughout the country. Towards the back of the paper, the daily obituaries featured the "Civil Service high-flier" Sir George Bishop, sports writer Michael Melford, and "violinist and singer" Dave Swarbrick.

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It is the classic newspaper error and the story does seem to have started in the Daily Telegraph. The Telegraph has a good reputation, but there have been at least two previous examples in the past five years ago:

*******************************

The day I managed to 'kill off' Tex Ritter's wife
By Andrew McKie, Obituaries Editor

IT is a terrible thing to kill someone, as I discovered the day before yesterday. And it is small consolation to discover that other people have done the same, or to be assured that if death is your living, it was likely to happen sooner or later.

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<small>[ 17 December 2003, 04:13 PM: Message edited by: Stuart Sweeney ]</small>

Stuart Sweeney · **Posted:** Wed Dec 17, 2003 12:44 am

Should we move this topic to "Fun Stuff" now?

mehunt · **Posted:** Wed Dec 17, 2003 9:06 am

LOL, oh sure, it's funny _now_...


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Kathryn Sergava "obituary" [with a correction

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