Talk:Sybil Thorndike

Sybil Thorndike has been listed as one of the Media and drama good articles under the good article criteria. If you can improve it further, please do so. If it no longer meets these criteria, you can reassess it.
Review: December 13, 2022. (Reviewed version).

A fact from Sybil Thorndike appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 16 January 2023 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that Sybil Thorndike was known as Britain's leading tragedienne?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2023/January. The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/Sybil Thorndike.

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Missing section?

'She returned to the stage in the title role of George Bernard Shaw's Saint Joan...' Returned from where? We know that she made some films at this time, as listed further down in the film section, and this may have been mentioned in a section that has since been deleted. But as it stands, the statement is meaningless. Valetude (talk) 13:41, 10 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

link not likely

your link in the film section for Stage Fright... takes one to a DEFINITION of same... shame!! it SHOULD take one to the Hitch film of same name....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stage_Fright_%281950_film%29

please address and make correction 76.218.250.61 (talk) 15:31, 5 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]

GA Review

This review is transcluded from Talk:Sybil Thorndike/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Reviewer: Aza24 (talk · contribs) 01:24, 8 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Happy to review this. Best – Aza24 (talk) 01:24, 8 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

General comments

Finding no major issues, these comments are exclusively minor quibbles. Aza24 (talk) 00:12, 12 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Early life

For non-Anglophone readers, I do wonder if specifying that Lincolnshire is in the UK, or at least, England, might be beneficial

As we say in the first line she was English and specify the country in the info-box I think it would be a work of supererogation to add England here, but I will do so if you feel strongly that we should. Tim riley talk 15:10, 12 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Fine as it, I believe Aza24 (talk) 22:01, 13 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Anything that "pianist's cramp" could be linked to? tendonitis?

I really don't know. From Croall's biography I infer that it was either muscular or neurological, but the fact is that the cause was never diagnosed. Tim riley talk 15:10, 12 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I presume we don't know who Marriages are Made in Heaven is by.

I'm glad you asked. It was by Basil Dean – not a nice man but an important figure in British theatre for a good deal of the 20th century. Now added. Tim riley talk 15:10, 12 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

1914–1919

Many of the characters in this section have WP articles, but this may be overlinking so I'll leave it at your discretion

I think we all link rather too much, and I'm not keen on adding links in borderline cases. Tim riley talk 15:10, 12 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Otherwise looks good

1920s

Looks good

1930s

Given that Six Men of Dorset doesn't have an article, it might be worth including the names of Miles Malleson and Harvey Brooks

Indeed, and done. Tim riley talk 15:10, 12 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Post-war and 1950s

The second paragraph has almost all the sentences beginning with "in"—this might be addressed to sound less robotic

Absolutely. How impossible it is to see the flaws in one's own prose when attempting to proof-read it. Redrawn. Tim riley talk 15:10, 12 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Later years, 1960–1976

Does "theatrical retirement home' mean more than simply a retirement home in a play? An odd adjective imo

Redrawn. I meant a retirement home for theatre people. I imagine Coward had Denville Hall in mind as the model for the home, "The Wings", in his play. I hope the meaning is now thoroughly clear. Tim riley talk 15:10, 12 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I just removed "amateur ghost hunter" from Williamson's Wikipedia page... sigh
"The piece received bad reviews"—though the sentences afterwards seem to indicate "mixed reviews"

The reviews of the show were all frightful, as far as I can discover (and according to Croall), but not for the first or last time the reviews for the star were much better than for the show. Tim riley talk 15:10, 12 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Miscellaneous

Formatting of sources is excellent, though I should note that the script I have installed warns that "Forces War Records" is a "generally unreliable source"

Thanks for spotting that. Replaced with a book source. Tim riley talk 15:10, 12 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

You might consider a word or two in the section headings so they are not exclusively decades. Fine by me either way though

You aren't the first reviewer of one of my submissions to say such a thing. Perhaps I'm too literal minded to be good at writing interesting section headings. Suggestions would be gladly received. Tim riley talk 15:10, 12 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I wonder if including her performances in Medea and Candida might be fitting in the lead. It seems strange to only mention one specific play there, and I assume she's well known enough in these two to make sense. Aza24 (talk) 00:12, 12 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I don't think either of these would be right in the lead. You'd have to be older than me – and I'm a septuagenarian – to have seen Thorndike in her peak years, and if people know of her at all now it will, I'm sure, be Saint Joan that pops up in their minds in connexion with her. Tim riley talk 15:10, 12 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for the points, above. Most helpful. Tim riley talk 15:10, 12 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Tim, your responses seem most sensible and I believe this article full-fills all the GA requirements. I see no issues with neutrality, stability, or illustrations. Passing now. Best – Aza24 (talk) 22:05, 13 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Aza24, many thanks for your review. It is greatly appreciated. Tim riley talk 09:41, 14 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Did you know nomination

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 SL93 (talk) 16:38, 10 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

(

Comment or view
Article history

)

... that Sybil Thorndike was once a pianist but became an actor after her pianist's cramp prevented her from continuing? Source: Croall, Jonathan (2008). Sybil Thorndike: A Star of Life. London: Haus. ISBN 978-1-905791-92-7. pp 28 and 33-34.
- ALT1: ... that Sybil Thorndike was known as Britain's leading tragedienne? Source: Herbert, Ian, ed. (1972). Who's Who in the Theatre (fifteenth ed.). London: Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons. ISBN 978-0-273-31528-5. Page 1476, "A great tragedienne: Sybil Thorndike as Hecuba", The Sketch, 25 February 1920, p. 309
- Reviewed: Template:Did you know nominations/Declaration of Sainte-Adresse

Improved to Good Article status by Tim riley (talk). Nominated by Onegreatjoke (talk) at 16:03, 17 December 2022 (UTC).[reply]

GA, well-written. Both hooks check out, but I wonder if they couldn't be squeezed together with a bit of rewording? GTG apart from this. If they are not combined ALT1 is probably better. Earwig finds nothing. Johnbod (talk) 06:16, 19 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]