Tuesday, March 23, 2010

there's something not quite right about Alan Smith

In the film world, the credit of 'Alan Smithee' as the director of a film means that the director wants to remain anonymous. Thus suspicions were aroused when in an issue of Tramway Topics about a year ago, someone reviewing Wellington Transport Memories used the name 'Alan Smith', particularly as this person used significant column space to praise a previous book by Graham Stewart, the god of tramways in this country. This in itself may have been unremarkable, but it was remarkable when a comparison of the two books in question was rather like comparing apples and oranges.

But the mystery has been solved - in the latest issue the editor decided to publish a photo of Graham Stewart, and a few pages later with a piece about Wellington trolley buses, a photo of Alan Smith! A comparison of the two reveals ... you guessed it.

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