John Wesley Goodsell Sr. was listed as the Manager of this Company on the top right of the letterhead. When he died the majority of the stock went to our family, which included all of the land which is now called "Snowshoe Resort" in West Virginia. At the time we inherited the stock it was worthless. We do not contest this here, but this is just for your information.
Great Grandfather, John Wesley Goodsell Sr. was enchanted with Pearl Darnell Goodsell (Norma Shearer). She played the piano and sang so beautifully in church he fell for her. When she and my Grandfather, Clarence Goodsell, get a divorse, John Wesley Goodsell Sr. continued to send her money when she went to New York to work as a concert pianist near where Lucille Ball was being raised at the Chautauqua Retreat, NY. There Pearl is discovered and sent to Hollywood.
Norma Shearer (Pearl) was kept busy in Hollywood. She sent money to family (Darnells) to care for my father, John Wesley Goodsell Jr. She saw little of my father after she married Irving Thalberg, but she did not forget him. The Darnells pushed her to send them more and more money for my father's care, as they heard of her good fortune. Her husband, (Producer) Thalberg left his name off movie credits so the Darnells would not keep begging them for more money.
On the news of Shearer's Academy Award, one of her brothers, Dennis Darnell took my father out hunting and shot him with birdshot. Dad was sent to the hospital, resulting in more money being sent for his care and a nursing home was built in Okolona, Mississippi called Shearer Richardson Nursing Home in her honor. The ownership of this nursing home did not go to my father.
My Great Grandfather, John Wesley Goodsell Sr. owned stock in and managed a sole leather tannery called Pocahontas Tanning. They made investments in the movie industry. It was GGrandfather's money and connections to the Bayer Lab in Germany and to the Rockfellers that enabled Norma Shearer ( Grandmother Pearl Goodsell) to marry a producer in Hollywood. All stock in MGM disappeared when Great Grandfather died, and tannery stock was substituted.
When I was around 5 years old (1950) a photo was made of me and my brother in front of the Presbyterian Church in Okolona, Mississippi with a Sunday School Class. Norma Shearer's children, Irving Jr and Katherine Thalberg are in the photo. I believe Norma told them at that time of our existence and a trust fund was set up in our name or in the name of my father. We have never gotten anything from that fund, but people around us seem to get very rich.
The Rockefellers even carry our name in honor of a Grandmother whose maiden name was Goodsell. See "William Goodsell Rockefeller". There was little money with her branch of the family (See Percy Goodsell's endowment. Percy was connected to Associated Press. His published family tree, "The Goodsells of Connecticut", show no other source of Goodsell money.) There was plenty of money with our branch of the Goodsell family since our Great Grandfather was connected to the Bayer Labs, giving the Rockefeller family their infamous connections to WWII Germany and their original money with patent medicines.
Norma Shearer could have left our family (John Wesley Goodsell, John Franklin Goodsell and Bonnie Goodsell MacRae) a trust fund with a Rockefeller bank (Citi banking system) or the Bank of America (we imported Italians to build railroads in West Virginia). This trust could be located in Los Angeles, Hollywood or upstate where Norma Shearer built a home with Thalberg. A trust could also have been set aside for my father by Samuel Goldwyn because Daddy was seen on sets in some of Norma Shearer's early movies. I called SAG and Norma Shearer did not belong, I guess because she was an owner of MGM.
Thank you for looking into this.
Bonnie MacRae 1343 Jefferson Hwy, Staunton, VA 24401 540 910 7946
My son is Ian MacRae (EN Computers, Fishersville, VA) 540 294 1116 or 540 885 3129
Pearl Darnell (Norma Shearer-photos
