M. A. Wetherell

Marmaduke Arundel "Duke" Wetherell (1883[1] – 25 February 1939) was a British–South African actor, screenwriter, producer, film director and big-game hunter.[2] He was responsible for the hoax "surgeon's photograph" of the Loch Ness Monster.

Biography

Born in Bodmin, Cornwall, Wetherell acted in both British and South African films during the silent era. In the 1920s he branched out to producing and directing films but they were not a success.[3]

He produced, directed and played the lead role in his productions of Livingstone (1925) and Robinson Crusoe (1927). A planned biography of Lawrence of Arabia called Revolt in the Desert to be photographed by Freddie Young who had photographed his war films The Somme (1927) and Victory (1928) did not eventuate.[4][5] Wetherell was the father of actor Ian Colin.

In the 1930s, Marmaduke went to Loch Ness to look for the Loch Ness Monster. Wetherell claimed to have found footprints, but when casts of the footprints were sent to scientists for analysis they turned out to be from a hippopotamus; a prankster had used a hippopotamus-foot umbrella stand.[6] As a result, Wetherell was publicly ridiculed by his employer, the Daily Mail. To get revenge on the Mail, Wetherell perpetrated the hoax "surgeon's photograph" of the Loch Ness Monster with his son Ian (who bought the material for the fake and took the photos), son-in-law Christian Spurling (a sculpture specialist), and Maurice Chambers (an insurance agent), taking a picture of a toy submarine made of plastic wood and passing it off as the monster.[7] Chambers gave the photographic plates to surgeon Robert Kenneth Wilson, a friend of his who enjoyed "a good practical joke". Wilson had the plates developed and sold the first photo to the Daily Mail;[8] the Mail would then announce that the monster had been photographed.[9] The photo had been described as a hoax as early as 1975,[10][11] but this was not common knowledge among the general public until 1994.[12]

Selected filmography

Actor

Director

Producer

Bibliography
  • Low, Rachael. History of the British Film, 1918–1929. George Allen & Unwin, 1971.

References
  1. "Wetherell, Marmaduke Arundel". FreeBMD. ONS. Retrieved 25 August 2023.
  2. "M.A. Wetherell". BFI. Archived from the original on 23 October 2012. Retrieved 6 September 2018.
  3. Low p.155
  4. p. 12 Morris, L. Robert & Raskin, Lawrence Lawrence of Arabia: The 30th Anniversary Pictorial History Doubleday, 1 Oct 1992
  5. "All the Movies in Tony Crawley's Casting Calls".
  6. "Birth of a legend: Famous Photo Falsified?". Pbs.org. Archived from the original on 4 June 2011. Retrieved 28 May 2009.
  7. "Loch Ness Hoax Photo". The UnMuseum. Archived from the original on 8 May 2019. Retrieved 28 May 2009.
  8. "Nessie's Secret Revealed". yowieocalypse.com. Archived from the original on 4 January 2015. Retrieved 3 January 2015.
  9. The Mammoth Encyclopedia of the Unsolved
  10. "Making of a monster". Sunday Telegraph. 7 December 1975. p. 6. Retrieved 25 August 2023.
  11. Book review of Nessie – The Surgeon's Photograph – Exposed Archived 14 January 2012 at the Wayback Machine Douglas Chapman.
  12. "The Loch Ness Monster and the Surgeon's Photo". Museumofhoaxes.com. Archived from the original on 6 August 2014. Retrieved 28 May 2009.
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