Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Everett Nourse

The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was merge to Fox Theatre (San Francisco). Ritchie333 ^(talk) ^(cont) 17:10, 13 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Everett Nourse[edit]

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A former organist with no particular claim to notability. Fails WP:GNG and WP:MUSICBIO. Personal assessment of sources in the article:

Source	Independent?	Reliable?	Significant coverage?	Count source toward GNG?
Source assessment table: prepared by User:Pilaz
http://www.sierrachapteratos.org/nourse.html	~ The source is a local chapter of a musical society which in the past gave the subject an award, and the author is unknown	Self-published webpage; author unknown		✘ No
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Everett-Nourse-2779245.php	Paid obituary	Paid content, author not listed		✘ No
https://www.foundsf.org/index.php?title=Fox_Theater	?	Self-published, Wikipedia-like website (see about page)	2x passing mentions	✘ No
https://www.atos.org/san-francisco-fox-theatre		self-published	1x passing mention	✘ No
https://img1.wsimg.com/blobby/go/a78f7ff1-30f6-47ad-94d9-68c9f4a35734/downloads/200409.pdf?ver=1610763667854	Author is daughter of deceased subject	Self-published newsletter, unknown editorial control		✘ No
https://beyondchron.org/san-franciscos-market-street-the-grand-boulevard-for-the-era-of-the-movie-palace/		~ some light editorial policy but most pieces are opinion; website states it is opposed to "mainstream" information	2x passing mentions	✘ No
http://www.theatreorgans.com/theatreorganreplay/Albums.htm	? album listing	self-pub	1x passing mention	✘ No
https://journals.shareok.org/theatreorgan/article/view/3957/3936	Interviewee is not independent from the subject matter (himself) - see WP:INTERVIEWS essay	? The reliability of the American Theatre Organ Society's "Theatre Organ Journal" is unknown. The format here is an interview.		✘ No
This table may not be a final or consensus view; it may summarize developing consensus, or reflect assessments of a single editor. Created using {{source assess table}}.

Pilaz (talk) 18:59, 2 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This discussion has been included in the list of Bands and musicians-related deletion discussions. Pilaz (talk) 18:59, 2 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Note: This discussion has been included in the list of California-related deletion discussions. Pilaz (talk) 18:59, 2 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Weak Merge with Fox Theatre. Nourse gains a full entry in this book published by Greenwood Press and reviewed in scholarly publications so I think we can assume this is reliable. A couple of sparse reviews of him as a child prodigy are here. He only gets a passing reference in The Organ Encyclopaedia. The nominator has called the SF Gate obituary a paid obituary. I am not sure where this information has come from and I'm not sure it is true. These two sources seem to suggest that the obituary is actually from a 2000 edition of the San Francisco Chronicle. SF Gate for a time used to be the Chronicle's online outlet (if I understand this correctly). For me that makes the obituary far more reliable. While maybe not the most reputable publication American Theatre Organ Society's "Theatre Organ Journal" did have editorial staff etc so it is at least somewhat reliable. A merge with Fox Theatre makes most sense as his notability stems from being the last organist at the establishment. Still unsure on this and could be swayed. Vladimir.copic (talk) 03:31, 3 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]
I also found an AP newswire regarding Nourse's death. Can't figure a way to link it because it's sat within Factavia but here is the text: "VACAVILLE, Calif. (AP) - Funeral services were held Thursday for organist Everett Nourse, who played the console at the old Fox Theater in San Francisco. Nourse died Monday of a stroke. He was 88. Nourse took the job as organist for the 5,000-seat Fox Theater in 1944 and held it until 1963, when the Market Street landmark closed, eventually to be torn down and replaced by an office building. "It is kind of the end of an era," said Edward Mullins of the Jesse Crawford Theater Organ Society. "I'll remember him every time I play the records." The grand Fox Wurlitzer organ Nourse played was installed last year in the El Capitan Theater in Hollywood. He was inducted into the American Theater Organ Society Organists Hall of Fame in 1998. Survivors include a daughter, Jeanne Nourse, 52, of Sonoma." Vladimir.copic (talk) 04:15, 3 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Regarding your question as to whether the SFGATE obituary is a paid obituary: the SFChronicle's FAQ states that "An obituary notice is a paid listing". The same exact wording is present on SFGate's 2013 FAQ. Today's SFGate "publish an obituary" section has a pricing section. Additionally, because the family submits the obituary, and because no journalist (indirectly remunerated by the family) is credited for writing or editing the obituary of the article's subject, I tend towards contesting the independence and reliability of SFGate obituaries. The child prodigy mentions, in my opinion, still do not sufficiently contribute to the GNG given that one is a passing mention and the other only four sentences long, although it certainly fulfills verifiability of his early talent. I'm unsure as to how to classify the AP newswire: on the one hand, it is surely not paid for, but it seems to fall within the description that the WP:ROTM essay makes (it's also curious that the person cited in the AP wire is the interviewer of source #8). As for the entry in the book, I don't know what to quite make of it yet, although reliability and independence are as you've demonstrated likely OK. Since the words "Everett" and "Nourse" receive only 7 hits on page 164, and 4 of them are already shown in the Google Books excerpt, I assume it's quite short. I'd be interested to see whether it provides in-depth coverage of Nourse, and luckily the book is in a library nearby, so I'm going to be taking a look today or tomorrow to see how it fares. Pilaz (talk) 11:41, 3 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]

I'm still struggling to accept the paid status of a 2000 obituary on the evidence of an FAQ page over a decade later but I accept your point this is dubious at best. He gets a whole heap of passing references and I was leaning towards delete until I found the Behold the Mighty Wurlitzer entry. Coverage still seems limited to very niche publications so I can't see justification for a standalone article hence my suggestion of a merge. Unfortunately sourcing for the Fox Theatre article is even worse at the moment (I made a start on improving yesterday).Vladimir.copic (talk) 22:46, 3 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Weak Merge to Fox Theatre per User:Vladimir.copic. Nom's excellent source analysis shows that he fails WP:BASIC. Mztourist (talk) 05:00, 3 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.