Clark Gable
(Deceased)
Clark Gable, actor, was born as William Clark Gable on February 1, 1901 in Cadez, Ohio. The handsome 6'1" young man went to work in a tire factory in Akron, OH. But he had been dabbling in local theatrical productions and finally decided he really wanted to be an actor. He joined a touring theatrical troup and wound up in Portland, Oregon.There in Portland he met and married the manager of the theater, a woman named Josephine Dillon who was twelve years older than Gable.
He was appearing in a play titled "The Last Mile" when he won a screen test and got a contract with MGM. There was some discussion between executives that Clark's ears were far too big. They didn't change his ears, but they got him to grow a mustache and to have some new teeth made. He had several hit movies and quickly became a major star in the MGM roster. However, he was a hard drinking rounder who had affairs with Loretta Young, Jean Harlow and other women. One night, while driving drunk, he hit anothe car and killed the driver. MGM hush-hushed the event, but to punish him they farmed him out (sub-contracting, as it were) to Columbia. That "punishment" resulted in Clark Gable earneding an Oscar for his role in Columbia's hit movie, "It Happened One Night" (1934) .
Returning to MGM, Gable won Oscar nominations for both "Mutiny on the Bounty" (1935) and for "Gone with the Wind" (1939). And he continued partying and drinking.
Clark Gable shed his first wife, married a second. And then married a third, successful movie star Carole Lombard, on March 29, 1939. In 1942 she was killed in a plane crash returning from a War Bond drive. At that time in his life he needed a change, so Gable joined the Army Air Corps and made no movies for three years.
When he returned from active duty, MGM chose not to renew his high-dollar contract . So he free-lanced the balance of his career. His last movie was "The Misfits" with Marilyn Monroe in 1961.
Gable had married a fourth time, then a fifth time. And he announced during the filming of "The Misfits" with Marilyn Monroe that he and his fifth wife were about to become parents. However, he had a heart attack two months after the filming was completed. He died on Nov. 16, 1960, so he never saw his son -- John Clark Gable. His last movie was released in 1961.
There is some evidence that actress Judy Lewis is Clark's illegitimate daughter by actress Loretta Young .
Clark Gable's Western movie credits included "The Painted Desert" (1931), "The Call of the Wild" (1935), "San Francisco" (1936), "Across the Wide Missouri" (1951), "Lone Star" (1951), "The Tall Men" (1955) and "The Misfits"(1961).
Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe
.
in "The Misfits"
Clark Gable died in Los Angeles of a heart attack on November 16, 1960, just a few days after completing filming of "The Misfits". His remains are in the Forest Lawn Cemetery (Great Mausoleum, Sanctuary of Trust) in Glendale, CA.
Books about Clark Gable include:
Long Live the King, by Lyn Tornabene ( G.P.Putnam's Sons, NY 1976 ). This book contains 429 pages, 32 of which are wonderful B/W photographs. It has an abridged version of his 1935 Contract with MGM, and a Graphological Analysis of his Hand Writing at ages 24 & 41, and his Last Will and Testament.
Dear Mr. G: The Biography of Clark Gable, by Jean Garceau with Inez Cocke. ( 1961, Little Brown and CO.) Garceau, for many years, was Clark Gable's personal secretary and for more than 20 years his close friend. This biography is a captivating and warmly personal biography.
CLICK HERE to go to the web site of the Clark Gable Foundation, featuring photos and information on the actor.
CLICK HERE to see the complete filmography of Clark Gable.
Belinda Gail
Belinda Gail, of Visalia, California, launched her singing career in 1996 when she toured with the "Sons of the San Joaquin". Not only does she sing like a nightinggale, but she picks a guitar pretty darn well, too.
She is probably the most "awarded" female performer in contemporary western music. Her awards include the “Will Rogers Award” from the Academy of Western Artists, “Female Vocalist of the Year”, and the Western Music Association’s “Female Performer of the Year” for an unprecedented three consecutive years.
Belinda Gail was also awarded the title “Arizona’s Veteran Sweetheart” by the Arizona Love Project, Inc., for her works to heighten awareness for the disabled veterans and their families. Belinda has also been nominated for “Rising Star”, “Entertainer of the Year” and “Group of the Year” with her band Wild Wind.
Belinda Gail’s exciting career has given her the opportunity to appear with such stars as the Riders in the Sky, Don Edwards, Baxter Black, The Oak Ridge Boys, Johnny Western, Tommy Alsup, The Texas Playboys, Rex Allen, Jr. and Roy “Dusty” Rogers, Jr.
Belinda has performed at Michael Martin Murphy's ‘West Fest’. She has also appeared at Silver Dollar City in Branson, Missouri with Sonny Spencer of the Sons of the Pioneers and returned to Branson to participate in the Sons of the Pioneers “Cowboy, Heroes and Friends Festival”.
Belinda Gail and husband Fred are the parents of three children. She is a true woman of the west: honest, independent, respectful of the land, with an abiding faith in God.
By the way, you might want to join the Belinda Gail Fan Club. Contact the club president, Judi Wittwer, at 520-822-2889 . . . . . or you can email her at WitwerHobi@aol.com.
Robert Lee Gale
Robert Lee Gale was born in Des Moines, Iowa on Dec. 27, 1919. He married Maureen Dowd in 1944 and they had three children. He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1942, earned his master's at Columbia University in 1947 and the Ph.D. in 1952. During World War II, he was in the U.S. Army's Counter Intelligence Corps.
He has taught at the University of Delaware (1949 to 1952), the University of Mississippi (1952-59), and since 1959 at the University of Pittsburgh. He wrote his dissertation on Henry James and is especially fond of James, Mark Twain and Nathaniel Hawthorne.
Robert Lee Gale is the author of Louis L'Amour (Twayne Publishers, 1985), a critical study of L'Amour's work. And he has written Charles Marion Russell (Boise State University Press, 1979), Charles Warren Stoddard (Boise SU Press, 1977), Luke Short (G.K. Hall, 1981), Plots and Characters in the Works of Mark Twain, 2 Vols. (Shoe String, 1973), Plots and Characters of Melville (Shoe String, 1972), Richard Henry Dana (G.K. Hall, 1969), Will Henry: Clay Fisher (Boise St, 1982), Thomas Crawford, American Sculptor (1964), Barron's Simplified Approach to Ralph Waldo Emerson and Transcendentalism (1966), Luke Short (1981), Francis Parkman (1973), and many more.
He explained his interest in westerns to one interviewer by saying, "I've always like adventure movies and cowboy films. I could never see enough of them when I was little, so I guess this is a kind of second childhood desire to get into the literary basis of those movies."
Benny Garcia
(Deceased)
Benny Garcia, guitar picker, was born on March 20, 1926 in Oklahoma City, OK.
He started taking guitar lessons when he was about 14 years old. And before long he was playing with various bands at area hotels and clubs. He has played with the best of them.
However, World War II came along and he was drafted into the U.S. Army. He spent most of his time in the deserts of Nevada, helping to test two atomic bombs.
After the War, he returned to Oklahoma and continued playing guitar. And soon he joned the Johnnie Lee Wills band in Tulsa, headquarted in the legendary Cain's Ballroom. That was the place where Johnnie's brother, Bob Wills, had regularly performed while becoming a national sensation.
The Johnnie Lee Wills band.
Bennie Garcia is at top, right.
Not surprisingly, Bob Wills recognized a great talent when he saw one. And he hired Bennie Garcia away from brother Johnnie and took him on the road with him. They played in every major city in the United States, except for New York City.
Then Garcia wound up performing for various venues in Oklahoma city. And it was there that he joined Tex Williams' band in 1948, just after Williams record, "Smoke, Smoke, Smoke That Cigarette" had gone to Number 1 and sold over one million records.
Williams and his band had come to Oklahoma City to play at a movie theatre located across from the KOMA Radio studios where Benny Garcia was performing. Tex heard him play and signed him up to tour with him all over the United States. Benny remembers such talented band members as Cactus Soldi and Earl "Joaquin" Murphey (pedal-steel guitar).
Bennie Garcia was in six Western movies, between 1948 and 1952, when he was playing with Tex Williams and his Western Caravan.
When he left Tex Williams, Garcia signed on with another Western swing band led by Hank Penny. Then, seeking a change of pace, Benny Garcia hired on to play for the one and only Patsy Cline.
In 2001, at the age of 74, Benny Garcia was still picking and grinning. He regularly performed on Wednesday nights and Friday nights at local clubs. And his son, Benny Richard Garcia, plays guitar for Vince Gill.
In 2003 Benny Garcia was inducted into the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame at a ceremony in Muskogee, Oklahoma.
Benny Garcia died in Oklahoma City on September 17, 2005. He was buried at the Rose Hill Cemetery.
A long-time friend and fellow musician, Paul Brewer (a trombonist, then living in Grand Rapids, Mich.) wrote of Benny on Sept. 23rd:
"Of all the jazz guitarists I've performed with over my thirty-six years as a professional musician, Benny Garcia is still the best. And I know that I am very far from alone in that assessment of Benny’s great musicianship.
"Benny always chose just the right chords, exquisitely structured, and moving with fluidity and grace in his gorgeous and inimitable voice-leading.
"And my God, did he ever swing! What a glorious feeling! I always looked forward to experiencing it.
"And his sweetness and wonderful sense of humor – what a treasure he was as a person, too.
"Benny’s nickname for me was “Slide” (I’m a trombonist as you might have guessed or knew already). I can hear Benny now, greeting me as he always did whenever we saw each other: “What’s happenin’, Slide!” I always grinned or giggled (or both) when he said those words. The twinkle in eyes and the joy in his voice always lifted my spirits. Having the ability to bring joy to others in that manner is a precious gift, indeed. Benny had it in abundance – always enough to go around for everyone.
"My soon-to-be six year-old son, Benjamin Richard Connell Brewer, is named after Benny Garcia and our mutual great friend Richard Niswonger. And just like Benny Garcia, my son, too, goes by the name of Benny. It’s an affectionate name isn’t it? It sounds like little bells ringing sweetly: The sound of Benny Garcia’s guitar strings sparkling brightly like the stars in the night sky where he plays for the angels now."
Gail I. Gardner
(Deceased)
Gail Gardner, cowboy poet and songwriter, was born in Prescott, Arizona. He lived in the same house where he was born for much of his life. He stood about 5'7" tall.
Gardner's father was a successful merchant. So he sent his young son off to Dartmouth College. The boy majored in math and received a Bachelor of Sciences degree. He returned to Prescott and worked in his father's store for awhile. But he soon had his fill of that and hired on as a cowboy in Skull Valley. Some years later he became a postmaster. He often said that the only requirement for being a good postmaster was to get a cowboy and punch his brains out.
His trademark poem was "Sierry Petes," written in 1917. It is also known as "Tying Knotts in the Devil's Tail".
The tall tale was based on a time when he and his saddle partner Bob Heckle were returning from a night on the town. They were riding horseback to their line came on the Dearing Ranch near Thumb Butte, Arizona. One of the drunkened men joked that the Devil would surely get anyone who had been doing what they had been doing back there in town. And the other said that if the Devil tried to get them, they'd rope him and tie him to a black-jack oak tree, just like they did a steer.
The inspiration for the poem came as he was traveling by train from Arizona headed back east to serve in the military during World War I. As the train sped through Kansas, he looked out the window and saw a large herd of fat cattle grazing in a large, green pasture. It was a stark contrast to the half-starved boney-backed cattle that he was used to chasing through the cactus-lined canyons back home. He whipped out a pen and, recalling his experience with Bob Heckle, he composed the famous poem in the club car of the Santa Fe Limited train.
Here's how he wrote it:
The Sierry Petes
by Gail I. Gardner
Away up high in the Sierry Petes,*
Where the yeller pines grows tall,
Ole Sandy Bob an' Buster Jig,
Had a rodeer camp last fall.Oh, they taken their hosses and runnin' irons
And mabbe a dawg or two,
An' they 'lowed they'd brand all the long-yered calves,
That come within their view.And any old doggie that flapped long yeres,
An' didn't bush up by day,
Got his long yeres whittled an' his old hide scorched,
In a most artistic way.Now one fine day ole Sandy Bob,
He throwed his seago down,
"I'm sick of this cow-pyrography,
And I 'lows I'm a-goin' to town."So they saddles up an' hits 'em a lope,
Fer it warnt no sight of a ride,
And them was the days when a Buckeroo
Could ile up his inside.Oh, they starts her in at the Kaintucky Bar,
At the head of Whisky Row**,
And they winds up down by the Depot House,
Some forty drinks below.They then sets up and turns around,
And goes her the other way,
An' to tell you the Gawd-forsaken truth,
Them boys got stewed that day.As they was a-ridin' back to camp,
A-packin' a pretty good load,
Who should they meet but the Devil himself,
A-prancin' down the road.Sez he, "You ornery cowboy skunks,
You'd better hunt yer holes,
Fer I've come up from Hell's Rim Rock,
To gather in yer souls."Sez Sandy Bob, "Old Devil be damned,
We boys is kinda tight,
But you ain't a-goin' to gather no cowboy souls,
'Thout you has some kind of a fight."So Sandy Bob punched a hole in his rope,
And he swang her straight and true,
He lapped it on to the Devil's horns,
An' he taken his dallies*** too.Now Buster jig was a riata man,
With his gut-line coiled up neat,
So he shaken her out an' he built him a loop,
An' he lassed the Devil's hind feet.Oh, they stretched him out an' they tailed him down,
While the irons was a-gettin hot,
They cropped and swaller-forked his yeres,
Then they branded him up a lot.They pruned him up with a de-hornin' saw,
An' they knotted his tail fer a joke,
They then rid off and left him there,
Necked to a Black-Jack oak.If you're ever up high in the Sierry Petes,
An' you hear one Hell of a wail,
You'll know it's that Devil a-bellerin' around,
About them knots in his tail.*************************
NOTES:
*Sierra Prieta Mountains west of Prescott
**An area on Montezuma Street in Prescott
**Dallie-weltie a corruption of the Spanish "dar la vuelta,"
to take a turn or twist around, as to wrap
the rope around the saddle horn.
Gail Gardner returned to Prescott when World War I ended in 1919. A cowboy friend, Bill Simon, put some music behind the song and began performing it at cow camps and rodeos and such. In 1929 a "singing cowboy" on a radio station in Yankton, S.D. published his song in a songbook, but he had "bitched up the words". Soon there were many versions of it going around, though Gardner tried to stop them.In 1931 a gent named Powder River Jack Lee took the poem, along with Curley Fletcher's "Strawberry Roan," and published them under his own name in a songbook.
In 1935 Gardner published the poem in Orejana Bull for Cowboys Only, a collection of his own poems ( Library of Congress copyright, entry Class AA, No. 192120).
Sometime in the 1950's he had to have his left eye removed due to cancer, and he wore a black patch over the socket for many years. Then he converted to a pair of eye glasses with a darkened lense on the left.
The home folks seem to have appreciated this old cowboy. They even named a street after him. "Gail Gardner Way."
Gardner's wife, Delia Gist Gardner, also wrote poetry.
CLICK HERE to read a fine article about Gail I. Gardner by fellow Arizona legend Katie Lee. It is based on an interview that she did with him him at his home in Prescott in 1960.
Brian Garfield
Brian Garfield was born in New York City on Jan. 26,1939. He earned his B.A. from the University of Arizona in 1959 and his M.A. in 1963. From 1958 to 1963 he earned his living by performing as a musician with two dance bands. And he was an instructor in English at the University of Arizona from 1962 to 1963.
His exepertise as a writer has resulted in his being published in such diverse fields as romance, gothic, Westerns, adventure, mystery, suspense, crime, history, film, and theatrical plays. Some 17 million copies of his books have been sold. He writes under at least eight names besides his own, including Brian Wynne, Frank Wynne, Jonas Ward, Drew Mallory, Frank O'Brian, Alex Hawk, John Ives, and Bennett Garland.
His novel Death Wish was made into a 1974 film by Paramount Studios and starred Charles Bronson. Two novels, Gun Down and Hopscotch, were made into films. And two other novels, Wild Times and Relentless, were made into TV movies. The TV movie "Wild Times" was a mini-series starring Sam Elliott, Ben Johnson, Harry Carey, Jr. and many other Western movie actors, many of whom were personally selected by Garfield.
He became president of Shan Productions Company in 1974. He has served as a director of Mystery Writers of America. And he served the WWA as vice-president in 1965-66 and as president in 1966-67.
In 1976 he won the Mystery Writers of America's "Edgar Award" for his book, Hopscoth. And his articles have been published in Saturday Review, New York Times Book Review, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, Writer's Digest and Alfred Hitchcok's Mystery Magazine.
Garfield's prolific output includes Range Justice (1960), The Arizonians (1961), The Lawbringers (1962), Trail Drive (1962), Vultures in the Sun (1963), Apache Canyon (1963), The Vanquished (1964), The Last Bridge (1966), The Thousand-Mile War (1969), Valley of the Shadow (1970), The Hit (1971), Sweeny's Honour (1971), Death Wish (1972), screenplay, 1974), Kolchak's Gold (1974), The Romanov Succession (1974), Death Sentence (1976), Recoil (1977), Wild Times (1979), The Paladin (1980), Checkpoint Charlie (1981), and Western Films: A Complete Guide (1982).
Under the name of Frank Wynne, he wrote such Westerns as Massacre Basin (1961), Rio Concho (1964), Lynch Law Canyon (1965), and Letter to a Gunfighter (1966). And under the pseudonym of Bennett Garland he wrote such Westerns as Seven Brave Men (1962), The Last Outlaw (1964) and Rio Chama.
Using the pen name Brian Wynne, Brian Garfield wrote such books as Mr. Sixgun (1964), The Proud Riders (1967), Brand of the Gun (1968) and Big Men (1969).
Brian Garfield edited War Whoop and Battle Cry (1958) and I, Witness: True Personal Encounters with Crime by Members of the Mystery Writers of America (1978).
Dorothy Garlock
Dorothy Garlock is the author of Forever Victoria (Jove, 1983), Annie Lash (Popular Library, 1984), Love & Cherish (Zebra, 1982), Glorious Dawn (Fawcett, 1982), Wild Sweet Wilderness (Popular Library, 1985), Wayward Wind (Popular Library, 1986), Restless Wind (Popular Library, 1986).
James Garner
James Garner, actor, was born James Scott Bumgarner April 7, 1928 in Norman, OK. His parents were Mildred and Weldon Bumgarner. He attended high school there in Norman.
He joined the Merchant Marines at the age of 16. In 1950 he had the distinction of being the very first Oklahoman to be drafted during the Korean War. He served in Korea and received a battle wound and a Purple Heart.
After his discharge from the Army, Garner returned home to Norman, Oklahoma. He began his first semester at the University of Oklahoma as a major in business administration.
However, he quickly decided college was not for him. Garner withdrew from OU and moved to Hollywood. His first onscreen role was in the TV Western series, "Cheyenne". And in 1957 he began starring in his own TV Western, the tongue-in-cheek series "Maverick", which ran until 1962.
James Garner as "Bret Maverick" and Jack Kelley as "Bart Maverick" in the TV series, "Maverick".
His list of Western films includes "Support Your Local Sheriff," "Support Your Local Gunfighter," and "Maverick".
Along the way James Garner has received four Golden Globe awards and two Emmys. One of those was his hit series, "The Rockford Files, " where from 1974 to 1980 he played the charming and resourceful private investigator Jim Rockford.
In 1985 he was nominated for an Academy Award for his role in the movie, "Murphy's Romance," co-starring Sally Field.
His alma mater, the University of Oklahoma, presented him with an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters in 1995.
In April of 2003, James Garner spoke at the University of Oklahoma and wrote a check for a donation of $ 500,000 to the university's School of Drama. That money will be used to fund the James Garner Chair, the first endowed professoral position in the drama school's history.
It was during his short speech at OU that he revealed he has had a life-long fear of public speaking. "I don't have it in front of a camera," he told the crowd. "Because I know I can always do it over."
CLICK HERE to view the complete filmography of James Garner.
William R. Garwood
William R. Garwood is the author of Kill Him, Again (Bath St Press, 1980), Catch Kid Curry! (Bath St Press, 1982), and Ringo's Tombstone (Bath St Press, 1981).
Larry Gatlin
Larry Gatlin was born in Texas. He and his brothers, Steve and Rudy, formed a singing trio in their teens. The Gatlin boys began singing on a Sunday morning radio show out of Abilene, Texas, for 10 cents per week. In one of their first tries at a talent contest they beat another teenager group from just down the road called "Roy Orbison and the Teen Kings".
Larry Gatlin entered the University of Houston on a football scholarship. He studied law while still trying to figure out a way to make a living as a musician. In 1971 tried out for but was not hired to fill an opening for a singer with the gospel group, "The Imperials". But in the process he did meet country music star Dottie West, and she brought him to Nashville.
With West's help, soon he had a recording contract. And in 1975 he hit Number One on the country music charts with "Broken Lady". That song also earned him a Grammy.
Meanwhile, his brothers and his sister, LaDonna, had also done well in country music. They were the opening act for Tammy Wynette. So he and his brothers joined forces as "The Gatlin Brothers" and began producing a bunch of top hits such as "I Just Wish You Were Someone I Love" (1977) and "All The Gold In California" (1979).
In 1993 Larry Gatlin played Oklahoma humorist Will Rogers on Broadway in "The Will Rogers Follies". And early in 1994, Larry starred in the national road tour of "The Will Rogers Follies."
In about 1996, Gatlin put on his acting hat for a role in a Western movie titled, "The Life and Legend of O.B. Taggard". Unfortunately, the movie was so bad that it was never released. The "world premier" for the movie was at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Center before a large crowd, but by the intermission people were leaving in droves. Mickey Rooney, the legendary child movie star, wrote the screenplay, produced and directed it. Rooney even got Oscar-winner Ben Johnson to be it it, but it never opened at a single theater.
In 1998 his autobiography was published under the title, All The Gold in California (Thomas Nelson Publishers) . In it he tells of his drug addiction and of his renewed faith in Christ. That same year he released his album, "In My Life," containing ten of his own compositions.
The Gatlin Brothers now have their own 2,000 seat theatre at Fantasy Harbour in Myrtle Beach, SC. They call that home and perform there several weeks each year.
Ray Gaulden
(Deceased)
Ray Gaulden was born in Fort Worth, Tex. on June 27, 1914 and died of a heart attack on March 26, 1986. He married Thelma Fells in 1940 and they had one daughter, Marsha. He supported his family by working at everything from a sign painter to a hotel clerk and as a parts man in a munitions plant.He tried going full-time as a freelancer just after the war, but he had to give it up due to sparse sales. Then after he had sold 50 or 60 short stories, he tried again and succeeded.
Ray Gaulden wrote over 200 articles and short stories and was the author of 18 Western novels. One of his books, Glory Gulch (Berkley, 1967) was produced as the movie, "Five Card Stud". He often wrote under the pen name of Wesley Ray. He joined the WWA in 1955 and served as Vice President in 1969. The Colorado Authors' League gave him their "Top-hand Award" on two occasions for best western short stories.
His other books included The Rough and Lonely Land (1957), Shadow of the Rope (1957), The Vengeful Men (1957), Damaron's Gun (1958), High Country Showdown (Tower Books, 1961), Action at Alameda (1962), The Devil's Deputy (1963), A Good Place to Die (1965), McVey's Valley (1965), Long Day in Latigo (1965), The Lawless Land (1967), The Time to Ride (1969), Shoot to Kill (1970), Rage at Red Butte (1971), The Wicked Women of Lobo Wells (1971), Deputy Sheriff (1972), A Man Called Murdo (1981), Rough Road to Denver (1981).
Three years before he died, Ray Gaulden wrote: "I feel fortunate to have been able to write as much as I have during some difficult years healthwise, but with the help of a supportive teammate, I survived, and still have stories to tell. For a guy who was only doing what came naturally and never had a need to be the greatest, it has been a bad life" (The Roundup, Dec., 1983).
This listing is far from complete and may contain errors.
Therefore, all Western entertainers and/or their agents
are requested to submit recommended changes by
contacting Stan Paregien.
"To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul; in you I trust, O my God."
-- Bible: Psalm 25:1
© 2003-2010 by Stan Paregien, Sr.
