Page M - 16Stan Paregien, Editor
DorisMonahan
Doris Monahan is a devotee of portrait painting and art history. She is also the author of Destination: Denver City--The South Platte Trail (Swallow Press/Ohio University, 1985).
Marilyn Monroe
(Deceased)
Marilyn Monoe, actress, was born Norman Jeane Mortenson (aka, Norma Jeane Baker) on June 1, 1926 in Los Angeles, CA. She became a world-wide sex symbol.
Her mother was mentally ill person who worked as a film-cutter at RKO Pictures. She abandoned Norman Jeane, who then lived in a number of foster homes. She wound up in the Los Angeles Orphans Home at age 9.
She was working in an aircraft plant by the age of 16, and in 1942 married a man who went into the military about the time she started modeling. They divorced in 1946.
Marilyn Monroe broke into the movie business in about 1947 and made 30 movies during her career.
In 1954 she married and after a few months divorced baseball great Joe Dimaggio.
It is believed that she had affairs with a large number of men, not the least of whom were actor Yves Montand and politicians and brothers John Kennedy and Robert Kennedy.
In 1949 she posed nude for the now famous calendar shot which was later to appear in Playboy magazine in 1953 and further boost her career. She would be Playboy's first centerfold in that magazine. In 1955, she appeared in THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH which showed one of film's most memorable scenes when she stands above a subway grate and the wind from a passing subway blowing her white dress up.
However, Marilyn was getting fewer and fewer job offers because she was legendary being tardy to the set, being ill, whether real or imagined, and generally being unwilling to cooperate with the producers, directors, and fellow actors.
In 1956 she married playwright Arthur Miller. That marriage ended in 1960.
Her Western films included A Ticket to Tomahawk (1950), River of No Return (1954), Bus Stop (1956) and The Misfits (1961).
Marilyn Monroe died in the nude at her home in Los Angeles on Aug. 5, 1962. Her death was ruled a suicide from an overdose of drugs. There are still those, however, who believe that the drugs were administered by the hands of someone related to or working for the John Kennedy or Robert Kennedy family. Her remains are in the Westwood Memorial Park ( Corridor of Memories, #24 ) in Los Angeles, CA.
CLICK HERE to see the complete filmography of Marilyn Monroe.
Monte Montana
(Deceased)
Monte Montana, trick roper and rider, was born Owen Harlan Mickel on June 21, 1910 in Montana.He appeared in more than sixty Tournament of Roses parades. When I was a kid, I had the pleasure of riding in a "grand entry" at a rodeo in Saugus, Calif., where he also appeared. I remember that someone had a pet lion cub outside in the parking lot. It frightened a horse so much that it broke the reins where it was tied up and took off running. And, just like in the movies, Montie Montana jumped on his horse and chased the frightened horse down, roped it and brought it back to the grateful owner.
He made headlines in 1953 when he roped President Dwight Eisenhower as a gag during his inaugural parade. He asked the President's permission first, but Secret Service agents were not happy with the stunt.
Walk of Fame momument
in Palm Springs, CA.
Montie Montana: Not Without My Horse. As told to Marilee Montana. Double M Company, Agua Dulce, CA, $19.95 (softcover). An autobiography with lots of pictures.
Monte Montana had a stroke and died on May 20, 1998 in Los Angeles. His remains are at the Oakwood Memorial Park ( Willows West Section, Lot 134, Space 4A ) in Chatsworth, CA.
CLICK HERE to see the complete filmography of Monte Montana.
Monte Montana, Jr.
Monte Montana, Jr., as you might expect, is an expert horseman and is mighty handy with a rope.
I got to hear Monte Montana, Jr., speak at the National Cowboy Symposium on Sept. 9, 2000. He told about his experiences in the wild, wild world of "Wild West Shows." He had formed and directed several of them, taking some of them to far-flung places overseas (Japan, Kuwait, etc.). He said that there have been about 135 Wild West Shows in the history of our country, and that everyone of them--including his--went broke.
Cowboy Cuisine, compiled by Montie Montana Jr., includes over 400 pages of the best eatin' you could find anywhere! Recipes from all over the world and Texas, from friends & performers of Buffalo Bill's Wild West. The Western Horseman calls it, "The Ultimate Cowboy Cook Book!"
Montie Montana Jr. who produces "Buffalo Bill's Wild West" show collected the recipes over the years, and has included a little of everything Western to make it a recipe book you'll want to read from cover to cover. It's just $19.95 plus $3.95 Shipping and Handling, and you can get your copy of Cowboy Cuisine by writing Box 2441, Cupertino, California 95015. Californians add 7.75% Tax. Credit Card customers can call 1-800 95-CUISINE.
CLICK HERE to go to Montie Montana, Jr.'s web site.
Patsy Montana
(Deceased)
Patsy Montana was born Rubye Blevins in Hot Springs, Arkansas on October 30, 1914. Raised in Hope, Arkansas, she taught herself guitar and took violin lessons before studying at the University of the West (now UCLA). There she joined two other women to form the "Montana Cowgirls". After the trio broke up, she visited Arkansas and a booking on Shreveport's KWKH led to her first recordings in 1932, playing fiddle for Jimmie Davis, then with the Prairie Ramblers at WLS Chicago and as a solo star.
Patsy was the first woman in country music to sell a million records with her self-penned yodeling anthem, "I Want To Be A Cowboy's Sweetheart," released in 1935.
Patsy & the Prairie RamblersShe started her career working with silent film star Monte Montana (no relation), and later appeared regularly on the National Barn Dance radio show, backed by the Prairie Ramblers. She also recorded with them on most of her hits, for the ARC, Decca and RCA labels.
Patsy singing in a
Gene Autry move.Jane Frost, director of the Patsy Montana Festival in Pineville, Mo., wrote to me in April of 2000 and said: "Cowboy's Sweetheart was written in 1934, recorded in 1935 and released in 1936. The 1939 mentioned in the photo caption is the year the movie, Colorado Sunset, starring Gene Autry and Patsy, was released. By that time, the song had already sold its million plus.
"And here is a bit of trivia not many know: There were no country charts at the time because the genre had not yet been 'coined.' Also, even though western music was quite big, it did not have a slot on the Billboard charts. So how did Cowboy's Sweetheart get where it did? It climbed the POP CHARTS to #4 and blew the country away with that infectious rhythm and catchy words."
Her role as star of stage and radio -- she made extensive tours and played many radio engagements during the 1940s and beyond -- was doubly important because of her status as a female star. As with later cowgirl singers, one of her trademarks was her intricate yodel, which inspired many other female singers through the years.
Stan Paregien with Patsy Montana in 1990
at the National Cowboy Symposium in
Lubbock, TexasSinger and songwriter Emmylou Harris shared this memory of Patsy Montana: "Some years ago Patsy and I were doing something together at the Gene Autry Museum in Los Angeles, and we had to get to the gig. She was about 80 at the time, still touring, and she had to get on a plane later that night to get to a show somewhere else, traveling all by herself!
"But I had to drive her to the Gene Autry Museum gig, and she hopped into the car with me. Then Patsy looked at me, and she said something that made me think it doesn't get much better than that moment with her, and that I shouldn't be a whiner.
"She said, 'Well, I don't know where I'm going, but I got company!'"
Montana was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1996, the year she died.
Patsy Montana died on May 3rd, 1996 in her home in San Jacinto, California.
"Baby Peggy" Montgomery
Peggy Montgomery, actress, was known to generations simply as the little movie star "Baby Peggy". She was born Peggy Montgomery on Oct. 26, 1918 in Merced, CA.
She made 54 movies during her brief but highly successful career. Her first movie was a silent film named "Her Circus Man" in 1921. Her last film, as an uncredited "extra," was in 1938.
Baby Peggy Montgomery, in the course of time, grew older and lost her star status, and worked outside of the entertainment industry. She was married to Gordon Ayres from 1938 to 1948. She married Bob Carey on May 15, 1954. She now appears and writes under the name Diana Serra Cary.
Her father, Jack Montgomery, was a cowhand-turned-stuntman. He was an honest, hardworking man but who lacked an understanding of the business end of Hollywood. Her mother, Marian, was a dress extra in many films and in several studios.
She was a child "super star"during the silent film era, between 1921 and 1927. She was the "Shirley Temple" of that era, before there was a Shirley Temple. Executives praised her and all of America adored her. She was the center of attention everywhere she traveled.She was the prime source of her family's income from the time she was two years old.
However, Baby Peggy's Montgomery's career as a movie star was over by 1929, at the ripe old age of ten. . It was a hard adjustment to go from adored to ignored in such a short time, and it affected both her and her parents. She bore the brunt of it all, though, developing a deep sense of guilt when her family's fortunes declined. Her parents, as Cary bravely exposes, were highly dysfunctional in their relationships. She made the money and they spent it all, often very foolishly.
Diana Serra Cary wrote, Hollywood Posse: The Story of a Gallant Band of Horsemen Who Made Movie History. The book was originally published by Houghton Mifflin in 1975, then reprinted by Oklahoma University Press in 1996. It offers a new preface by Cary, additional rare photographs and an index compiled by the author herself.
Cary's father was cowboy/stuntman/actor Jack Montgomery, and she gives him plenty of space in her book. She also introduces men like Jack Dawn, Art Acord, Fred Burns, Neal Hart, Al Jennings and Leo McMahonand. They and others were the guys of "Gower Gulch." That is what they called Hollywood's dusty Western studio of the 1910s and 1920s. She also discusses everyone from Tom Mix to John Wayne.
Cary also wrote, What Ever Happened to Baby Peggy (A Thomas Dunne Book, 1996) and a third book, Hollywood's Children: An Inside Account of the Child Star Era (reprint, S.M.U. Press, 1997).
CLICK HERE to see the complete filmography of Baby Peggy.
George Montgomery
(Deceased)
George Montgomery, movie actor, was born George Montgomery Letz on Aug. 29, 1926 in Brady, Montana. He was raised on the family homestead, and it was there that he learned many of the ranching skills he would display so well as a Silver Screen cowboy.
As a youth, he leaned toward becoming an interior decorator. But he became involved in local theater and was a very good actor. He attended one year of college at the University of Montana. But in 1935 he dropped out of school and moved to Hollywood to pursue his dream of acting.
George was young and good looking, with a strong and vibrant voice. And he would ride horses with the best of them. So it was not long before he was hired as a stuntman for the Western movie, "The Singing Vagabond." He was 19 years old. Four years later he was a star.
George Montgomery starred in "The Lone Ranger" series in 1939. Then he began making a series of Westerns for 20th Century Fox in the 1940's. He starred in a Western TV series, "Cimarron City," in the 1950's, then went back to making an occasional movie. Slowly, though, he became more involved in working behind the camera--both as a director and as a producer.
He was married to singer and superstar Diana Shore for 19 years before they divorced.
George Montgomery appeared in 92 films between 1935 and 1986, most of them Westerns. Montgomery forsook acting altogether in the late 1970's to become a very successful furniture designer.
George Montgomery died of heart failure at his desert home in Rancho Mirage, Calif., on Dec. 12, 2000. He was 84 years of age.
CLICK HERE to see the complete filmography of George Montgomery.
Rutherford Montgomery
(Deceased)
Rutherford George Montomery, author, wrote all kinds of things, ranging from Westerns to children's fiction and nonfiction as well as books about animals. He wrote some items under his name and others under such pen names as Everitt Proctor, Al Avery, E.P. Marshall and Art Elder.
Montgomery's book, The Stubborn One, won the "Best Juvenile Fiction" Spur from the WWA in 1965. He was the author of more than 100 books. He was a scriptwriter for Disney Studios, a job which resulted in such books as, Walt Disney Presents: Killers of the High County, by Rutherford Montgomery.
Rutherford Montgomery's other books included Troopers Three (1932), Call of the West (1933), Broken Fang (1935), Carcajou (1936), Yellow Eyes (1937), Gray Wolf (1938), High Country (1938), Timberline Tales (1939), Trail of the Buffalo (1939), Midnight (1940), Stan Ball of the Rangers (1941), Yankee Flier (9 books from 1941 to 1946 under the name of Al Avery), Ice Blink (1941), Hurricane Yank (1942), Thumbs Up (1942), Ghost Town Adventure (1942), Husky (1942), Dick Tracy and the Woo Woo Sisters (1943), War Hawk patrol (1944), Rough Riders Ho (1946), Mystery of the Turquoise Frog (1946), Mystery of the Crystal Canyon (1951), Hill Ranch (1951), Wapiti, the Elk (1952), Golden Stallion (8 vol. series from 1952-1967).
In addition, Rutherford Montgomery wrote McGonnigle's Lake (1953), White Mountaineer (1953), Sea Catch (1955), Black Powder Empire (1955), Amikuk (1955), Claim Jumpers of Marble Canyon (1956), Beaver Water (1956), Mountain Man (1957), Jets Away (1957), Posted Water (1957), Tom Pittman, U.S.A.F. (1957), White Tail (1958), The Silver Hills (1958), Kent Barstow, Special Agent (1958), Tim's Mountain (1959), Jet Navigator (1959), Missile Away (1959), King of the Castle (1960), Weetcha (1960), El Blanco (1960), Kent Barstow, Spaceman (1960), Odyssey of an Otter (1960), Cougar (1960), Klepty (1961), Sex Isn't Everything (1961), Snowman (1962), Capture of West Wind (1962), Monte, the Bear Who Became a Celebrity (1962), Kent Barstow, Commando Flight (1963), The Defiant Heart (1963), McNulty's Holiday (1963).
And Rutherford Montgomery's other titles include The Tracy Twins in Japan (1963), Kent Barstow on B-10 Mission (1964), Kent Barstow Aboard the Dinosaur (1964), The Living Wilderness (1964), The Stubborn One (1965), Crazy Kill Range (1965), Ghost Town Gold (1965), Dolphins as They Are (1966), Into the Groove (1966), Kinkajou on the Town (1967), Smoky Trail (1967), Pekan, the Shadow (1970), Big Red, A Stallion (1971), Rufus (1973). See Natlee Kenoyer's, "Rutherford Montgomery: A Remembrance," in The Roundup (Nov.-Dec., 1985, 28; with photo).
Rutherford George Montomery died in 1985.
This listing is far from complete and may contain errors. Therefore, all Western writers and/or their agents are requested to submit recommended changes by contacting Stan Paregien through his e-mail address.
Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellow man has fulfilled the law. The commandments, "Do not commit adultery," "Do not muerder," "Do not steal," "Do not covet," and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: "Love your neighbor as yourself." Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.
--- Bible: Romans 13:8-10
© 2003 by Stan Paregien, Sr.
