Cowboys and Singers
RELATED LISTS:
Silent Era: 40 favorite pets_
https://www.imdb.com/list/ls086385337/
A Silent Westerns Selection_
https://www.imdb.com/list/ls025649522/
Silent Era: 40 favorite pets_
https://www.imdb.com/list/ls086385337/
A Silent Westerns Selection_
https://www.imdb.com/list/ls025649522/
List activity
1.8K views
• 0 this weekCreate a new list
List your movie, TV & celebrity picks.
53 people
- Music Artist
- Actor
- Producer
After high school Gene Autry worked as a laborer for the St. Louis and San Francisco Railroad in Oklahoma. Next he was a telegrapher. In 1928 he began singing on a local radio station, and three years later he had his own show and was making his first recordings. Three years after that he made his film debut in Ken Maynard's In Old Santa Fe (1934) and starred in a 13-part serial the following year for Mascot Pictures, The Phantom Empire (1935). The next year he signed a contract with Republic Pictures and began making westerns. Autry--for better or worse--pretty much ushered in the era of the "singing cowboy" westerns of the 1930s and 1940s (in spite of the presence in his oaters of automobiles, radios and airplanes). These films often grossed ten times their average $50,000 production costs. During World War II he enlisted in the US Army and was assigned as a flight officer from 1942-46 with the Air Transport Command. After his military service he returned to making movies, this time with Columbia Pictures, and finally with his own company, Flying A Productions, which, during the 1950s, produced his TV series The Gene Autry Show (1950), The Adventures of Champion (1955), and Annie Oakley (1954). He wrote over 200 songs. A savvy businessman, he retired from acting in the early 1960s and became a multi-millionaire from his investments in hotels, real estate, radio stations and the California Angels professional baseball team.- Music Artist
- Actor
- Writer
Born in Houston, Texas on August 21, 1938, Grammy-winning singer, songwriter, actor, record producer and entrepreneur Kenneth Ray Rogers was the fourth of eight children born to a carpenter father who worked in a shipyard and a mother who was a hospital nurse's assistant. Of humble Irish and Native American heritage, the boy grew up in the poorer section of Houston, but would become the first member of his family to graduate from high school.
Kenny took an early interest in singing and, as a teenager, joined a doo-wop recording group called "The Scholars". The group recorded the song "Poor Little Doggie," and Kenny, age 19, recorded his first solo song, "That Crazy Feeling," for a small Houston label, Carlton Records, and his career was off and running. He subsequently joined the "New Christy Minstrels" 1966 as a singer and double bass/bass guitar player, then splintered off with others from the popular folk music group a year later to form the rock group "The First Edition," an eclectic-styled rock band whose repertoire included rock and roll, R&B, folk and country.
The First Edition's first Billboard hit, "Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)" (1968) was a psychedelic rock song which peaked at #5, and was followed by the more popular soft-rock hit "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town" (1969) which hit #6 on the US charts and made them a star attraction. Other successes would include "Reuben James" (1969, #26), "Something's Burning" (1970, #11) and "Tell It All Brother" (1970, #17). By this time, the dark-haired, husky-framed, ear-pierced singer's ingratiating personality and sensual gravel tones, affectionately dubbed "Hippie Kenny," had taken center stage and the group changed their name to "Kenny Rogers and the First Edition" in 1969. The First Edition enjoyed worldwide success, appeared on such popular shows as "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour," had featured roles in the TV movie The Dream Makers (1975) and went on to host the syndicated TV variety series Rollin' on the River (1971).
Sadly, the pressures of taping a weekly show caused extreme friction within the group and eventually took its toll. After a couple more years of producing songs that couldn't reach the "Top 20," the group decided to disband in 1976 and, inevitable as it was, Kenny went solo. It didn't take long before he started chalking up a string of country-tinged 'Top 20' pop hits with "Lucille" (#5), "Don't Fall in Love With a Dreamer" (#4, with Kim Carnes), "Through the Years" (#13), "We've Got Tonight" (#6, with Sheena Easton) and his two #1 hit sellers "Islands in the Stream" (with Dolly Parton) and "Lady." By the late 1970s, the (now) silver fox had sold over $100 million worth of records. He also made popular hit duets with both country female stars (Parton and Dottie West) as well as the distaff pop elite (Kim Carnes and Sheena Easton).
Into the 1980's Kenny began to feel a downswing in his singing career. After charting lower and lower, he wisely branched off into other successful areas. In 1980, he touched off a modest, lightweight, but highly appealing acting career starting with the Southern-styled TV-movie The Gambler (1980), based on his #1 1979 Grammy-winning song hit. The feature had Kenny starring as poker-playing card shark Brady Hawkes, who attempts to unite with a son he never knew. This led to four equally popular sequels -- Kenny Rogers as The Gambler: The Adventure Continues (1983), Kenny Rogers as The Gambler, Part III: The Legend Continues (1987), The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw (1991) and Gambler V: Playing for Keeps (1994). Two other old-fashioned western TV movies followed. The first was also based on a hit Kenny Rogers song, Coward of the County (1981), (Country, #3) in which he played a town preacher who tries to mentor his young "cowardly" nephew. The second, Wild Horses (1985), had him starring as a has-been rodeo champion looking for personal fulfillment herding wild mustangs.
Kenny also tried to parlay his popularity as a major country singer into a conservative film career. There would only be one starring role. In Six Pack (1982), Kenny stars as a race car driver who tangles with six roughhouse orphans. Instead, he was back to TV-movies where he went on to appear as himself in two TV country-flavored biopics -- Big Dreams & Broken Hearts: The Dottie West Story (1995) and Get to the Heart: The Barbara Mandrell Story (1997). He also put out the folksy yuletide offering Christmas in America (1990) which had his real-life son Kenneth Rogers co-starring in a father-son strained relationship; and the western Rio Diablo (1993) in which he he essays the role of a nice-guy bounty hunter assisting a revengeful groom country singer Travis Tritt in a search for of kidnapped bride. Another then-reigning country star, Naomi Judd, was featured as a colorful madam.
In addition to a few acting appearances on TV with "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman," "Touched by an Angel" and "How I Met Your Mother," Kenny also became a perennial star or guest of TV specials and seasonal events over the years, including Kenny Rogers and the First Edition: Rollin' on the River (1971), A Christmas Special... With Love, Mac Davis (1979), Kenny Rogers Live in Concert (1983), Kenny & Dolly: A Christmas to Remember (1984), Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton Together (1985), Kenny, Dolly and Willie: Something Inside So Strong (1989), Kenny Rogers Going Home (1995), Live by Request: Kenny Rogers (1999) and Consequence (2007). He also hosted two TV documentary series: The Real West (1992) and High Point Casinos of the World (2003).
In addition, Kenny published several books on photography and opened a rotisserie-chicken fast-food franchise (Kenny Rogers Roasters). Less and less visible in the ensuing years, Kenny produced the 1999 album "She Rides Wild Horses", which peaked at #6 on the country charts, his highest in 15 years, and included the #1 single "Buy Me a Rose."
Spending much of his free time over the years breeding Arabian horses and cattle on a 1,200-acre Georgia farm, Kenny's seemed to settle with his fifth wife Wanda Miller, whom he married in 1997. He had five children altogether and his namesake, son, Kenneth Rogers, left acting and briefly launched his own singing career in 1989 with "Take Another Step Closer". He now is on the business end of entertainment providing music for TV and movies.
Kenny made one last concert tour, "The Gambler's Last Deal," in 2015 and it was running worldwide, with visits including Australia, Scotland, Ireland, England, The Netherlands and Switzerland, as well as the U.S., until his health, plagued by bouts of bladder cancer and hepatitis C, failed him and he was forced to retire in 2018. The 81-year-old legend died on March 20, 2020, under hospice care at his home in Sandy Springs, Georgia.- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Roy Rogers (born Leonard Slye) moved to California in 1930, aged 18. He played in such musical groups as The Hollywood Hillbillies, Rocky Mountaineers, Texas Outlaws, and his own group, the International Cowboys. In 1934 he formed a group with Bob Nolan called Sons of the Pioneers. While in that group he was known as Leonard Slye, then Dick Weston. Their songs included "Cool Water" and "Tumbling Tumbleweeds". They first appeared in the western Rhythm on the Range (1936), starring Bing Crosby and Martha Raye. In 1936 he appeared as a bandit opposite Gene Autry in "The Old Coral". In 1937 Rogers went solo from "The Sons Of The Pioneeres", and made his first starring film in 1938, Under Western Stars (1938). He made almost 100 films. The Roy Rogers Show (1951) ran on NBC from October 1951 through 1957 and on CBS from 1961 to September 1964. In 1955, 67 of his feature films were released to television.- Actor
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Tex Ritter was born on 12 January 1905 in Murvaul, Texas, USA. He was an actor, known for Song of the Gringo (1936), High Noon (1952) and Varsity Blues (1999). He was married to Dorothy Fay. He died on 2 January 1974 in Nashville, Tennessee, USA.- Actor
- Music Department
- Composer
Smiley worked on a local radio station and in Vaudeville after high school. Always interested in music, he was friends with Gene Autry and worked with him on the radio show "The National Barn Dance". When Westerns became a big draw with sound, the studios were always on the lookout for singing cowboys. In 1934, both Gene and Smiley made their debuts in In Old Santa Fe (1934). Smiley became well known as Gene's plump sidekick Frog Milhouse, and they worked together in over 80 Westerns. After Gene, Smiley provided the comic relief for other cowboy stars at Republic such as Sunset Carson and Charles Starrett (The Durango Kid). He also provided a lot of the music as he wrote over 300 western songs and sang quite a few in the films. Smiley was the first supporting actor to regularly appear on the Top Ten Western money-maker list. He became well known for his white horse with the black circle around one eye. When he used a team of white horses, as when he was 'Spec Specialist' Smiley Burnette, each white horse had one black circle around one eye. When the 'B' movie Western reign ended in 1953, Smiley retired from the screen. He made occasional appearances on television including being a regular on the music show "Ozark Jubilee (1959)". His last performance was as railroad engineer Charlie Pratt on Petticoat Junction (1963) from 1963-67.- Music Artist
- Actor
- Producer
Martin was born Dino Paul Crocetti in Steubenville, Ohio, to Gaetano Alfonso "Guy" Crocetti, an Italian immigrant and barber, and his Ohio-born wife, Angela (Barra) Crocetti. He spoke only Italian until age five. Martin came up the hard way, with such jobs as a boxer ("Kid Crochet"), a steel mill worker, a gas station worker and a casino croupier/dealer. In 1946, Martin got his first ticket to stardom, as he teamed up with another hard worker who was also trying to succeed in Hollywood: Jerry Lewis. Films such as At War with the Army (1950) sent the team toward super-stardom. The duo were to become one of Hollywood's truly great teams. They lasted 11 years together, and starred in 16 movies. They were unstoppable, but personality conflicts broke up the team. Even without Lewis, Martin was a true superstar.
Few thought that Martin would go on to achieve solo success, but he did, winning critical acclaim for his role in The Young Lions (1958) with Marlon Brando and Montgomery Clift, and Some Came Running (1958), with Shirley MacLaine and Frank Sinatra. Movies such as Rio Bravo (1959) brought him international fame. One of his best remembered films is in Ocean's Eleven (1960), in which he played Sam Harmon alongside the other members of the legendary Rat Pack: Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Joey Bishop and Peter Lawford. Martin proved potent at the box office through the 1960s, with films such as Bells Are Ringing (1960) and Robin and the 7 Hoods (1964), again with Rat Pack pals Sammy Davis Jr. and Sinatra. During much of the 1960s and 1970s, his film persona of a boozing playboy prompted a series of films as secret agent Matt Helm and his own television variety show. Airport (1970) followed, featuring Martin as a pilot. He played a phony priest in The Cannonball Run (1981).
In 1965, Martin explored a new method for entertaining his fans: Television. That year he hosted one of the most successful TV series in history: The Dean Martin Show (1965), which lasted until 1973. In 1965, it won a Golden Globe Award. In 1973, he renamed it "The Dean Martin Comedy Hour", and from 1974 to 1984 it was renamed again, this time "The Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts". It became one of the most successful TV series in history, skewering such greats as Bob Hope, Frank Sinatra, Lucille Ball, James Stewart, George Burns, Milton Berle, Don Rickles, Phyllis Diller, and Joe Namath.
His last public role was a return to the stage, for a cross-country concert tour with Davis and Sinatra. He spoke affectionately of his fellow Rat Packers. "The satisfaction that I get out of working with these two bums is that we have more laughs than the audience has", Martin said. After the 1980s, Martin took it easy until his son, Dean Paul Martin, was killed in a plane crash in March 1987.
Devastated by the loss, from which he never recovered, he walked out on a reunion tour with Sinatra and Davis. Martin spent his final years in solitude, out of the public light. A heavy smoker most of his life, Martin died on Christmas Day 1995 at age 78 from complications to lung cancer.- Actor
- Music Department
- Producer
Ricky Nelson was born on May 8, 1940 in Teaneck, New Jersey, USA as Eric Hilliard Nelson. He was an actor, known for The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet (1952) and Rio Bravo (1959). He was married to Kristin Harmon. He died on December 31, 1985 in De Kalb, Texas, USA.- Actor
- Art Department
- Soundtrack
The only career Nelson Eddy ever considered was singing. His parents, Isabel (Kendrick) and William Darius Eddy, were singers, his grandparents were musicians. Unable to afford a teacher, he learned by imitating opera recordings. At age 14 he worked as a telephone operator in a Philadelphia iron foundry. He sold newspaper advertising and performed in amateur musicals. Dr. Edouard Lippe coached him and loaned him the money to study in Dresden and Paris. He gave his first concert recital in 1928 in Philadelphia. In 1933 he did 18 encores for an audience that included an assistant to MGM studio chief Louis B. Mayer, who signed him to a seven-year contract. After MGM acting lessons and initial trials, his first real success came as the Yankee scout to Jeanette MacDonald's French princess in Naughty Marietta (1935), a huge box-office success made on a small budget. Eddy and MacDonald were paired twice more (Rose-Marie (1936), Maytime (1937)) when metropolitan Opera star Grace Moore was unavailable; they became an institution. Their last work together was in 1942. Critics nearly always panned his acting. He did have a large radio following (his theme song: "Short'nin Bread"). In 1959 Eddy and MacDonald issued a recording of their movie hits which sold well. In 1953 he had a fairly successful nightclub routine with Gale Sherwood which ran until his death in 1967. He and his wife Anne Denitz had no children.- Actor
- Soundtrack
An All-American halfback while attending the University of Alabama, Johnny Mack Brown chose the silver screen over the green grass of the football field when he graduated. Signed to a contract with MGM in 1926, Brown debuted in Slide, Kelly, Slide (1927) with William Haines in a film about - baseball. This was followed by The Bugle Call (1927), which starred the fading Jackie Coogan. In 1928 he appeared in the last Norma Shearer silent film, A Lady of Chance (1928). After that, he worked with Greta Garbo, Marion Davies and Mary Pickford. His muscular good looks only carried him so far in films, however, and by 1930 he had yet to find his place. At MGM Clark Gable was taking the roles that Brown was up for, so he went into a western for director King Vidor, Billy the Kid (1930). While Vidor did not want him for the part to begin with, the picture was successful; however, Brown's career at MGM soon ended. By 1933 he was still making westerns, but they were for low-rung studios like Mascot. More westerns at even lower-rung Supreme Pictures followed, as well as serials like Wild West Days (1937) at Universal. In 1943 Brown took his boots over to Monogram Pictures, where he made over 60 westerns. He started off as "Nevada Jack McKenzie" in the Rough Riders series, but the name soon changed to Johnny. As with most of the early cowboy stars, he was a hero to millions of young children and consistently among the top ten money-makers in westerns from 1942-50. The bubble burst, though, just as it did for Allan Lane, in 1953, as the days of the "B" western came to an end.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Albert Gordon MacRae was born on March 12, 1921, in East Orange, NJ. During his early years, he resided in Syracuse, NY, and, while in high school, spent much of his time singing and acting in the Drama Club. It was also during this time that he learned to play the piano, clarinet and the saxophone. At 19, he entered a singing contest and won a two-week engagement at The World's Fair in New York, performing with the Harry James and Les Brown bands. In 1940, while working in New York City as a page, he was "discovered" and hired to sing for the Horace Heidt Band. After a two-year stint, he joined the Army Air Corps and worked as a navigator for the next two years. He made his Broadway debut in a show called "Junior Miss", as a replacement in the role of "Tommy Arbuckle". Next, he appeared, again on Broadway, in Ray Bolger's 1946 revue, "Three To Make Ready". It was here that he was spotted by Capitol Records and signed to a long-term recording contract in 1947. He stayed with the label for more than 20 years. In October 1948, on ABC, he starred on the radio show "The Railroad Hour". The show moved to NBC in October 1949 and continued until June of 1954. It presented operettas and musical dramatizations, all starring Gordon and many different leading ladies. Also in 1948, he was signed to a seven-year contract with Warner Brothers Pictures and, soon after, made his film debut in the non-musical, The Big Punch (1948), opposite Lois Maxwell (well-known later as "Miss Moneypenny" in the James Bond films). What followed was a string of hit musicals, starting with Look for the Silver Lining (1949), in which MacRae had a featured role opposite June Haver and Ray Bolger, and five fondly remembered films with Doris Day, beginning with Tea for Two (1950). Perhaps his two best and well-known films were two of his last: Oklahoma! (1955) and Carousel (1956), both written by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II and both opposite screen newcomer Shirley Jones. MacRae began to suffer, in the late 1950s and early 1960s, from bouts of heavy drinking and, by his own admission, developed into an alcoholic. He revealed that he had been "picked up for drunk driving" during the filming of "Carousel". He conquered the disease in the 1970s and went on to counsel other alcoholics. He continued recording and performing on dozens of television shows. He and his wife, Sheila MacRae, appeared together frequently and even released an album together. His daughters, Meredith MacRae and Heather MacRae, acted in films and on TV. On September 22, 1974, he appeared as a sheriff on an episode of McCloud (1970), starring Dennis Weaver, entitled "The Barefoot Girls of Bleeker Street". His final film came in 1979, a fine dramatic role in The Pilot (1980), which starred Cliff Robertson. He suffered a stroke in 1982. He continued on with the support of his second wife, Elizabeth, and his five children. This brilliant performer continued to tour, when his health would permit, allowing audiences to relive some of his biggest film hits. On January 24, 1986, Gordon MacRae died at the age of 64, at his home in Lincoln, NE, of pneumonia, the result of complications from cancer of the mouth and jaw.- Actor
- Music Department
- Composer
American singer-songwriter who appeared in a number of low-budget Westerns, but was most renowned as the leader of the singing group, The Sons of the Pioneers. The son of an Army officer, Nolan attended the University of Arizona after his father retired to that state. He studied music and poetry in college, then drifted around the country writing songs. He took a lifeguard job in Los Angeles in 1929, then joined Tim Spencer and Leonard Slye (the future Roy Rogers) in a singing group called "The Rocky Mountaineers". The group evolved into "The Pioneer Trio" and then The Sons of the Pioneers. When Rogers left the group to become a singing cowboy in Westerns, Nolan became the de facto leader of "The Sons of Pioneers". The group became very popular on radio, due not only to its innovative western harmonizing, but also to the numerous songs Nolan composed for the group. Several of them, including "Tumbling Tumbleweeds" and "Cool Water", became not only standards but classics of the style. The Sons of the Pioneers appeared in many B-Westerns, often performing in musical numbers, but just as often playing sidekicks to the stars, particularly Rogers. Nolan left the group in 1949 and concentrated on writing songs. He continued to record with the group, intermittently, through the 1950s. In 1979, he recorded his last album, "The Sound of a Pioneer". It was his first recording in nearly two decades. A friendly but introverted man who liked to keep to himself, Nolan had the looks, the charm, and the voice to compete with Rogers for stardom in musical Westerns, but chose rather to remain on the screen periphery as the amiable friend of the hero, devoting his energies to writing and singing some of the most memorable songs of the era. Nolan died in 1980.- Actor
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Ray Whitley was born on 5 December 1901 in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. He was an actor, known for Sleepless in Seattle (1993), Giant (1956) and Land of the Open Range (1942). He was married to Catherine Kay Johnson. He died on 21 February 1979 in Mexico.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Eddie Dean made his name as a country-western singer on radio in the '30s. He journeyed to Hollywood to make it in western movies, debuting in Manhattan Love Song (1934), but he could only land bit parts in features and musical shorts. His career started to take off in the early 1940s, though, and by 1945 he was among the more popular of the cowboy stars. However, several factors weighed against him rising much further: his stolid, somewhat dour screen personality, the fact that he was under contract to low-rent PRC (later Eagle-Lion) Pictures--whose shoddiness was legendary and whose westerns were not particularly popular among aficionados--and the unfortunate fact that the singing cowboy craze had pretty much run its course by the time he came along. His career can be summed up in a review of one of his films by the "New York Times": "Instead of the usual black and white, Eddie Dean's newest western has been shot in Cinecolor, but it's not an improvement; you can still see him."- Actor
- Music Department
- Composer
Composer, songwriter ("Mickey Mouse March"), actor, singer, guitarist and conductor, Jimmie Dodd was educated at the University of Cincinnati, the Cincinnati Conservatory and Vanderbilt University. He began his career in 1933 as a guitarist and singer on radio, coming to Hollywood in 1937 to play in the Louis Prima orchestra and later become an actor. In World War II he toured the Aleutians and the China-Burma-India area for the USO with wife Ruth Carrell Dodd. He was active in television beginning in 1952 and won the MC role on the new The Mickey Mouse Club (1955) series in 1955. He left the series in 1959, beginning a tour of Australia that lasted in 1960. He also led his own dance group. Joining ASCAP in 1946, his chief musical collaborators included his wife Ruth and George Wyle and John Jacob Loeb. His other popular-song compositions include "He Was There", "Encyclopedia", "I Love Girls", "Lonely Guitar", "Mamie", "Nashville Blues", "I'm No Fool", "Rosemary", "Be a Good Guest", "Amarillo", "Hi to You", "Proverbs", "Washington" (official song of the District of Columbia), "Meet Me in Monterey" (for the Monterey Centennial), and "A Bird Is Singin' the Blues".- Actor
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Johnny Bond was born on 1 June 1915 in Enville, Oklahoma, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Big Daddy (1999), Gallant Bess (1946) and Infamous (2006). He was married to Dorothy. He died on 12 June 1978 in Burbank, California, USA.- Actor
- Music Department
- Writer
Rex Allen started out as a singer in vaudeville, and sang on numerous radio shows before hooking up with a traveling rodeo show. He signed with Republic Pictures and became a popular singing cowboy, and was often paired with sidekick Slim Pickens. He starred in his own western TV series, Frontier Doctor (1956) and in the 1960s was the narrator on many nature documentaries for Walt Disney.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Newill, one of Hollywood's largely unsung singing cowboys, began his career as a tenor with the Los Angeles Light Opera company in the early 30's. By the middle of the decade, he fronted the microphone as a vocalist with various society orchestras, including those of Gus Arnheim, Phil Harris and Eddy Duchin. He was briefly on air with the Burns & Allen radio show (broadcast by CBS) and also had a spell in vaudeville. In 1937, he was spotted by one of the myriad of talent scouts roaming the state and so commenced on the Hollywood western trail. His first port of call was Poverty Row outfit Grand National, a studio which inaugurated filming the popular boys adventure yarn Renfrew of the Royal Mounted. After the initial two instalments, Newill appeared as the titular hero in another five (with ever-declining production values) for Monogram. He was briefly on loan-outs to Fox and RKO between 1941 and 1942 and made Decca recordings with the Victor Young Orchestra. He then popped up as Texas Ranger Jim Steele in 14 episodic low-budget westerns for bottom-of-the-drawer company PRC. In between filming, he and co-star Dave O'Brien also tried their hand at goat farming. In 1944, Newill was replaced by Tex Ritter and left the range (and screen acting) for greener pastures on the New York stage. In the 1950's and 60's, he undertook a variety of occupations: operating a sawmill, disk-jockeying for a classical radio station, running a kiddies ride business and even trying his hand (without much financial success) at making fiberglass speedboats. He retired in 1971.- Actor
- Soundtrack
He was one of filmdom's last dying breed of crooning cowpokes following WWII. Jimmy Wakely had many talents (singing, songwriting, guitar-playing) and performed in many venues (radio, film, TV, rodeos, clubs) over his career. He began life in Mineola, Arkansas in 1914, but was raised in Depression-era Oklahoma. He started off simply as a farmer but his musical talents could not be denied. Eventually he created the vocal trio "The Bell Boys" along with Johnny Bond and entertained in local hot spots while cutting studio recordings. Country western lore has it that a happenstance meeting with Gene Autry while the star was touring in Oklahoma led to the vocal group high-tailing it to California and performing on his Melody Ranch radio program at CBS. The boys eventually settled in California and made their musical film debut in the Roy Rogers Republic western Saga of Death Valley (1939). Wakely's group ended up a staple on Autry's radio show as well, but Jimmy left within a couple of years to focus on films and a recording contract with Decca Records. He and his group appeared in two Hopalong Cassidy films in 1941, Twilight on the Trail (1941), and Stick to Your Guns (1941) and within the films they sang memorable songs such as Lonesome Guitar, Blue Moon on the Silver Sage, Lady O Lay, and My Kind of Country. He would become known for perfecting the hillbilly style with such classic songs as "Cimarron (Roll On)" (his first big hit), "I'm Sending You Red Roses," ""One Has My Name (The Other Has My Heart)," "Beautiful Brown Eyes," "Too Late" and "I'll Never Let You Go."
Over an extended period of time Jimmy's country trio would warble for a number of top westerns stars in their film vehicles. Known vicariously during their film stay as "Jimmy Wakely and his Rough Riders," "The Jimmy Wakely Trio," "Jimmy Wakely and his Saddle Pals" and "Jimmy Wakely and His Oklahoma Boys," the popular Dick Reinhart and Scotty Harrel often completed the trio along with Wakely and Bond. The boys traveled from studio to studio fine-tuning an assembly line of westerns for such established stars as Don 'Red' Barry, Johnny Mack Brown, Tex Ritter and Charles Starrett, among others.
Thanks to the meteoric successes of Gene Autry and Roy Rogers, the various studios were competitively grooming top country singers into film icons. "Poverty Row"-level Monogram Pictures exec Scott R. Dunlap managed to snag the slim, laidback, good-looking Jimmy as their own representative. For the next five years, the dark-haired singer would star in over two dozen oaters, his character heroes usually taking on his own name -- Jimmy Wakely. Dubbed the Bing Crosby of C&W, his stay at Monogram went considerably well though certainly not up to par with the success of the afore-mentioned.
Wakely's first Monogram vehicle was Song of the Range (1944), and he rode off into the sunset five years later with Lawless Code (1949). In between he smooth-sang a lot of tunes and was outfitted with a variety of different sidekicks, notably 'Lee "Lasses" White' and Dub Taylor. Though he took a distant ranking compared to others of his ilk, he proved to be a fine commodity for the fledgling studio. His lasting power was curtailed, however, by the demise of the singing cowboy (and eventually "B" westerns in general).
Following his heyday and into the 1950s, Jimmy continued writing songs and singing on stage. He remained a sturdy name on the rodeo circuit and in country western clubs. As a recording artist he charted a few country hits and was one of the few singers to cross over to the mainstream. In 1952, he became the star of "The Jimmy Wakely Show" for CBS radio and briefly alternated hosting duties on ABC-TV's Five Star Jubilee (1961) with Snooky Lanson, Carl Smith, Rex Allen and old film pal Tex Ritter. He eventually developed his own record company called Shasta Records in the 1960s and 1970s and owned two music publishing companies. Converting part of his California homestead into a recording studio, he made commercial records for other country western artists as well. Two of his children, Linda Lee and Johnny, showed singing talents and occasionally joined him on the performing stage. Long wed to wife Inez (since 1936) who became his business manager, they had two other daughters, Carol and Deanna. Jimmy developed emphysema in later years and died in California of heart failure in 1982.- Actor
- Composer
- Soundtrack
American character actor primarily of Western "sidekick" roles. Born John Forest Knight in Fairmont, West Virginia, Knight joined a traveling minstrel show as a musician at age 15. He attended The University of West Virginia as a law student, supporting himself as the drummer in his own band. Finding music more rewarding, he left school and played on the vaudeville and cabaret circuits. He appeared in Earl Carroll's Vanities of 1927 and on Broadway as a musical performer in "Here's Howe" and "Ned Wayburn's Gambols." He also played drums for the Irving Aaronson and George Olsen big bands. He appeared in a few short films for MGM and Paramount from 1928 to 1931, performing his "Little Piano" act. Mae West saw Knight in vaudeville and championed him for her film She Done Him Wrong (1933) and gave him his first substantive film role. His comic style and the soft voice which had given him his nickname stood him in good stead in movies, and he appeared in nearly 200 films over the next thirty years. His singing was a memorable part of the films The Trail of the Lonesome Pine (1936) and The Shepherd of the Hills (1941), but it was as a Western sidekick that he gained his greatest fame. He played the comic pal of Johnny Mack Brown and other cowboy heroes in scores of Westerns, and was listed among the Top Ten Money-Making Western Stars in 1940. In the 1950s, he gained new audiences with his sidekick role on Buster Crabbe's TV series Captain Gallant of the Foreign Legion (1955). He retired in 1960, but continued to make occasional appearances. He died in his sleep at the Motion Picture Country Home and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California at 74, survived by his wife, actress Patricia Ryan (née Thelma de Long). He is buried in an unmarked grave next to the grave of comedian Maxie Rosenbloom at Valhalla Memorial Park in Burbank, California.- Actor
- Writer
- Soundtrack
American character actor, the most famous of Western-movie sidekicks of the 1930s and 1940s. He was born May 7, 1885, the third of seven children, in the Hayes Hotel (owned by his father) in the tiny hamlet of Stannards, New York, on the outskirts of Wellsville, New York. Hayes was the son of hotelier and oil-production manager Clark Hayes, and grew up in Stannards. As a young man, George Hayes worked in a circus and played semi-pro baseball while a teenager. He ran away from home at 17, in 1902, and joined a touring stock company. He married Olive Ireland in 1914 and the pair became quite successful on the vaudeville circuit. Retired in his 40s, he lost much of his money in the 1929 stock market crash and was forced to return to work. Although he had made his film debut in a single appearance prior to the crash, it was not until his wife convinced him to move to California and he met producer Trem Carr that he began working steadily in the medium. He played scores of roles in Westerns and non-Westerns alike, finally in the mid-1930s settling in to an almost exclusively Western career. He gained fame as Hopalong Cassidy's sidekick Windy Halliday in many films between 1936-39. Leaving the Cassidy films in a salary dispute, he was legally precluded from using the "Windy" nickname, and so took on the sobriquet "Gabby", and was so billed from about 1940. One of the few sidekicks to land on the annual list of Top Ten Western Boxoffice Stars, he did so repeatedly. In his early films, he alternated between whiskered comic-relief sidekicks and clean-shaven bad guys, but by the later 1930s, he worked almost exclusively as a Western sidekick to stars such as John Wayne, Roy Rogers, and Randolph Scott. After his last film, in 1950, he starred as the host of a network television show devoted to stories of the Old West for children, The Gabby Hayes Show (1950). Offstage an elegant and well-appointed connoisseur and man-about-town, Hayes devoted the final years of his life to his investments. He died of cardiovascular disease in Burbank, California, on February 9, 1969.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Howard Keel was the Errol Flynn and Clark Gable of "golden age" movie musicals back in the 1950s. With a barrel-chested swagger and cocky, confident air, the 6'4" brawny baritone Keel had MGM's loveliest songbirds swooning helplessly for over a decade in what were some of the finest musical films ever produced.
Born Harry (or Harold) Clifford Keel in Gillespie, Illinois, in 1919 to Homer Charles Keel and Grace (Osterkamp) Keel, and the brother of Frederick William Keel, his childhood was unhappy, his father being a hard-drinking coal miner and his mother a stern, repressed Methodist homemaker. When Keel was 11 his father died, and the family moved to California. He later earned his living as a car mechanic, then found work during WWII at Douglas Aircraft in Los Angeles. His naturally untrained voice was discovered by the staff of his aircraft company and soon he was performing at various entertainments for the company's clients. He was inspired to sing professionally one day while attending a Hollywood Bowl concert, and quickly advanced through the musical ranks from singing waiter to music festival contest winner to guest recitalist.
Oscar Hammerstein II discovered Keel in 1946 during John Raitt's understudy auditions for the role of Billy Bigelow in Broadway's popular musical "Carousel." He was cast on sight and the die was cast. Keel managed to understudy Alfred Drake as Curly in "Oklahoma!" as well, and in 1947 took over the rustic lead in the London production, earning great success. British audiences took to the charismatic singer and he remained there as a concert singer while making a non-singing film debut in the British crime drama The Hideout (1948) (aka "The Small Voice"). MGM was looking for an answer to Warner Bros.' Gordon MacRae when they came upon Keel in England. They made a great pitch for him and he returned to the US, changing his stage moniker to Howard Keel. He became a star with his very first musical, playing sharpshooter Frank Butler opposite brassy Betty Hutton's Annie Oakley in the film version of the Broadway musical Annie Get Your Gun (1950). From then on Keel was showcased in several of MGM's biggest extravaganzas, with Show Boat (1951), Calamity Jane (1953), Kiss Me Kate (1953) and (reportedly his favorite) Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954) at the top of the list. Kismet (1955) opposite Ann Blyth would be his last, as the passion for movie musicals ran its course.
Keel managed to move into rugged (if routine) action fare, appearing in such 1960s films as Armored Command (1961), Waco (1966), Red Tomahawk (1967) and The War Wagon (1967), the last one starring John Wayne and featuring Keel as a wisecracking Indian, of all things. In the 1970s Keel kept his singing voice alive by returning full force to his musical roots. Some of his summer stock and touring productions, which included "Camelot," "South Pacific", "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers", "Man of La Mancha", and "Show Boat", often reunited him with his former MGM leading ladies, including Kathryn Grayson and Jane Powell. He also worked up a Las Vegas nightclub act with Grayson in the 1970s.
Keel became an unexpected TV household name when he replaced Jim Davis as the upstanding family patriarch of the nighttime soap drama Dallas (1978) after Davis' untimely death. As Clayton Farlow, Miss Ellie's second husband, he enjoyed a decade of steady work. In later years he continued to appear in concerts. As a result of this renewed fame on TV, Keel landed his first solo recording contract with "And I Love You So" in 1983. Married three times, he died in 2004 of colon cancer, survived immediately by his third wife, three daughters and one son.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Band singer and light leading man who graduated to leads in a series of B-Westerns. John King was born Miller McLeod Everson to Ernest and Ruth Brumfield Everson on 11 July 1909 in Cincinnati, Ohio. He attended the University of Cincinnati. Following his schooling, he held many jobs for short periods of time, stoking at a grain elevator, selling furniture, lumberjacking, inspecting meat, and bookkeeping. At 23, he was hired as an announcer by WCKY radio in nearby Covington, Kentucky. Within a year he was hosting a musical variety show and singing on WKRC in Cincinnati. He was then hired as a vocalist with Ben Bernie's band and went to Hollywood with the band to make an appearance in Stolen Harmony (1935). He stayed in the film capital and began to get small parts in pictures, occasionally singing. After appearing in a supporting role in one serial, King was signed by Universal for several roles and landed the lead in another serial, Ace Drummond (1936). He continued to appear in a variety of roles for Universal for the next four years. He then signed for one of the trio of leads in a Monogram Western, The Range Busters (1940), playing a character named Dusty. He continued playing Dusty for another 18 films in the series, billing himself now as John 'Dusty' King. He sang occasionally in the series, but was never a great threat to the leading singing cowboys of the period. The series ended in 1943 and King retired from the screen three years later. He opened a waffle restaurant in La Jolla, California, near San Diego, where he died in 1987, at 78, more than forty years after his last film.- Actor
- Stunts
- Additional Crew
Jack Kirk was born on 19 February 1895 in Nickerson, Kansas, USA. He was an actor, known for Zorro's Black Whip (1944), Stormy (1935) and The Topeka Terror (1945). He was married to Ethel Mason. He died on 13 September 1948 in Ketchikan, Alaska, USA.- Actor
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Considering the kind of scruffy, backwoods, uneducated, Deep-South hillbilly types he played, many people would be surprised to hear that Ken Curtis wasn't actually born in the south but in the small town of Las Animas, Colorado, the son of the town sheriff. They would probably be even more surprised to learn that he began his show business career as a singer in the big-band era, and was a vocalist in the legendary Tommy Dorsey orchestra. He entered films in the late 1940s at the tail-end of the singing-cowboy period in a series of low-budget Westerns for Columbia Pictures. When that genre died out, Curtis turned to straight dramatic and comedy parts and became a regular in the films of director John Ford (who was his father-in-law). Curtis branched out into film production in the 1950s with two extremely low-budget monster films, The Killer Shrews (1959) and The Giant Gila Monster (1959), but he is best known for his long-running role as Festus Hagen, the scruffy, cantankerous deputy in the long-running TV series Gunsmoke (1955).- Actor
- Producer
- Additional Crew
A "B" Hollywood leading man who had the requisite tall, dark and handsome features (plus an excellent singing voice) that Hollywood often relied upon, Robert Paige was an extremely capable player worthy of stronger dramatics but was too often trapped in staid and standard leading man roles that prevented him from showcasing properly and moving squarely into the "A" romantic ranks. Born John Arthur Paige on December 21, 1910 in Indiana to English parents, Robert attended West Point but eventually left the Academy and moved to the Los Angeles area to focus on an entertainment career. Initially an usher for the Fox West Coast Theatres, he started using the moniker David Carlyle while singing on a Long Beach radio station and moved into announcing work at radio station KMTR in Hollywood.
He entered short films in 1931 and progressed to feature status within a few years. A studio scout had the hopeful player screen-tested at Columbia, and he was put under contract. In the course of his career he was also a studio player for Warner Bros., Paramount and, more notably, Universal. His first prime second-lead role occurred crooning to Marion Davies in Cain and Mabel (1936). He went on to give a solid performance (still as David Carlyle) in Smart Blonde (1937), which introduced the "Torchy Blane" series, and finally top-lined his own romantic comedy Meet the Boy Friend (1937) opposite Carol Hughes.
In 1938 he returned to his given last name and billed himself as Robert Paige. There he fronted such standard programmers as Highway Patrol (1938), The Main Event (1938) and the serial cliffhanger Flying G-Men (1939). Over at Paramount things went about the same, continuing consistently but without a lot of fanfare, in such films as Emergency Squad (1940) Women Without Names (1940), Golden Gloves (1940) and The Monster and the Girl (1941). He earned his first singing lead with the mini-musical Dancing on a Dime (1940) in which he and co-star Grace McDonald sang the title song. The musical introduced the songs of Burton Lane and Frank Loesser, including "Mañana" (which Peggy Lee later made a signature hit) and the certified hit "I Hear Music."
Paige had his big chance at stardom at Universal in Can't Help Singing (1944) in which he sang "Californ-i-ay" in a duet with the studio's reigning warbler Deanna Durbin. The Gable-esque, often mustachioed baritone co-starred in other Universal musicals where he had plenty of opportunities to display his rich voice such as Hellzapoppin' (1941), Pardon My Sarong (1942), What's Cookin' (1942) and How's About It? (1943) but too often his listless romantic roles were overshadowed by the zany antics of the comic headliners (Abbott & Costello, The Ritz Brothers), the swinging harmonies and steps of The Andrews Sisters, guest musical artists, or the sheer magnetism of his lady co-star such as Durbin and Frances Langford. He fared better in rugged adventures, sprightly comedies, crime yarns and horror opuses, including Son of Dracula (1943) with Lon Chaney Jr. and Fired Wife (1943) with frequent co-star Louise Allbritton.
From 1946 on Paige freelanced. While on tour to promote the movie The Red Stallion (1947), Paige met oil millionaire Glenn McCarthy, who financed the picture The Green Promise (1949) in which Paige produced and starred. By the early 50s, he abandoned films for the most part and sought out TV roles. His well-modulated voice was ideal for hosting/emcee duties and went on to include Bride and Groom (1951) and The Big Payoff (1951) with former "Miss America" Bess Myerson, among his jobs. His last two roles on films were minor bits in The Marriage-Go-Round (1961) and Bye Bye Birdie (1963). From 1966 to 1970 he went full circle, returning to his radio roots as an ABC newscaster in Los Angeles. From there he moved into public relations. Married three times in all, the durable leading man died in 1987.- Actor
- Soundtrack
American B-Western star and singing cowboy Monte Hale was born Samuel Buren Ely in 1919 in Ada, Oklahoma, to Herod and Helen Ely. He learned to sing and play guitar at an early age. In Houston and later Galveston, Texas, he played for vaudeville shows and local rodeos. During World War II a job as a replacement guitar player with the Stars Over Texas War Bond Drive led to a friendship with several Republic Pictures stars and staff. At the completion of the tour, the Republic contingent recommended young Hale to studio president Herbert J. Yates. Hale went to California and met Yates, who saw promise in the tall, good-looking musician, and signed him to a seven-year contract, and promptly discarded his birth name for the more appealing name of Monte Hale. After a quick apprenticeship in a couple of bit parts, Hale was given the lead in Home on the Range (1946), which led to a five-year run as one of Republic's popular singing-cowboy stars.
Following the demise of the "B" western in the early 1950s, Hale toured the country as part of a musical cowboy act in rodeos and circuses. He made a few television guest appearances and taught James Dean his rope tricks during their work together on Giant (1956). Hale thereafter retired from films. In his later years, he wrote songs and continued making appearances at Western film fan conventions.- Actor
- Music Department
- Additional Crew
James T. 'Bud' Nelson was born on 28 January 1914 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for The Jolson Story (1946), Texas Panhandle (1945) and Outlaws of the Rockies (1945). He was married to Mary Josephine Penta. He died on 13 March 1994 in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.- Actor
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Frankie Marvin was born on 27 January 1904 in Butler, Indian Territory, USA [now Oklahoma, USA]. He was an actor, known for Gold Mine in the Sky (1938), Heart of the Rio Grande (1942) and Springtime in the Rockies (1937). He died on 18 January 1985 in Valencia, California, USA.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Began in show business as a radio singer. In the early 1930s he became one of the first singing screen cowboys. He starred in a series of musical westerns for Paramount, and another series for 20th Century Fox. In later years he was featured in supporting roles well into the 1950s.- Music Artist
- Actor
- Producer
George Harvey Strait Sr. is an American country music singer, songwriter, actor, and music producer. Strait's success began when his first single "Unwound" was a hit in 1981, signaling the arrival of the Neotraditional movement. During the 1980s, seven of his albums reached number one on the country charts. In the 2000s, Strait was named Artist of the Decade by the Academy of Country Music, elected into the Country Music Hall of Fame, and won his first Grammy award for the album Troubadour. Strait was named CMA Entertainer of the Year in 1989, 1990 and 2013, and ACM Entertainer of the Year in 1990 and 2014. He has been nominated for more CMA and ACM awards and has more wins in both categories than any other artist.- Actor
- Composer
- Music Department
Tim Spencer was born on 13 July 1908 in Webb City, Missouri, USA. He was an actor and composer, known for South of Santa Fe (1942), Sons of the Pioneers (1942) and Inferno (1999). He was married to Velma Blanton and Mable McKibben. He died on 26 April 1974 in Victorville, California, USA.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Lee 'Lasses' White was born on 28 August 1888 in Wills Point, Texas, USA. He was an actor, known for Mars Attacks! (1996), Song of the Range (1944) and Rainbow Over the Rockies (1947). He died on 16 December 1949 in Hollywood, California, USA.- Writer
- Actor
- Director
Former chorus boy who would become a star in "B" westerns, and later a successful comedy writer (under the name David Barclay) and TV director. O'Brien is notable as one of the relatively few success stories to emerge out of the drek of poverty row, where he blissfully worked for nearly a decade before landing work in the hypo-nasal Pete Smith's series of novelty shorts at MGM. In the mid-50's he gravitated toward comedy writing working on the Red Skelton Show, striking up a longtime friendship with series co-writer Sherwood Schwartz.- Actor
- Director
- Producer
A former college athlete at the University of Texas, Fess studied drama in the early fifties and debuted in Springfield Rifle (1952). He made only a handful of movies until he was signed by Walt Disney to star in the "Davy Crockett" series. When Walt was looking for an actor to play the part of Davy, he screened the sci-fi movie Them! (1954) with James Arness. When he saw Fess in a scene, he chose him over Arness and Fess became an instant celebrity when "Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier" debuted in 1955. His appeal with children was enormous with the coon-skinned hat, the #1 hit song "The Ballad Of Davy Crockett", The Davy Crockett Bubble Gum Cards and Comic Books. But the craze ended almost as fast as it started in 1956, and Fess was typecast. Fess appeared in other Disney movies dealing with the early years of Davey and also in non-Crockett parts such as Old Yeller (1957). By 1959, unable to achieve the success that he had gained as Crockett, his career had leveled off. He made guest appearances on a number of television shows, but his attempted return to television in the series Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1962) was not successful. Unable to procure the rights to play Crockett from Disney, Fess tried the frontiersman role once again with the TV series Daniel Boone (1964). He played this role for six years and the fact that he had a beautiful red-headed wife in a color series did not hurt him at all. After Daniel Boone (1964), Fess retired from the screen and went into real estate, which was profitable. He was later forced to sue his "Daniel Boone" producers over the profits generated by the series.- Actor
- Editor
- Soundtrack
American light leading man, primarily of Westerns, James Ellison was born James Ellison Smith in Guthrie Center, Iowa, in 1910. He grew up on a ranch in Valier, Montana, where he learned the skills that would stand him in good stead as a movie cowboy. His family moved to Los Angeles when he was a young man, and it was there that he first became interested in the theatre. He studied at the Pasadena Playhouse briefly, traveled to New York (and by some accounts played some minor roles in productions of the visiting Moscow Art Theatre, probably as a supernumerary), then returned to California where he was spotted by a Warner Bros. talent scout at a production of the Beverly Hills Theatre. He played a number of small parts for Warners and MGM before landing the plum part of Hopalong Cassidy's sidekick, "Johnny Nelson", in Paramount's wildly successful series. Ellison played Nelson in eight films between the years 1935 and 1937, also playing in other films in-between. Although he was a supporting player in the Hopalong films, his name was strangely billed in the same size and format as veteran actor and matinee idol William Boyd's. Although not confirmed, the reason for this oddity is thought to be because the character Johnny Nelson was very prominent in the Hopalong Cassidy book series. There were also rumors around Hollywood that Ellison was destined to become "the next Gary Cooper" - a prediction that would fall short, as Ellison never achieved stand-alone stardom. In 1936, just before his exit from the Hopalong Cassidy films, Ellison was plucked by Cecil B. DeMille for the role of Buffalo Bill Cody in De Mille's epic Western, The Plainsman (1936), opposite Gary Cooper. De Mille reportedly hated Ellison's performance and wanted to ensure that Ellison never had as good a part in quite as good a film ever again. In the late 1930s and 1940s, Ellison did follow up with quite a number of romantic leads in a wide variety of films, from musicals and light mysteries, with such co-stars as Maureen O'Hara (They Met in Argentina (1941)), Lucille Ball (Next Time I Marry (1938)), James Stewart and Ginger Rogers (Vivacious Lady (1938)) to the cult horror classic, I Walked with a Zombie (1943). In 1950, Ellison returned to westerns, this time as the lead (along with his Hopalong replacement and longtime friend Russell Hayden) in a series of 11 westerns featuring them as two frontier lawmen, Lucky (Hayden) and Shamrock (Ellison). Of all his roles, however, he is perhaps best remembered for being Hopalong Cassidy's first and most dominant sidekick. In the late 1950s, Ellison retired from movies and became a successful real estate broker. He died in 1993, as the result of a fall in which he broke his neck, at the age of 83. Ellison was married twice, first to Gertrude Durkin, whom he took as his wife in 1937. They had two children, Durk and Trudy. After Gertrude's death in 1970, Ellison married Lois Bretherton on June 25, 1972, and remained married to her until his death.- Actor
- Writer
- Soundtrack
American Western star and character actor whose career spanned six decades. The son of director Robert N. Bradbury, he appeared in vaudeville with his parents and with his twin brother Bill Bradbury appeared as a child in a series of 16 semi- documentary short films directed by their father, The Adventures of Bob and Bill. As Bob Bradbury Jr., he played juvenile roles in silent films, then took the stage name Bob Steele in 1927. He appeared in scores of films during the Thirties, rising to B-Western stardom and an apparently solid position as one of Republic Studios' top draws. Occasionally he made an appearance in more prominent films, as in his role as Curly in Of Mice and Men (1939). But he remained primarily a figure in Westerns. His stardom diminished by the mid-40s, and he spent the next quarter-century in character roles, some highly visible, such as his part in The Big Sleep (1946). But he also eventually turned up as a virtual extra in pictures like Shenandoah (1965). He appeared often on television and regained some fame in his role as Trooper Duffy in F Troop (1965). He died at St. Joseph's Hospital in Burbank, California, following a long illness.- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
Bob Livingston's father was a newspaper editor in Quincy, Illinois. As a reporter for the Los Angeles Daily News Bob did a story on the Pasadena Playhouse, and that got him interested in acting. In his mid-20s, he was doing bit parts for Universal and Fox and went from there to romantic roles with MGM. His first real success came with Republic, in 1936, as a masked hero in the serial The Vigilantes Are Coming (1936). That led to more cowboy roles and the leading role in the "Three Mesquiteer" series. He had more appearances (29) in that series than anyone else. He played other cowboy roles (Zorro in The Bold Caballero (1936)), worked with Al St. John in the "Lone Rider" Series (1941-43) and finished up in a number of character parts in Gene Autry and Roy Rogers movies.- Actor
- Soundtrack
While on the Darmouth College football team, Charles Starrett was hired to play a football extra in The Quarterback (1926). Impressed by the job, Starrett got the acting bug and next went into vaudeville, then regional stage work and finally to Broadway. Spotted by a Paramount talent scout, Starrett was signed to play the romantic lead in Fast and Loose (1930). For the next couple of years he would be busy, but his roles were unremarkable. In 1933 he would be one of the people who helped organize the Screen Actors Guild. In 1936 he would sign with Columbia and over the next 16 years star in 115 westerns. Appearing in as many films as he did, he was usually called "Steve" something - such was life on the "B" circuit. During the 1940s Starrett would always be among the top ten western stars. After playing assorted sheriffs and rangers, he would become well known for his role as the "Durango Kid". Never ask where he kept the white horse and the clothes, but he could change outfits and horses before the gun could clear the leather. The Durango Kid first appeared in 1940, and towards the end of his career he would play the Durango Kid in almost every film, even though he was starting to show his age. When the "B" movie westerns rode off into the sunset in the early 1950s, Starrett hung up his spurs for good.- Although Charles King played a variety of roles in silent films, and even made a series of comedy shorts for Universal in the 1920s, it was as a villain in sound westerns that King achieved his greatest fame. In the 1930s and 1940s his jowly face, beady eyes, Texas accent, droopy walrus mustache and overhanging beer belly became familiar to legions of fans of B westerns, especially those of rock-bottom PRC Pictures (it seemed like he showed up in every western PRC ever made), and you knew as soon as you saw him that he would meet his doom before the end of the last reel. Sometimes he was actually the head of the gang, but usually he was just a hired gun or, on even rarer occasions, "middle management". There's a line in Blazing Saddles (1974) where Gene Wilder says, "I've killed more men than Cecil B. DeMille"; it's doubtful that anyone has been killed more times in films than Charlie King. He's been shot, beaten up, run over, thrown off cliffs and blown up by the likes of John Wayne, Buster Crabbe, Buck Jones, Tim McCoy, and pretty much anyone who ever appeared in a movie with him--if he had been in a Shirley Temple picture, she would have found a way to bump him off.
After a memorable career as a punching bag, piñata and moving target for most of the actors in Hollywood, Charlie King finally hung up his spurs in 1957, and died of cirrhosis of the liver in May of that year. - Actor
- Composer
- Director
This velvet-toned jazz baritone and sometime actor was (and perhaps still is) virtually unknown to white audiences. Yet, back in the late 1930s and early 1940s, Herb Jeffries was very big...in black-cast films. Today he is respected and remembered as a pioneer who broke down rusted-shut racial doors in Hollywood and ultimately displayed a positive image as a black actor on celluloid.
The Detroit native was born Umberto Alejandro Ballentino on September 24, 1911 (some sources list 1914). His white Irish mother ran a rooming house, and his father, whom he never knew, was of mixed ancestry and bore Sicilian, Ethiopean, French, Italian and Moorish roots. Young Herb grew up in a mixed neighborhood without experiencing severe racism as a child. He showed definitive interest in singing during his formative teenage years and was often found hanging out with the Howard Buntz Orchestra at various Detroit ballrooms.
After moving to Chicago, he performed in various clubs. One of his first gigs was in a club allegedly owned by Al Capone. Erskine Tate signed the 19-year-old Herb to a contract with his Orchestra at the Savoy Dance Hall in Chicago. While there Herb was spotted by Earl 'Fatha' Hines, who hired him in 1931 for a number of appearances and recordings. It was during the band's excursions to the South that Jeffries first encountered blatant segregation. He left the Hines band in 1934 and eventually planted roots in Los Angeles after touring with Blanche Calloway's band. There he found employment as a vocalist and emcee at the popular Club Alabam. And then came Duke Ellington, staying with his outfit for ten years. Herb started his singing career out as a lyrical tenor, but, on the advice of Duke Ellington's longtime music arranger, Billy Strayhorn, he lowered his range.
The tall, debonair, mustachioed, blue-eyed, light-complexioned man who had a handsome, matinée-styled Latin look, was a suitable specimen for what was called "sepia movies" -- pictures that played only in ghetto and/or segregated theaters and were advertised with an all-black cast. Inspired by the success of Gene Autry, Herb made his debut as a crooning cowboy with Harlem on the Prairie (1937), which was considered the first black western following the inauguration of the talkies. Dark makeup was applied to his light skin and he almost never took off his white stetson which would have revealed naturally brown hair. A popular movie, Herb went on to sing his own songs (to either his prairie flower and/or horse) in both The Bronze Buckaroo (1939) and Harlem Rides the Range (1939). Outside the western venue, he starred in the crimer Two-Gun Man from Harlem (1938). As the whip-snapping, pistol-toting, melody-gushing Bronze Buckaroo, Jeffries finally offered a positive alternative to the demeaning stereotypes laid on black actors. Moreover, he refused to appear in "white" films in which he would have been forced to play in servile support.
In the midst of all this, Herb continued to impress as a singer and made hit records of the singles "In My Solitude", "I Got It Bad and That Ain't Good", "When I Write My Song", Duke Ellington's "Jump for Joy" and his signature song "Flamingo", which became a huge hit in 1941. Some of the songs he did miss out on which could have furthered his name, were "Love Letters" and "Native Boy". During the 1950s Herb worked constantly in Europe, especially in France, where he owned his own Parisian nightclub for a time. He also starred in the title film role of Calypso Joe (1957) co-starring Angie Dickinson and later appeared on episodes of "I Dream of Jeannie", "The Virginian" and "Hawaii Five-0".
Although he very well could have with his light skin tones, the man dubbed "Mr. Flamingo" never tried to pass himself off as white. He was proud of his heritage and always identified himself as black. In the mid-1990s, westerns returned in vogue and Herb recorded a "comeback album" ("The Bronze Buckaroo Rides Again") for Warner Western. During this pleasant career renaissance he has also been asked to lecture at colleges, headline concerts and record CDs. In 1999-2000, at age 88, he recorded the CD "The Duke and I", recreating songs he did with Duke. It also was a tribute honoring the great musician's 100th birthday.
His five marriages, including one to notorious exotic dancer Tempest Storm, produced five children. At age 90-plus, Herb "Flamingo" Jeffries, lived in the Palm Springs area with significant other (and later his fifth wife) Savannah Shippen, who is 45 years his junior, remaining one of the last of the original singing cowboys still alive (along with Monte Hale) until he finally passed away on May 25, 2014, having hit the century mark.
In 2003 he was inducted into the Cowboy Hall of Fame and was invited to sing for President Bush at the White House. He is also the last surviving member of The Great Duke Ellington Orchestra, and certainly deserves proper credit for his historic efforts in films and music.- Karel Fiala was born on 3 August 1925 in Hrusov, Ostrava, Czechoslovakia [now Czech Republic]. He was an actor, known for Amadeus (1984), Lemonade Joe (1964) and The Secret of Steel City (1979). He died on 3 October 2020 in Prague, Czech Republic.
- Actor
- Director
George Chesebro was an American character actor who, after a few leading roles in silent films, became an omnipresent bit player in "B" westerns. A native of Minneapolis, Minnesota, Chesebro became involved in traveling stock theater productions before the age of 20, and by 1911 was a seasoned performer. He played in a musical spectacular that toured Asia for two years, then returned to America and played in stock and vaudeville. Moving to Los Angeles in 1915, Chesebro began to supplement his vaudeville career with movie work and quickly began moving up the ladder of film success. World War I interrupted his work (sources differ as to whether he served in the US Navy or US Army). Following the war he resumed his movie career, starring in several popular serials. His popularity and the size of his roles waned during the 1920s, and with the arrival of talkies he was most often seen as heavies, henchmen and cops in a huge number of westerns and crime dramas, most of them low-budget. He became a fixture in "B" westerns, rarely billed but always familiar, and finished out his career in the 1950s with the demise of the B-Western. Occasional TV appearances marked his retirement, and he died in 1959, two months prior to his 71st birthday.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Frank Rice was born on 13 May 1892 in Muskegon, Michigan, USA. He was an actor, known for The Ridin' Kid from Powder River (1924), The Squaw Man (1931) and The Last Round-Up (1934). He was married to Louise Kaufman. He died on 9 January 1936 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actor
- Stunts
- Soundtrack
Kermit Maynard was born on 20 September 1897 in Vevay, Indiana, USA. He was an actor, known for The Fighting Texan (1937), Valley of Terror (1937) and Phantom Patrol (1936). He was married to Edith Jessen. He died on 16 January 1971 in North Hollywood, California, USA.- Actor
- Producer
- Stunts
Ray Corrigan was a physical culturist and very good athlete. He began working in Hollywood, as a physical fitness trainer for movie stars. Bit parts in 1932 led to action roles in the Undersea Kingdom (1936) and The Leathernecks Have Landed (1936), the same year he began his role as Tucson Smith in Republic Pictures' "Three Mesquiteer" series; he did 24 films in that series before leaving in 1939. He also did 20 of the 24 "Range Busters" series which ran from 1940 to 1943. In the latter part of his career he played apes in The White Gorilla (1945) and Killer Ape (1953) and the title character in the sci-fi classic It! The Terror from Beyond Space (1958). After he retired he operated a number of successful businesses. One of these, Corriganville, was a ranch and town used for filming TV and movie westerns. His nickname "Crash" derived from his powerful physique and willingness to undertake dangerous stunts.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Four years after appearing with Gene Autry on a national radio show in 1932 he went to Hollywood. By that time he Max was a skilled vaudevillian (magician, juggler, whistler, impressionist, card tricks). His specialty was ventriloquism. On the Orpheum Circuit his dummy was named Skully Null; he became Elmer Sneezeweed in the movies. His debut was in Ride, Ranger, Ride (1936) in 1936, the same year he took over the part of Lullaby in the "Three Mesquiteer" series. He played the part in 21 films, leaving in 1939. After that he did 24 "Range Buster" pictures, co-starred in Ken Maynard's last picture and co-starred eight times with Johnny Mack Brown. He played a doctor in Giant (1956). After leaving movies he continued to appear in television shows such as Ramar of the Jungle (1952). He died in Cottonwood, AZ.- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
Dale Robertson, the actor who made his name in television Westerns in the 1950s and '60s, was born on July 14, 1923, in Harrah, Oklahoma. After serving in a tank crew and in the combat engineers in North Africa and Europe during World War II, the twice-wounded Robertson started his acting career while still on active duty in the U.S. Army. While stationed at San Luis Obispo, California, had a photograph taken for his mother. A copy of the photo displayed in the photo shop window attracted movie scouts, and the six foot tall, 180-lb. Robertson soon was on his way to Hollywood. Will Rogers Jr., whose father is the most famous son of Oklahoma, told him to avoid formal training and keep his own persona. Robertson took his advice and avoided acting classes.
Robertson was typecast in Western movies and TV shows when the genre was still America's favorite. He headlined two TV series, Tales of Wells Fargo (1957), in which he played the roving trouble-shooter Jim Hardie, and Iron Horse (1966), in which he won a railway in a poker game. He also served as one of the hosts, along with Ronald Reagan, of the syndicated series Death Valley Days (1952) during the 1960s. Robertson later appeared in the inaugural season of Dynasty (1981).
Robertson is a recipient of the Golden Boot Award in 1985, and was inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers and the Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City. He is retired on a ranch near Oklahoma City, not far from his birthplace of Harrah.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Not much is known about the early life of darkly handsome "B" cowboy actor Tom Keene, who was born George Duryea on December 30, 1896, in Rochester, New York. However, he did arrive in Hollywood in the late 1920s after college studies at Columbia and Carnegie Tech and immediately made an impact as the leading man of the silent films The Godless Girl (1928), a Cecil B. DeMille picture opposite Lina Basquette, the social drama Marked Money (1928) and the MGM western Tide of Empire (1929) opposite Renée Adorée. Known for his sharp, pleasant looks and fitness, George continued in leads and seconds leads with such early talkies as the Sophie Tucker musical comedy Honky Tonk (1929) co-starring Lila Lee and the comedy romancer The Dude Wrangler (1930) with Ms. Basquette again.
In 1930, Tom found a strong above-the-title niche for several years as a cowboy hero of RKO "Poverty Row" westerns and given the more rugged marquee name of "Tom Keene." Such oaters include Pardon My Gun (1930), Sundown Trail (1931), Renegades of the West (1932), The Saddle Buster (1932), The Cheyenne Kid (1933), Cross Fire (1933) and Son of the Border (1933). Unlike other sagebrush stars of the time, such as Lash La Rue or William Boyd ("Hopalong Cassidy"), Tom's heroes took on different names and appearances -- wearing both black and white western outfits and hats -- and his characters were not two-fisted men by nature. As a result, he remained a second-string, less identifiable Western star for the duration of his career. He would also appear alongside or secondary to such other western stars such as Randolph Scott in Sunset Pass (1933) and Buster Crabbe in both Drift Fence (1936) and Desert Gold (1936)
Tom went on to star in several other "Poverty Row" western vehicles for not only Crescent Pictures Corporation (The Glory Trail (1936), Rebellion (1936), Old Louisiana (1937) (co-starring a very young Rita Hayworth), Battle of Greed (1937), Under Strange Flags (1937), Drums of Destiny (1937)), but for Monogram Pictures (God's Country and the Man (1937), Where Trails Divide (1937), The Painted Trail (1938), Wanderers of the West (1941), Western Mail (1942), Where Trails End (1942), Arizona Roundup (1942)).
The third, declining phase in Tom's film career occurred at this point. Changing his marquee name yet again to "Richard Powers," he pursued lesser roles in more quality non-westerns and even pursued stage work (Broadway's "The Barber Had Two Sons" in 1943) to help squelch the rugged stereotype, but it didn't work. Films during this period include Up in Arms (1944), the serial The Great Alaskan Mystery (1944), the Roy Rogers western Lights of Old Santa Fe (1944) (as a villain), San Quentin (1946), Dick Tracy's Dilemma (1947), Seven Keys to Baldpate (1947), Crossfire (1947), Berlin Express (1948), Red Planet Mars (1952), Dig That Uranium (1955), the cult "worst movie" classic Plan 9 from Outer Space (1957) and the Rowan & Martin comedy film Once Upon a Horse... (1958). 1950's TV appearances included "Sky King," "The Adventures of Superman," "Hopalong Cassidy," "General Electric Theatre," "The Abbott and Costello Show," "The Millionaire," a recurring role in Disney's "Corky and White Shadow" series (as Sheriff Martin), "Fury," "Casey Jones" and "Ozzie and Harriet."
Tom retired in 1958 and delved into real estate and insurance fields for the short remainder of his life. Dying of cancer on August 4, 1963, Tom was survived by his second wife, Florence Ramsey, and a stepson. He was formerly married to actress Grace Stafford, who also provided the cartoon voice of Woody Woodpecker.- Actor
- Soundtrack
- Actress
- Soundtrack
American leading lady of musical westerns of the 1940s. Born Frances Octavia Smith in Uvalde, Texas. She was raised in Texas and Arkansas. Married at 14 and a mother at 15, she was divorced at 17 (some sources say widowed). Intent on a singing career, she moved to Memphis, Tennessee, and worked in an insurance company while taking occasional radio singing jobs. After another unhappy marriage, she went to Louisville, Kentucky, and became a popular singer on a local radio station. There she took the stage name Dale Evans (from her third husband, Robert Dale Butts, and actress Madge Evans). Divorced in 1936, she moved to Dallas, Texas, and again found local success as a radio singer. She married Butts and they moved to Chicago, where she began to attract increasing attention from both radio audiences and film industry executives. She signed with Fox Pictures and made a few small film appearances, then was cast as leading lady to rising cowboy star Roy Rogers. She and Rogers clicked and she became his steady on-screen companion. In 1946, Rogers' wife died and Evans' marriage to Butts ended about the same time. Rogers and Evans had been close onscreen in a string of successful westerns, and now became close off-screen as well. A year later she married Rogers and the two become icons of American pop culture. Their marriage was dogged by tragedy, including the loss of three children before adulthood, but Evans was able not only to find inspiration in the midst of tragedy but to provide inspiration as well, authoring several books on her life and spiritual growth through difficulty. She and Rogers starred during the 1950s on the popular TV program bearing his name, and even after retirement continued to make occasional appearances and to run their Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Museum in Victorville, California. Following Dale's death, the Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Museum moved to Branson, Missouri.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Dorothy Page was born March 4, 1904, in Northampton, Pennsylvania. As a college student in Pennsylvania she was picked by the Curtis Publishing Co. to be a cover model for the "Saturday Evening Post". She married a medical student in 1925, and after he became a doctor they moved to Detroit, his hometown, to start his medical practice. The Depression hit the US in the 1930s, and many families needed extra income to survive, so Dorothy--who had majored in music in college--auditioned for a singing spot in the Paul Whiteman band. She got the job, and was soon singing with Whiteman's band on his NBC Radio show. She became quite popular with audiences. In 1935 she was a regular on the "Paducah Plantation" radio program of Irvin S. Cobb. That same year she was signed to a contract by Universal Pictures, which put her in a lower-budget musical with Ricardo Cortez called Manhattan Moon (1935), which clicked with audiences. Her next film, though, King Solomon of Broadway (1935), was less successful, and she was dropped by Universal.
A few years later she tried her luck in films again with a film for Republic Pictures, Mama Runs Wild (1937), a Charles Ruggles-Mary Boland comedy, but in this film Dorothy didn't sing, and the picture didn't do well critically or financially. However, "B" studio Grand National Pictures thought that Dorothy could save their studio, which was on the financial ropes due to the disastrous Something to Sing About (1937), a million-dollar James Cagney musical that flopped big-time and cost Grand National a fortune. The studio signed Dorothy for a series of medium-budgeted musical westerns, with the gimmick of her being a singing cowgirl. However, "medium budgeted" for Grand National was "very low budgeted" anywhere else, and the films--three in all--were not particularly successful, as audiences didn't take to the idea of a singing cowgirl the way they had to a singing cowboy. After the third film Grand National dropped the series, and Dorothy as well, and the studio soon went out of business. Dorothy retired from acting to devote her time to her family. Her first marriage having ended in a divorce, she remarried again in 1939, to an attorney, but he died of a heart attack in 1941. She soon remarried a third time, to a rancher in Fresno, California, and moved there to help him run his ranching business for many years. The 1950s were not good for her, however, Her marriage broke up and later she was diagnosed with cancer. She moved to Florida after the divorce to be nearer to the hospital where she was receiving treatment for her disease, but she succumbed to it in 1961.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Vivacious blue-eyed blonde Penny Edwards was born in New York City in 1928 and displayed signs of musical talent as a youth. She began studying dance by age six and, as a teen, appeared on Broadway in "The Ziegfeld Follies of 1943". After a couple of other musicals and a stint with the St. Louis Municipal Opera, she was signed by Warner Brothers in 1947. She showed great perk and promise as a second lead, singing and dancing opposite the likes of Dennis Morgan and Ben Blue in her film debut, My Wild Irish Rose (1947). She continued on winningly in the Shirley Temple vehicle That Hagen Girl (1947); then alongside Morgan again in Two Guys from Texas (1948); with Donald O'Connor and Marjorie Main in the rube musical Feudin', Fussin' and A-Fightin' (1948); and in another musical, Tucson (1949).
After a successful vaudeville tour, Penny was signed by Republic Pictures and started off in a series of "prairie flower" ingénue roles while temporarily replacing a pregnant Dale Evans in a number of Roy Rogers oaters. In 1951, she wed agent Ralph Winters and had two daughters: Deborah Winters (born 1954), who would go on to become an actress in her own right, and Rebecca (born 1956). After a succession of "B" movies, Penny left Hollywood to focus on religious work. She later reappeared on the more popular TV shows of the day, including the westerns Tales of Wells Fargo (1957), Wagon Train (1957) and Bonanza (1959), and in light-hearted entertainment alongside Robert Cummings and Red Skelton in their respective shows. Penny's lovely, ladylike features also made a significant dent in the commercial market, appearing as "The Lux Girl", "The Palmolive Girl" and "The Tiparillo Girl".
Following her divorce in 1958, Penny married Jerry Friedman and they had a son, David. That 1964 union would end up in the divorce courts as well. Penny retired from show biz completely by the mid-1960s and died, in 1998, of lung cancer, just two days after her 70th birthday.- Actress
- Producer
- Additional Crew
One of America's most loved actresses was born Doris Mary Kappelhoff on April 3, 1922, in Cincinnati, Ohio, to Alma Sophia (Welz), a housewife, and William Joseph Kappelhoff, a music teacher and choir master. Her grandparents were all German immigrants. She had two brothers, Richard, who died before she was born and Paul, a few years older.
Her parents divorced while she was still a child, and she lived with her mother. Like most little girls, Doris liked to dance. At fourteen, she formed a dance act with a boy, Jerry Doherty, and they won $500 in a local talent contest. She and Jerry took a brief trip to Hollywood to test the waters. They felt they could succeed, so she and Jerry returned to Cincinnati with the intention of packing and making a permanent move to Hollywood. Tragically, the night before she was to move to Hollywood, she was injured riding in a car hit by a train, ending the possibility of a dancing career.
It was a terrible setback, but after taking singing lessons she found a new vocation, and at age 17, she began touring with the Les Brown Band. She met trombonist Al Jorden, whom she married in 1941. Jorden was prone to violence and they divorced after two years, not long after the birth of their son Terry. In 1946, Doris married George Weidler, but this union lasted less than a year. Day's agent talked her into taking a screen test at Warner Bros. The executives there liked what they saw and signed her to a contract (her early credits are often confused with those of another actress named Doris Day, who appeared mainly in B westerns in the 1930s and 1940s).
Her first starring movie role was in Romance on the High Seas (1948). The next year, she made two more films, My Dream Is Yours (1949) and It's a Great Feeling (1949). Audiences took to her beauty, terrific singing voice and bubbly personality, and she turned in fine performances in the movies she made (in addition to several hit records). She made three films for Warner Bros. in 1950 and five more in 1951. In that year, she met and married Martin Melcher, who adopted her young son Terry, who later grew up to become Terry Melcher, a successful record producer.
In 1953, Doris starred in Calamity Jane (1953), which was a major hit, and several more followed: Lucky Me (1954), Love Me or Leave Me (1955), The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) and what is probably her best-known film, Pillow Talk (1959). She began to slow down her filmmaking pace in the 1960s, even though she started out the decade with a hit, Please Don't Eat the Daisies (1960).
In 1958, her brother Paul died. Around this time, her husband, who had also taken charge of her career, had made deals for her to star in films she didn't really care about, which led to a bout with exhaustion. The 1960s weren't to be a repeat of the previous busy decade. She didn't make as many films as she had in that decade, but the ones she did make were successful: Do Not Disturb (1965), The Glass Bottom Boat (1966), Where Were You When the Lights Went Out? (1968) and With Six You Get Eggroll (1968). Martin Melcher died in 1968, and Doris never made another film, but she had been signed by Melcher to do her own TV series, The Doris Day Show (1968). That show, like her movies, was successful, lasting until 1973. After her series went off the air, she made only occasional TV appearances.
By the time Martin Melcher died, Doris discovered she was millions of dollars in debt. She learned that Melcher had squandered virtually all of her considerable earnings, but she was eventually awarded $22 million by the courts in a case against a man that Melcher had unwisely let invest her money. She married for the fourth time in 1976 and since her divorce in 1980 has devoted her life to animals.
Doris was a passionate animal rights activist. She ran Doris Day Animal League in Carmel, California, which advocates homes and proper care of household pets.
Doris died on May 13, 2019, in Carmel Valley Village, California. She was 97.in Calamity Jane