{"id":20555,"date":"2017-12-10T23:03:08","date_gmt":"2017-12-11T06:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/?p=20555"},"modified":"2017-12-10T23:03:08","modified_gmt":"2017-12-11T06:03:08","slug":"from-wolf-point-to-hollywood-montie-montana-wowed-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2017\/12\/from-wolf-point-to-hollywood-montie-montana-wowed-them\/","title":{"rendered":"From Wolf Point to Hollywood, Montie Montana wowed them"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Lasso\"<\/a>

Chuck Anderson collection<\/p>

At President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s inauguration parade in 1953, Montie Montana lassoed the president on the reviewing stand. It remained his best-known stunt. That’s Vice President Richard Nixon near the pillar on the right.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cWolf Point is not the biggest town in the state of Montana,\u201d the July 1975 issue of Western Horseman said,\u201d but it\u2019s famous beyond its size.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOne reason is that it\u2019s the home of the Wild Horse Stampede, Montana\u2019s oldest rodeo,” the article went on. “The other is that it has a native son named Owen Harlan Mickel, who grew up as Montie Montana.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite his nickname, Mickel liked to joke about his inability to pinpoint precisely where he was born. While it could have been Canada, or possibly North Dakota, he eventually settled on and celebrated the notion that it was someplace in Eastern Montana, around Wolf Point.<\/p>\n

Owen\u2019s father, Edgar Owen Mickel, was a roving preacher who galloped to churches in Montana and Canada on horseback. According to Owen\u2019s memoirs, the cowboys had a nickname for such poor wandering pastors \u2014 sky pilots. His father also herded and sold wild horses and entertained at rodeos and fairs while his mother, Mary Edna Harlan Mickel, and grandfather (also a \u201csky pilot\u201d) performed \u201cwhipcracker acts\u201d at the many shindigs the family frequented in their travels.<\/p>\n

Born on June 21, 1910, Owen was their fifth child, and he was raised predominantly around Wolf Point and Miles City, engrossed in watching his father gather and sell wild horses and ramble the rodeo circuit with \u201crope tricks and lantern slides.\u201d At age 6, he watched a man whirling a rope, so he started practicing with a few of his friends.\u00a0 While his buddies moved on to other amusements, Owen kept twirling that rope.<\/p>\n

His father taught him \u201cthe ins and outs of roping,\u201d and he would exhaust hours practicing in front of the Liberty Theater \u2014 \u201cthe only building around that was high enough to shield the rope from the winds that raked the town,\u201d according to Owen. Eventually he worked his way \u201cinside the theater, sweeping the floors, learning show business,\u201d as he said, \u201cfrom the bottom up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"CapreAir_Variable\"<\/a><\/div><\/div>According to Owen, \u201cA rope was in my hand all the time; at home, at school, everywhere. I roped anything that moved; chickens, dogs, cats and kids. I rode in the saddle with dad when I was three days old. When I was four years of age I rode a trick horse into the arena at the Portland rodeo. I really stole the show by going right off over that horse\u2019s head.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the age of 15, he earned $15 (though some articles claim that it was only $5) performing as a trick roper at the Miles City Fourth of July rodeo. Riding on his horse Rex, Owen came into a Miles City arena on July 4, 1925, for his first professional paid performance. It was there he was christened with his stage name. As he rode into the arena the announcer, as the story goes, could not recall his name and simply proclaimed, \u201cHere\u2019s Montie from Montana, the Montana Kid.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMontie Montana\u201d started to appear at venues, parades and events across the West as a trick roper and also trick rider, another exciting form of entertainment. He wandered out to California in 1929 and began his film career as a roper, rider, stunt double and actor.<\/p>\n

“Times were tough, and Hollywood was where the money was,\u201d he bluntly told The New York Times in 1994.<\/p>\n

The true-life cowboy lent his skill and intrepidness to the newly expanding medium of film. He never panned out as a top-billed Western star, but in 1935 he did earn the lead role in the B-Western \u201cCircle of Death.\u201d Montie Montana, however, worked with a good number of luminaries and appeared in several of the day\u2019s classic movies, including \u00a0\u201cThe Man Who Shot Liberty Valance,\u201d a 1962 film version of the novel written by Whitefish author Dorothy Johnson, and \u201cTwo Rode Together,\u201d and \u201cCheyenne Autumn.\u201d All three films were directed by John Ford.<\/p>\n

He appeared as a minor actor or stunt rider in at least 19 films starring, among others, Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Jimmy Stewart, Tom Mix, Clark Gable, Bob Hope, John Wayne, Frank Sinatra, Ken Maynard, Judy Garland, Shirley Temple, and fellow Montana native George Montgomery. Cowboy star Rogers once called Montie \u201cthe greatest trick roper of his time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Montie began his appearances in the annual Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, Calif., in 1932, adopting a glittery cream-colored, rhinestone-studded fashion that dazzled rodeo and parade watchers countrywide. \u00a0But perhaps his most famous exploit came during President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s inauguration parade in 1953.<\/p>\n

One of his most popular tricks was to lasso an unknowing member of his audience when he was performing.\u00a0 Montie either asked the president\u2019s permission first or Eisenhower agreed to the stunt on the spot (two differing versions of the tale exist). However it happened, Montie rode up to the presidential reviewing stand and tossed a lasso around the standing Eisenhower.<\/p>\n

Montie recalled in his memoirs that afterwards a Secret Service man told him, \u201cif they hadn\u2019t heard the President giving him permission to rope him he would have been a sieve.\u201d\u00a0 The photo with Montie\u2019s rope wrapped around Eisenhower was on front pages of newspapers nationwide. (The photo above was taken a moment before the one that showed Eisenhower fully lassoed.)<\/p>\n

Among other stunts, Montie took his horse, Poncho Rex, to the roof of the Empire State Building to let him get a look at the New York City skyline. He later roped then- California Gov. Ronald Reagan, a former colleague from Hollywood.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince your boyhood on a Montana ranch,\u201d Reagan affectionately said in the late 1960s, \u201cyou have demonstrated the skill and independent spirit that embodies the Western tradition that we love.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Stampede\"<\/a>

Chuck Anderson collection<\/p>

Montie Montana at the Calgary Stampede in 1941.<\/p><\/div>\n

In August 1964, Montie visited the Foster Frontier Photo Gallery in Miles City and was given a photograph of his father, grandfather and grandmother taken in Miles City about 1923. His father was 11 years old at the time. The photo shows the group standing by a Model T truck with a big covered van on the back. On the sides of the van is a mural of Montana scenery and the words \u201cPioneer Days\u201d emblazoned across the top. The picture was taken by R.C. Morrison, Miles City photographer and sign-maker who also painted the truck.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d rather have this than an Oscar,\u201d Montie told the Billings Gazette. \u201cI have never seen this picture before.\u201d<\/p>\n

He told Film Comment magazine that he especially enjoyed working with John Wayne.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 1975, when Wolf Point was going to honor my 50th year in show business, the town was going to fly in some of the western stars. \u2026 And the Indian council came to me and said, \u2018We don\u2019t like that you\u2019ve invited Wayne. In the movies, John Wayne kills Indians.’ I said to them, \u2018Wayne may chase Indians in the movies, but he employs more of them than anyone else in Hollywood. They may chase each other across the screen, but afterwards, they all sit down and eat lunch together.’\u201d<\/p>\n

In 1985, a reporter from the Los Angeles Daily News visited with Montie at his home in Agua Dulce, Calif. The reporter noted that in the yard to the left of his farmhouse was “a bell that once stood on the grounds of the Indian mission in Wolf Point, Mont.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was a kid,\u201d Montie said, \u201cI remember hearing that bell ring.\u201d<\/p>\n

In that same interview, Montie fretted about \u201cthe future of children raised without western heroes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a shame,\u201d he said. \u201cThere don\u2019t seem to be any heroes for them to look up to except for a few athletes, and they\u2019ve been coming up bad. Rudd Weatherwax used to live across the street; he owned Lassie, and we used to take Lassie out and do benefit shows. Kids are so impressionable, and the old shows and cowboy movies taught them a western way of life. Taught them to be clean-living and honest and kind to animals and happy and good. We never drank or smoked where kids could see us. Today they say worse things on TV than we did around the back of the barn. Today it seems all they have is \u2018Star Wars.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Montie proudly plugged Montana wherever he went and he said more than once in interviews that he considered Wolf Point his home.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the home of the real cowboys,\u201d he said while visiting Billings in 1975. \u201cNone of the rest of the states can touch Montana for that. I\u2019ve seen them all and they don\u2019t stack up to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

His sentiment was frequently reciprocated: in 1975, Gov. Thomas Judge proclaimed July 10 through 13 \u201cMontie Montana Week.\u201d Gov. Ted Schwinden once said of him:\u00a0 “Montie, you represent what Montana is all about; a Western spirit, a love of life and an appreciation for pure entertainment. I can\u2019t think of anyone who has done more to spread goodwill than you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Similar to Roy Rogers, Montie tirelessly toured schools and children\u2019s hospitals. He doled out laughter and gauged his success in smiles. He stayed fit and active to the end. He rode in his 60th and final Rose Parade in 1994 at age 83 and put on roping and riding shows for 72 years, his last one at the famed Pendleton Roundup in Oregon in 1997.<\/p>\n

Owen Harlan Mickel died 0n May 20, 1998, at Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital, in Valencia, Calif., following complications from a series of strokes. His funeral at Oakwood Memorial Park in Chatsworth, Calif., included many rodeo notables, actors and stuntmen.<\/p>\n

Montie\u2019s rose-covered coffin arrived on a horse-drawn wagon serenaded by a group performing his buddy Roy Rogers\u2019 signature song, \u201cHappy Trails.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cWolf Point is not the biggest town in the state of Montana,\u201d the July 1975 issue of Western Horseman said,\u201d but it\u2019s famous beyond its size.\u201d \u201cOne reason is that it\u2019s the home of the Wild Horse Stampede, Montana\u2019s oldest rodeo,” the article went on. “The other is that it has a native son named […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":20556,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,16],"tags":[6539,6538,6540,6541,6537,2397],"class_list":["post-20555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-diversions","category-montana","tag-doroth-johnson","tag-dwight-eisenhower","tag-john-ford","tag-john-wayne","tag-montie-montana","tag-wolf-point","prominence-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20555"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20555\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20565,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20555\/revisions\/20565"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}