Montie Montana, Star of Movies and Parades, Dies

Montie Montana, the cowboy roping star who appeared in western films with Tom Mix and John Wayne but was more familiar to younger fans for his showy appearances astride a silver-saddled pinto in Pasadena Rose Parades, died Wednesday. He was 87.

Montana, a beloved icon of the Southern California that still fancied itself horse country even as it became increasingly urbanized, died at Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital in the Santa Clarita Valley. His son, Montie Montana Jr., of Springville, Calif., attributed the death to complications after a series of strokes and said the veteran entertainer had been hospitalized since March.

The only cowboy star to lasso a president, Montana roped President Dwight D. Eisenhower--with the chief executive’s agreement--during Ike’s 1953 inaugural parade in Washington. The president’s protectors were not amused.

“I was lucky the Secret Service didn’t ventilate me,” Montana told The Times in 1994 when he appeared in the 60th Rose Parade. The historic lasso used to rope Eisenhower was included in a 1989 Tournament of Roses time capsule.

From the stage or horseback along a parade route, one of Montana’s favorite tricks was to lasso some unsuspecting member of his audience. Fans loved it.

Montana trained his own string of pintos, successively named Rex, at his ranches in Northridge and later Agua Dulce.

He was among the real-life cowboys who gravitated to Hollywood in the 1920s and 1930s to demonstrate and teach their riding and roping skills in the movies.

“Times were tough, and Hollywood was where the money was,” he told The Times in 1994.

Montana started making films with former rodeo champion-turned-stunt-director Yakima Canutt. In addition to Mix and Wayne, Montana appeared with Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, Joel McCrea, Buck Jones, Ken Maynard and William Boyd.

Among Montana’s films were “Circle of Death” in 1935, “Riders of the Deadline” in 1943, “Down Dakota Way” in 1949, “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence” in 1962 and “Arizona Bushwhackers” in 1968.

Among the performers he coached in roping were Shirley Temple and 39 other girls for the 1934 musical “Stand Up and Cheer.”

Born Owen Harlan Mickel to a poor itinerant preacher and a mother who performed a whip-crack act, the future star grew up in Wolf Point, Mont., and began practicing rope tricks as a child. At the age of 15, he earned $15 performing at the Miles City, Mont., Fourth of July rodeo.

It was there he acquired his pseudonym. The announcer couldn’t remember the young boy’s name, so introduced him simply as, “Montie, the Montana Kid.” The kid decided to keep the name, although unsure if his actual birthplace was Montana or North Dakota.

Montana adopted a glittery style that dazzled rodeo and parade watchers across the country. In Pasadena on New Year’s Day, he traditionally wore a cream-colored shirt with rhinestone-studded roses on the front and red, white and blue sequins forming two American flags on the back.

“They always told me if I didn’t have talent, I should wear a fancy shirt and ride a fast horse,” he once said.

Fellow cowboy star Gene Autry said Wednesday upon learning of Montana’s death, “I was proud to call Montie Montana my friend. He was a fine cowboy, a good man and undoubtedly the greatest trick roper of his time.”

Cheryl Rogers-Barnett, the daughter of Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, said her parents had worked with Montana for 60 years and were greatly saddened by his decline and death.

She was one of about 8 million Southern Californians who first met Montana when he performed rope tricks in their schools, and remembered watching him “wide-eyed.”

In addition to his son, he is survived by his second wife, Marilee; a daughter, Linda Montana of Northridge; a stepdaughter, Trudy Johnston of Palm Springs; a stepson, Russell Young of Ely, Nev., six grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

Funeral services will be Tuesday at Pioneer Church at Oakwood Cemetery in Chatsworth.