Features
Mugging human mugs
There are times when a man with an ugly mug doesn’t mind having that mug mugged by a camera. For one thing, it may depend upon what kind of money or other good returns that may come his way after the camera shutter clicks its last exposure. This possibly would result in whether he was a victor or a victim of his film-recorded image.
Rumbling through a batch of papers and mail of eras long past accidentally brought to life an episode that occurred some 70 years ago in Tampa, Fla. Full memories of the situation are long forgotten, but two resurfaced letters from the late film actor Rondo Hatton of Tampa arose at least one point — and that was the occasion that prompted Hatton’s letter to me from Beverly Hills, Calif.
Time and memory loss defeat a full, accurate account of how I and my buddy companion, Bobby McInnis, saw, met, or knew Rondo Hatton. My memory account is that I knew him before we left Tampa for a return trip in the mid-30s to our hometown Wauchula, about 75 miles southeast of Tampa.
Hatton was a star running back on the Hillsborough High School Terriers football team, after which he was working as a reporter with the Tampa Morning Tribune. At that time, while a student in high school, I was a sports correspondent for the Tribune during football season, and on a couple of occasions visited the Tribune’s newsroom. It could well have been that Bobby McInnis and I were in the newsroom there at the time we met Hatton ... but that is only a guess.
In my weekly column, “Monkey Chatter,” in the Florida Advocate, I described Rondo Hatton “as the ugliest person I had ever seen.” Much later, with the situation long forgotten, I received a postmarked letter from Beverly Hills, Calif., dated April, 1938, at 5:30 p.m., with the word “Personal” handwritten very visibly on the envelope. I immediately was mentally lost on whom the writer could have been. Opening the envelope and pulling out a sheet of paper with handwritten text, I cast my eyes on the signature of the sender. It was signed Rondo Hatton.
That brought immediate expectation of being fully taken to task for personally identifying this unknown man as “the ugliest.”
Surprisingly, his letter was one of thanks and even welcomed more comments, the often and usual appeal of motion picture figures in public response to their performances. This normally would get and/or keep their name before the movie producers who checked their actors’ hit list.
Hatton’s letter began with the causal salutation, “Dear Mark,” with the following body text: “As one newspaper fellow to another, thanks for letting me ‘crash’ your column ‘Monkey Chatter,’ copy of which, April 15, our mutual friend, Russell Kay, (secretary of Florida Press Association) forwarded me.
“Only regret of mine is that on that day you and Bobby McInnis were over in Tampa we didn’t get together and swap the usual newspaper “chronicles.”
“Mark, still plugging along trying to get established in this movie business, so keep your fingers crossed for me. Would be glad to have a line from you when you have a moment. Again, all thanks and all success and good wishes.”
His letter was signed, “Sincerely, Rondo Hatton, c/o Director, Henry King, 20th Century Fox Studio, Beverly Hills, Calif.” He apparently didn’t do badly as history records he appeared in about 25 B-rated movies, most of them in the horror class.
He later sent me an 8x10 photo made on scene with a cast of some of the male actors in “In Old Chicago.” It pictured him amassed in a group with such stars as Tyrone Power, Don Ameche and Andy Devine. Both Hatton and Power autographed the photo, each dating 1938 along with their signature.
A following column of “Monkey Chatter” in the Advocate recalled Hatton’s letter. And in the aftermath, another letter was received from Hatton, dated Oct. 4, from the Los Angeles, Calif., Arcade Annex.
One paragraph in the second letter was somewhat surprising. It dealt with a friend of mine in the “big city” radio classification. Rondo wrote: “One thing that story you ran on me did. It put me in touch again with my old friend, Bud Rainey of Wauchula. Bud is up at Hartford. Conn, doing mighty well in radio broadcasting over station WTIC in that city. You can imagine how tickled I was to hear from him again as we are old friends.”
What occurred to almost completely revamp the face of Rondo Hatton, who at one time was voted the handsomest boy in his high school class? Internet’s Wikipedia attributes it to German gas during a WWI battle, which eventually resulted in Rondo’s brutish facial features, the result of slowly progressive acromegaly, a disorder of the pituitary gland. He died of a heart attack Feb. 2, 1946.
- Features
-
-
From success to significance
Many children dream of becoming doctors, lawyers, firefighters, astronauts or movie stars. As an 8-year-old growing up in Dalton in the 1950s, David Johnson was no different. Donning a white doctor’s coat and helping others topped his list of goals.
Continued ... - 'Have joy! Dawn'
- First Friday Festival kickoff, Gallery Hop and open house at the Guild
- Consumer Q’s
- 'Birdie' set for Aug. 5 opening
-
