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JaJa Thomas
Eng 452
Jon Lowis
Is Dick Contino For Real?
“What is truth,” asks Dick Contino repeatedly, quoted in interviews and articles featuring him. More to the point: what is the truth about Dick Contino. ... Did the dark character portrayed in James Ellroy’s crime fiction or any of the characters Dick played as a “cult B-movie star who swaggered through black and white films with hot busty blondes like Sandra Giles and Mamie Van Doren”1 contain truth about the real man?
Dick Contino was born January 17, 1930. ... Dick wasn’t ready for the dedication it took to learn the instrument well until he was 12, however, when he realized that he could express the feelings inside him through music, and the instrument he had available to him was the accordion. ... ”2 In 1946, During the Korean War, Dick competed on bandleader Horace Heidts "Youth Opportunity Talent Show." “Contino gyrated around while his fingers flew through "Lady of Spain," and won the nights show. ... 3 Colonel Tom Parker, future agent of Elvis Presley, and a friend of Dick’s at the time, always came to see his shows. Horace Heidts brother told Dick that this was partly what “inspired [Parker] to realize how that kind of movement affected teenagers,” and to make sure Presley was doing something similar in his concerts.
Dick went on to win the grand prize of the Heidt show: $5,000. ... ”
Then Dick got drafted. “I tried to look for a reason to get a deferment. ... Based on what, I don’t know…” Dick asked to see a psychologist. ... Dick panicked and tried to run to his uncle’s house in San Francisco, paranoid about any officials he saw being after him. ...
It all went wrong for Contino. ... ”
When Dick had served his sentence and was released, he was drafted again. ... " The guy says, "You play anything like Contino?" I said, "I am Contino. ... " Everyone was mad at him for using me…Well, I start partying, drinking and partying with all the guys, and the NCO guy, said "Dick, we’re having a party, will you play? ... " Contino became a favorite of the NCO guys and his commanding officer, and was therefore reassigned to travel around entertaining troops as part of the Special Forces in Korea. ... 1
When Contino was released from duty and went home, he was still treated as a draft-dodger by many and the great fame that had seemed so promising was diminished by this stigma. ...
Daddy-O, in which Dick had the biggest part of the four films he was in, was an American International Pictures release in which he played a truck driver who loses his license when caught drag racing a “feisty platinum blonde” who challenges him to a drag race through Griffith Park. ... It’s a movie in which Contino plays a rough man who’s willing to jump his car past police brigades in order to get where he wants. ... 1
In The Beat Generation, Contino gets a minor role as a singing beatnik. ... ”4
Girls’ Town, a flick about a girl who is blamed for a murder that she has an alibi for because of past trouble she’s made with the law, and is sent to a home for girls like that, run by nuns, where all kinds of other conflict ensues involving a singer (Contino) and the girl’s sister, among other characters.
Approximate Word count = 2582
Approximate Pages = 10.3
(250 words per page double spaced)
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