From my hometown…
This page highlights my hometown Marinette, Wisconsin, and its sister city, Menomonee, Michigan, directly across the river, and famous people from these towns who were known for their achievements in the arts and humanities.
By the way, I live in Milwaukee now, and a town nearby is Menomonee Falls, which is pronounced the same as Menominee but spelled, as you can see differently. Sometimes I mix the spellings up. Please forgive me, all you Maroons, if I do.
Mentioned on The Rifleman
Mark McCain certainly showed excitement when he saw Marinette out the train window. Mark and his father, Lucas, lived in New Mexico.
How did Marinette, a city in Wisconsin, end up in New Mexico? Or did it?
Why is Marinette mentioned on The Rifleman TV show?
This and other questions I will try to answer on this page.
Marinette’s most famous and forgotten photographer
This is Howell Conant, one of Marinette’s most famous former residents.
Conant photographed Presidents Kennedy and Nixon, and major Hollywood starts of that era. He was close friends with Grace Kelly and her husband Prince Rainier.
Here is Conant’s senior picture from the 1934 Marinette High School yearbook, the Whipurnette. He was also on the yearbook’s staff.
His portrait was taken by his father, who owned a photo studio at 1911 Hall Avenue.
Grace Kelly first met Howell Conant at a photo shoot in 1955. She was so impressed by his kind demeanor, other photographers were demanding and bossy, that she invited him to Jamacia to vacation with her and her sister. This started the lifelong bond between the two.
Shown is Conant’s iconic cover shot on Collier’s magazine. He photographed Kelly while in Jamacia. This shot and the photo spread with it became famous.
This was the first portrait of a Hollywood star published without the use of stylists and pancake makeup. The wet hair and minimal use of makeup applied by Kelly herself became known as “the natural look,” This look created by Conant greatly displayed his artistic talents.
Kelly trusted Conant while modeling for the photos. That trust can be seen in the volnerability shown on her face. Below are comments in the Whipurnette Yearbook about Conant’s personality in high school. This is what Kelly saw in him and the reason she trusted him and invited him into her personal life.
Grace Kelly: “Natural Glamour” Rising From The Sea – Deep Glamour (vpostrel.com)
Conant started his photography career apprenticing with his father in the family studio. He gained additional training from the military during WWII.
While in the navy, he put those talents to use for the war effort. He honed his skills when the navy assigned him to Life Magazine in New York for three months of training. The influence of the training at Life can be seen in his later works.
His brother Roger also served in the war. This article is about them.
From The Escanaba Daily Press.
Here is the book that Howell Conant published, Grace: An intimate portrait of Princess Grace by her friend and favorite photographer.
Conant was invited to Monaco in 1982 to take the official Christmas portrait of the royal family. Prior to his departure, Princess Grace died in a car accident. When hearing the news, Conant rushed to her family without his photographic equipment, which he left at home. Conant remained friends with Prince Rainier and the royal family until his death.
Life printed a hardcover book of Conant’s photos of Princess Grace after her death.
A book of the publicity shots taken by Conant of Audry Hepburn for the film Breakfast at Tiffany’s was also published.
The Stephenson Public Library in Conant’s hometown Marinette, Wisconsin, does not hold any of these books in its collections.
I was in the photo club at Marinette High School and never heard of Conant.
Three-time Academy Award winner John Hubley
On the right is John Hubley receiving his third Academy Award from actress Olivia de Havilland in 1967. Hubley’s wife Faith is on the left.
Hubley was born and spent his early years in Marinette. He was an artist and animator. Hubley got his start at Disney, working on Snow White and other films after.
He eventually formed with his wife their own animation and movie company. Hubley invented and animated Mr. Magoo and created dozens of movie shorts.
On TV, Hubley and his wife were known for making commercials and several shorts for Sesame Street, including The O Song.
They won several international awards, including one at the Cannes Film Festival.
John Hubley and his wife Faith won their first Academy Award in 1960 for the short “Moonbird,” beating Hubley’s former boss Walt Disney.
It was the first independent animation company to win an Oscar.
The Hubleys used their two sons for the characters’ voices in the film. This technique was revolutionary.
Animated films prior used adult voice artists.
This technique of using children for voices was used by others after this, most notably in “A Charlie Brown Christmas” in 1965.
The Hubleys won an Oscar for this animated short.
Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass – Double Feature 1966
John and Faith’s Storyboard Studios, in addition to animation short films, also created TV commercials for major corporations.
Arthur Gardner TV and movie producer
Arthur Gardner never forgot his hometown roots.
Born Arthur Goldberg in Marinette, he changed his name like many Jews in Hollywood during WWII because of fear of anti-Semitism.
Gardner produced 30 movies and TV shows, notably The Rifleman, McQ, and The McKenzie Break.
He worked with almost every major Hollywood actor in his over 50-year career. Gardner’s producing work focused on Westerns and war movies.
Early in his career, he acted bit parts in two dozen films, including All Quiet on the Western Front in 1930. During WWII,
Gardner served in the Army Air Corps First Picture Unit working with Clark Gable and Ronald Reagan. His last film was Safari 3000 in 1982.
His acclaimed autobiography, The Badger Kid, is a must-read for anyone interested in the history of The Golden Age of Hollywood. Gardner died at the age of 104 in 2014.
Optometrist Dr. Louis Merar was the maternal grandfather of Hollywood producer Arthur Gardner.
Gardner used Merar several times for names and locations in his TV shows and movies. In the film, McQ, John Wayne shouts, “Get Doc Merar over there!” in reference to a guy who was shot. The wounded man, however, didn’t need glasses.
Mark McCain woke up to tell his father Lucas that they were almost to Marinette, the stage junction.
Arthur Gardner used Marinette several times in The Rifleman for the names of towns.
This scene is from episode 159, “The Sixteenth Cousin.”
Silent screen star debuted on Menominee stage
Silent movie star Kathleen Kirkham was born in Menominee and gave her first acting performance on a stage in that city at the age of nine, most likely at the Menominee opera house.
When she moved to Burbank, California, with her theatrical family, she worked on the stage first and then switched her acting talents to the silver screen. She starred in 55 movies with all the major cinema stars of the time.
Her first movie was The Clean Gun in 1917. She also starred in The Married Virgin with Rudolph Valentino and was romanticly involved with him, on the screen, that is.
Kathleen, upper right, with her sisters and mother. Prior to starting a family, Her mother performed on the stage. She later guided the acting careers of her daughters when the family moved to California.
James Mitchell Leisen
James Mitchell Leisen was born in Menominee. He often went by his middle name.
Known as an art and costume director first, Leisen then moved into directing.
Leisen was nominated for two Academy Awards, one for art direction in Cecil B. DeMille’s Dynamite in 1930. He directed Hold Bac,k the Dawn, which was nominated for best picture in 1941.
He won awards at the Berlin International Film Festival and the Venice Film Festival. Leisen is in the Costume Designers Guild Hall of Fame.
Leisen worked in over 50 films and directed another 40. He also directed for Television, including three episodes of The Twilight Zone.
Doris Packer
Character actress Doris Packer was known for her roles in 60 movies and TV shows. She is best remembered as Principal Rayburn in Leave it to Beaver.
Born in Menominee, her family moved to California when she was young. After high school, she attended UCLA and then moved to New York, where she appeared in several Broadway shows.
During WWII, she enlisted in the WACs (Women’s Army Corp.) After the war, she settled in Los Angeles, where she appeared in TV and movie roles in the 1950s, ’60s, and ’70s.
She is known for reoccurring roles on Leave it to Beaver, Burns and Allen, The Mickey Mouse Club, The Beverly Hillbillies, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, and others.
Her last role was in the film Shampoo in 1975.
Do you know someone from Marinette who is not in the Athletic Hall of Fame and needs some recognition? Please let me know.
More to come.
