Audie Murphy Days April 20-21, 2012

Hotel discounts available for Audie Murphy Days

Michael Dante coming for Audie Days in April

This year’s Hollywood celebrity during Audie Murphy Days on April 20-21 will be American award winning actor of television films and stage Michael Dante who appeared with Audie twice.

Born Ralph Vitti on September 2, 1931, in Stamford, Connecticut, to Italian immigrants, Dante loved to sneak into a local movie theater as a boy and watch westerns. Although he loved playing cowboys and Indians, he wanted to be a ball player when he grew up.

One day in the fourth grade, his teacher asked each of her students to read a paragraph from a book. "I was scared to death to get up. I was really shy," Dante told a reporter of the Stamford Advocate in an interview in 2006." When I did, I began to perform. I didn’t understand I was doing it, but Miss Calhoun (his teacher) did.” After that he began trying out for school plays.

By the time he was in high school, Dante was playing several sports, but he was particularly good at baseball. After he graduated, he signed a bonus contract with the Boston Braves, and his $6,000 bonus went to buy his family a four-door Buick with whitewalls. Dante went on to the Washington Senators, but an injured shoulder required surgery before spring training in 1955. That’s when he was introduced to bandleader Tommy Dorsey, who was under contract with MGM studios and, because of Dante’s good looks, arranged a screen test for him.

"I chose Hollywood over baseball," Dante said. "I had a shot at making the ball club, but I felt I was damaged goods, and if I did not take the opportunity to go to California, it might never come again." It was the 1950s and Hollywood studios were turning out movie productions right and left and busily creating shows for the growing television market. MGM, Warner Brothers and Twentieth Century Fox all signed Dante for contracts. He made his first film in 1956, playing a bit part in Somebody Up There Likes Me, the story of boxing legend Rock Graziano.

In 1959, studio head Jack Warner urged him to change his name because no one knew how to pronounce Vitti. "I changed Ralph to Michael and used Dante because it is an Italian first name that I always liked," he said. "I didn’t want to stray from my heritage."

Since that first film in 1956, Dante has appeared in thirty films with such stars as Audie Murphy, Paul Newman, Edward G. Robinson, Randolph Scott, Elizabeth Taylor, Montgomery Clift, Lee Marvin and Elvis Pressley. "Elvis was a total gentleman, always on time, always knew his dialogue, no temperament at all. We would throw a football back and forth. He liked football a lot," Dante said. "He also liked karate. . . He was a good athlete and a good pal," Dante went on to say, "Like me, he wanted to play a variety of characters."

Versatility is a difficult goal in Hollywood, Dante said. "I played only two Italians in my career, even though I am fully Italian, because casting people didn't think I fit the type - I speak well and don't sound like an idiot," Dante said. "It makes their job easier if they stereotype people, but I wouldn't let them do that to me." He strived for diverse roles, he said. He played the Apache Red Hawk in the 1964 Western Apache Rifles, with Audie Murphy, and a year later played a villain in another western, Arizona Raiders, also with Murphy. "I was cast in American Indian roles because I have high cheek-bones," Dante said. "But I also played a lot of cowboys, good guys and bad guys."

In addition to his film career, Dante has appeared as a guest star in 150 television shows including Get Smart, Hawaiian Eye, Knot’s Landing, My Three Sons, Perry Mason, The Six Million Dollar Man, Big Valley, Bonanza, Cheyenne, Daniel Boone, the Custer Series, Lawman, Maverick, and Star Trek. It was one brief co-starring role that wrote Dante into American popular culture. A frequent extra on the original Star Trek television series, he was cast in the role of "Maab" in the 1967 episode, "Friday's Child" alongside Julie Newmar. Dante's affable personality makes him a popular draw at Star Trek fan conventions all over the country.

Among what he considers his best performances is the title role in the 1975 drama Winterhawk, a Western about a Blackfoot chief trying to protect his people. After the film aired, Dante met John Wayne, whom he had watched on screen as a child. Wayne had seen Dante in Winterhawk and asked him to co-host a charity event in Newport Beach, California. That started a friendship between the two actors, and they co-hosted other events until Wayne's death in 1979.

Dante's acting career, begun in the 1950s, lasted through the 1980s. He is currently the host of a syndicated radio talk show, On Deck, on which he interviews some of Hollywoods’ biggest stars. An avid golfer, he hosted The Annual Michael Dante Celebrity Golf Classsic in Palm Springs for eight years and was the "All Around Winner" in the prestigious Frank Sinatra Celebrity Golf Invitational.

A few of Michael Dante’s accomplishments include a Sidewalk Star in the Palm Springs Walk of Stars for lifetime achievement; the Golden Boot Award - the Oscar of westerns - in 2003; and the Silver Spur Award - the Golden Globe of the western film and television genre - in 2006.

Dante and his wife Mary Jane make their home in Rancho Mirage, California. - from "Actor’s Road from West Side to Old West" by Angela Carella, Stamford Advocate.com and other Internet sources

AUDIE MURPHY DAYS HAS NEW DATE FOR 2012!

After much discussion, the Audie Days committee has decided to change the date of Audie Murphy Days.

This year the two-day salute to the military will be held on April 20-21.

“The end of June is just too hot to be able to have much outside,” said Executive Director Susan Lanning. “An example is the 1st Cavalry Horse Division from Fort Hood. The last time they came, they nearly cancelled as the temperatures were 100 degrees and that is just so hard on the horses.”

This year we are also planning to change the event’s format a bit to entice more people to come. The committee--Larry Winters, Robert Davis, Barbi Weaver, Bernie Herlt and Jimmy James--has already had one meeting and has come up with some potentially exciting ideas for this new format. As things are finalized, the newsletter will keep you updated!

Attention out of town visitors to Audie Murphy Days!

The following hotels have offered discouted rates for Audie Murphy Days:

Holiday Inn Express
903-454-8680
$89 + tax - Standard Room
$99 + tax - Suite

Best Western Plus Monica Royale Inn & Suites
903-454-3700
$84 + tax - Standard Room
$94 + tax - Suite