Saddle up for a trip through entertainment history with a weekly highlight from Santa Clarita’s Walk of Western Stars! This week, singer Monte Hale!

American Western star and singing cowboy Samuel Buren Ely, who was mostly known as Monte Hale, was born in 1919 in Ada, Oklahoma, to Herod and Helen Ely. 

At a young age, Hale learned to sing and play guitar in Houston, Texas and later Galveston, where he played for vaudeville shows and local rodeos. 

During World War II, a job as a replacement guitar player with the Stars Over Texas War Bond Drive led to a friendship with several Republic Pictures stars and staff. 

After the tour finished, the Republic contingent recommended young Hale to studio president Herbert J. Yates. 

It was then that Hale went to California and met Yates, who saw promise in the tall, good-looking musician. Yates signed him to a seven-year contract and promptly discarded his birth name for the more appealing name Monte Hale. 

In 1943, Hale married his first wife, with whom he had one child. They divorced in 1947 after four years of marriage. 

After a quick apprenticeship in a couple of bit parts, Hale was given the lead in “Home on the Range” (1946), which led to a five-year run as one of Republic’s popular singing-cowboy stars. 

Hale was often cast as a young cowboy, with cameos by Don Barry, Allen Lane, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans. 

Hale then played more traditional Western heroes in films set in the late 19th century. By 1947, the formula was set, with Paul Hurst joining the series as Hale’s sidekick and Rider of the Purple Sage providing the music. 

In 1948, the singer made a trip back to see friends and family in his hometown of Shawnee, plus appearances in 18 other Oklahoma towns to promote his latest movie, “Sons of God’s Country.” 

The celebrity was also a recording star and appeared in a series of Western comics published by Fawcett Comics. 

Beginning in 1948, the singer had his own title with more than 50 issues and in fact, his comic book stardom lasted longer than his film stardom. 

Republic began cutting back on the Western Genre moving to television and finished his contract with an appearance in the Roy Rogers-Dale Evans movie “Trail of Robin Hood” with fellow Republic stars Rex Allen and Rocky Lane. 

In 1955, Hale married his second wife, Cherie De Castro, and they divorced not long after. The two did not share any children. 

Hale made many public appearances at rodeos and other Western shows and played a villain in 1954’s “Yukon Vengeance.” 

The actor’s last movie appearance was in “Giant” in 1956, where part of his job was to reach James Dean to use a lariat. 

The star appeared in a few television roles and movies until 1966. On Nov. 12, 2004, Hale received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and was also instrumental in the foundation of what is now the Autry National Center of the American West. 

In 1977, Hale married his third wife, Joanne Dorothy Levitov, until his death on March 29, 2009, at the age of 89 due to a long battle with chronic illness at his home in Studio City, California. 

Where is Monte Hale’s Walk of Western Stars Plaque?

Monte Hale was honored with a plaque on the Walk of Western Stars. The plaque sits on the east side of Main Street, south of Market Street. 

Last week’s feature, Herb Jefferies. 

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