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The Mysterious Montague: A True Tale of Hollywood, Golf, and Armed Robbery
by: Leigh Montville

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Binding: Hardcover
Brand: Booklegger
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.352092
EAN: 9780385520331
ISBN: 0385520336
Label: Doubleday
Manufacturer: Doubleday
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 320
Publication Date: May 06, 2008
Publisher: Doubleday
Release Date: May 06, 2008
Sales Rank: 20188
Studio: Doubleday

Features:

Hard Cover
Leigh Montville
A True Tale of Hollywood, Golf and Armed Robbery

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Product Description:

He was a 1930s golf legend and Hollywood trickster who adamantly refused to be photographed. He never played professionally, yet sports-writing legend Grantland Rice still heralded him as “the greatest golfer in the world.” Then, in 1937, the secrets of John Montague’s past were exposed—leading to a sensational trial that captivated the nation.

From three-time New York Times bestselling author Leigh Montville

John Montague was a boisterous enigma. He had a bagful of golf tricks, on and off the course. He could chip a ball across a room into a highball glass, and knock a bird off a wire from 170 yards—and when the big man arrived in Hollywood in the early 1930s, he quickly became a celebrity among celebrities. He lived for a time with Oliver Hardy (whom he could lift, one-handed, onto the country club bar) and played golf with everyone from Howard Hughes and W. C. Fields to Babe Ruth and his close friend Bing Crosby, whom he famously beat while playing only with a rake, a shovel, and a bat. Yet strangely Montague never entered a professional tournament, and in a town that thrived on publicity, he never allowed his image to be captured on film.

The reasons became clear when a Time magazine photographer snapped his picture with a telephoto lens … and police in upstate New York quickly recognized Montague as a fugitive wanted for armed robbery. As Montague was indicted in the tiny upstate town of Jay, New York, hordes of national media descended and turned a star-studded legal carnival into the most talked about trial of its day – the trial of “the Mysterious Montague.”

From the glamour of 1930s Hollywood, to John Montague’s extraordinary skill and triumphs on the golf course, to the shady world of Adirondack rumrunners and bootleggers, three-time New York Times bestselling author Leigh Montville captures a man and an era with extraordinary color, verve, and energy. The Mysterious Montague is Leigh Montville’s most entertaining achievement to date.

Customer Reviews

Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating:

- How ironic
Funny that the week I began Leigh Montville's, The Mysterious Montague, a jury in Las Vegas should announce a verdict in the armed robbery trial of the Sad and Sorry Simpson in Las Vegas. Two different men in two different times but amazing parallels. Both are stories of poor choices, fortunes made and wasted, families lost and talent and opportunity squandered. Each man, neither loved or pitied in the later years of his life, represents the good we could be and, sadly, the bad we can become.

The Mysterious Montague is neither as long or as fact filled as his two most recent books. This is by no means the fault of Montville. The lives of Babe Ruth and Ted Williams were chronicled each day in newpapers and news reels, splashed out across the Sporting Pages and as National News. Montague, on the other had, had year long gaps in his life, questions that were never answered, activities never explained. ... Read More

Rating:

- Good read on a favorite topic of mine-- golf.
This well written book had three separate parts: first, the exploits of a talented, but undisaplined, charismatic golfer set in the movie world of Hollywood. Second, the revealing of his mysterious past and the problems associated with it for the main character, and finally the trial and its aftermath. The book had an air of authenticity throughout, despite Monty's seemingly impossible exploits as a golfer. His relationships with well known characters of Hollywood added greatly to the book's interest.

Rating:

- Celebrities Adored Then as Now
My brother, an avid golfer like me, recommended this book. I took it on a cruise ship vacation for occasional night reading, and it was perfect for that relaxed atmosphere.

My major observation is that America fawned over celebrities in the 1930s with the same level of adulation we use now--or maybe they were more intense about celebrities then, since there were fewer of them. Then as now, a person could even establish himself or herself as a celebrity without having a long track record of accomplishment, as with Paris Hilton on the contemporary scene.

Additionally, the legal system treated celebrities with more leniency than officials allowed for ordinary citizens. Today's daily news stories describe how TV and movie stars and athletes don't get the same penalties as nonfamous individuals.

One limitation, for me: Much of the suspense disappeared with the crime scene account that ... Read More

Rating:

- The Biography of a Useless Man (Spoilers)
This is an entertaining summer read about a minor celebrity of the Thirties. There is a dark undercurrent of violence to the light story of the amazing and unknown golfer who played with the Hollywood stars. He is an unstable youth who gets into trouble in a brutal incident. As an adult, he apparently keeps this violent tendency under control, but when his true identity is discovered, there is no restitution or apology for the victims of the crime for which he is indubitably guilty (a unique clue left at the scene leaves no doubt of that.) Montague also married well, so he never had to have a real job.
He never really accomplished anything other than entertaining some sports writers and readers. While he accomplished no real good, he did some real harm. At least we can be thankful that his dark side was controlled after a certain point--with his terrific strength, he'd have made a very successful murderer.

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