Bill Dakota's Page

I grew up in a house filled with country music. My dad was from Clinchport, Virginia and that's about as country as you can get, (actually he was born in Rye Cove and the family later moved to Clinchport), although we lived many miles away in Flint, Michigan, about thirty miles from Saginaw, Michigan. For those of you not familiar with Saginaw, Michigan, other than hearing the song, Saginaw, Michigan by Lefty Frizzell. I can only say I used to listen to Little Jimmy Dickens and Eddy Arnold, the… Continue

TAOS, NEW MEXICO----

I had too many businesses to handle alone, and was driving back and forth from Michigan to Ohio. While I was working at the Satan Bookstore, I would often phone actor, Dennis Hopper, when he lived in Taos, New Mexico. We became phone pals. He had bought Mabel Dodge Luhan's ranch, (she was a member of the Dodge car family, who wanted to marry a man of every nationality and had married a native Indian there), and Dennis also owned a movie theater. He had been a close friend o… Continue

In Hollywood, while taking a work break from the Hollywood theater, I was walking down Hollywood Boulevard and spotted Robert "Locke" Lorraine, my clown friend from the Polack Bros. Circus in Flint, who was window shopping. He was real surprised to see me and asked what I was doing in Hollywood? (He lived there). When I told him I was doorman at the Hollywood Theater, he said, "Doorman! What kind of job is that? Taking tickets?" He didn't understand that it was called "making a living." He said… Continue

Mitchum confessed that he had been a male Hustler

(Note: This story ran while Bob Mitchum was still alive. In his brother's book, "Those Ornery Mitchum Boys," they printed a full page photo of the cover of the Hollywood Confidential Star magazine, when we headlined this story. I wanted to clarify this so people won't think we made-up this story after he passed on. He and Jimmy Stewart died a day or two apart, and one crossed out the other for memorial tributes. Neither got top billing. I saw hi… Continue

I guess I have a Marilyn Monroe syndrome or something like that, since many look-alikes have taken my fancy. I decided to do an article of Marilyn Monroe look-alikes and contacted Ernie Garcia, in Long Beach, who had a Marilyn Monroe fan club type of thing going on. Fan clubs for dead actors and actresses seem "ghoulish" to me. Fan clubs are usually started to promote a celebrity's career. But how can a career be benefited from those things, if the honorary is dead? Remembering those who we idol… Continue