Credits

Interviewee: Holloway, Ray

Transcript: Hi there, My name is Ray Holloway and I’m a cowboy. By the time I was about 4 or 5 years old, I was set. I couldn’t think of being anything else but a cowboy. I got a job on a large cattle ranch up in the foothills above our country about 6500 acres. One of the neighbors up there started seeing us local people around there and started writing a play that included us as individuals and he included me as a cowboy. So I went to the barn theater and took my place and did my lines and after one of the performances the manager came to me and said Ray he says “There was a talent scout here from Paramount Pictures here last night and he wants to know if you’d like to come down and do a stage test.” And I said “Well, why not?” Milton introduced me to a man named Mr. Sherman and Mr. Sherman said “Soo, you wanna do Westerns, eh?” And I said “Well, Yes sir, I think that might be a pretty good idea.” And said “Well let’s go over to my studio and talk about it” and he said “William Boyd has bought up all the TV rights to my movies and I haven’t made a dime, but I’m gonna come back strong because I’m gonna develop a new series and I’m looking for someone to be a lead in my new series” and he said, “I kinda like your looks and he said Can you bring your horse down?” I said “Yeah I could do that.” So I went home, loaded up my horse, came to Hollywood and pulled him up into the Hollywood Hills and there was the whole crew ready to film my ride. We did riding tests and I got off and I got on and I smiled and I knelt down and did one thing and another and said “Cut! That’s great! Great!” He said “I really like ya, but he said I’m not quite ready yet.” And so he said “I will allow you to get in the screen extras guild so you can learn what the business is all about.” For almost the next almost a year or so I got in there with some of the old timers like John Wayne and Glenn Ford, Jennifer Jones and the fellow we all called Larry, well we found out Larry was really Lawrence Olivia before he became a serb. Finally Mr. Sherman called me in one day and he said “We are ready to go!” He said “I’ve got the scripts,” he said “I’ve got the financing,” he said “I want you to go home and I’ll be up and discover you in about six weeks.” Well, in two weeks I picked up the LA Times, looked at the headlines and it said “Famous Movie Producer Dies of Emergency Surgery.” I thought uh-oh, happy trail to me.