by Paul R. Spitzzeri
After making her last major studio film in early 1917, Josephine M. Workman, whose stage name was Princess Mona Darkfeather and who mostly made “Indian maiden” pictures, though her indigenous ancestry was, at best, somewhat distant, while her age, she was in her mid-thirties, was undoubtedly an issue as that genre also waned in popularity, moved to Spokane, Washington at the end of the year to join her husband and director Frank E. Montgomery.
Montgomery, who’s lived in the city in the first years of the 20th century while working as an actor in stock theater, opened a school to train students in acting and other elements of the movie business, while also pursuing some unsuccessful film production projects to star Darkfeather. A trip to Montana, where Montgomery was raised after coming west from his native Pennsylvania, to look at possible motion picture production sites also proved fruitless.
After the couple settled in Seattle in summer 1918, a new idea was hatched involving Darkfeather trading off her former status as a major movie star, traveling throughout the Pacific Northwest making personal appearances, usually in conjunction with the showing of feature films. She mainly did so in Oregon and Washington through April 1919, when it was reported on the 7th in a Portland newspaper that she would next tour along a “southern route” and then sojourn for the summer in Los Angeles and make several new pictures.
The first stop on this jaunt was in Medford, in southern Oregon, where she appeared at the Rialto Theatre with the town’s Mail-Tribune reprinting standard promotional material in the caption about her Indian jewelry collection, her status as an “Indian actor,” and her ability as a musician and singer, all of which was mentioned in many prior press accounts during her appearances.
There was one addition, however, which was that she “is a whistler and imitator of unusual ability,” this first attribute being notable because her first located public appearance as an entertainer was when, at age 15, and a year after mother Josephine M. Belt Workman was declared insolvent, she gave two whistling solos as part of a program at Los Angeles’ Burbank Theatre. When the 1900 census was taken three years later, the young woman’s occupation was listed as “whistler.”
To the east at Klamath Falls appeared at the Star Theatre for a weekend, after which the tour headed into California with town of Chico being the initial location visited. An advertisement in that town’s Enterprise of 14 April by the Broadway Theatre proclaimed that her appearance, including the giveaway of souvenir postcards, constituted the “Biggest Attraction of the Year,” while a separate photo of the actor was published.
In its “The Screen” column, the paper added, under the heading of “Real Movie Actress Coming In Person,” that, in addition to a William S. Hart-starring feature and a news reel:
There will be a big triple program at the Broadway theatre Wednesday. The big headline attraction will be Indian Princess Mona Darkfeather, one of the best known motion picture actresses in the business. She will appear during the afternoon and evening, shaking hands with patrons of the place and sing from the stage. Every lady and child will be presented fith [sic] a neat little souvenir.
The Enterprise of the 17th briefly remarked on her first day’s appearances and informed readers that Darkfeather “made a most favorable impression with the capacity audiences” by sharing her adventures and experiences in film, as well as with her vocalizing, adding that “she sings well and has an altogether pleasing personality.” For her second and final day, it was observed that the actor “hopes to meet in person all who desire to shake hands and talk with her . . . and is ready and anxious to chat with the ladies and girls and all who are interested in movie work,” not mention offering advice to those looking to break into the business.
The next venue was the Liberty Theatre in Marysville, south of Chico, where Darkfeather appeared for two days. The Appeal of the 19th remarked that “she is a beautiful woman, fond of achieving hard tasks, daring, and a skilled designer and worker” and added that “she has spent time with almost every tribe of Indians in the United States and Alaska,” the latter territory, of course, having been part of the country for over a half-century to date, while the claim of being with almost all tribal groups is more than suspect! In any case, it was commented that “she gives an excellent entertainment,” so readers were advised “Don’t miss her.”
On the 28th, the actor appeared in Colusa, west of Marysville, for a single day’s appearance at the town’s Gem Theatre, after which there was a two-week gap before she headed east into the northern limits of California’s Gold Country at Grass Valley, where she spent two days at Nevada Theatre. The Union of 11 May, in repeating many of the talking points from her various stops, provided more detail than most about her relations with indigenous tribes, including one in the Yukon in Canada and a hunting trip with a chief, during which she killed a moose “and the head now adorns her bungalow.” Moreover, it was asserted that,
Miss Darkfeather is an accomplished dancer and is familiar with the dances of different tribes; such as the Ghost, Bear, Buffalo, Eagle, Sun, Snake, Rain, Hopi and Corn Dances and she has the entre to the most sacred religious ceremonies, and is loved and trusted by all of the red race as she says once an Indian always an Indian . . . she believes that she is the only woman ever allowed to enter the Kivai [the Kiva of the Pueblo Indians], which is the sacred place where the snakes are washed and kept in readiness for their annual snake dance.
Another notable comment was about the purported fact that the actor “altho[ugh] having done thousand[s] of hair raising stunts before the camera has never been doubled (some one to take her place) and says it is a shame the credit and publicity that is given to some of the stars for their daring and bravery when the credit belongs to some five dollar a day extra person, who through force of circumstances substitute[s] for the star, who receives all the credit.”
The next leg of the tour was far to the west and Darkfeather was an “Extra Added Attraction” at Marquee Theatre at Palo Alto, home of Stanford University. At the end of May, there was a two-day stint at Santa Cruz, where it was advertised that “in order that the children can see her,” a special mid-afternoon matinee was offered after school on those weekdays. Then came an appearances at Pacific Grove’s Bluebird Theatre and Salinas and its opera house as the month came to a close.
For June, the actor headed to the Central Valley with stints at Stockton’s Colonial Theatre, followed by visits to the theater at Turlock to Visalia and two evening appearances in a day at the Theatre Visalia. At the middle of the month, Darkfeather appeared at the Monache Theatre in Porterville, where it was said “she possesses a remarkable intuitive facility” and then Liberty Theatre in Fresno, the largest city she’d been in for quite some time.
That city’s Republican of the 15th ran an ad that proclaimed her to be “the first Indian Woman of Motion Picture fame and, while it repeated much of the publicity noted above, there was a striking addition, amplifying what was said in Porterville: “Being gifted with a supernatural power she can look into the future and tell you things you want to know.” Whether this was added to draw larger crowds is certainly an interesting supposition.
The next day’s edition of the paper and its “Reviews” column had another set of remarks by someone identified only as “Old Missouri,” who informed readers with a bit of journalistic flair (infused by a perspective of race alien to our thinking) not often found in smaller-town newspapers, that,
Royalty is among us in Fresno. Princess Mona Darkfeather, the first Indian woman to break into motion pictures, is appearing at the Liberty theater in the flesh, the dark-brown flesh, giving frequent short talks on how she got into the movies and how she likes her job.
. . . fearful mothers need not fear that her remarks will lead their daughters away into Filmland if she always sticks to the text she preached when I heard her.
Her initiation [into the industry] must have been some stunt.
The red-skinned scioness of nobility concludes her speech with song and I will say that she has a deep, rich and remarkable voice.
On the 18th, the tour arrived at Tulare and the Lyric Airdome with the statements about her deep involvement with native peoples throughout the United States and Canada were again broadcast. At Hanford, she entertained at the Ashby Theatre and, in a rare instance, one of her films was screened, in addition to the feature. At the end of June, Darkfeather made her only known southern California appearance during the 1918-1919 tour, this being at the opera house in San Bernardino for two days.
In July, Frank Montgomery received a rare press mention, shared in several newspapers throughout the country, regarding his supporting role in “Forest Rivals,” a World Film production written and directed by Harry O. Hoyt, who has been featured in a prior post here, and with much of its scenery apparently shot in the Canadian Northwest.
In early September, it was announced that C.B. Price, believing a revival of Indian-themed films was at hand, signed Darkfeather to appear in fifteen one-reel shorts, with a version of “Hiawatha” reportedly filmed in spring 1920, though nothing came of the effort, apparently. Price did, however, release older films of hers. On the 13th, she made what looks to have been a one-off live appearance in Windsor, near Fort Collins in northern Colorado.
In October, there were a others in the Utah towns of Logan (north of Salt Lake City), Spanish Fork (south of Provo), Manti (she passed through the hamlet of Mona on the way heading south) and Ephraim (near Manti, in the center part of the state). As the month closed, appearances were made at American Falls, Twin Falls and Burley, Idaho, in its southern portion, while she performed at the Isis Theatre in Blackfoot, north of Pocatello. Again, all of these towns were small, reflective of the declining audiences still following Darkfeather’s star, and the tour then came to an end.
The dawn of 1920 brought the census taker to the south Los Angeles home of John P. Stoll and his wife Agnes Workman and residing with them were Agnes’ sister, Josephine, identified as Mona Montgomery and with no listed occupation, and Frank E. Montgomery, who held on to the idea that he was still a “Motion Picture Director,” though he had not helmed a film in about three years.
Princess Mona Darkfeather shorts, however, were being shown in theaters throughout the country before new, first-run features (one of these, 1912’s “The Indian Uprising” credit here, remarkably, as “Mona Knoll,” that last name being from her marriage to musician Harry Knoll, who died, along with Josephine’s only child, also Josephine, before she embarked on her film career). In the beginning of the summer, it was reported that she was supporting Tom Mix in the full-length “In the Days of Daring,” though it may be that she was in a 1916 short version that was reworked for the longer picture.
In November 1920, a last effort to revive the flagging careers of Darkfeather and Montgomery occurred when they joined Columbia Feature Photoplays, Inc. of San Francisco, which included well-known actor Zasu Pitts as a featured player, while Montgomery and Darkfeather were listed as directors. Under the title of “Director-General,” Montgomery penned an article for the 15 November edition of the San Francisco Chronicle, in which he remarked
I have been directing pictures in California for twelve years, being the second director to come to the State. I am thoroughly convinced, after making a trip a year ago through fifteen States and interviewing hundreds of managers and exhibitors, that the public wants and demands a new line of scenic conditions in productions. As our southern country [presumably, meaning Hollywood and greater Los Angeles] has been “shot” from every angle, we, as directors, in justice to the public, exhibitors and ourselves, feel we must give them new scenic conditions. San Francisco and vicinity offers a virgin field, and, as for marine, garden, Chinatown, manufacturing, residential, shipping, Bohemian and metropolitan views, there is no city in America that compares favorably with San Francisco.
Continuing by noting that San Francisco offered character types from “every walk of life,” and that shooting there would cost 20% less than in the Angel City, the writer added that “Mrs. Montgomery, well known to the screen as Princess Mona Darkfeather, and myself have been here for several weeks analyzing the situation from every standpoint, and are convinced of the great possibilities of making productions here.” In addition, it was added that “we have decided to bring a company to this part of the State to remain permanently for making pictures,” including arranging for a studio and, apparently, being ready to start shooting with productions to involve some $300,000 over the next year.
Beyond the fact that Montgomery, certainly not the second director to work in California, was a director for more like seven or eight years, while his prior year’s trip was the tour undertaken to promote Darkfeather, his claim that greater Los Angeles and its scenic potential was exhausted was exactly what he’d stated in Spokane in 1918. And, as happened in that eastern Washington city, the Columbia project, which also involved stock offerings to the public, quickly floundered and failed.
As to Darkfeather and Montgomery, that windfall they hoped for in her 1918 lawsuit against Charles Bassett concerning her father’s ranch dragged on for several years, with the fleeting success of a favorable lower court ruling then struck down by a higher court. From 1920 onward, however, the prospect of a dramatic and successful return to filmdom was also a mirage—though Montgomery did work on film crews on and off until his death in 1944, while, after a divorce in 1928 and then remarriages for both, he and Darkfeather reunited on Christmas Eve 1937 and remained together until he passed.
Mona Montgomery continued residing in their apartment in the Silver Lake area of Los Angeles, very close to where her films in the glory days of her career were filmed, until just before her death in 1977. As noted before, the Madrid family were her landlords for the last decade or more and the remarkable circumstance of the donation of the photographs and other items that belonged to her is truly one of the most remarkable ones regarding the Homestead’s artifact collection.
I felt deeply sorry for Josephine Workman’s film career. Despite being equipped with so many talents, her late rise to stardom faded far too quickly. Tragically, her longevity brought her few blessings and instead highlighted the lengthy period of dull and sad years that occupied nearly two-thirds of her life.
In hindsight, I believe what she needed was a transformation in her film roles, similar to the timely career adaptations of famous stars like Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Tom Cruise, Dwayne Johnson, Brad Pitt, Sean Connery, and many others. However, in creating new stories and roles, a skilled playwright or producer might have been more instrumental than a director like her husband.