{"id":4185,"date":"2014-12-04T15:56:41","date_gmt":"2014-12-04T15:56:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/?p=4185"},"modified":"2015-04-01T10:18:26","modified_gmt":"2015-04-01T10:18:26","slug":"recalling-when-ricardo-montalban-killed-off-frito-bandito","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/?p=4185","title":{"rendered":"When Ricardo Montalb\u00e1n killed off Frito Bandito"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"fantasy-islandx650\"<\/a><\/p>\n

By Ray Bennett<\/p>\n

Chris Rock\u2019s question \u201cIs Hollywood Mexican enough?\u201d in his essay about race in the current edition of The Hollywood Reporter reminded me of what the late Ricardo Montalb\u00e1n told me a long time ago about the image of Mexicans on screen.<\/p>\n

The \u201cFantasy Island\u201d star, who would have turned 95 last week, in 1970 founded Nosotros, now the oldest US non-profit arts advocacy group. In an interview in Los Angeles for TV Guide Canada on Jan. 21, 1983, Montalb\u00e1n said he had been motivated to form the organisation because of the way Mexicans were depicted in film and television.<\/p>\n

He said, \u201cThere are two extremes. One is the indolent, lazy peon with a big hat, taking a siesta, leaning against a cactus. Now, I don\u2019t know how you can do that because, have you ever tried to lean against a cactus? I never have and I never will, but nevertheless that\u2019s the image.\u2019<\/p>\n

The other extreme was the bandit: \u201cIt was always a Mexican bandit with a phoney, phoney accent, a comedic bandit who says, \u2018Eh, se\u00f1or? Gi\u2019 me your gon\u2019. And then there\u2019s the gigolo. In between: nothing, a vacuum, never a decent man.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Ricard<\/a>

Ricard Montalban, Yvonne de Carlo ‘Sombrero’ MGM 1953<\/p><\/div>\n

The star persuaded the Frito Lay company to drop its Frito Bandito character in TV commercials: \u201cHe was a funny little fat guy with a moustache and bandoleers across his chest and he would steal chips because they were so delicious. I called the president of Frito Lay and I said, \u2018I hope you will listen to me because otherwise you will have to listen to the more militant organisations who are really fed up with this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Montalb\u00e1n said the man objected: \u201cHe said, \u2018But why? He\u2019s a very cute little guy. We spent $12 million on it and it\u2019s the most successful campaign that Frito has ever had.\u2019 I said, \u2018Well, I\u2019m sure that\u2019s true but it\u2019s precisely because he is so cute that he is so dangerous. It\u2019s one more insult added, one more injury to the Mexican people. I said, \u2018Why not make him Frito Amigo, who finds the chips so delicious he has to share them?\u2019 He said, \u2018Mr. Montalbano, you make very good sense\u2019 and Frito Bandito was off the air.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nosotros, which means \u201cwe\u201d, set out to correct the Mexican image on screen and urge directors to ignore people\u2019s names when casting and go by appearance and performance alone, and establish workshops where Mexican \u2013 and later people from all Spanish-speaking nations \u2013 could hone their talent.<\/p>\n

The organisation will celebrate it\u2019s 45th anniversary in 2015, and Montalb\u00e1n said back in 1983: \u201cWe\u2019ve made some inroads, some very positive inroads but they are slow in coming. There have been some gains and we see some very good signs. I think the Spanish actor is in better shape because of Nosotros \u2013 a small contribution but I think an important one.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to\u00a0Chris Rock, it appears there\u2019s still a long way to go.<\/p>\n

\"Ricardo<\/a>

Ricardo Montalban as Khan<\/p><\/div>\n

Montalb\u00e1n was a victim of stereotyping early in his career. He is recalled best for \u201cFantasy Island\u201d (1977-1984) plus Chrysler commercials in the US and Maxwell House commercials in Canada. He also played Khan in the \u201cStar Trek\u201d TV series in 1967 and the 1982 film \u201cStar Trek II: The Wrath of Khan\u201d, but when he first went to Hollywood in 1943, he was stereotyped immediately.<\/p>\n

He told me that the dozen or so films he\u2019d made in Mexico had been intensely dramatic: \u201cThey kept giving me those roles. I never played comedy. I was very dramatic and intense young man.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hollywood, where he was under contract at MGM, had a different idea: \u201cThey always categorised me as a Latin, whatever that was, and I had to play those roles. Because in my first picture I danced, and it was successful, people thought I was a dancer. I had to dance from then on in many films. I began to play, \u2018How do you do?\u2019 and I\u2019m kissing ladies\u2019 hands and clicking my heels, doing a rumba or a tango. It was very peculiar.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"'Latin<\/a>

‘Latin Lovers’ Lana Turner, Ricardo Montalban<\/p><\/div>\n

His last MGM credit was \u201cLatin Lovers\u201d opposite Lana Turner in 1953. He said he had been happy at the studio and had great respect for Louis B. Mayer despite what many others have said about the studio boss: \u201cTo me, he will never be Louis B. Mayer. He will always be Mr. Mayer. He always treated me with affection. I have nothing but pleasant memories of the man. I\u2019ve heard all these other things but, you know, in Spanish we say that each one speaks about the party in his own way. We can both attend the party and you could say it was a lousy party and I could say it was the best party of my life. I suppose it\u2019s the same with human beings. I hear people talk not in very kind terms of Mr. Mayer and in my case he was a man who was absolutely wonderful to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Montalb\u00e1n\u2019s career suffered when he left the studio and he had to fend for himself but he survived and IMDb lists 172 acting credits until his death on Jan. 14, 2009. He became a household name as the mysterious host Mr. Roarke on \u201cFantasy Island\u201d with Herv\u00e9 Villechaize (pictured top) as his diminutive sidekick Tattoo, who always called out \u201cde plane!\u201d as the week\u2019s characters arrived for their adventures.<\/p>\n

He said he was very lucky that the show and the TV commercials came along when they did: \u201cIt was the luckiest break of my life. This is a career of diminishing returns and as you get older you are less desirable but in my case it\u2019s been just the opposite. It\u2019s all timing; a throw of the dice, and I consider myself extremely fortunate.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ray Bennett Chris Rock\u2019s question \u201cIs Hollywood Mexican enough?\u201d in his essay about race in the current edition of The Hollywood Reporter reminded me of what the late Ricardo Montalb\u00e1n told me a long time ago about the image … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6,1263,2257],"tags":[2263,2261,2259,2262,2260,2258],"class_list":["post-4185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-film","category-interviews","category-memory-lane","category-recalling","tag-fantasy-island","tag-chris-rock","tag-herve-villechaize","tag-louis-b-mayer","tag-nosotros","tag-ricardo-montalban"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4185"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4185\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6801,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4185\/revisions\/6801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}