Clowning around at the roundup
Pendleton, Ore. – A.O. “Monk” Carden was 19 years old when he first started “clowning” for Pendleton’s famous roundup in 1928. Today he is 97 years old, having survived his wife, who died just three years ago.
Monk, who was born in 1909, is one of the few people left who remembers the underground tunnels and “houses of ill repute” in the Wild West town of Pendleton. We met up with him at the Elks Lodge in downtown Pendleton, and his memory was sharp as a whistle.
Even though he thought Orson Welles was the author of H.G. Wells’ radio show, War of the Worlds, Monk’s recall seemed best when he remembered his reaction to the terrifying news that aliens had landed. He and his wife were scared to death for about a week, until they realized they’d been had.
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3 Responses to “Clowning around at the roundup”
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September 28th, 2006 at 9:09 am
I would like to get this “clown” together with that John Bevis guy from the rez. They both really tell how to tell stories.
September 28th, 2006 at 12:13 pm
Monk was right about Orson Welles. H. G. Wells wrote the book “The War of the Worlds” in 1898, but it was Orson Welles who adapted it for radio 40 years later, and of course it was that show Monk was talking about.
Your blog continues to delight with its cool tone and professional presentation. I’m pretty familiar with a lot of blogs, and you guys are doing something unique. You’re so careful not to inject yourselves into the stories, but to let the stories speak for themselves. They’re intimate but not personal. You’re emotionally involved, yet you are careful not to let your own reactions show, I suppose in an effort not to manipulate or pollute our own responses.
Anyway, what I’m trying to say is I appreciate what you two are doing.
August 12th, 2007 at 6:25 am
The grief that Orson reaped over the following days was an event more widely followed by radio listeners and by greater numbers of them than had misunderstood, or even heard the \”War of The Worlds\” broadcast by his \”Mercury Theater of The Air\” which precipitated it.
I believe it likely that Monk was conveying his experience of the event to you as he might have approached it in a telling to a contemporary.
Of course Orson wrote it, passed on it; staged his adaptation for the radio; directed the performance and produced the broadcast of it. All points labored over by his detracrors during the trial in the court of public opinion which they held for him.
In the following weeks of abject apology and admission of terrible guilt which were served him during the post-broadcast feeding frenzy, therein lies the bulk of the experience for the riteously- miffed - and - not - at - all - a - silly - twit recantours.
The \”authorship\” of the thing has always been abundantly clear to them.
Sincerely, just that sort of a silly twit, at your service -
John Rowan
Monroe, WA