Fall Girl: My Life as a Western Stunt Double »

Martha Crawford Cantarini has been honored with the Golden Boot Award and was inducted into the Hollywood Stuntmen's Hall of Fame. She lives in British Columbia. Chrystopher J. Spicer is an editor and writing teacher at James Cook University in Queensland, Australia. He is the author of a book on Clark Gable and a forthcoming collection of Gable's photos.

Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, acclaimed horse trainer and show rider Martha Crawford Cantarini was among the busiest of Hollywood's elite corps of female stunt riders. She was the regular stunt double for such actresses as Eleanor Parker, Anne Baxter and Shirley MacLaine, appearing in films ranging from Elvis Presley's debut feature Love Me Tender to the epic Western The Big Country. Martha also hosted a Las Vegas television program in the 1960s, while her palomino Frosty gained fame as "the gambling horse" after rolling a seven at the Thunderbird Casino craps table.

This fascinating insider's memoir of the American entertainment industry recounts Martha's personal and professional associations with Clark Gable, Ronald Reagan, Jean Simmons, and other Hollywood luminaries.

Acknowledgments vii

Prologue 1

Preface 3

1 Riding to Hollywood 5

2 Yellow Sky 25

3 Flying High 31

4 Higher Learning 38

5 Interrupted Melody 42

6 Texas lady 56

7 Coming Back 65

8 The Rains of Ranchipur 73

9 Love Me Tender 81

10 The King and Flicka 90

11 Dakota Incident 104

12 My Tin Star Year 112

13 The Seventh Sin 127

14 April Love 137

15 The Big Country 143

16 The Sheepman 154

17 The Law and Jake Wade 164

18 Ride a Crooked Trail 176

19 It's All in the Game 182

20 Las Vegas 189

21 Thunderbird 197

22 The Horse of Many Miracles 205

Epilogue 212

Index 217