Alex Montroy: The Great White Way

Native-American artist Alec Montroy (1918-2006) passed away on this day (December 4). I stumbled across this Times Square image a few days ago in a magazine and that is how I learned about him.

Montroy was of Munsee, Cree and French ancestry; his folks were from a reservation in Ontario. Born in Detroit, he was raised by a foster family, as his father had died and his mother worked as a chorus girl in touring shows. Montroy taught art, served in World War Two, then moved to New York, where he worked in theatrical advertising for 26 years. In addition to his advertising art, he created his own pointillist paintings. The Great White Way was painted in 1982, but it’s clearly intended to be some sort of composite fantasy: Richard Mansfield died in 1907 but the Palace was only built in 1903, and I’m pretty sure Bert Williams and Bert Lahr were never on a bill together, Williams having died before Lahr’s ascendancy as a stage star. And producer Robert Whitehead was a contemporary of Montroy’s. But it’s awfully nice to look at — I’d sure hang it in my house! I’m not suggesting anything, but it seems to be available here.

More Times Square posts here.

For more on show business history,please see my book No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous.