On Fowley Father and Son

Today, a show biz father and son, each legendary in completely different spheres.

The father was character actor Douglas Fowley (Daniel Fowley, 1911-1998). Fowley amassed over 300 credits in a five decade screen career spanning 1933 to 1981. He was a Lon Chaney sort of chameleon whose range stretched from slick, good looking urban gangsters in the Brian Donlevy mode to grizzled old western geezers in the vein of Gabby Hayes. For the latter roles, he could enhance the effect by taking out his choppers, having lost all his real ones in an explosion during World War Two. Some of Fowley’s better remembered roles include the exasperated movie director in Singin’ in the Rain (1952) and Doc Holliday on The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp (1955-61).

Born in the Bronx, Fowley had been a copyboy at the New York Times, a messenger for a Wall Street broker, a singing waiter, and a nightclub entertainer. He went west to study at Los Angeles City College, and got some theatre experience, breaking into films in the independent melodrama The Woman Who Dared (1933). For decades he was staple in most of the popular B movie series: Charlie Chan, Mr. Moto, Ellery Queen, Dr. Gillespie, Gildersleeve, Maisie, Blondie, Gas House Kids, Joe Palooka, Tarzan …

Some of the better known comedies and musicals Fowley appeared in included Sing, Baby, Sing (1936), Dimples (1936), Alexander’s Ragtime Band (1938), Keep Smiling (1938), the Tracy and Sawyer comedies Tanks a Million (1941) and Hay Foot (1942),Jitterbugs (1943) with Laurel and Hardy, Merton of the Movies (1947) with Red Skelton, If You Knew Susie (1948) with Eddie Cantor,The Abbott and Costello Show,The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show, Casanova’s Big Night (1954) with Bob Hope, 3 Ring Circus (1954) with Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, and The Geisha Boy (1958) with Lewis. He was also in westerns like Dodge City (1939), Don’t Fence Me In (1945), and Across the Wide Missouri (1951); and hokey horror/sci fi offerings like Scared to Death (1947), Mighty Joe Young (1949), and Cat Women of the Moon (1953).

Score of tv guest shots kept Fowley going throughout the ’60s and ’70s. In 1979 he was a regular on the short0lived series Detective School with the amazing cast of Randolph Mantooth, James Gregory, Taylor Negron, LaWanda Page, and Pat Proft. His last credit was in a 1982 episode of the series Father Murphy starring Merlin Olsen.

Fowley was married at least seven times. The most notable of his wives was showgirl Shelby Payne (1917-2000) who appeared in about a dozen movies including between 1944 and 1946, including Up in Arms, Show Business, Bathing Beauty, Kismet, Of Human Bondage, and The Big Sleep. Fowley and Payne were married from 1938 to 1943. Their son was:

L.A. music business professional Kim Fowley (1939-2015).

Today, Fowley is best known as a wanna-be impresario in the Colonel Tom–Brian Epstein–Malcolm McLaren vein for getting THIS close to putting over the groundbreaking all-teenage-girl glam band The Runaways, whose line-up included (at various times) Joan Jett, Cherie Currie, Lita Ford, Mickie Steele (later of The Bangles), Jackie Fox (Jackie Fuchs), Sandy West, and Vickie Blue.Michael Shannon played him in a 2010 bio-pic about the band’s rise and fall.

Fowley had been in the music business since the late 1950s, and was a total jack of all trades: producer, publicist, songwriter, musician, manager. That said, very often it’s hard to put your finger on what precisely he did. On The Mothers of Invention’s 1966 record Freak Out! he is credited with playing the “Hypophone”, which Frank Zappa later explained referred to his mouth. Meaning he was a talker, a name dropper. His fame largely rested on having co-produced The Hollywood Argyles‘ #1 hit “Alley Oop” in 1960. He also produced “Cherry Pie” a #11 hit for Skip and Flip, and the Spector-esque #3 hit “Popsicles and Icicles” for the girl group The Murmaids. He also discovered The Rivingtons, whose 1962 “Papa Oom Mow Mow” and “The Bird is the Word” became the basis for the Trashmen’s “Surfin’ Bird” the following year.

Fowley’s career took him from the original rock and roll era to garage rock and psychedelia to glam and hard rock and punk and new wave. In his youth he had worked for Alan Freed and Berry Gordy. He emceed the 1969 Toronto Rock and Roll Revival, where John Lennon made his solo debut with the Plastic Ono Band (it had been Fowley’s idea to book him). He produced Soft Machine’s first single, Warren Zevon’s first LP, and Gene Vincent’s 1969 comeback album. He produced several of the songs on the American Graffiti soundtrack (1973).

Other artists he collaborated with or supplied material to over the years included The Byrds, Paul Revere and the Raiders, P.J. Proby, Manfred Mann, Cat Stevens, New Riders of the Purple Sage, Sir Douglas Quintet, The Seeds, The Modern Lovers, Alice Cooper, Kiss, Leon Russell,Helen Reddy, Desi Arnaz Jr, The Germs, and members of the Beach Boys, Bread, and Them. As a recording artist in his own right, projects like his 1966 single “The Trip” and his 1968 LP Outrageous have achieved cult status after the fact. Some other very cool projects from that period include the 1967 single “Emerald City”, based on L. Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz and set to the tune of Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy”, a minor British hit for The Seekers (Fowley co-wrote the lyrics). Fowley also co-produced and co-wrote St. John Green’s self-titled 1968 album, also a belatedly discovered cult favorite.

As we have said, Fowley’s mother was a chorus girl. His stepfather was a son of Broadway composer Rudolph Friml, responsible for classic operettas like Rose-Marie (1924) and The Vagabond King (1925). Surely some of his eclectic musical inspiration came from that source.

Lord of Garbage, the first volume of Fowley’s projected three part autobiography, was published in 2012. Over the last couple of decades, several members of The Runaways have accused him of sexually inappropriate behavior including rape. At the time of their interactions they girls were teenagers, and Fowley in his mid 30s. Bladder cancer killed the reprobate at age 75.