Yolanda "Tongolele" Montes

Yolanda Montes Farrington in dance costume, 1950

Yolanda Ivonne Montes Farrington (born on January 3, 1932 in Spokane, Washington, United States),[1] better known by her stage-name Tongolele, is an exotic dancer and actress in Mexican films in the 1940s and 1950s.[2]

She became a professional dancer when she was 15 years old. Her father was Spanish/Swedish, her mother was French/English and her maternal grandmother was of Tahitian descent.[3] She starred in many films from the 1940s through the 1980s but she is best remembered in the USA her from the classic 1971 film Isle of the Snake People, produced by Luis Enrique Vergara, and starring Boris Karloff in one of his last roles. She also participated in one of the first Mexican films to be shot in color, Música de siempre (1958), where she enters the stage from a volcano. Tongolele was active in television, theatre, and nightclubs.

Farrington was "Tongolele's" mother's maiden name not Tongolele's. Her real maiden last name was Erickson and her father's real name was Elmer Erickson. Her real given name was Patty Erickson. After the death of her father and older brother her mother took Patty to San Francisco with her, where, as a teenager, she began her dancing career. Both ultimately moved to Mexico after her mother re-married.

Selected filmography

References

  1. ↑ "'Tahitians' for Latins". Life. 30 March 1953. Retrieved 28 August 2016.
  2. ↑ David Silva: un campeón de mil rostros. UNAM. 2007. pp. 86–. ISBN 978-970-32-3129-4.
  3. ↑ Alicia Arrizón (2006). Queering Mestizaje: Transculturation and Performance. University of Michigan Press. pp. 108–. ISBN 0-472-06955-1.

External links


This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 10/9/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.