Best of Nashville
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October
12, 2006
Best Person We Miss: June Carr Ormond
When Ormond, a bubbly octogenarian and ex-vaudevillian, died in July, she took more with her than a rollicking chapter in American indie cinema—a chapter she helped write by producing drive-in wonders such as The Girl from Tobacco Row (“A girl wilder than a peach orchard hog!”) and the immortal The Exotic Ones, a.k.a. The Monster and the Stripper (“Warning! Regurgitating Horrors!”). She took an eyewitness history of 20th century showbiz. As a teenager, she performed on the vaudeville circuit with Bob Hope, Milton Berle and Edgar Bergen. With her husband Ron, she made a string of Lash LaRue Westerns, low-budget shockers and hot-rod epics that earned the Ormonds the title “First Family of Exploitation.” Working in Middle Tennessee, they secured their place in cult-movie lore with a series of Christian exploitation films, of which 1971’s indescribably lurid If Footmen Tire You, What Will Horses Do? stands as their magnum opus. Even as her health and hearing declined, June remained vivacious, optimistic and hilariously candid. Joined by son Tim, her last public appearance was a sold-out show at the Nashville Film Festival, where her frailty vanished as soon as a microphone was placed in her hand. Asked by NaFF artistic director Brian Gordon about Ginger Rogers, with whom she worked, June expressed nothing but praise. Then she added, without a moment’s hesitation, “But her mother was a bitch!” To say she brought down the house would be an understatement. The city—like the movies—is duller without her. —JIM RIDLEY