shouldazagged
Absent Comrade
Was George "Gabby" Hayes an imposter all along?
Movie historian Ari Peristalsis thinks so. He claims to have discovered that George Hayes's birth records (7 May, 1885, in Stannards, New York) were falsified many years later.
By extensive detective work, Peristalsis says he has learned that Gabby Hayes, the legendary sidekick/comic relief character actor, was born female in Cleveland, Tennessee, in 1884. In his book Who Knew? he alleges that the woman was born into a family with unusually abundant facial hair, even on the female side, and decided to try her hand as a bit player in western movies. Her first roles were so well received that she went on to fame and considerable wealth playing a grizzled old prospector type.
So the next time you watch a John Wayne or Randolph Scott movie with the Gabby character, it just may be you are watching a bearded woman from Tennessee named April Foyle.
Movie historian Ari Peristalsis thinks so. He claims to have discovered that George Hayes's birth records (7 May, 1885, in Stannards, New York) were falsified many years later.
By extensive detective work, Peristalsis says he has learned that Gabby Hayes, the legendary sidekick/comic relief character actor, was born female in Cleveland, Tennessee, in 1884. In his book Who Knew? he alleges that the woman was born into a family with unusually abundant facial hair, even on the female side, and decided to try her hand as a bit player in western movies. Her first roles were so well received that she went on to fame and considerable wealth playing a grizzled old prospector type.
So the next time you watch a John Wayne or Randolph Scott movie with the Gabby character, it just may be you are watching a bearded woman from Tennessee named April Foyle.
