The critical success of the FX series “Reservation Dogs” and the spotlight on performers like Lily Gladstone, an Academy Award nominee for “Killers of the Flower Moon,” has heightened awareness of Indigenous cultures and stories, particularly in Hollywood, where until recently they’ve been mostly caricatured — or absent — during the century-plus history of the entertainment industry.
But Indigenous people weren’t completely invisible in show business, as I learned during a decade of weekly conversations — family history lessons — with my great-uncle Wally Fox before his death at the age of 96 in 2022. Inside his ramshackle Westside home, Wally gingerly positioned his bony frame sideways on an armrest of his recliner and played the role of raconteur, narrating remarkable stories about our lineage. The most notable were a series of vintage Hollywood tales — about his father, Wallace Fox Sr., and his father’s brothers — that had been forgotten like a stack of dusty unsold scripts.
The plot lines were compelling, incorporating the discovery of Mexican actress Delores del Rio, the B-movie assembly line of the 1920s, ’30s and ’40s, and three siblings from the Chickasaw Nation who somehow thrived in the early years of the motion picture business. Sometimes they used their Indigenous heritage to their advantage. Collectively, the Fox brothers — my father’s relatives — wrote 50 films, directed 153, produced 33, acted in 37 and assisted in directing 14. They even directed westerns at a time when Indians were always the bad guys.
Wallace Fox Sr., center left, was a moviemaker in the early days of Hollywood. His son, the author’s great-uncle Wally, had decades of show business memorabilia in his Westside home.
(Courtesy of the Fox family)
Wally’s stories about his father and uncles were a revelation for someone whose childhood was a primer of 1970s parental dysfunction and instability. My own father was not…