FOUND A GRAVE

Ray Corrigan’s career in Hollywood began as a physical fitness instructor and physical culture trainer to the stars. In the early 1930s he did stunts and bit parts in several films. Many of his early roles were in ape costumes, for example, as a gorilla in Tarzan and His Mate (1934) and an “orangopoid” in the first Flash Gordon serial. In 1936 Corrigan got his screen breakthrough with starring roles in two Republic serials, The Vigilantes Are Coming and in The Undersea Kingdom, which evoked memories of Universal’s first “Flash Gordon” serial. On the basis of this, Republic signed him to their standard Term Player Contract, running from May 25, 1936 to May 24, 1938. He was cast as one of the trio in the Three Mesquiteers series of westerns, starring in 24 of the 51 “3M” films made by the studio. He later left Republic in 1938 over a pay dispute. Over at Monogram Pictures, Corrigan began a new series of feature westerns, The Range Busters, cheap knock-offs of The Three Mesquiteers, with a series character that used his name; between 1940 and 1943, he starred in 20 of the 24 films in this series. Following this, his on-screen work largely returned to appearing in ape costumes, such as the roles in Captive Wild Woman (1943), Nabonga (1944), White Pongo (1945) and as a prehistoric sloth in Unknown Island (1948). The original gorilla “mask” seen in films like The Ape (1940) was replaced with a subtler design with a more mobile jaw. Corrigan later sold his gorilla suits in 1948 and provided training in using them to their new owner, Steve Calvert, a Ciro’s bartender. Calvert stepped into Corrigan’s paw prints starting with a Jungle Jim film. Despite reports to the contrary, Calvert and Corrigan never appeared together on-screen in an ape costume. Since both Corrigan and Calvert eschewed screen credit playing gorillas, their film credits are often confused; any appearance of the “Corrigan suit” after 1948 is by Calvert. In 1950 he had a television show called Crash Corrigan’s Ranch. He also planned a television series called Buckskin Rangers with his old associate Max Terhune. Corrigan’s final theatrical film was playing the title role in the science fiction film It! The Terror from Beyond Space, according to bio information given to visitors at the Thousand Oaks, California, Corrigan Steak House and Bar that he once owned.

In 1937 Corrigan was on a hunting trip with Clark Gable when he had an idea to purchase land in Simi Valley, California and use it as a Western ranch similar to Iverson Movie Ranch. He paid a $1,000 down payment, then a thousand dollars a month until the $11,354 price was paid. He developed this into Corriganville, a location used for many Western movies and TV shows. The location featured many different types of terrain for producers such as lakes, mountains, and caves. As opposed to merely set fronts, Corriganville contained actual buildings where film crews could live and store their equipment to save time and expense wasted in daily traveling from studios to an outdoor location. Corrigan made a lot of money from renting out this location to film studios and from paying visitors. Starting in 1949, Corrigan opened his ranch to the public on weekends for Western-themed entertainment. The weekend attractions included several stuntmen shows scheduled throughout each day, a Cavalry fort set, an outlaw shack, a full western town with saloon, jail and hotel, live western music, Indian crafts, stagecoach rides, pony rides, and boating on the ranch’s artificial lake. It was common for movie and TV personalities to appear in person for photos and autographs, attracting as many as 20,000 people on those weekends. After his August 10, 1976 death at age 74 from a heart attack in Brookings Harbor, Oregon, Ray “Crash” Corrigan was interred at Inglewood Park Cemetery, Inglewood, California. Nearly four decades later, his grave still remains unmarked.