Indian Boy "Leading Man" For Shirley Temple

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 70, 15 December 1939, Page 14

Indian Boy "Leading Man" For Shirley Temple

T-TOLLYWOOD is reported to have never seen anything to match 13-year-old Martin Good Rider, who appears with Shirley Temple in 20th Century-Fox’s “Susannah of the Monnties,” to lie released as a Christmas attraction in New Zealand. A handsome, full-blooded Indian, he won his screen chance by singing an Irish dialect song. On horseback he is a virtual centaur—his name is a symbol of his riding prowess. He swims like a trout and plays hockey like a fury on wheels. Martin was horn on the Browning Reservation in Montana, where his parents and brothers and sisters still live, and was educated at the Holy Family Mission School and the Government school nt Heart Butte. In October, 1938. the Marquette League took Marlin and several other Indian boys to New Orleans for the Eucharistic Congress there, as a feature of a display of missionary work. On the way home via New York the boys’ picture appeared opposite one of Shirley in a Metropolitan newspaper. A talent, scout for Darryl Znnuck saw the picture. Martin looked like screen material. So he went to see him. The boy sang a few Irish dialect songs and Indian chants, and was immediately engaged for the role of the little Indian brave in ".Susannah of the Mounties.”