|
Some
Monte Rock III History
Howard
Stern, who grew up watching his early appearances on "Uncle
Mervy" Griffin's daytime talk show, has called Monti Rock
III "the best talk show guest of all time." Indeed,
"talk show personality" might be the most consistent
element in Monti Rock's lengthy, wild, and unpredictable show
business career. The sometime singer, actor, dancer, cabaret
performer, celebrity hairstylist, fashion designer and author
got his big break when Johnny Carson booked him onto the Tonight
Show in the late 1960s, and he returned to hobnob with Johnny
more than 80 times over the next 17 years.
Why did
Monti Rock make such great television? By his own admission, it
was not because he was blessed with limitless talent in the
traditional performing arts. Monti himself may have put it best
when he described himself in a recent interview as "the
first legal freak to be on American television." He was one
of the original, balls-out pioneers who shattered the freak
barrier for mainstream American audiences: a handsome,
flamboyant, unabashedly gay Puerto Rican style maven who might
appear in a tuxedo or in pancake makeup and outlandish drag, and
who was liable to say or do anything at all, enthralling
audiences with his bold, hilarious, disarmingly honest,
rivetingly unique personality.
After
departing Puerto Rico for New York City at age 14 to begin his
quest for fabulousness, Monti Rock's determination to express
himself took him from the hair salon to the Broadway stage to
the silver screen (his most notable role being Monty, the Ron
Jeremy look-alike club DJ in Saturday Night Fever) to a
brief but characteristically bizarre and intense recording
career, which resulted in the sale (under the names Monti Rock
and Disco Tex) of over 7 million disco records.
But
Monti Rock's greatest contribution to American culture may have
been to proudly and fearlessly carry the Freak banner before
mainstream America, paving the way for the likes of RuPaul and
Paul Reubens and Freddy Mercury and John Leguizamo and all the
other excellent freaks trying to get their message across to
mass audiences. He also proves that anything is possible if you
make the most of what you've got; he may not be Frank Sinatra,
but he still built numerous show business careers around his
sense of humor, style, and gift for gab, and he sang "My
Way" as his swan song when he retired from appearing on the
Tonight Show.
These
days the unstoppable Monti Rock III has relocated to Vegas and
embarked on yet another career: as a gossip columnist in Las
Vegas Style magazine who is "the most exciting Las
Vegas Casino Host and Media Sensation to ever grace the Las
Vegas Strip." The "outrageous, amusing, unusual, grand
ambassador to Las Vegas Entertainment" is available to
provide personally guided tours of Las Vegas
Just received some mail from
Monti. I thought you might like to see his postage stamp. This
is indeed a rare one. He likes to call me Young Hams instead of
Younghans.
MONTI ROCK III
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL 6-28-2007
2004 CHEVROLET
CAVALIER
Entertainer, raconteur, columnist and
man-about-town Monti Rock III tools around the valley in a
Chevrolet Cavalier that bears a one-of-a-kind leopard-print
exterior.
The design -- created by Pictographics, a Las
Vegas digital imaging firm -- is, Rock says, patterned after a
scarf and shirt he owns. If anybody's confused about just who's
driving, the Montimobile also features Rock's' name and the
perfectly slightly askew epigram, "A legend in his own mind."
The Cavalier -- never before, we'd wager, has a
humble Cavalier ever been turned into anything so funky -- isn't
Rock's first leopard-print car but is, he says, "the best one."
"It's my brand," he explains. "All of my leopard
cars have gotten me more publicity..."
Not to mention attention. Motorists and
passers-by who recognize Rock from his eclectic career in show
business -- numerous appearances on "The Tonight Show Starring
Johnny Carson," frontman of the chart-topping Disco Tex and the
Sex-o-lettes, his now-iconic role as the DJ in "Saturday Night
Fever" -- often ask to photograph it, him and him with it.
"This is what makes me a famous character, this
car," Rock says. "People honk, and they love it."
|
New
Exciting Photos
Had
a dream this morning that Monti was guest on one of those
breakfast host shows. He came on very serious, as he now
is with his act. He was fabulous. 
