The 'brains' and 'action' heavies who had meaty roles and lots of dialog ... and the players who were fathers, ranch owners, lawman, mayors, judges, lawyers, storekeepers, newspaper editors, wardens, etc.

(Courtesy of Jack Tillmany)

Frank Ball Real name: Francis Mallory Ball, Sr. 1876 - 1968

(Courtesy of Les Adams) Above from L-to-R are Ed Cassidy, Frank Ball and Johnny Mack Brown in a scene from COURAGEOUS AVENGER (A. W. Hackel/Supreme, 1935). (Courtesy of Les Adams) Above from L-to-R are Lafe McKee, George Hayes (before his sidekick days as Windy and Gabby), Frank Ball, Bob Steele, and Ed Brady in a crop from a lobby card from GALLOPING ROMEO (Monogram, 1933). (Courtesy of Les Adams) Above from L-to-R are Bob Steele, George Hayes and Frank Ball in a crop from a lobby card from GALLOPING ROMEO (Monogram, 1933).

Background

My late parents lived in Maryland (near Washington DC), and over the decades, we made many trips to see them. On a visit many, many years ago, we met one of their friends, a lady named Alice Ball.  At that time, I was writing stories about the western film for Classic Images, Favorite Westerns, etc., and somehow we got chatting about the ol' cowboy movies. Lo and behold, Alice mentioned that her dad was Frank Ball, and he did a bunch of westerns starring Bob Steele, Johnny Mack Brown, others. At home, I paged through all the film listings in Les Adams and Buck Rainey's Shoot Em Ups book for Frank Ball credits, and checked the list of titles against my collection of VHS tapes. I ran off a bunch of videos for Alice, and gave them to her at our next visit back East. Also gave her the filmography that I had compiled from Les and Buck's book. I jotted down notes from Alice about her dad, their time in California, how Frank got into films, etc., and transcribed those onto a word processing document. But it was done on a Commodore 64 computer (and a 5 1/4" floppy disk) - that Commodore 64 is long gone, and I apparently never printed out a copy of the Frank Ball writeup that I had given to Alice. Back in those days, I never guessed that I'd have a future need for that info.

I promised Alice that someday I'd do a story on her dad. Alice had a stroke and passed away in 1999. Here's the writeup, and my apologies for it being late.

The search for Frank Ball

A while back, author and Old Corral contributor Ken Jones had asked me if I had any info on Frank Ball. That was the nudge I needed, but for the life of me, I couldn't recall much of anything that Alice had told me. Too much time had passed. The only things I could vaguely remember were:

• the Ball Family had some famous ancestors.
• she and her father had returned to the Washington DC area around 1940 or so.
• she (or the family) had donated some photos or portraits to the Smithsonian.
• her father had become friends with someone who did western films (and I recall it being either producer A. W. Hackel of Supreme Pictures or scriptwriter/director Robert North Bradbury, the father of Bob Steele).

I jotted off a request to the Social Security Administration for a copy of Alice's Social Security application.  Info on her application follows:

The Social Security Death Index (SSDI) had records for:

The California Death Index had a record for:

Californian Jerry Schneider, who has the Movie Locations Webguide site, was able to check a database or two and found the following obituary clip:

In summary, the above records are for Alice, her brother Frank Jr., and her father, Frank Sr.

The Detective work continues ...

As we proceed further, you need to remember the middle names of both Alice and father Frank --- Alice DULANY Ball, Francis MALLORY Ball, Sr.

Click on https://archives.yale.edu/repositories/11/resources/1259 for the M. D. Ball Papers, Yale Collection of Western Americana, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, and their collection on Mottrom Dulany Ball (1835-1887).  Their webpage includes the following biographical info:

Click on https://www.ourfamtree.org/browse.php/Mottrom-Dulaney-Ball/p326968 for the genealogy website on the Corbin and Ball families. That link will take you to the page on Mottrom Dulany Ball and wife Sally Lewis Wright. Note that one of their four children is Francis Mallory Ball (Frank Ball, the actor).

Remember that Alice was donating some portraits or photos to the Smithsonian? The several e-mail contacts I made with the Smithsonian were super helpful and responsive. Didn't take long to discover Alice's portrait donations. The below info came from the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery and the homepage for the National Portrait Gallery is at: http://www.npg.si.edu/

The significance of these paintings may be due to the renowned artist, Charles Willson Peale. The portraits are of James Lewis, Warner Lewis, Jr., and Mrs. Warner Lewis, Jr.  Mottram Dulaney Ball's wife Sallie may have been related to the Lewis family, but I have no further info at this time. The names 'James Lewis' and 'Warner Lewis, Jr.' from the above paintings are referenced in another genealogy site at rootsweb. Click on http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~marshall/esmd45.htm and scroll down that webpage and take a read at the sections numbered 9., 11., and 12.

When I checked the Smithsonian links a few years ago, I found that the portraits donated by the Ball family were no longer there. The Charles Willson Peale portraits of James Lewis, Warner Lewis II, and his wife are now at Colonial Williamsburg:
https://emuseum.history.org/objects/749/portrait-of-james-lewis-17531788?ctx=ed69305d5486cc41e9dd3cca2baac6f031f4dea8&idx=0
https://emuseum.history.org/objects/746/portrait-of-mary-chiswell-lewis-mrs-warner-lewis-ii-1748?ctx=ed69305d5486cc41e9dd3cca2baac6f031f4dea8&idx=2
https://emuseum.history.org/objects/747/portrait-of-warner-lewis-ii-17471791?ctx=ed69305d5486cc41e9dd3cca2baac6f031f4dea8&idx=3

The Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery has another portrait donated by Alice Dulany Ball: https://npg.si.edu/object/npg_S_NPG.2000.4

Frank Ball Filmography Westerns are in black, non-westerns in red Filmography provided by Les Adams Updated: July, 2001

  Although some of the data is incomplete or inaccurate, the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) has information on Frank Ball: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0050370/

Alice was involved in the Washington DC League of Women Voters, and their website has a notation on her involvement and passing under the heading of 'Member News': http://dcwatch.com/lwvdc/lwv9904.htm