JOHN KING

John King (born Miller McLeod Everson and also known as John 'Dusty' King) was an actor and singer from the 1930s to the 1940s. Mr. King had a most unusual career! He had an inauspicious early life, holding many odd jobs until the age of 23. Then he was hired as an announcer for a radio station in Kentucky, and his career took off! He became the host of a musical show and sang on the radio, and was hired to be the vocalist with Ben Bernie's Orchestra. They went to Hollywood to appear in "Stolen Harmony" in 1935, at which point he left the orchestra, and got a few roles in movies. He got another big break when he was hired to star in the Ace Drummond series in 1936, and he became one of Universal's actors for the next four years. In 1940, he starred as one of the three leads in Monogram Pictures' "The Range Busters", and his character was named "Dusty", and that became his nickname. He appeared in many more entries in the series over the next three years, sometimes singing (not surprising, given his earlier singing background), but then in 1943, he abruptly retired from the screen, and opened a waffle restaurant in La Jolla, California, and he ran it for many years. He passed away in 1987 at the age of 78!