Distinctly Montana Magazine

w w w . d i s t i n c t l y m o n t a n a . c o m 45 plane fast enough," said Pride. "I needed a place to fly to and from my dates, so we moved to Great Falls. In Great Falls, I still sang. I got a job on 10th Avenue South at a club and put a band together." Pride befriended a Great Falls businessman and native Texan named Louis Allen "Al" Donohue, who is often credited with giving Pride his start. Donohue, who was the majority owner of the Heritage Inn and the Budget Inn and co-owned KMON and KNUW radio stations, began sending the record to different stations. Pride said that he and his wife returned a few years ago to Great Falls, and while looking at their former rental house, they bumped into the present owner. "We pulled up and there was the fellow who was living there now, he was getting ready to back out," said Pride. "We didn't move, so he would have to get out and say something. I said, 'I want my house back,' and laughed. He took us through the house again." Reflecting on the 1960s, Pride remembered only the good, the forma- tive days and friendships, the hard work and hope of tomorrow. "Mon- tana is a very conservative state," said Pride. "I stood out like a neon. But once they let you in, you become a Montanan." Occasionally, Pride drops in on his old town and residence. When the UBC store in Helena was built in 1982, Charley attended the grand opening. He took photos of the house in 2005. In 2000, Pride received word that he would be formally inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, Tennessee, becoming the first black American to receive this honor. JEFF BRIDGES'S relationship with Montana began when he was selected to play opposite Clint Eastwood in the 1974 movie underbolt and Lightfoot; shot in forty-seven days in the summer of 1973, almost entirely in and around Great Falls, the film follows a pair of wanderers who fall into friendship and criminal enterprise. Bridges received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for the film. "underbolt and Lightfoot was an exciting movie," said Bridges. "I was a young guy and Eastwood was producing [along with Robert Daley], and he was giving Michael Cimino his first shot, his first directorial job. It was filmed partly in Helena, at the Gates of the Mountains, at the Snake River. I fell in love with Montana. [He met his future wife here.] I bought a Harley-Davidson, and there was no better place to buy a bike and ride around.…It was all a wonderful experience. e light, the mountains and the people—everything just struck a chord in me." For more about Bridges and other Montana entertainers, see the book, published by e History Press, arcadiapublishing.com. Lobby poster for the 1974 Jeff Bridges film Rancho Deluxe

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