Ross Shafer (born December 10, 1954; McMinnville, Oregon) is a comedian and television host turned motivational and customer service speaker/trainer, based in Carlsbad, California. Although he now splits time in Nashville, Tennessee, where his wife Leah has an aspiring singing career.

Biography[link]

Shafer graduated from Federal Way High School in Federal Way, Washington in 1971. As a high school All Conference football player, he received a scholarship to play linebacker for the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington, where he earned a Business Marketing degree in 1975.

Shafer began his career as a small town pet store manager-turned-stand-up comic in Seattle, Washington, after winning the Showtime cable network's 1983 Showtime Comedy Laugh-Off. The following year he became the host and a writer-performer of the comedy series he created called Almost Live! on NBC affiliate KING-TV, Channel 5. After four 1/2 years and nearly 40 Emmy Awards later,^{[citation needed]} Shafer left to host the Fox Network's The Late Show. Shafer's first national TV show was the USA Network's Love Me, Love Me Not, taped in Vancouver, British Columbia. The show, which ran for 130 episodes, was based on an earlier Italian show called M'ama Non M'ama.

In 1985, Shafer spearheaded an effort to have "Louie, Louie" replace "Washington, My Home" by Helen Davis as Washington's official state song.^[1] Picking up on this initially prankish effort, Whatcom County Councilman Craig Cole introduced Resolution No. 85-12 in the state legislature, citing the need for a "contemporary theme song that can be used to engender a sense of pride and community, and in the enhancement of tourism and economic development". His resolution also called for the creation of a new "Louie Louie County". While the House did not pass it, the Senate's Resolution 1985-37 declared April 12, 1985, "Louie Louie Day". A crowd of 4,000, estimated by press reports, convened on the state capitol that day for speeches, singalongs, and performances by the Wailers, the Kingsmen, and Paul Revere and the Raiders. Three days later, a Seattle event commemorated the occasion with the premiere performance of a new, Washington-centric version of the song written by composer Richard Berry.^[2][3]

In 1988, Shafer succeeded Joan Rivers as host of the Fox Network talk show The Late Show. The stint lasted one year, after which Shafer co-hosted the ABC network magazine show Days End with rotating hosts Spencer Christian, Matt Lauer, and Hannah Storm. From 1990 to 1991, Shafer hosted a revival of Match Game on ABC. (Later he received $97.81 for 5 years of residuals when GSN put it in reruns.)

Between 1994 and 2006, Shafer wrote and produced a series of 14 human resource training films, distributed worldwide in nine languages. He also wrote and produced the comedy album Inside the First Family, about the travails^{[clarification needed]} and rumors surrounding the Clinton Administration.

As a seminar leader and motivator, he coined the phrase "customer empathy",^{[dubious – discuss]} created the Customer Empathy Institute at California State University, Monterey Bay and speaks at 100+ corporate events each year, and has written books including Nobody Moved Your Cheese: How to Ignore the Experts and Trust Your Gut, The Customer Shouts Back!, and Customer Empathy. Separately, he wrote the comedy cookbook-for-men, Cook Like A Stud.

Personal[link]

Shafer is married to country singer Leah Shafer, with whom he has a daughter, Lauren Rae. He has two sons, Adam and Ryan, with his first wife.

Footnotes[link]

References[link]

• Federal Way Public Schools Graduates of Note: Ross Shafer
• University of Pugent Sound alumni magazine Arches Unbound: "Laughter is Golden" (profile)
• Leah Shafer's Web site
• Ross Shafer radio interview Are You Relevant with Doug Miles WSLR

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Gene Rayburn (December 22, 1917 – November 29, 1999) was an American radio and television personality. He is best known as the host of various editions of the popular American television game show Match Game for over two decades.

Born Eugene P. Rubessa ( /ruːˈbeɪʃə/) in Christopher, Illinois, he was the only child of Croatian immigrants and graduated from Lindblom Technical High School and later from Knox College. While a student at Lindblom, he was senior class president and acted in the plays Robert of Sicily, and Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch.^[1]

Rayburn was married to Helen Ticknor from 1940 until her death in October 1996. They had one child, a daughter, Lynn. After Lynn's birth, Rayburn enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Force and served in World War II. Public Service: He became the President of the organization "Patient's for the Preservation of Lens Implantation" in 1975 at the time the US government was attempting to stop intraocular lens (IOL) implantation for the treatment of cataracts. The organization worked closely with the American Intra-Ocular Implant Society (of surgeons) today called the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery (ASCRS). He was pivotal in preventing the government from banning IOLs. Today it the standard of care throughout the world.

Radio career[link]

Rayburn (left) and Dee Finch in 1951.

Before appearing in television, Rayburn was a very successful actor and radio performer. He had a popular morning drive time radio show in New York, first with Jack Lescoulie (Anything Goes) and later with Dee Finch (Rayburn & Finch) on WNEW (now WBBR). Radio history pegs Rayburn's pairings with Lescoulie and Finch as the first two-man teams in morning radio.^{[citation needed]} When Rayburn left WNEW, Dee Finch continued the format with Gene Klavan.

Rayburn later landed the lead in the Broadway musical Bye Bye Birdie when Dick Van Dyke left the production to star in his eponymous classic sitcom.

Television career[link]

Breaking into television as the original announcer on Steve Allen's Tonight, Gene Rayburn began a long association with game-show producers Mark Goodson and Bill Todman in 1953. He first appeared on Robert Q. Lewis's The Name's the Same; Rayburn frequently sat in for regular panelist Carl Reiner, lending a comic touch to the panel. In 1955, he took over as host of the summer replacement game show, Make the Connection, from original host, Jim McKay. From there he hosted shows such as Choose Up Sides, Dough Re Mi, and the daytime version of Tic Tac Dough. On radio, Rayburn became one of the many hosts of the NBC program Monitor in 1961 and remained with the show until 1973.

In an uncredited role (he reportedly did not want his name to appear), Rayburn played a TV interviewer in the 1959 movie, It Happened to Jane starring Doris Day.

Rayburn was also a frequent panelist in the 1960s and '70s on What's My Line? and To Tell the Truth, where the interviewing skills he had burnished on Monitor made him a popular questioner.

[edit] The Match Game

From 1962 to 1969 Rayburn hosted The Match Game. In the original version, which aired from New York on NBC, Rayburn read questions to two panels, each consisting of a celebrity and two audience members. The questions in the original game were ordinary, like "Name a kind of muffin," or "John loves his ____________."  Rayburn usually played it straight, though he would make jokes as the situation warranted. Because it was a live show, very few episodes were recorded for posterity; only four are known to exist. The show was cancelled in 1969 to make room for the topical, short-lived game show Letters to Laugh-In.

Goodson-Todman revived The Match Game in 1973 for CBS. Gene Rayburn returned as host, and introduced a new format in which two contestants tried to match the responses of six celebrities. Writer Dick DeBartolo, a veteran of the original show, created funnier and often risqué questions ("After being hit by a steamroller, Norman had to slide his ____________ under the door.") Rayburn reveled in this freewheeling new approach, and often indulged in funny voices, banter with the celebrities, and mock arguments with the technical crew. Millions tuned in, and it soon became the highest-rated show in daytime television history.^{[citation needed]}

From 1973 to 1977, The Match Game was #1 among all daytime network game shows — three of those years it was the highest rated in all of daytime shows.

The daytime revival of The Match Game, which featured regular panelists Richard Dawson, 1973 to 1978, Brett Somers and Charles Nelson Reilly, ran until 1979 on CBS and another three years in first-run syndication. A concurrent night-time version, Match Game PM, aired from 1975 to 1980. Rayburn was nominated for two Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Host or Hostess in a Game or Audience Participation Show.

During the years when The Match Game was taped in Los Angeles, Rayburn lived in Osterville, Massachusetts, on Cape Cod, and would commute to California every two weeks and tape 12 shows over the course of a weekend (five daytime shows and one nighttime show per taping day).^{[citation needed]}

In 1983, a year after the syndicated Match Game disappeared, the show was revived as part of the Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour, with Rayburn hosting the Match Game segment and sitting on the panel of the Hollywood Squares segment. The show lasted nine months on NBC.

Rayburn knitted socks as a publicity stunt during his time on Rayburn and Finch and later became avid in needlepoint, and filled the long plane rides from New York to Hollywood with his hobby. In 1974, Goodson made a surprise on-air appearance to congratulate the host on making the show #1 among daytime television programs and gave Rayburn a needlepoint bag as a gift.

During his time in the Air Force, Rayburn was trained in meteorology and occasionally demonstrated his knowledge of the weather on Match Game.

Other game shows/television appearances[link]

During and between his Match Game years, Rayburn served as guest panelist on two other Goodson-Todman shows, What's My Line? and To Tell the Truth. Also during the run of the 1970s Match Game, Gene and wife Helen appeared on the game show Tattletales, hosted by Bert Convy. Three years after the original Match Game was cancelled, Rayburn hosted the short-lived Heatter-Quigley Productions show, The Amateur's Guide to Love. In 1983 he hosted a pilot for Reg Grundy Productions called Party Line, which later became Bruce Forsyth's Hot Streak.

Rayburn appeared as a contestant during a tournament of game show hosts on the original version of Card Sharks in 1980 and was a celebrity guest on Password Plus several times between 1980 and 1982.

Rayburn appeared on Fantasy Island as a game-show host — he and another host were game show rivals who vied to win the woman they both loved by creating the ultimate game show, with life-or-death consequences.

Rayburn once hosted a local New York City-based show on WNEW-TV (now WNYW), Helluva Town, and between game show stints in 1982-83 he returned to WNEW as host of a weekly local talk/lifestyles show called Saturday Morning Live. He ended his brief tenure to return as co-host of The Match Game/Hollywood Squares Hour.

Rayburn's last game show hosting duties were on 1985's Break the Bank (he was replaced by Joe Farago after 13 weeks), and The Movie Masters, an American Movie Classics cable game show that ran from 1989 to 1990.

Just before production was to begin on a new Rayburn-emceed Match Game revival in 1985, an Entertainment Tonight reporter publicly disclosed that Rayburn was much older than many believed. Rayburn had trouble finding jobs after that, blaming the reporter for revealing his age and subjecting him to age discrimination.

Rayburn portrayed himself on a Saturday Night Live sketch in 1990, which featured Susan Lucci (as her character from All My Children, Erica Kane). He returned as one of Kane's many previous husbands, to stop another marriage (officiated by his old Choose Up Sides co-star Don Pardo) with the host of a game show portrayed by Phil Hartman. He also continued to make appearances on talk shows throughout the late 1980s and 90s, usually to discuss classic game shows, including appearances on Vicki! and The Maury Povich Show and The Late Show with Ross Shafer. Coincidentally, Shafer would host the 1990 Match Game revival.

Death[link]

Rayburn's last TV appearance was a 1998 interview with Access Hollywood intended to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the CBS Match Game. Portions of the interview have been rebroadcast on the Game Show Network, which in 2001 showed portions of another previously unaired interview during the first airing of its Match Game Blankathon.

Though in poor health, Rayburn appeared in person to accept a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. A month later, he died at his daughter Lynne Rayburn's Beverly, Massachusetts home of congestive heart failure on November 29, 1999. He was cremated and his ashes spread in the garden of his daughter's home.

References[link]

1. ^ Lindblom Technical High School, Class yearbook January 1936

External links[link]

Biography portal

• Gene Rayburn at the Internet Movie Database
• Gene Rayburn at the Internet Broadway Database
• Gene Rayburn at Find a Grave
• Rayburn hosts NBC Monitor radio program (audio files)
• WNEW, The World's Greatest Radio Station

This article includes a list of references, but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (August 2011)

Vicki Lawrence
Vicki Lawrence Schultz, 2009
Born	Vicki Ann Axelrad (1949-03-26) March 26, 1949 (age 63) Inglewood, California
Occupation	Actress, comedian, singer
Years active	1967–present
Spouse	Bobby Russell (June 1972-1974; divorced) Al Schultz (November 16, 1974-present)

Vicki Lawrence (born Vicki Ann Axelrad, March 26, 1949, Inglewood, California) is an American actress, comedienne, and Billboard Hot 100 #1 singer, who was frequently a game show panelist in the 1970s and 1980s. She is best known for her co-starring role on The Carol Burnett Show, alongside Carol Burnett, from 1967 to 1978, and as the sharp-tongued matriarch, Thelma Harper (the main character on Mama's Family, airing from 1983 to 1990, which was spun off from The Carol Burnett Show's The Family sketches). As a singer she recorded The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia that made #1 on the US chart as well as in Canada. She is credited with co-authoring two books and has also used the name Vicki Lawrence Schultz.

Life and career[link]

Early life[link]

Lawrence was born in Inglewood, California,^[1] the daughter of Anne Alene (née Loyd) and Howard Axelrad, a certified public accountant.^[2] She is a graduate of Morningside High School in Inglewood. She was valedictorian of her class of 1967.

Acting career[link]

As a comedienne and actress, Lawrence is known for her work on The Carol Burnett Show, of which she was a part from 1967 to 1978. She was the only cast member, except for Burnett herself, who stayed on the show for the entire eleven seasons. Lawrence was hired for the show on the basis of a letter she sent to Burnett and the producers, with a photograph of Lawrence that showed her resemblance to Burnett.

After The Carol Burnett Show ended in 1978, Lawrence and her husband Al moved with their children to Maui, Hawaii, but after a couple of years, returned to Los Angeles where they have remained.

Her portrayal of the "Mama" character was so popular that NBC created a sitcom, Mama's Family, based on characters from the skit. (Burnett reprised the Eunice Higgins character for the sitcom from time to time.) The series ran from 1983 to 1985 on NBC; after its cancellation from NBC, it was renewed from 1986 to 1990 in first-run syndication. The show was more successful in the renewed version. She also reprised the "Mama" character on stage for Vicki Lawrence & Mama: A Two-Woman Show.

Lawrence has made appearances on other programs, such as the sitcoms Laverne & Shirley (as the girls' drill sergeant, Alvinia T. Plout), Major Dad, Roseanne, Hannah Montana and Yes, Dear. She has also appeared with Burnett, Harvey Korman, and Tim Conway in the Burnett show retrospectives that were broadcast in 1993, 2001 and 2004. Lawrence played 'Sister Mary Paul aka Sister Amnesia' in the TV special based on Nunsense Jamboree which originally aired on TNN in 1998.

Lawrence played 'Mamaw Stewart' (the mother of Robby Ray Stewart and grandmother of Jackson and Miley Stewart) in the hit Disney series Hannah Montana, alongside Billy Ray Cyrus, and his daughter Miley Cyrus.

Lawrence recently played as "Mama" on an Ohio commercial, promoting a constitutional amendment that would permit casino gambling in Ohio. Lawrence played Dan's old high school flame, Phyllis, in an episode of Roseanne. She also appeared on a special celebrity edition episode of the Anne Robinson version of The Weakest Link. Playing for a charity, she made it to the final two, but ended up losing to Ed Begley Jr.

Other work[link]

As a singer, Lawrence got her start as one of the scores of hopefuls on the syndicated Johnny Mann's Stand Up And Cheer program. But she is most known for her #1 hit, "The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia", a song written by her first husband Bobby Russell, which was released on Bell Records in November 1972. It sold over two million copies, and was awarded a gold disc by the R.I.A.A. in April 1973.^[3] (Cher was offered the song first but, unbeknownst to her, her then-husband Sonny Bono had turned it down.)

"He Did With Me," Lawrence's follow-up to "The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia," reached #75 in the United States, although it became her biggest hit in Australia, peaking at #1 there in November 1973. She followed it up there with "Ships In The Night" (1974). A year later, in the fall of 1975, Lawrence managed one last minor US chart entry on the Private Stock label with "The Other Woman" (#81).

She released a disco album entitled Newborn Woman late in 1979. The album produced the minor disco hit "Don't Stop the Music".

As an emcee, she hosted the daytime NBC version of the game show Win, Lose or Draw, and has also appeared often as a popular panelist on such game shows as Match Game, Password, Password Plus, Super Password, various incarnations of the Pyramid game show, as well as Hollywood Squares, where she appeared both as herself and in character as Thelma "Mama" Harper. Lawrence was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award for Best Talk Show in 1993 for the eponymous Vicki!, but the show was canceled after two seasons.

She tours the country with her "two-woman" show with the first half as herself and the second half done as Thelma "Mama" Harper. She also currently can be seen on TV in an infomercial for the "Big Boss Grill".

She is also known for her voice over work as "Flo" on the animation series Hermie and Friends.

Criticism[link]

In January 2011, Lawrence elicited criticism^[4] from advocates for and members of the homeless community for a video she created as a parody of Ted Williams, a homeless man and a former radio announcer who gathered media attention after another video of his vocal talents became viral on YouTube.^[5] The video, in which Lawrence played her noted foul-mouth and quick-witted satirical "Mama" character, and made several jokes about "overnight celebrities", came under fire by the National Coalition of the Homeless (NCH). The NCH director, Neil Donovan, was quoted as saying "This is a woman who has made children's videos with a Christian message and now she's saying some of the most un-Christian things imaginable."

Personal life[link]

Lawrence had been previously married to Robert "Bobby" Russell from 1972 to 1974. Lawrence's second, and present, husband is the make-up artist, Al Schultz, whom she has been married to since November 16, 1974. They have one daughter, Courtney Allison Schultz (born May 5, 1975) and one son, Garrett Lawrence Schultz (born July 3, 1977).

Discography[link]

Albums[link]

Singles[link]

Books[link]

• Vicki!: The True-Life Adventures of Miss Fireball (1995) - ISBN 0-684-80286-4; published by Simon and Schuster with Marc Eliot, an American biographer listed several times on the New York Times bestselling list.^[6]
• Mama for President: Good Lord, Why Not? (2008) ISBN 1-4016-0409-9 ISBN 978-1-4016-0409-7, with Monty Aidem, an American comedy writer.^[7]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official Website
• Vicki Lawrence MySpace Page
• Vicki Lawrence at the Internet Movie Database

Bobby Diamond, also known as Robert Leroy Diamond (born August 23, 1943, in Los Angeles), is a California civil and criminal law attorney who was a child star and young-adult actor, mostly in the 1950s and 1960s. He is best remembered after nearly a half-century for his role as the orphaned Joey Clark Newton in the television series Fury, which ran on NBC with new episodes from October 15, 1955 through March 19, 1960.^[2] He was listed as Robert Diamond in the cast credits during the first season in 1955.

Early life[link]

Robert LeRoy Diamond was born on the 23rd of August, 1943 in Los Angeles, California and lived there in his early life. In 1955, he was spotted by a talent-scout and was subsequently cast as Joey Clark Newton on Fury.

Career[link]

In Fury, Diamond's character Joey, who had run afoul of the law, befriended a handsome wild black stallion and lived on the Broken Wheel Ranch in California with his widowed and presumably adopted father, Jim Newton, played by the late Peter Graves, later known for his role on Mission: Impossible. Newton's wife and son had been killed by a drunk driver.^[3] Joey called Jim by his first name, but in time looked upon him as a father. The late character actor William Fawcett played the housekeeper and top ranch hand Pete Wilkey.^[4] Fawcett was the veteran of many western on TV and in motion picutures. Roger Mobley also had a recurring role as Homer "Packy" Lambert and Jimmy Baird as PeeWee Jenks, friends of Joey's. The popular program originally ran after school hours during the week, but moved to Saturday mornings, was subtitled: "The Story of a Horse and the Boy Who Loves Him." Fury reruns continued on the network until September 3, 1966, and later in syndication under the title the Black Stallion and as Brave Stallion.^[5]

In 1961, Diamond appeared as "Buddy" in NBC's situation comedy The Nanette Fabray Show. He was thereafter cast in 1962-1963 as Dobie Gillis's cousin, Duncan "Dunky" Gillis, for seven episodes of the final season of CBS's The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, starring Dwayne Hickman^[6] and Bob Denver of Gilligan’s Island, who played Maynard G. Krebs (the "G" stood for "Walter".) Also in 1963, Diamond appeared briefly as "Pvt. Pip" in an episode of Rod Serling's Twilight Zone, titled "In Praise of Pip". He was credited as "Robert Diamond". Billy Mumy and Jack Klugman also appeared in that episode, which aired on 09/27/1963.^[7]

In 1964, Diamond graduated from Ulysses S. Grant High School in the San Fernando Valley, then located in Van Nuys but now in Valley Glen. He has two sons, Robert A. Diamond and Jesse Diamond, from a previous marriage to Tara Parker.^[8] His interest in the law was spurred by his efforts to procure a student draft deferment during the Vietnam War. He obtained his bachelor of arts degree from California State University, Northridge, then known as San Fernando Valley State College. He received his Juris Doctor degree from the University of West Los Angeles, then known as the San Fernando Valley College of Law in Woodland Hills. On January 5, 1972, Diamond was admitted to the California bar^[9] and soon commenced the practice of law in Los Angeles. He resides in Woodland Hills.^[10]

Attempted entry into Films[link]

In an attempt to graduate to more mature and serious roles, as well as break onto the silver screen, Diamond starred in the film Airborne as Eddie Slocome a naive, young, country boy who wants to join the US Airborne Division. The film which follows the course of his training to become a paratrooper was moderately well-received by the public upon release. It was critically panned because of its highly predictable story line and is today almost unknown.

Despite a likable cast of characters played fairly well by predominantly non-professional actors and Diamond's own creditable and believable performance as Eddie, the film failed to make him a lead actor or even launch him onto a career in films. It was his only lead role in a film, his only other film appearance was in a supporting role in the Patty Duke vehicle Billie.

Later Television Career[link]

Over the years, Diamond appeared in dozens of television series, including The Fugitive with the late David Janssen and The Rebel starring the late Nick Adams, both on ABC, The Loretta Young Show and Father Knows Best starring Robert Young (later of Marcus Welby fame), both then on NBC. He also appeared in episodes of NBC's Wagon Train (TV western series) starring the late Ward Bond and CBS's The Twilight Zone (TV Scifi series), The Andy Griffith Show (TV comedy series), and Mr. Ed (TV comedy series with a talking horse). He starred with Robert Bray of Stagecoach fame, who portrayed U.S. Forest Ranger Corey Stuart, in three episodes of CBS's Lassie between 1965 and 1967. Diamond's last role was in Gary Cole's Midnight Caller program on NBC in 1990.^[11]

On October 21, 2000, Diamond was among the honorees at Iverson's Movie Ranch near Chatsworth in the San Fernando Valley,^[12] where he left his signature, handprints, and bootprints in the courtyard. Iverson's is dedicated to preserving the history of film and television Westerns.^[13]

References[link]

Douglas Miles
Born	(1963-12-27)December 27, 1963 Phoenix, Arizona
Nationality	San Carlos Apache-Akimel O'odham
Field	Street art, skateboard art, stencil art, painting, printmaking
Movement	Apache art, Native pop
Influenced by	Anime, punk
Influenced	Douglas Miles, Jr.

Douglas Miles is a San Carlos Apache-Akimel O'odham painter and printmaker from Arizona, who founded Apache Skateboards and Apache Skate Team.

Background[link]

Douglas Miles grew up in Phoenix, Arizona, then moved back to the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation in Arizona.^[1] He drew images from cartoons, sci-fi, and comic books and attended the Al Collins Graphic Design School in Phoenix. From 1978 to 1980, Miles attended the Bostrom Alternative High School, when he created street art.^[1]

Artwork and Apache Skateboards[link]

Watching his son practice skateboarding, Miles drew corollaries between skateboarding and the Apache warrior tradition, as both involved increase concentration, stamina, and the ability to withstand pain. After finding no skate decks available relevant to Apache culture, Miles painted a skateboard deck himself. He gave it to his son, and this spawned Apache Skateboards.^[2]

Founded in 2002, Apache Skateboards is one of the earlier Native American-owned skateboard companies, following Wounded Knee Skateboards and Propaganda, founded in 1997 by Jim Murphy (Lenni Lenape) and Four Wheel Warpony, founded in 2000 by Dustinn Craig (White Mountain Apache).^[3] Native artists working on the Apache Skateboard project with Miles include Razelle Bennally; Tracy Polk Jr.; Douglas Miles, Jr.; Keith Secola; Reuben Ringlero; Irwin Lewis; Tony Steele; and Tashadawn Hastings. As Apache Skate Team, the group gives skating demonstrations, organizes skateboard contests and concerts, and curates art shows around the country, and especially on Indian reservations in the American Southwest.^[4]

"Painting on the skateboards ... opens up a whole new medium for me," Miles told Shade magazine. "My skateboards are both traditional and contemporary by design. Are they fine art or pop art? Why can't they be both?”^[1] He emphasizes Native American youth, Apache culture, and reservation lifestyles in his work. "You need to show 'Indian people' in the 21st century and not so much as museum pieces," Miles says.^[1]

Miles and Apache Skateboards have succeeded in finding new venues for art and skateboarding, blending the arenas of fine art, pop culture, and sport. They have successfully challenged outmoded categorization of Native American art based on anthropological perspectives. Together they have helped form the artist collective, Native Agents, and added visual artists Micah Wesley (Muscogee Creek-Kiowa), Rose Simpson (Santa Clara Pueblo-descent), and Yatika Fields (Osage-Muscogee Creek-Cherokee) to the Apache Skateboard group. Native Agents curate "Pop Life" events, which combine visual art, music, and skateboarding, and are informed by the DIY ethic of punk culture.

Apache Skateboards work continually in film, photography, fine art, skateboarding, murals, multimedia projects, community projects, skate park planning, skateboard events, apparel design, television, film, youth conferences and speaking engagements. They produced a documentary, "Walk Like a Warrior: The Apache Skateboards Story," which was co-directed by Douglas Miles and Franck Boistel.^[5]

In 2008, Apache Skateboards collaborated with iPath Footwear to create the I-PACHE collection of sneakers, fitted hats, and t-shirts, all of which feature Douglas Miles' original designs.^[6]

Notable exhibits[link]

• 2011 Indian Ink II. Pravus Gallery. Phoenix, Arizona.
• 2010 Indian Ink I. Legends Santa Fe. Santa Fe, New Mexico.
• 2008 Apache: Douglas Miles. Officially Closed: Dead Letter Department. Los Angeles, California.
• 2005 Pop Life. Wilson College, Princeton University.^[7]
• 2005 Reservation Radical/Apache Skateboards: The Art of Douglas Miles. Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History. Santa Cruz, California.
• 2004–2007 Native Views: Influences of Modern Culture. Art Train USA. Traveling exhibit.^[1]
• 2004 Native Nollies: Skateboard Deck Art. Institute of American Indian Arts Museum, Santa Fe, New Mexico.^[1]
• 2003 Santa Fe Indian Market. SWAIA. First Place, Mixed Media.^[8]
• 2003 Heard Museum Indian Art Market. Heard Museum. Phoenix, Arizona. Won Best of Painting.^[8]

Apache Skateboards has worked with the Gila River Tribe (twice), Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community, Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians, Navajo Nation (twice), White Mountain Apache Tribe, San Carlos Apache Tribe, Chemehuevi Indian Tribe, Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians (twice), Tohono O'Odham Nation, Jicarilla Apache Nation, University of New Mexico-Gallup, Brown University, Harvard University, Peabody Essex Museum, and soon, the Mashantucket Pequot Museum.

Collections[link]

Several pieces of his work are in the collection of the National Museum of the American Indian.^[6] His paintings are in private collections in France, Germany, New York, and Los Angeles.^[8] Miles' and Apache Skateboard's art is also in the permanent collections of the Montclair Art Museum, Eiteljorg Museum, IAIA Museum, and Warner Brothers Studios.

References[link]

External links[link]

Biography portal

• SWAIA video interview with Douglas Miles
• Rez Style interview with Douglas Miles, via News from Indian Country
• Douglas Miles, Vision Project, by Barry Ace
• Apache Skateboards Presents "Tweak Bird (The Bones)", video