Orlando Rigoni (1897–1987)

Orlando was my Great Uncle and the following is from the family album graciously provided by Jocelyn Rigoni Arens (Granddaughter)Orlando J Rigoni was born in Mercur, Utah December 27, 1897.  “Mecur was a gold – mining camp, leaving not even ghosts behind". He was educated in Salt Lake City Utah: from there his family moved to a ranch in Rush Valley near the Tintic mining district – a region which furnished him with most of his western background material. “Before television upset the apple cart, he sold millions of words to the pulps in all categories”. “He lived in the beautiful Central Coast section of California, sans heat, cold, wind, earthquakes or tidal waves, where the blue Pacific makes a literary accompaniment for his literary endeavors” (Lenox Hills Press)Orlando attended high school and Business College in Salt Lake City, Orlando Rigoni wrote under thee pseudonyms. They are Leslie Ames, Carolyn Bell, and James Wesley. The books under Ames seem to be romance novels. The books under Wesley are westerns. He lived in Morro Bay California. He also worked in Railroading, construction, mining, business and a term as forest clerk for the forest service, and realtor. Orlando served in the United States Army Engineers, 1917-1918.Orlando’s writings [included] several hundred westerns, detective, and air-war stories. He also contributed poetry and over 1,000 short stories to magazines and newspapersOrlando told Contemporary Authors in 1984: “As one can see by my birth date, I am no neophyte in the writing profession. I became addicted fifty years ago, to escape reality involving myself in the personalities of characters of my own creation. A writer must not only create the story, but must be the casting director, the producer, the stage director, the scene setter and the characters. He must cry with the ingénue, fall in love with his heroine, defy and defend like the hero, scheme and plot with the villain, and in the end bring it altogether in a surprising conclusion that will be plausible and satisfying to the reader.”
He married three times and had over 30 children and grandchildren at the time of his death in 1987 at the age of 89.

This is For Orlando J. Rigoni
His pseudonyms ~ Leslie Ames, Carolyn Bell, and James Wesley also have Listings here as well as his son Orlando P. Rigoni. They should probably remain separated and not combined although reference back or link to here would be appropriate.