This book was written I am assuming for more a curiosity then anything. The legend continues or more correctly a story is told of a person most had never heard of, in current generations anyway. One thing I particularly found curious is that the picture of Montague on the cover looks a lot like Jackie Gleason in golf pose. Also in the picture section where we see probably quite rare pictures of Oliver Hardy and Bing Crosby with Montague, there is one of an aging Montague that looks a lot like Mickey Rooney.

Not giving the story away the book is about the life with great gaps particularly in his youth of the man that briefly held the nation as kind of gossipy intrigue like you would see in today's outlandish tabloids and Internet sites. The mystery of a man who appears from nowhere to befriend himself to early show biz folks of Hollywood. His entry is made through his sensationalized golfing feats, or tricks, and his ability to blend well with the cast of characters in this mix of mostly successful actors and a sportswriter.

The mystery culminates in the man's shady unknown background that implicates him in a crime years earlier back east. The two things that were driven home to me was that it is a good thing to have famous friends. And secondly Montague did manage to be ahead of his time in introducing formats to golf that would become successful application by modern era golfers. Sadly he did not quite capitalize on his mystique and creative folklore like so many who have attempted the same. ( )

Good story about exactly what the title is ( )

LaVerne Moore was one of the more colorful figures in the world of golf in the 1930's and Leigh Montville tells his tale in all its boisterous glory in The Mysterious Montague, A True Tale of Hollywood, Golf, and Armed Robbery.

John Montague, as Moore was better known, was a trick shot artist who could chip a ball into a highball glass or under the sash of a partially-opened window across the room. He reputedly knocked a bird off a power line from 170 yards and consistently drove the ball over 300 yards with a specially-made oversized driver the weighed twice as much as the standard club of its time. Most famously, he once beat Bing Crosby while playing only with a rake, a shovel, and a baseball bat.

Montague had a secret, though. It was why he never allowed himself to be photographed and reputedly why he never entered any professional events. When that secret was revealed, it led to a sensational trial in upstate New York that turned into a celebrity-laden media fest. The secret is told in the first chapter of the book: Montague was wanted under his real name, LaVerne Moore, for the armed robbery of a roadside restaurant in the Adirondacks in 1930. The trial and its aftermath is an interesting window into the media world of the time.

Montville entertains the reader with tales of Montague's prowess, although it's obvious many of them grew to legendary status mainly through the re-telling such feats engender. He also gives us a good look at the celebrities who flocked to Montague's cause. Babe Ruth, Bing Crosby, Oliver Hardy, W.C. Fields, Howard Hughes, Babe Didrickson Zaharias, and many more were tied to Montague one way or another. Sportswriter Grantland Rice was his biggest fan.

The end of the book, which chronicles Montague's late-in-life attempt to break into the ranks of professional tournament golf, may be of the greatest interest to players of the game. Weakened by too many years of Hollywood parties and lack of practice, Montague was a miserable failure in his attempts to compete with PGA stars, who had disdained him from the start. ( )