Kalantan Profile

Kalantan

	(Mary Ellen Tillotson)
13 March 28	is born in Fresno County, California, to Frank V. and his wife Edna J. Tillotson, nee Evans, the youngest of five children
30	resides with her family in Exeter, California
?	attends Livingston High School
?	attends College of the Pacific in Stockton as a music major
?	breaks into the business under Lillian Hunt's direction in the chorus line of the Follies Theatre in Los Angeles, California
46	as Aleene Dupree, "Sweetheart of the Follies Bergere," she's with fellow exotic dancer Lotus Wing in Hollywood Revels
?	as Kalantan, she's a great success in New Orleans, Atlanta and Mexico City. She says it was the Mexicans who named her Kalantan, meaning "heater."
49	as Aleene, she becomes a headliner at the Burbank Theater. She has a lady traveling with her, whom she introduces as her aunt, and drives a flashy white Cadillac convertible.
January 50	is in French Burlesque, screened at the Moulin Rouge in Oakland
August 50	is on stage at the El Rey at San Pablo Avenue in North Oakland
June 53	is spotted by a talent scout at a Las Vegas, Nevada, nightclub and signed for Howard Hughes' Son of Sinbad
53	says about her part in Son of Sinbad: "They changed my directors. All my circular motions were changed to sideway movements. I can't say I was motionless, but they certainly put me in low gear."
September 53	performs at the Silver Slipper in Las Vegas
November 53	columnist Erskine Johnson reports that she is mad enough to snap her G string at movie censors for the ban placed on her still pictures from Son of Sinbad, wailing "why, the dance was respectable enough to be on TV." She says she got her biggest thrill "when Rita Hayworth walked in on my show one night, took a front chair and did my whole routine along with me while she was sitting down. She even did all the wiggles."
December 54	columnist Walter Winchell reports that Miami's Clover Club got bored hiring stars and not making any money. "It now features peelers like Sherry Britton and Kalantan. Winding up with some loot."
17 May 56	premieres at the Club Shalimar in Fort Walton Beach, Florida
Late 50s	tagged The Heavenly Body, she's a popular exotic dancer in New Orleans' Bourbon Street district
?	marries Adolfo Martinez, a Mexico-born hair stylist, waiter, club performer, and drag-queen. He’s about ten years her junior.
?	endures a rocky marriage
?	divorces Martinez, who will eventually die of an illness
63	meets actor John Farron Bromfield while he is touring the south
5 May 63	marries Bromfield, the ex of actresses Corinne Calvet and Larri Thomas, in Mexico. He's 40; she's 35.
93	the Bromfields move to Lake Havasu City, Arizona
18 September 05	becomes the widow of Bromfield, who dies at age 83 in Palm Desert, California
15	as Mary Ellen Bromfield, she resides in Lake Havasu City, Arizona with her niece
16	as Mary Bromfield, she publishes her autobiography, Kalantan - Behind The Curtain
	publishes her first novel, Gull's Haven
18 November 19	publishes The House On The Hill
11 May 20	publishes Fear

Sources: Kalantan - Behind The Curtain by Mary Tillotson Bromfield, Samuel Clemens, Fred Knepper, David Cuthbert, The Independent Record, Traverse Record-Eagle, Redlands Daily Facts, The Portsmouth Herald, Syracuse Herald-Journal, The Modesto Bee, The Austin Statesman, Oakland Tribune, www.Ancestry.com, www.JohnBromfield.com
Recommended Books: Kalantan - Behind The Curtain by Mary Tillotson Bromfield Gull's Haven by Mary Bromfield No Time to Lose by Mary Bromfield Angels Flight by Mary Bromfield
Links: Internet Movie Database Kalantan in "Son of Sinbad" at YouTube Mary Ellen Bromfield