Columbia In Transition
Bob Allen and Jack Luden
| Jack Luden Real name:
Jacob Benson Luden
1902-1951 |  |  (Courtesy of Ed Phillips)
Above, Luden confronts great screen bad guy Harry Woods in STAGECOACH DAYS (Columbia, 1938). |
 (Courtesy of Richard S. Kumler)
 (Courtesy of Richard S. Kumler)
 (Courtesy of Richard S. Kumler) |
| Special thanks to Richard Kumler for his remembrances and photos of Jack Luden. Richard's Mom was married to Luden in the 1940s. Thanks also to Luther Hathcock for his investigative work and article 20+ years ago in Classic Images titled Whatever Happened to Cowboy Star Jack Luden? |
Jack Luden was born February 8, 1902 in Reading, Pennsylvania, and his uncle (not his father) was the founder of the Ludens cough drop company.
He later changed his name from Jacob Benson Luden to John Benson Luden ... and that was later shortened to 'Jack'. In 1925, Luden was one of the contest winners and attended and graduated from the Paramount Pictures' School of Acting at Long Island, New York. Other graduates of the Paramount's Class of 1926 included Thelma Todd and Charles 'Buddy' Rogers.
In 1926, Luden got the call to Paramount's Hollywood studio and began doing films, both western and non-western varieties. And during the waning days of the silents, he worked at Paramount and FBO.
Luden was deemed to be star material ... but he didn't work out.
By the late 1930s, the only starring role left for him was at Columbia in four Larry Darmour produced low budget sagebrush adventures. Typical formula westerns of the period, Luden played a character named 'Breezy'.
The Luden westerns for producer Larry Darmour at Columbia were:
STAGECOACH DAYS (Columbia, 1938)
PIONEER TRAIL (Columbia, 1938)
PHANTOM GOLD (Columbia, 1938)
ROLLING CARAVANS (Columbia, 1938)
From then on, all he could find were bit parts and minor supporting roles, and he did appear in a few 1940s westerns (such as BORDERTOWN TRAIL (Republic, 1944) which starred Sunset Carson and Smiley Burnette).
Luden got into several legal entanglements, initially in 1948 and again in 1950, and died of a heart problem in San Quentin Prison on February 15, 1951. He had been in San Quentin for slightly over eight months, serving time for issuing insufficient funds (bad checks) and a drug conviction. His occupation prior to his imprisonment was listed as 'manager of a retail food store'.
You may want to go to the In Search Of ... page on the Old Corral and check the California Death Records database. There you will find a record for: John Benson Luden, born 2/8/1902 in Pennsyvania, Mother's maiden name of Benson, died 2/15/1951. Death location is listed as Marin County in California (where San Quentin Prison is located). There is no Social Security number listed.
 (Courtesy of Les Adams)
Above, Jack Luden is besting a young and curly-haired Fred Kohler, Sr. in the silent SHOOTIN' IRONS (1927).
Above, Jack Luden and his canine pal 'Tuffy' are getting the best of prolific baddie Harry Woods in ROLLING CARAVANS (Columbia, 1938). Tuffy worked in various films, including Republic's HAWK OF THE WILDERNESS and DAREDEVILS OF THE RED CIRCLE cliffhangers.
 (Courtesy of Ed Phillips)
Above, Luden with Jack Ingram in PHANTOM GOLD (Columbia, 1938). |
Although some of the data is incomplete or inaccurate, the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) has information on Jack Luden: http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0524859/
David Priol authored an article on Luden and it includes a 1929 autographed photo: http://www.autographicentral.com/submittedarticles3.html
In 2007, David Priol put up a webpage on Luden and it contains more text and many images, many of which were provided by Richard Kumler: http://www.dpriol.com/Jack-Luden.html
The Orvedahl Family has a website on Tuffy (the dog) who appeared in several of the Columbia Jack Luden westerns as well as the Republic cliffhangers HAWK OF THE WILDERNESS and DAREDEVILS OF THE RED CIRCLE: http://users.erols.com/stringer-orvedahl/erols_v3_tuffy/
