Kansas, Crime and Earl Warren: The strange case of Madge Meredith
For no particular reason (other than having lived in Kansas for a number of years), movie lines involving Kansas have always gotten my attention. The most famous, of course, is Dorothy's observation: “Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore.”
While channel surfing during opportune moments of the impeachment trial, I happened upon a TCM movie, "Trail Street," a 1947 western starring Randolph Scott, Robert Ryan, Anne Jeffreys and "Gabby" Hayes. The relevant line, however, came from the female second lead, Madge Meredith:
"Kansas, where women wear their lives up trying to bleed a crop out of wasteland, working and waiting for something that's never going to happen..."
Being a curious sort and having time to waste (not really), I dug a bit further into Meredith's background, and it turns out there was an interesting side story involving this otherwise obscure actress.
In June 1947, obviously after the film was released, Madge Meredith was arrested and subsequently sentenced to five years in prison for her role ("complicity") in an assault on her former manager and his bodyguard.
The story does not end there, for an investigation by a special legislative committee investigating criminal justice in California concluded Meredith was framed and that the police mishandled her case. "In July 1951, Gov. Earl Warren commuted her sentence to time served and issued a statement of disgust at how her trial had been handled."
Warren's specific comment: "This is a bizarre case, perhaps more fantastic than any moving picture in which the defendant acted—but certainly having many of the attributes of a scenario."
One result of the framing of Meredith was that her alleged victim had laid claim to her Hollywood Hills home. On release from prison she was able to reclaim her home. But she was never able to reclaim her film career.
The only other notation in the bio sketch is that she died in Hawaii in 2017.
———————————
POSTSCRIPT: Madge (Majorie May) actually has a wikipedia page!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madge_Meredith
As it happens she did have a post-prison career — one credited role in 1953 and several uncredited roles after that. Her obituary in a UK paper provides more details.
As for Earl Warren, he went on to a more illustrious career.
