#38: Chiquita Mia by Clu Gulager

City: Hull, QC
Radio Station: CKCH
Peak Month: April 1961
Peak Position in Hull ~ #6
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ did not chart
YouTube: “Chiquita Mia”
Lyrics: N/A

William Martin Gulager was born in Holdenville, Oklahoma, in 1928. He was a from the Cherokee tribe. His Cherokee nickname was given to him by his father for the clu-clu birds (known in English as martins, like his middle name) that were nesting at the Gulager home at the time of his birth. From the age of 16, from 1946 to 1948, Gulager served in the United States Army at Camp Pendleton near San Diego. He later studied acting in Paris, France, before returning to America in 1952. On September 26, 1956, Gulager appeared in The United States Steel Hour about the friendship between two baseball players. In the fall of 1957, he took a part in a Civil War-themed episode of The Alcoa Hour. In 1958 he appeared as Roy Carter in the episode “The Return of Roy Carter” in the TV show Have Gun Will Travel. In the spring of 1959, he appeared in an episode of The Lawless Years, about the Roaring Twenties. That fall Gulager appeared in an episode in the Cold War-themed TV show Five Fingers. As well, he appeared in episodes of Wagon Train, Riverboat, Back Saddle, Playhouse 90, Laramie, Wanted Dead Or Alive, Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse, and Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

On a November 1960 episode of The Untouchables, he played the role of real-life vicious mob killer Vincent “Mad Dog” Coll. Gulager was hailed for his convincingly chilling performance as the psychopathic Coll. He also starred in an episode of The Rebel. Starting in September 1960 until September 1962, Clu Gulager was cast as Billy the Kid in the TV series The Tall Man.

Early in 1961, Club Gulager released a single titled “Chiquita Mia”.

“Chiquita Mia” is the nickname a guy gives his date from the first time they held each other in the moonlight. Almost at once, they start dreaming about sharing a life together, and pledge their love forever. He leaves her, promising that he’ll return. But he knows he’ll never see her again. At the same time, he realizes that his expressions of love were true. Now he is filled with sadness.

In the song, the Spanish refrain from the 1882 Mexican folksong “Cielito Lindo” is featured. It was written by Quirino Mendoza y Cortés who was born in a suburb of Mexico City. The English translation of the “Cielito Lindo” refrain that appears in “Chiquita Mia” is:
Woe, woe, woe, woe,
Sing and don’t cry,
Because singing, darling,
Lifts our hearts.

“Chiquita Mia” appeared on an episode of The Tall Man.

“Chiquita Mia” peaked at #6 in Hull (PQ). It also charted in Atlanta.

In 1964, he released his only other single, “Billy The Kid”. That year Gulager was cast in his first feature film, the neo-noir crime film The Killers. 

Gulager portrayed Deputy Sheriff Emmett Ryker from 1964 to 1968 on the TV show The Virginian. For his acting in The Virginian Clu Gulager received the Bronze Wrangler Award for Best Fictional Television Drama ensemble cast in 1966 Between 1968 and 1973, Gulager appeared in a number of episodes on the crime-drama TV series Ironside. In 1969, Gulager was nominated at the Cannes Film Festival for a Palme d’Or Award in the Best Short Film category for A Day with the Boys. 

In the early 70s Gulager appeared as a guest in episodes in San Francisco International Airport, The F.B.I., Bonanza, Cannon, The Mod Squad, Medical Center, Mannix, Hawaii-Five-O, Barnaby Jones, Kung Fu, Shaft and Get Christie Love!

In the fall of 1975, Gulager appeared in the TV series Three for the Road. He was also seen on Streets of San Francisco, McCloud and Ellery Queen. In 1979, Clu Gulager was in six episodes of The MacKenzies of Paradise Cove. Into the 1980s, Gulager was a guest star in Falcon Crest, Quincy M.E., CHiPs, MacGyver, Magnum P.I., and Murder She Wrote.

Over his career, Clu Gulager appeared in 59 films. These include The Last Picture Show (1971), The Other Side of Midnight (1977), and The Return of the Living Dead (1985). His final appearance with a minor role in Once Upon A Time in Hollywood (2019). His name appears on the Oklahoma Walk of Fame in Tulsa. He died at the age of 92 in 2022.

August 28, 2024
Ray McGinnis

References:
Kim Murphy, “Clu Gulager, ‘The Virginian’ and ‘Return of the Living Dead’ Actor, Dies at 93,” Variety, August 6, 2022.
“Into The Night With Clu Gulager,” 50plusworld.com, August 5, 2022.

CKCH 970-AM Hull (QC) Top Ten | April 15, 1961