Martha Montgomery, 84; Former Goldwyn Girl, Philanthropist

Martha Montgomery, one of the glamorous Goldwyn Girls who toured extensively promoting Hollywood in the 1940s, has died. She was 84.

Montgomery, who later became a community volunteer and philanthropist, died Monday of natural causes at a Pacific Palisades nursing home.

The Goldwyn Girls, named for movie producer Samuel Goldwyn, who organized them, were beautiful dancers who appeared in movies, mostly Goldwyn’s musicals. But they also made goodwill appearances on behalf of the motion picture business, across the country and overseas.

Montgomery traveled with other Goldwyn Girls to Britain and to Central and South America after World War II.

“The English are starved for glamour,” one of her group told The Times in 1946 after their return from a two-month tour to boost morale in the war-weary British Isles.

Montgomery was born in Clarksdale, Miss., on Dec. 5, 1920. She graduated from the University of Tennessee where she was chosen, on the basis of a photograph, to work with the New York modeling agency of John Robert Powers. After 18 months of modeling, she was brought to Hollywood under contract to 20th Century Fox.

Montgomery appeared in a dozen films, many with comedian and song and dance man Danny Kaye, with whom she also toured. Montgomery was not credited for her small roles, described as “showgirl,” “pretty girl,” “cameo girl” or simply Goldwyn Girl.

Her brief screen career largely ended after her 1947 marriage to composer Alfred Newman, longtime head of the 20th Century Fox music department.

Newman, the winner of nine Academy Awards, died in 1970, and in 1998 his widow attended the dedication of their studio’s renovated scoring stage named in his honor.

As a tribute to her late husband, Montgomery in 1989 donated $1 million to USC, the recipient of the composer’s papers. Her gift largely paid for what a decade later became the Alfred Newman Recital Hall in a rebuilt corner of the university’s Hancock Foundation building.

Montgomery is survived by her second husband, Robert Ragland; five children: Oscar-nominated composers Thomas and David Newman, violinist and composer Maria Newman, Lucy Whiffen and Fred Newman; 16 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

A memorial service is scheduled at 11 a.m. Saturday at the Pacific Palisades Presbyterian Church.

The family has asked that, instead of flowers, memorial contributions be sent to Community Bible Study, 200 Fairbrook Drive, No. 102, Herndon, Va. 20170.