Melton Barker

Precious little is known about Melton Barker aside from a few public records and the films that he made and left around the country. Ennis Melton "Mel" Barker was born in Keller, Texas on February 14, 1903. He married Ruth Fitzgerald of Port Arthur, Texas in 1936 in Oklahoma. The marriage certificate listed his address as Dallas, Texas. In 1954 he remarried, and this marriage lasted until 1975. Barker's press releases frequently mentioned that "Barker has the distinction of having discovered Spanky McFarland" of Our Gang fame, but it is unclear if this has any truth to it, or if he did work in Hollywood, as he often claimed. Barker revived the Kidnappers Foil several times during his life from the 1930s into the 1970s, while also intermittently running a drive-in restaurant and movie theater. In addition to the Kidnappers Foil films, he also directed non-fiction itinerant films. Known titles from this series are The Centralia Story and The Cape Girardeau Story, both from Missouri. His last known residence was in Meridian, Mississippi, and he reportedly died in March 1977 while on the road.