Yolanda "Tongolele" Montes

Yolanda Montes Farrington in dance costume, 1950

Tongolele (born Yolanda Ivonne Montes Farrington; January 3, 1932 in Spokane, Washington, United States) is an exotic dancer and actress in Mexican films.

She became a professional dancer when she was 15 years old. Her father was Spanish/Swedish, her mother was French/English and her maternal grandmother was of Tahitian descent. She starred in many films from the 1940s through the 1980s but she is best remembered in the USA her from the classic 1971 film Isle of the Snake People, produced by Luis Enrique Vergara, and starring Boris Karloff in one of his last roles. She also participated in one of the first Mexican films to be shot in color, Música de siempre (1958), where she enters the stage from a volcano. Tongolele was active in television, theatre, and nightclubs.

Farrington was "Tongolele's" mother's maiden name not Tongolele`s. Her real maiden last name was Erickson and her father's real name was Elmer Erickson. He was not Spanish but of Swedish descent. She was born in Spokane, WA and her real given name was Patty Erickson. An autographed copy of a professional photograph that she signed for her aunt, Florence (Erickson) Ingalls and uncle Roy Ingalls still exists with their descendents in Spokane, WA. Also, there are many more old photos that had been taken of her as a child with her siblings, parents and numerous cousins in Spokane. After the death of her father and older brother her mother took Patty to San Francisco with her, where, as a teenager, she began her dancing career. Both ultimately moved to Mexcio after her mother re-married.

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