The Divorce Seekers
True Stories from the Reno Divorce Ranch Era of the 1940s
by former Nevada divorce ranch wrangler William McGee
Currently being developed as a series for cable or streaming.
“The ‘bible’ of Reno divorce lore.”
– Judd Pillot, writer/producer
“The images – with their smoky, black-and-white, retro allure – are what brought the time and place alive for me so that I could bring my characters to life in my novel … This book is a treasure if only for the photos alone.”
– Deb Caletti, bestselling author of the Reno divorce ranch novel, The Secrets She Keeps
“Best book yet about Nevada’s famous dude-divorce ranch era.”
– Eric Moody, Nevada Historical Society, Reno
Table of Contents
444 pp, 500 b/w photographs & illustrations
Notes, Appendices, Bibliography, Index
Hardcover, 8.5″ x 11″, $35.00
BMC Publications (2004)
Meet Wrangler/Writer Bill McGee
Reno, 1947
It was the heyday of the Reno six-week divorce era. Divorce seekers — a term coined by the media — came running to Reno by the thousands for a “quickie” divorce… the rich, the poor, the famous, and the working class.
If they had the money and wanted their privacy from the prying eyes of the press, they stayed on a divorce ranch (a dude ranch that catered to divorce seekers) and the Flying M.E. (pronounced em-ee for the proprietor Emmy Wood) was the most exclusive of them all.
From 1947 to 1949, Bill McGee was the head dude wrangler on the Flying M.E., twenty miles south of Reno. He entertained wealthy Eastern socialites with names like Astor and du Pont, and Hollywood movie stars Ava Gardner and Clark Gable.
“At the age of twenty-one, and the only man on the ranch, surrounded by all those beautiful and wealthy women, I thought I’d died and gone to heaven.” – Bill McGee
Bill McGee and his co-author/wife, Sandra McGee, recapture these years in The Divorce Seekers – A Photo Memoir of a Nevada Dude Wrangler, true stories about the fascinating and changing cast of characters that came and went every six weeks on the Flying M.E. The hardcover coffee table book is richly illustrated with 500 b/w photographs and illustrations, most never before published.
Next up: Once Upon A Time In RENO