We worshipped our rodeo cowboys.  They were real heroes with real courage.  That's why Hollywood put so many on the big screen.

 

Don Coleman, Hoot Gibson, Art Acord, and Jay Wilsey were the big names at the beginning.  Rodeo cowboy Jack Hoxie became a star and brother Al did, too.

 

From 1917 to 1923, the big attraction was All-Around Cowboy Yakima Canutt, winner of more first place trophies and awards than there were stars in the heavens.  A place of honor given him in the National Cowboy Hall of Fame brought him movie offers from Tom Mix.

 

All-Around Cowboy Ken Maynard rode for Buffalo Bill, Higgenback and Wallace, Pawnee Bill's Wild West Show, and Ringling Brothers' Circus. Twentieth-Century Fox signed him in 1922 for two-reelers, but greater success came later with our Saturday matinee westerns.

 

Ben Johnson, seen in so many John Wayne-John Ford westerns, won the title World's Champion Team Roper in 1953.  Ben Sr., his dad, foreman at the Chapman Bernard Ranch at the time, had been a champion steer roper.

 

Clay O'Brien, the smiling little boy at John Wayne's side in "The Cowboys" and "Cahill, United States Marshal," is Clay O'Brien Cooper now, seven time World Champion Team Roper, and 1997 inductee in the Professional Rodeo Cowboy Hall of Fame.

 

And Alex Cord ("Gray Eagle"), James Pickens ("Gray's Anatomy"), and James Caan ("Las Vegas"), are the real deal, the genuine article.

 

Slim Pickens was offered an acting job by director William Keighly, but turned it down

"I asked Keighly how much it would cost me," Slim recalled.  "He said I had it all wrong---I wouldn't pay him, he would pay me.  Well, I thought he had rocks in his head.  Lucky for me he didn't.  I did 'Rocky Mountain' for him and then went right into my first Rex Allen western for Republic.  That was 1950 and I made $12,000, more money than I had ever seen in my life!  So, I figured I'd better give up rodeoing and fighting the bulls before I got hurt again.  There was no use working in rodeos for social security.  Nobody was very social and there was little security."

But this Fresno, California cowboy didn't give up rodeoing.  He continued between pictures.

"I remember one ol' bull hit me so hard in the spine he broke the cartilages in my chest.  Another bull hit me in the head and I lost 30 per cent of my hearing.  And another bull I remember flipped me 20 feet in the air.  I was so mad I punched that bull right in the nose . . and broke my hand."

What were his studio bosses and their insurance people saying about all this?  How did Republic Pictures' boss Herb Yates react?  Yates was not a man you could cross if you wanted to keep your job.

"Well, as you can imagine, he wasn't very happy with me," Slim said.  "I was in the hospital a lot."

Any injuries suffered while working as an actor?

"I broke a rib," Slim said.  "It was nothing."

Tribute to Lane Frost

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