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Movies Forum Index » Silent Movies Forum » Best "cowboy" star-
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| Frederica |
 Posted: Tue Mar 23, 2004 4:48 pm |
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"bpnjensen" <bpnjensen@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:37af7e1c.0403231343.7212ad41@posting.google.com...
Quote: Bob Birchard <bbirchard@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:<405FB55A.3B3C5560@earthlink.net>...
Mix was a great horseman, a crack shot, a fair roper, very good with
four-up
and six-up rigs, and (although not exactly a cowboy skill) a dynamite
charioteer. He was also absolutely fearless and really did do many if
not most of his own stunts.
It didn't hurt that he had the smartest horse in the world under him!
Bruce Jensen
Sometimes that can work against you. Like on those days when the horse
thinks "I'm not doing that." They always win those little encounters.
Fred |
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| Lloyd Fonvielle |
| Posted: Tue Mar 23, 2004 5:26 pm |
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DCEa wrote:
Quote: What's your opinion of the riding skills of later Western stars. Say, Gary
Cooper, James Stewart, Randolph Scott, for example.
All of these were superb riders. |
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| Lloyd Fonvielle |
| Posted: Tue Mar 23, 2004 5:38 pm |
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Frederica wrote:
Quote: Bob Birchard <bbirchard@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:<405FB55A.3B3C5560@earthlink.net>...
Mix was a great horseman, a crack shot, a fair roper, very good with
four-up
and six-up rigs, and (although not exactly a cowboy skill) a dynamite
charioteer. He was also absolutely fearless and really did do many if
not most of his own stunts.
It didn't hurt that he had the smartest horse in the world under him!
Bruce Jensen
Sometimes that can work against you. Like on those days when the horse
thinks "I'm not doing that." They always win those little encounters.
If you think of it as a contest, the horse has already won it. |
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| Bob Birchard |
| Posted: Wed Mar 24, 2004 11:57 am |
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Christopher Snowden wrote:
Quote: Apart from Yak, I'd say Ken Maynard was the best rider, Tom Mix
was the best at stunts and Tim McCoy was the fastest draw. According
to Otto Meyer, a film editor at Columbia, McCoy's hand could dart
toward his holster, draw his gun and fire all in just six frames of
film: one-quarter of a second.
Maynard may well have been a capable rider--but there is precious little evidence
of it on screen after the coming of sound. He seems to be the most doubled of the
major cowboy stars of the 1930s when it comes to horse stuff--and that includes Gene
Autry.
Whether it was to save time, avoid injury, drunkenness or laziness, Maynard never
really lived up to his trick riding reputation on screen.
While Yak is a good candidate, as are Art Acord and Hoot Gibson, Yak never was
any more than a very minor star. The old time cowboys I knew were unanimous in their
admiration of Tom Mix's horsemanship. Mix was also probably more daring in doing
stunts than Yak ever was, though he was not nearly as scientific in designing and
staging them.
One of my favorite Yak related stories concerns Yak moving into a new home way
out in the San Fernando Valley--at a time when the Valley was still filled with wide
open spaces. Yak was bragging on his new place and its privacy so much that a bunch
of the boys, including Wayne Morris and Guinn "Big Boy" Williams got so tired of
hearing about it that they got together and arranged to have a billboard stand built
across the road from Yak's front door one night with a sign reading: "Chinese Laundry
Opening Here Soon"
--
Bob Birchard
Coming from the University Press of Kentucky in June 2004
“Cecil B. DeMille’s Hollywood”
by Robert S. Birchard
I.S.B.N. # 0-8131-2324-0
http://kentuckypress.com/viewbook.cfm?Category_ID=1&Group=42&ID=1113 |
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| Christopher Snowden |
| Posted: Wed Mar 24, 2004 10:38 pm |
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Bob Birchard wrote...
Quote: Christopher Snowden wrote:
Apart from Yak, I'd say Ken Maynard was the best rider, Tom Mix
was the best at stunts and Tim McCoy was the fastest draw.
Maynard may well have been a capable rider--but there is precious little evidence
of it on screen after the coming of sound.
Don't know that I'd agree with you there. I'm really not a big
fan of his, but his riding really is impressive, both in silents like
THE RED RAIDERS and talkies like COME ON, TARZAN. And it's certainly
him doing that trick riding in $50,000 REWARD.
Quote: While Yak is a good candidate, as are Art Acord and Hoot Gibson, Yak never was
any more than a very minor star. The old time cowboys I knew were unanimous in their
admiration of Tom Mix's horsemanship. Mix was also probably more daring in doing
stunts than Yak ever was, though he was not nearly as scientific in designing and
staging them.
Well, Mix was definitely far more daring/reckless than Yak was,
and consequently he injured himself far more often and wore himself
out. If Tom hadn't been a physical wreck by the early 1930s, he
might've continued in films for another five or ten good years.
It's true that Yak was never a big star, but he did have his own
series (and a good one) in the 1920s, so to me he qualifies. And he
certainly took the top prize at the Pendleton Round-up in four
different years; do you really think Mix would've done that, had he
entered?
But a more important question is: what are the chances of seeing
one of those Tim McCoy M-G-M silents at Cinecon?
Chris Snowden |
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