Rodeo legend, actor and stuntman Yakima Canutt blazed a trail as a champion bronco buster and rode to fame as a collaborator with John Wayne, who claimed to borrow his on-screen persona from Canutt's real one. This memoir, as told to John Crawford, relates Canutt's years on the rodeo circuit, his roles in silent westerns, and his craftsmanship in movie stunts on such epics as Stagecoach and Ben-Hur, as well as his family life and friendships.
"Rodeos" presents a fascinating history of this Western American institution,rom its rugged beginnings on the ranch to today's very lucrativerofessional circuits. This book captures the mystique of the cowboy and hislace in Western folklore, from the early days when groups of cowboys fromeighboring ranches met to settle arguments over who was the best aterforming ranching tasks to the multi-million dollar prizes and endorsementswarded to professionals today. Experience first-hand the energy, electricity,nd exhilaration of the rodeo through stunning colour photography andintage illustrations that tell the stories of these courageous and athleticodeo characters, and highlights of important moments throughout rodeoistory.
In this study, historian Michael Allen examines the image of the rodeo cowboy and the role this image has played in popular culture over in the 20th century. He sees rodeo as a significant American folk festival and the rodeo cowboy as the surviving avatar of a nearly vanished authentic figure - the real cowboy, who embodies the skills and values of traditional western rural culture.
South Dakota governor Kristi Noem tells her rough and tumble story of growing up on a ranch, and how a blessed life of true grit taught her how to lead. “We don’t complain about things, Kristi. We fix them.” Taking her father’s words to heart, South Dakota's first woman governor Kristi Noem shares heartfelt – and heartbreaking – lessons on making things right in the world, from her childhood on a farm in the vastness of rural America, to the marbled halls of Congress, to the national spotlight amid a global pandemic. From humorous barnyard battles with feisty cattle and rodeo horses, to the tragic and untimely death of her larger-than-life father, to her decision to her decision to return and run the farm and ranch with her family, Noem invites readers into a life defined by work, faith, and helping others. Noem's reflections are offered in the familiar, unvarnished voice of a woman who later defied Washington’s most powerful politicians and led the people of her small, hardscrabble state through natural disasters, the pain of a global pandemic, and the fear and turmoil that gripped the nation after. While filled with plenty of candid observations and refreshingly frank assessments of the country's leading figures, the memoir's most powerful moments nevertheless come from honest glimpses into marriage, motherhood, and leadership in an unpredictable time. Far from a book about politics, Not My First Rodeo is the story of a life lived so far – with characters as richly textured as the Black Hills, and reflections as gentle and powerful as America itself.
My First Rodeo is a heartwarming collection of stories that reveal the ups, downs, and delights of being a family man, from a guy who never dreamed of being one. Happily unmarried with no desire for a change in status, Stoney Stamper met a beautiful lady with two daughters, and to his surprise fell head over boots in love. At the encouragement of family and friends, he decided to chronicle his new life and created the popular blog--The Daddy Diaries. My First Rodeo will inspire those just starting out with families to hang in there, they can do it. And for those well beyond the child raising years, it will be a poignant reminder of the enduring goodness of family.
WINNER of the 2016 Will Rogers Medallion Award for Excellence in Western Literature - Biography & Memoir!Whatever "that" is, four-time PRCA Clown of the Year and Pro Rodeo Hall of Famer LECILE HARRIS has been there and done it, and he shares it all via this collection of stories from his personal life and professional career. By virtue of his sixty years in rodeo, Lecile gives a veritable history of the sport and an insightful primer on the rodeo business. But most of all, Lecile entertains us with side-splitting tales of his seemingly limitless thirst for excitement. Additional contributors include Hadley Barrett, Baxter Black, Clay Collins, Randy Corley, Mark W. Duncan, Ken Knopp, Mike Mathis, Les McIntyre, Dr. Lynn Phillips, Boyd Polhamus, Donny Sparks, Ronny Sparks, Andy Stewart, and Bob Tallman.LECILE HARRIS is a rodeo clown and bullfighter who has entertained millions of fans and saved countless bull riders over the last sixty years. Lecile is a four-time PRCA Clown of the Year winner and 2007 inductee of the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame. Over the course of his personal life and career, he has played college football, been a professional musician at Sun Studios, advised Elvis on horses, danced with ornery bulls, been a featured performer on Hee Haw, developed dozens of comedy acts, and been in untold numbers of fights. He lives in Collierville, Tennessee with his wife, Ethel, and still performs at over fifty rodeos annually.
What a creative idea! Chimp Robertson has put together an anthology of rodeo stories from the famous and not so famous. Each story was written by the individual rodeo rider, and ranges from flat out funny, to pathos, to "glad that wasn't me", to... Every story sits tall in the saddle on its own merits, but put them all together and Chimp has created a fireside reader that will keep you entertained for hours; a great book to travel with, as a gift or to take to your next rodeo for autographs. Every rodeo cowboy/cowgirl has at least one incredible rodeo story, and Rodeo Stories relates some of the best ones. This book not only makes the 8 second buzzer, but it wins the championship belt buckle. Pull your cowboy hat on tight, nod your head to open the gate, and hang on for a great ride! Robert Lorbeer
The author of the critically admired, award-winning A Replacement Life turns to a different kind of story—an evocative, nuanced portrait of marriage and family, a woman reckoning with what she’s given up to make both work, and the universal question of how we reconcile who we are and whom the world wants us to be. Maya Shulman and Alex Rubin met in 1992, when she was a Ukrainian exchange student with “a devil in [her] head” about becoming a chef instead of a medical worker, and he the coddled son of Russian immigrants wanting to toe the water of a less predictable life. Twenty years later, Maya Rubin is a medical worker in suburban New Jersey, and Alex his father’s second in the family business. The great dislocation of their lives is their eight-year-old son Max—adopted from two teenagers in Montana despite Alex’s view that “adopted children are second-class.” At once a salvation and a mystery to his parents—with whom Max’s biological mother left the child with the cryptic exhortation “don’t let my baby do rodeo”—Max suddenly turns feral, consorting with wild animals, eating grass, and running away to sit face down in a river. Searching for answers, Maya convinces Alex to embark on a cross-country trip to Montana to track down Max’s birth parents—the first drive west of New Jersey of their American lives. But it’s Maya who’s illuminated by the journey, her own erstwhile wildness summoned for a reckoning by the unsparing landscape, with seismic consequences for herself and her family. Don’t Let My Baby Do Rodeo is a novel about the mystery of inheritance and what exactly it means to belong.
Out of nowhere, Walker Cody swoops in and saves Paula Olsen's toddler son from a dog bite. Before she can properly thank him, the handsome Iraq War veteran fades into the crowd. Walker's in training to retake his World Champion Bulldogger title. The practice rides are bruising, but still don't knock thoughts of a certain beautiful young widow and her little boy out of his head. And Paula's shocked to realize she has a bad case of Pervasive Walkeritis. Survivors' guilt and ghosts from their pasts stand between them. Walker's need to prove himself on the rodeo circuit runs deeper than bragging rights. But can Paula risk her healing heart on a troubled man who deliberately puts himself in danger?
The lure of cowgirls and cowboys has hooked the American imagination with the lure of freedom and adventure since the turn of the twentieth century. The cowboy and cowgirl played in the imagination and made rodeo into a symbolic representation of the Western United States. As a sport that is emblematic of all things “Western,” rodeo is a phenomenon that has since transcended into popular culture. Rodeo’s attraction has even spanned oceans and lives in the imaginations of many around the world. From the modest start of this fantastic sport in open fields to celebrate the end of a long cattle drive or to settle a friendly “who’s the best” bet between neighboring ranches, rodeo truly has grown into an edge-of-the-seat, money-drawing, and crowd-cheering favorite pastime. However, rodeo has diverse history that largely remains unaccounted for, unexamined, and silenced. In Gender, Whiteness and Power in Rodeo Tracey Owens Patton and Sally M. Schedlock visually explore how race, gender, and other issues of identity complicate the mythic historical narrative of the West. The authors examine the experiences of ethnic minorities, specifically Latinos, American Indians, and African Americans, and women who have continued to be marginalized in rodeo. Throughout the book, Patton and Schedlock questioned the binary divisions in rodeo that exists between women and men, and between ethnic minorities and Whites—divisions that have become naturalized in rodeo and in the mind of the general public. Using iconic visual images, along with the voices of the marginalized, Patton and Schedlock enter into the sometimes acrimonious debate of cowgirls and ethnic minorities in rodeo.
