When Lance Valdespino thinks about the rodeo performers of yesteryear, he doesn’t just ponder the collection of spectacular action photos, antique spurs and bits that line the walls of his Rio Verde foothills ranch home.
He thinks about the way those people lived, the extreme hardships they endured and the zest for adventure that inspired them to risk sudden death for the sheer thrill of a wild ride, a cheering crowd and a chance at a winning score.
There were no professional rodeo cowboys and cowgirls in the early years. Those who competed did it “on the side,” often after putting in grueling hours in the hot sun at their regular jobs as cowhands.
“They didn’t have hospitals and emergency clinics on every street corner back then,” Valdespino says. A minor miscalculation or an unexpected move could leave a rider seriously maimed. It could even cost him his life. Valdespino, a horse trainer by profession, was so intrigued by the courage and the “devil may care” attitude of the old-time rodeo stars that he decided to produce a documentary about the early years of rodeo.
"I just woke up one morning and said, ‘I’m going to do this,’” he recalls. It was an unusual thing for him to say, given that he knew nothing about movie production, scripting and editing. What he did know, however, was that no in-depth study of early rodeo history existed and that only a handful of old-timers still were alive. He wanted to talk to them and gather their first-hand accounts of what it was like to compete in the days of the Wild West.
“Back then, a lot of the rodeo performers used aliases,” he says. “That’s because a few of the rowdy guys were wanted by the law.” Fictitious names weren’t created only for the human contestants. One outlaw bucking horse became known as No Name. He went by several aliases, because not many bronc riders would have climbed aboard if they had known who he was. During his career as a bucking horse, he unloaded more than 1,000 cowboys.
Valdespino spent three years collecting photographs, old film footage and stories from those who remembered the “good ol’ days” immediately following the Civil War to around 1935. He worked with Melody Cavanary, who had produced television shows for Public Broadcast System Channel 8, to pull these disparate pieces together. The result was
Let ‘Er Buck!®, a 75-minute program that chronicles the early years of rodeo and captures the true spirit of the West. The program aired on Channel 8 in 1994 and was one of three nominated for an Emmy in the documentary category that year.
More than a dozen years after its debut, Valdespino has released it in DVD format. With interest in the sport of rodeo at an all-time high, he has received orders for the documentary from New York executives, European horse enthusiasts, Western history buffs -- and, of course, “cowboys” from every walk of life.
As executive producer, Valdespino scripted the entire program and spent countless hours supervising the editing. He wanted the film to be rich in the old cowboy traditions, and to present legendary figures and milestones of the sport. Let ‘Er Buck!®takes the viewer back to turn-of-the-century cattle drives and Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show. Old-time photographs and film footage follow the evolution of rodeo events from their origin in the late 1800’s through the mid-1930’s – bronc riding, steer roping, bull-dogging and bull riding as it used to be.
From informal bronc riding and roping contests on the open range to the first organized rodeo events, the film is impeccably researched and detailed in its depiction of the sport’s early years. Legendary cowboys including Yakima Kanutt, Lee Caldwell, George Fletcher, Jackson Sundown, Leonard Stroud, Jessie Stahl, Bob Crosby, Ike Rude, Ben Johnson Sr., Bill Pickett and Mike Hastings are recognized for their individual contributions and feats of daring. The film also profiles event organizers and promoters such asTex Austin and C. B. Irwin, as well as the hard-working rodeo photographer Ralph Doubleday.
Wild horse racing, trick roping and the evolution of the role of the rodeo clown are included, as well as a special section on rodeo cowgirls such as Mabel Strickland, Tillie Baldwin, Bonnie McCarroll and Lulu Belle Parr.
Is there a sequel in the making? "There were some very significant events and individuals in the mid-1930's through the 1980's," Lance says. Sounds like good material for Volume II.
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