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Stan Paregien, Editor
Stan Paregien, Editor
Don "Red" Barry
(Deceased)
Donald Berry de Acosta was born on Jan. 11, 1912. He began his movie career in 1936, often playing one of the "bad guys". However, he got the starring nod in 1939 when Republic Pictures chose him as their lead in a serial to be called, "The Adventures of Red Ryder". And that is when his name was converted to "Don 'Red' Barry".
This movie "lobby card" of the Roy Rogers film
"Bells of Rosarita" shows the many Western stars
who appeared in the "showcase" move made in 1945.
At the front, left to right, are Bob Livingston, Roy Rogers,
Don "Red" Barry and Dale Evans. In back are Bill Elliott,
Allan "Rocky" Lane and Sunset Carson.During Don Barry's career he appeared in some 140 movies. He also wrote the stories for these three films: "Convict Stage" (1965), "Train to Tombstone" (1950), and "Red Light" (1949).
Don "Red" Barry was married several times, and one of his wives was Western movie actress Peggy Stewart.
On July 17, 1980, Don "Red" Barry got into a domestic dispute at his home. Someone called the police. And as the police arrive, Don Barry put a gun to his own head and killed himself. He is buried at the Forest Lawn (Hollywood Hills; Court of Liberty, #5442) Cemetery in Los Angeles, CA.
Wayne Barton
Wayne Barton works as a senior engineer for Arco Oil & Gas Company. He joined the Western Writers of America in 1974 and has served as a WWA board member. He wrote a column, "Western Fiction Bookmarks", back when The Roundup magazine was a monthly affair. Wayne Barton is also the author of Ride the Wind (1981) and Return to Phantom Hill (1983), both published by Doubleday. Barton and fellow WWA'er Stan Williams (also of Midland, Tx.) wrote Warhorse (Pocket Books, 1988).
In 1980 Wayne Barton won a Spur from WWA for the best western short story as a result of his article, "One Man's Code," published by Far West Magazine. Barton holds the distinction of being the first WWA member to win the Medicine Pipe Bearer's Award for the best first Western novel. That was for Ride the Wind in 1981. He is also the author of more than 50 short stories and nonfiction articles.
Earl W. Bascom
(Deceased)
Earl W. Bascom, a professional artist and sculptor, was born June 16, 1906 in a sod-roofed cabin on the old "101 Ranch" near Vernal, Utah. He is one of only a few western artists who lived and worked as a cowboy during the open-range era of the West. He worked as a bronc buster, cowpuncher, trail driver, blacksmith, freighter, stagecoach driver, miner, trapper, wolf hunter, wild horse chaser, rodeo champion and movie actor.Bascom's father, John W. Bascom, was a cousin to famed Western artist Frederic S. Remington (Remington's mother was Clarissa Bascom Sackrider). And John W. Bascom was also Deputy Sheriff of Uintah County, Utah and actually chased the outlaw Butch Cassidy and his Wild Bunch gang...and were nearly ambused (Earl met Butch Cassidy's sister, Lula Betenson, in 1977, when she was 93). He took part in the daring capture of the notorius killer, "Mad Dog" Tracy.
Another of his relatives, George N. Bascom, was a Lieutenant in the U.S. Cavalry. Lt. George Bascom arrested Apache Indian Chief Cochise in 1861 and accused him of stealing cattle from an Arizona ranch. Cochise escaped and started a war that lasted 25 years. However, 115 years later, in 1976, Earl Bascom met and shook hands with 102-year-old Nino Cochise (grandson of the famed warrior). So perhaps that dispute is settled (see Canadian Rodeo News, Sept. 1, 1976).
In 1912, following the death of his wife, John W. Bascom loaded up Earl and the other children and moved to Raymond, Alberta, Canada and he became a ranch foreman. Many of Earl's cowboy experiences took place on the prairie hills of the Ray Knight Ranch. Earl said, "I remember when the prairie began to be fenced. Ray Knight put in a fence 100 miles long. My brothers and I and others dug post holes and set cedar posts for miles. 100 posts per man per day was the standard."
In 1916, at the ripe old age of nine, he worked for several months driving a four-horse team on the Bar N Ranch. At the age of 13, in 1919, Earl Bascom got the job of driving an old stagecoach to and from school. It was used as a school bus to pick up children on outlying ranches.
In 1918, Earl Bascom entered his first professional rodeo. He rodeoed for 22 years, traveling the rodeo circuit with his three brothers--Raymond, Mel and Weldon. He competed in saddle bronc, bareback, bull riding, steer wrestling and steer decorating. And he even tried his hand at being a rodeo clown.
In 1922, Bascom designed and made rodeo's first "hornless" bronc saddle, an item which was dubbed the "Mulee". It was first used at the Cardston Stampede. And in 1924, he designed and made the first one-handed bareback rigging, first used at the Raymond Stampede. These two inventions are standard equipment used in all professional rodeos throughout the U.S. and Canada, including the Pro Rodeo Cowboys Association and the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association.
And in 1926, he designed a pair of rodeo chaps with a high-cut cheyenne leg. Rodeo star Pete Knight borrowed them to have a pair made for him and the style soon became known as the "Pete Knight chaps", a forerunner to today's chink-type rodeo chaps. And, if that is not enough, he also invited the first side-delivery rodeo chute.
In 1924, he wrote about his personal experiences of going by horse and pack train over the Canadian Rockies. In 1930 he wrote and illustrated a book as yet unpublished (hint, hint), "A Year in the Life of a Cowboy".
Earl Bascom became an internationally known rodeo star. In 1933 he won second place in the North American Championship contest at Calgary, set a new world record time of 3 2/5 seconds in the steer decorating event(in which a mounted cowboy leaps from his horse onto a steer, hooks a ribbon on the steer's horn and leaps off), set two new arena records, and won third place in the Championship of the World. His other titles included Bareback and All-Around Champion, Lethbridge, Alberta (1934); Saddle Bronc, Steer Decorating and All-Around Champion, Raymond, Alberta (1935; All-Around Champion, Nephi, Utah (1936); Saddle Bronc, Bareback, Bull Riding and All-Around Champion Rigby, Idaho (1938); Bareback, Bull Riding and All-Around Champion, Portland, Oregon (1939); and Saddle Bronc, Bareback and All-Around Champion, Raymond, Alberta (1940). Earl and his brother Weldon put on the very first rodeos in the state of Mississippi, one each year in 1935, 1936 and 1937.
Earl Bascom has even tried his hand at acting. In 1954 he appeared in the western movie, "The Lawless Rider". He appeared in commercials with Roy Rogers in 1968 and 1969. And in 1989 he was in, "Take Willie With You".
He was a member of the Cowboy Turtle Association, the historical forerunner organization to the Professional Rodeo Cowboy Association (PRCA). He has been awarded honorary memberships in the PRCA and the Canadian Professional Rodeo Association in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the sport.
Earl Bascom was elected to the Canadian Rodeo Hall of Fame in 1984 and to the Utah Sports Hall of Fame in 1985. He was inducted into the Raymond Sports Hall of Fame in 1987 and the Marion County Cattleman's Hall of Fame in 1995. Also, he was named in Who's Who in America and Who's Who in the World and then made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts of London England in 1993.
His life-long rodeo and cowboy experiences were written into permanent history in the Congressional Record (July 9, 1985) in Washington, D.C.
To back track just a moment, Earl Bascom had always had an interest in art and some early indications of talent. And while working on the Kirkaldy Ranch owned by Ray Knight, he had seen Charles Russell do a painting of Mr. Knight. But it was not until 1933, at the age of 27, that he saved up enough rodeo money to enter Brigham Young University to study art. Earl studied under E.H. Eastmond, B.F. Larsen and Torlief Knaphus. He finally graduated seven years and many rodeos later.
His bronze sculptures of the West have been displayed in such notable galleries as The Trailside (Jackson, Wy), The Desert Southwest Gallery (Palm Desert, Calif.), Peterson Gallery (Beverly Hills, Calif.), Saddleback Gallery (Santa Anna, Calif.) and the Main Trail Gallery (Scottsdale, Az).
And his art may be found in the Denver Art Museum, Santa Barbara (Calif.) Museum of Art, Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, Tucson Museum of Art, the National Cowboy Hall of Fame, Canadian Rodeo Hall of Fame, not to mention the private collections of people like Ronald Reagan, Gene Autry and Barry Goldwater.
Earl Bascom said, "The life of the cowboy and the West I know. I rodeoed for 23 seasons. I cowboyed most of my life. I've associated with Indians and Indian fighters, miners and gunslingers, homesteaders and squatters, lawmen and reformed outlaws. I've chased wild horses along the Wyoming-Colorado border near Baggs, Wyoming and in the badlands of Utah, Montana and Canada. I've been on cattle drives out of the Rockies. I've trailed horses over the Tetons into Jackson Hole. I've broken hundreds of horses to work and ride. I've ridden on horse roundups and cattle roundups and branded hundreds of calves. I've made saddles, stirrups, chaps, spurs, bridles and bits, ropes and hackamores, and patched my own boots."
Perhaps Gene Autry said it best: "No amount of imagination can compensate for actual cowboy experience. And no other artist has ever had such a wide variety of cowboy experiences as Earl Bascom."
Earl Bascom was listed in Who's Who in American Art, Who's Who in the West, and Who's Who in California.
Rose Bascom
Rose Bascom, wife of Weldon Bascom and sister-in-law to Earl Bascom, was known professionally as "Texas Rose" Bascom.Texas Rose was billed as the "Greatest Female Trick Roper in the World" during the 1940's and 50's. She toured the world with Bob Hope and also with Johnny Grant.
Texas Rose Bascom was in two Hollywood movies, "The Time, The Place and The Girl" and "The Lawless Rider".
Weldon Bascom
Weldon Bascom was a brother to Earl Bascom and the husband of "Texas Rose" Bascom.Weldon Bascom was a champion rodeo rider. He and his brother Earl Bascom are known together in history for producing the first rodeo ever held outdoors at night under electric lights in 1935 in Columbia, Mississippi.
Weldon Bascom also was a rodeo news reporter and correspondent from time to time during his rodeo career. And he wrote for the rodeo magazine "Hoof and Horn" in the 1930's.
Weldon Bascomb also was in the movie "Lawless Rider" starring as Sheriff Brown, and doubling in that movie for Johnny Carpenter riding a bucking horse. Weldon also doubled for Bing Crosby riding a bucking in the Hollywood movie "Rhythm on the Range".
Richard Batman
Richard Batman, author, has written articles for JOURNAL OF THE WEST, CALIFORNIA HISTORICAL QUARTERLY and READER'S ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE AMERICAN WEST. His books include AMERICAN ECCLESIASTES (1985), THE OUTER COAST (1986), JAMES PATTIE'S WEST, THE DREAM AND THE REALITY (1988).
Anne Baxter
(Deceased)
Anne Baxter, actress, was born on May 7, 1923 in Michigan City, IN. Her parents moved the family to New York City in 1934, when she was eleven (By the way, her grandfather was the world-famous architect, Frank Lloyd Wright).In 1939 she went to Hollywood under contract to 20th Century Fox studios. Her big break came in 1946 when she appeared in "The Razor's Edge" and wound up winning a "Best Supporting Actress" Academy Award. In 1950 she was nominated for, but did not win, an Oscar for "Best Actress" for her role in "All About Eve". In 1956 she starred opposite "Moses" (i.e., Charlton Heston) in "Ten Commandments". She starred in the TV series "Hotel" from 1983 to 1985.
Anne Baxter and actor John Payne in an
early publicity photo.Anne Baxter's work in Western films included "Twenty Mule Team" (1940), "A Ticket to Tomahawk" (1950), "The Outcasts of Poker Flats" (1952) and "Cimarron" (1960).
Anne Baxter died from a stroke on December 12, 1986 at the age of sixty-two. Her remains are in the Unity Chapel in Spring Green, WI.
Warner Baxter
(Deceased)
Warner Baxter, actor, was born on March 29, 1891 in Ohio. He acted some on Broadway in New York City, then became a movie superstar during the era of silent movies.In 1929 Warner Baxter received an Oscar for playing his work in "Old Arizona," playing a good-hearted bandit who, like Robin Hood, robbed the rich and helped the poor. That character was The Cisco Kid. Warner Baxter played the Kid again in "The Cisco Kid" (1931) and "The Return of the Cisco Kid" (1939).
Warner Baxter died on May 7, 1951 and is in 1929. He is buried in crypt 579 at the Garden of Memory in Forest Lawn Cemetery at Glendale, CA.
Austin Bay
Austin Bay, a native of the Texas Panhandle, is the author of The Coyote Cried Twice (Arbor House, 1985) and, with James F. Dunnigan, A Quick and Dirty Guide to War (Morrow, 1985).
This listing is far from complete and may contain errors. Therefore, all Western entertainers and/or their agents are requested to submit recommended changes by contacting Stan Paregien.
Do not be wise in your own eyes;
fear the Lord and shun evil.
This will bring health to your body
and nourishment to your bones.
--- Bible: Proverbs 3:7-8
© 2003 by Stan Paregien, Sr.
