Stan Paregien, Editor
Red Steagall
Red Steagall was born Russell Don Stegal in Gainesville, Texas, in 1938. Red grew up in the tiny panhandle town of Sanford. He came down with polio at the age of 14 (one year before the Salk vaccine came into use). When the polio seriously weakened his left arm, his parents came upon an idea of motivating him to rehabilitate it: they bought him a mandolin. And he was immediately hooked on playing music. When he graduated from high school, his mother gave him a guitar and that has been his instrument of choice ever since.
Steagall went off to college at West Texas State University, where he quickly gathered up some other talented musicians and formed his first band. Red graduated from West Texas State University with a degree in Animal Science & Agronomy. He worked for a while in the agricultural chemistry industry, while writing songs and performing on the side. His first royalty check was in 1957 for $2.54 for his song "Picking White Cotton," recorded by Henson Cargill. Later, he spent eight years in Hollywood, California as an executive in the music industry.
Music has always been a defining element of what makes Red Steagall tick. As a singer and performer, he is best known for his hit songs "Here We Go Again," "Somewhere My Love," "Someone Cares for You," "Freckles Brown," "Party Dolls and Wine," and "Lone Star Beer and Bob Wills Music".
In 1993 he won a Western Heritage Award from the National Cowboy Hall of Fame for his album, "Born to This Land". In August of 1995 he released his 20th album, "Red Steagall and The Boys in the Bunkhouse". And in 2000 he received another Western Heritage Award, this time for his album, "Love of the West," in the category of Traditional Western Music Album. And he and his band, "The Coleman County Cowboys," still play over 30 dances each year.
As a songwriter, Red Steagall has seen over 200 of his songs recorded by other artists (including Frank Sanatra) or by himself. He has appeared in motion pictures and on TV shows, and performs some 200 days per year. His tours have taken him throughout North America and to Germany, Spain, Australia, and South America.
In 1991 the Texas Legislature named Red Steagall as the official "Cowboy Poet of Texas". He is the author of a collection of his poems titled, Ride for the Brand (Ft. Worth, TX: TCU Press, 1993). And he has had a nationally syndicated radio show, "Red Steagall's Cowboy Corner".
Red Steagall with Peggy and Stan Paregien
89er's Day Celebration in Guthrie, Okla.
May, 1997.Red won his third "Western Heritage Award" from the National Cowboy Hall of Fame on April 4, 1998. It was for "Outstanding Original Music" for his 1997 album, "Dear Mama, I'm a Cowboy". That album is a collection of seven lyric-oriented songs and three narrative poems that celebrate traditional ranch and trail life. Nine of the ten cuts were written or co-written by Steagall. The album is on the Warner Western label.
Steagall has twice been selected as the "Entertainer of the Year" by the Academy of Country Artists.
On April 12, 2003, Red Steagall was inducted into the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum's "Hall of Great Westerners". Two of his dear friends, actor Wilford Brimley and famed Western artist Howard Terpning, introduced Steagall for his induction. And at that same event he was awarded his sixth -- yes, 6th -- Western Heritage Award, this time for his album titled "Wagon Tracks" (released in 2002).
Oh, one more thing. Red Steagall is known for his generous nature. He once observed a young female singer sing the national anthem and was so impressed that he went out of his way to make contacts for her with Nashville music executives. The young lady was Reba McEntire.
Bob Steele
(Deceased)
Bob Steele, actor, was born on January 23, 1907. He starred in more than 120 western films from 1927 to 1946. He played "Trooper Duffy" on television's "F Troop" comedy series.
Bob Steele died of heart failure on December 21, 1988. His remains are buried in Forest Lawn (Hollywood Hills, Courts of Remembrance section, Lot #60722) in Los Angeles, CA.
Phillip W. Steele
Phillip W. Steele graduated from the University of Arkansas in 1957 and is the owner of a frozen food manufacturing company. His articles have been published in Western Horseman, Real West,Arkansas Times, NOLA Quarterly, National Tombstone Epitaph, Ozark Mountaineer Magazine and True West.
Phillip W. Steele is the author of Last Cherokee Warriors (Pelican Publishing, 1978), The Butterfield Run (Frontier Press), In Search of the Daltons (1985), Lost Treasurers of the Ozarks , Ozark Tales and Superstitions (1983), and Jesse and Frank James: The Family History (Pelican Publishing, 1987).
Steele is a past president of the Arkansas Film Commission. He is a member of the National Outlaw and Lawman History Association, and is a director of the Friends of the James Farm.
Stan Steiner
(Deceased)
Stan Steiner was born on Jan. 1, 1925 in Spottswood, New Jersey and grew up in the old Flatbush area of Brooklyn, New York. He attended the University of Wisconsin. He moved to New Mexico in about 1966. He served on the boards of American West and Nuestros magazines, and he was a founding member of the National Association for Lawmen and Outlaw History. He served as a guest lecturer at the University of New Mexico from 1974 to 1981 and at Colorado College in Colorado Springs, CO. from 1974 to 1982. He was a scriptwriter and consultant for both television and movies.
He was co-chairman of the WWA convention in Santa Fe in 1982. And he won two WWA Spur Awards, one in 1973 for The Tiguas and one in 1977 for The Vanishing White Man. Steiner died on Jan. 12, 1987, while working at his typewriter on a book entitled, "The Westerners"(see tributes in The Roundup, March 1987, 22; April 1987, 23).
Stan Steiner was the author of 16 books, including The Last Horse (1961), The New Indians (1968), La Raza: The Mexican Americans (1970), George Washington: The Indian Influence (1970), The Tinguas: The Lost Tribe of City Indians (with Luis Valdez, 1972), The Islands: The Worlds of the Puerto Ricans (with Maria Teresa Babin, 1974), The Vanishing White Man (1976), The Mexican Indians (1978), Fusang: The Chinese Who Built America (1979), In Search of the Jaguar (1979), Spirit Woman (1980), The Ranchers: A Book of Generations (1980, University of Oklahoma Press), Dark and Dashing Horsemen (1981), The Superb Masculinity of the West (1983).
He and Shirley Hill Witt edited The Way: An Anthology of American Indian Literature (1972). He and Luis Valdez edited Aztlan: An Anthology of Mexican American Literature (1972). He and Marie Teresa Babin edited Borinquen: An Anthology of Puerto Rican Literature (1972).
Stan Steiner had a unique gift of making his nonfiction books read like good fiction. He worked hard at making sure his books accurately reflected the people upon whom they focused. For example, he told a writer for New Mexico Magazine, "Sometimes the books get in the way. I wrote 500 pages for La_Raza, and I realized that I had let the books come between me and the people. What I had written was not what the villagers had told me at all. So I threw all 500 pages in the wastebasket and went back to the typewriter and started over."
Steiner often criticized the big Eastern publishers for their half-hearted interest in books about the West. And in an attempt to help promote Western writers, he became the founder and president of The Writers' Cooperative of Santa Fe. The Co-op sold books directly to customers, even using a book van to take books to small towns in isolated areas. Co-op members included Tony Hillerman, Norman Zollinger, Scott Momaday and Marc Simmons, to name a few. His biography in Contemporary Authors contained one line that expressed his devotion to his career: "Writing is not a career, it is a religion."
Stan Steiner contributed an essay on "American Indians" to the 1969 edition of the Grolier Encyclopedia and an article on "Contemporary American Indians" to the 1975 book, Encyclopedia of the West. And he also wrote a number of radio and film scripts, including such documentary films as "The American Indian Speaks" (Encyclopedia Britannica Educational Films, 1973-74), "Black Coal, Red Power" (Robert Redford, narrator; National Science Foundation, 1971), and "The Vanishing Wilderness" (1971). He was the Director and Commentator for the radio series, "Who Speaks for the American Indian", heard over WBAI in New York City during 1968-69.
He was a founding member of the National Association for Lawmen and Outlaw History, and he was a member of the Western History Association, Chinese Historical Society of America, and the National Indian Youth Council.He was listed in Who's Who In America, Who's Who in the World, Contemporary Authors, and International Authors.
Articles by Stein appeared in such publications as The New York Times, Washington Post, The New Republic, The Nation, New Leader, The Humanist, Current Anthropology, Natural History, Harpers' Magazine, Horizon, Minority of One, Village Voice, Vogue, Parade, Playboy, Saturday Review, Eyehapa (Sioux Herald), Warpath (United Native Americans), Sentinel (National Congress of American Indians), ABC (National Indian Youth Council), The Navajo Times, Akwesasne Notes (Mohawk Nation), Motive (Methodist Church), Phylon (Atlanta University), Trace (London),and Literarni Noviny (Prague).
Stan Steiner died at his home in Santa Fe in 1987.
T.R. Stephenson
(Deceased)
T.R. Stephenson was widely known as a Texas "outlaw". He spoke his mind in word and song and poetic verse. He was a cowboy poet with an attitude.T.R. Stephenson died in Castroville, Texas on Sept. 20, 2002. Cowgirl poet Debra Coppinger Hill (Chelsea, OK) recited one of his poems ("Warrior's Lament") and one poem she she wrote ("Gone to the Mountains") at his military funeral at Fort Sam Houston.
Bob St. John
Bob St. John graduated from North Texas State University and worked for serveral years as a sports reporter for the Dallas Morning News. He then became a columnist for the paper.
Bob St. John is the author of Down the Road (1977), dealing with rodeo cowboys. And he and Sam Blair wrote: Stauback: First and Lifetime.His stories and articles have appeared in Argosy, Sport, Real West, McCall's, Scene, Quarterback, and many other magazines.
Paul St. Pierre
A former newspaper columnist, Paul St. Pierre has been a rancher, member of the Canadian Parliament, Canadian delegate to the UN Special Committee, Observer to the Organization of American States, and a member of the British Columbia Police Commission. Paul St. Pierre created and wrote "Caribou Country", a series of 30 plays, for CBC Television. One of his plays, Breaking Smith's Quarter Horse, became a best-selling novel, was bought by Disney and distributed as Smith. He is the author of five other books. Smith and Other Events (Beaufort Books, 1984; Penguin, 1985) won a Spur Award in San Antonio.
Charles Stevens
Charles Stevens, actor and stuntman, was born on May 26, 1893 in Solomonsville, Arizona. Talk about an unusual heritage. His father, George H. Stevens, was the sheriff of his Arizona hometown. And his mother, George's wife Eloisa, was one of Geronimo's daughters.
Young Charles was very proud of his heritage as the grandson of the Apache warrior-chief. He left home as a boy to join a Wild West show and fell in love with performing. He film career started with D.W. Griffith's "Birth of a Nation" in 1915.
Charles had met actor Douglas Fairbanks through the 101 Ranch, a famous Wild West show that spawned among others Western star Hoot Gibson. Charlie's ability to do challenging stunt work and his colorful background impressed Fairbanks, and that helped him get more work.
With Native American features of straight black hair and a handsomely weathered face, Charles Stevens appeared in more of Douglas Fairbank's films than any other actor . In the beginning, this diminutive but resilient hombre did the riskiest stunts in Doug's films. He was also an excellent horseman. Charlie became such a valuable asset that he eventually received cherished billing by 1917.
Douglas Fairbanks Jr. had this to say about Charles Stevens in his book, The Salad Days (Doubleday, 1988): "Also among this group of disciples were those who became so attracted to my father and his work that they became his lucky pieces. In one way or another, they were included, in unconvincing disguises, in almost every one of his pictures. Charlie Stevens became such a necessity to every picture that short roles were sometimes written into stories just for him. Years later, I carried on that tradition and engaged Charlie to work in my own, self-produced pictures."
Stevens thought highly of Fairbanks, too. In a newspaper interview (Daily News, Los Angeles, November 20, 1953, celebrating his 200th film), Stevens described Fairbanks' love of practical jokes: "I even staged Indian raids for Doug. When Fairbanks knew things were slow at the studio for us boys, he would tell me to round up a gang. Then Doug would drive some of his tourist friends up Laurel Canyon where we'd ambush 'em and war whoop around until they'd clutch their scalps. That's when Hollywood Boulevard was a cow trail! "
As a gesture of friendship and gratitude, the great star kept Stevens on his payroll until the end of his life in 1939.
Charles Stevens made an easy transition to talkies. He seemed to get busier with the coming of sound. Since he spoke English, Spanish and various Native American languages, he was often in demand to play latin and Asian types. He even portrayed an Eskimo in Call of the Wild (M-G-M, 1935), starring Clark Gable. The Virginian (Paramount Famous Lasky Corp., 1929) was a favorite because he enjoyed working with star Gary Cooper. His role as the wretched villian "Injun Joe" in Tom Sawyer (Paramounts Publix Corp., 1930), starring Jackie Coogan, made him memorable with audiences.
Other films in which he can be seen are The Big Trail (Fox Film Corp., 1930), starring John Wayne, Tyrone Power Sr. ; The Cisco Kid (Fox Film Corp, 1931), a serial starring Warner Baxter; Viva Villa (M-G-M, 1934), starring Wallace Beery ; Three Godfathers (M-G-M, 1936), starring Chester Morris; and Union Pacific (Paramount, 1939); Geronimo (Paramount, 1940), starring Chief Thunder Cloud in the title role (ironically, the real grandson of Geronimo --Charles Stevens-- was just an extra!).
He also appeared in a remake of Douglas Fairbanks's The Mark of Zorro (20th Century-Fox, 1940), starring Tyrone Power; Blood and Sand (20th Century-Fox, 1941), also starring Power; and My Darling Clementine (20th Century-Fox, 1946), starring Henry Fonda and directed by John Ford .
Geronimo's grandson worked steadily in films up to 1961. His last role was in The Outsider (Warner Bros., 1961), starring Tony Curtis. He played the grandfather of World War II hero, Pima Indian Ira Hayes. No doubt about it, Charlie was a dedicated and dependable professional for close to 50 years.
Charles Stevens died on Aug. 22, 1964, in Hollywood, CA.
CLICK HERE to see the complete filmography of Charles Stevens.
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 through his e-mail address.
"The earth is the Lord's, and everything in it,
the world and all who live in it."
-- Psalm 24:1
© 2003 by Stan Paregien, Sr.
