INSP’S ‘ULTIMATE COWBOY SHOWDOWN’ RETURNS WEDNESDAY – INTERVIEW WITH TRACE ADKINS; WESTERNS FRANCAIS – INTERVIEW WITH ‘SAVAGE STATE’ DIRECTOR DAVID PERRAULT; PLUS DVD REVIEWS!

INSP’S ‘ULTIMATE COWBOY SHOWDOWN’ RETURNS WEDNESDAY

On Wednesday, February 24^th, season two of The Ultimate Cowboy Showdown returns to INSP.  Some of the best working cowboys from around the country compete in teams and as individuals in a wide range of challenges – riding, roping, driving cattle, and complex relay-races.  Country music legend Trace Adkins is once again the host and, with the input of experts in various specialties, the ultimate judge, and Trace sends at least one competitor home every week. This time the field of competitors is larger – fourteen instead of a dozen – and the already valuable winnings are bigger as well: the last man standing wins a $50,000 herd of cattle, a Rawhide Portable Corral, an Arrowquip Q-Catch 87 Series Cattle Chute, not the mention the coveted Ultimate Cowboy Showdown belt-buckle, and a lifetime of bragging rights. 

I had the opportunity to talk with Trace Adkins about the new season, and also spoke with Jennifer Hudgins, one of this season’s four female competitors.

HENRY PARKE:  Back in 2019, I visited you on location in Alabama. And now the shows moved to Texas. Why the move?

TRACE ADKINS:  They just wanted to do it in a different place this time. And we had a lot, a lot open ground out there in Texas that we could utilize.

HENRY PARKE:  How did the change of locale change the show?

TRACE ADKINS:  We were planning on shooting it in March, and then COVID happened.  We finally got everything figured out, how we could do it during COVID. That took until the 1st of July. So doing this show in Texas in July was challenging, I'll tell you: it was hot.

HENRY PARKE:  I'll bet. Were you folks all quarantined?

TRACE ADKINS:  Yeah, once everybody got there, the first day everybody took tests, and then quarantined, and when all the tests came back negative, we just stayed in our little bubble and did our thing.

HENRY PARKE:  What's the best part of doing the show?

TRACE ADKINS:  Just the opportunity to watch these professionals at work. I mean, it's still amazing to me. There are still working Cowboys in this country that still do it, the old school way. And it's just really fun to watch.

HENRY PARKE:  Has the success of season one changed the kind of competitors you get?

TRACE ADKINS:  Yeah, and I knew that it would. As I went around last year, after the first one came out, I ran into a lot of cowboys that were like, “You didn't have no good cowboys on there! I could do that.” And I was like, come on, we're gonna do another one. You can throw your hat in the ring and see what you got. Nothing against the contestants that we had the first season. But, once you got down to that cream of the crop last year, those final four we had; we started out with 14 of that caliber at the very beginning of this season. So it was a horse of a different color this year.

HENRY PARKE:  On every show, after the elimination competition, you send at least one cowboy packing. In addition to being the host, you're also the ultimate judge. When you question the competitors in the arena before announcing your decision, are you actually making your final determination based on their answers?  Or have you decided who's going out before you come out and tell them?

TRACE ADKINS:  It was different; it could go two ways.  Either I would go into the arena at sundown pretty much having made up my mind, and then it was going to be up to them to fight, to stay, or to say something that was going to change my mind. Or sometimes I would go in not knowing who was going to go, and not even leaning toward anybody. And then it was totally up to them as to how they conducted themselves in the arena, as to who was going to go home. It was always my decision.

HENRY PARKE:  Your father was a rodeo cowboy. Does this show bring back a lot of memories?

TRACE ADKINS:  Well you know, he quit riding before I was old enough to remember. I think my mother probably told him he needed to stick with that good job, and stop chasing those rodeos around. But he was a good horseman: he was the real deal.  I know that he would've really enjoyed this show.

HENRY PARKE: Did you ever compete?

TRACE ADKINS:  No.

HENRY PARKE:  If you were as young as the contenders that you have on the show, what competitions do you think you'd have done best in?

TRACE ADKINS:  Probably just the strong back and the low skill level type chores. (laughs)

HENRY PARKE: In the first episode of this new season, someone says that it's pasture cowboys versus arena cowboys. Is that accurate?

TRACE ADKINS:  Yeah, some of it. But the way that the competition was structured, nobody really had the upper hand because the tasks were so varied.

HENRY PARKE:  How life-changing do you think winning the herd, the ranch equipment, and of course the buckle, can be?

TRACE ADKINS:  Oh, I think it means a great deal to these folks. That's why they just poured their heart and soul into trying to win. It was very, very important to them.

HENRY PARKE:  Was there anything you learned from season one not to do in season two?

TRACE ADKINS:  That's been the case and throughout most of my career: the best lessons I've learned have been what not to do.  But I don't think in this case that was applicable.

Incidentally, I also spoke to Trace about his Western movie career – you can read about that soon in True West.  He has two more Westerns in the can, Old Henry and Apache Junction, and is currently shooting a third, The Desperate Riders, in Nashville. 

I watched the first three episodes of the new season of Ultimate Cowboy Showdown, and saw Jennifer Hudgins get roughly stomped on by a large calf, that left her hurting.

Jennifer Hudgins

HENRY PARKE:  How are you feeling? The trampling that you took looked pretty rough.

JENNIFER HUDGINS:  It was pretty rough, and I was pretty sore right after, but I'm good now.

HENRY PARKE:  Very good. Pretty early on, someone makes the point that the competition in a sense is arena cowboy versus pasture cowboy. Is that true?

JENNIFER HUDGINS:  In a lot of ways, it kind of was.  You know, so many of the challenges were kind of geared towards the arena, and the pasture cowboy is kind of a little different game.

HENRY PARKE:  Where do you fit in?

JENNIFER HUDGINS:  I'm definitely more of pasture cowboy rancher.  I'm not that much of an arena cowboy, and haven't been for several years.

HENRY PARKE:  What exactly is a cow boss?

JENNIFER HUDGINS:  A cowboy. Most people refer to the cow boss as the guy who kind of runs things on the ground. The cow boss is the person you're going to look to when you're gathering cattle, when you're sorting in the pens; day-to-day, hands-on type operations like that.

HENRY PARKE:  What’s a top hand?

JENNIFER HUDGINS:  A top hand would be somebody that sure enough good at what they do. Good horseman, good cowboy, knows how to handle cattle the correct way. Keep things quiet and get things done efficiently.

HENRY PARKE:  Do you know how much competition there was to make one of the 14 spots in the show?

JENNIFER HUDGINS:  I really don't. At one point I heard that thousands of people applied and sent in videos, but I never heard an exact number.

HENRY PARKE:  How did you audition? Did you send in a video?

JENNIFER HUDGINS:  They called me. A friend of mine had given them my information and they reached out to me and then we did a Skype interview. I did two or three Skype interviews, I believe.

HENRY PARKE:  Did you do anything special to prepare for the competition?

JENNIFER HUDGINS:  Not really. I wouldn't say I did anything that I don't really do all the time. I just tried to really prepare mentally more than anything.

HENRY PARKE:  How do you prepare mentally?

JENNIFER HUDGINS:  Sometimes you just have to put your big girl panties on and get your game face on and know you're going down there to win.  And you're going to be competing against people that are just as good or better than you. You really don't know. And you just have to get yourself in the right head space.

HENRY PARKE:  Sometimes there's touchiness us about terminology. Do you prefer cowboy, cowgirl or something else?

JENNIFER HUDGINS:  I prefer the term cowboy. There's nothing wrong with the term cowgirl, but when you say it, people automatically picture in their head like you're a rodeo queen type person. And while that's fine, that's not who I am. I'm day-to-day doing a man's job in a man's world, and can do it just as well as they can. So I feel like I should be on the same level.

HENRY PARKE:  As a dad of a daughter myself, I love what you said about working with your dad being your daycare. Tell me a little about growing up with your dad in the cattle business as a kid.

JENNIFER HUDGINS:  You know, my dad has been in the cattle business my entire life.  He is definitely old school cowboy all the way to the core. And he's a tough man. He expected a lot out of us growing up. From the time I was little bitty, he took me along with him. He might be catching wild cattle for people, and he wasn’t going to put me in harm’s way.  He'd tell me, “Stay right here on the back of this pickup, and do not get off for any reason.” And by gosh, I stayed there. I'd have my crackers and my pop and toys and just play there, as long as it took. Now on the days I could go, I had a pony, and that pony knew to stay right behind my dad and I just went everywhere they went.

HENRY PARKE:  Growing up, what sort of things were you learning to do on your ranch?

JENNIFER HUDGINS:  We learned a little bit of everything. My dad, he's pretty versatile.  He knows how to run a cow calf operation. He knows how to run yearlings. And we did all that my entire life. I grew up learning how to ride a horse, how to gather cattle, how to rope, how to sort, learning how to do all those things correctly and keep the cattle quiet. We learned to process cattle the right way. I have a younger brother, and any aspect of ranching, we grew up watching my dad do that and we just tried to mimic him.

HENRY PARKE:  Well now forgive me, because I'm a Brooklyn-born city slicker, so there's a whole lot that I don't know about cowboying. I didn't know you're not supposed to ride your horse in front of somebody, but I sure learned it from the show.  Why not?

JENNIFER HUDGINS:  That's a big no-no. You don't ever ride in front of another person like that. It's a major respect thing. When you're out there gathering cattle, everybody has their spot and everybody needs to stay in their spot. Because if we go to try and jump ahead, then we're leaving holes for the cattle to get away from us. And by riding in front of another cowboy, you're basically saying, you're not doing your job, so I'm going to ride up here in front of you, cut you off because I feel like I need to be here, and you don't. It's incredibly disrespectful.

HENRY PARKE:  From the brief biography I read, work-wise it sounds like you have a pretty full plate. Why did you decide to enter this competition?

JENNIFER HUDGINS:  I was kind of back and forth on whether I really wanted to do it or not, because you just don't know what to expect. I'd never in my life done anything like that. I had seen the previous season of the Ultimate Cowboy Showdown, but I was a little leery, but then my dad kind of pushed me and was like, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity.  You go down there and win it and you've got $50,000 worth of cattle, and that's a big deal.

HENRY PARKE:  And the equipment that comes with it must be very valuable,

JENNIFER HUDGINS:  Like the portable set-up pen, those can be a game changer, that can open opportunities for getting more land where there weren't pens available, and not having to invest a bunch of money right off the bat in building a full set of pens, because you have that portable corral.

HENRY PARKE:  The show starts with 14 contestants, 10 men and 4 women. Have you made any friendships? 

JENNIFER HUDGINS:  I really got to know Morgan and have a lot of respect for her.  She comes from a totally different part of the country (Shell, Wyoming), and the way they do things and the way we do things here in Oklahoma are vastly different, but I had so much respect for the kind of cowboy that she is.  I got to be really good friends with Ora (Brown) and JP (John Paul Gonzalez) and we still keep in touch. We still talk two or three times a week. Really good guys, good family men. And I will cherish those friendships for life.

HENRY PARKE:  I'm pretty sure you made at least one enemy with Tyler Kijac.

JENNIFER HUDGINS:  Yeah, Tyler is probably not my favorite person, but at the end of the day, this happens when you're ranching and you have guys come day-work for you. Sometimes there's a class clash of personalities, like in any job in an office setting, or in the middle of the pasture gathering cattle. Sometimes things get heated, you have somebody that doesn't really know what they need to be doing, and they can't take direction and it generally will get you in a bind. And that happened many times with Tyler. He's not a pasture cowboy. He doesn't know how to read cattle. He's not ever in the right spot when you're gathering or sorting. And so that causes a problem for everybody trying to work with him. And I did get in the middle of him a few times, but when it's all said and done, I just leave it there. I don't carry it with me.

HENRY PARKE:  Have you ever tried out for any other TV reality show?

JENNIFER HUDGINS:  No, I have not. But yes. I love reality TV. I probably watch more reality TV than anything.

HENRY PARKE:  Were you disappointed that there was no rose ceremony?

JENNIFER HUDGINS:  At the end of the day when Trace calls us all down there to the arena and sends someone home, that was a pretty intense situation at times.  They didn't need to give me a rose. I was happy to go sit on the fence. (Note: if Trace tells you won’t be eliminated, you go sit on the fence.)

HENRY PARKE:  How does cowboying in Texas compares with Oklahoma?

JENNIFER HUDGINS:  I would say there's a lot in common.  The way they do things there is very similar to the way we do things here.  It gets really, really hot in the summertime and it was that way there. Extremely hot. So you kind of have to work around that, so you don't stress the cattle and you're not overworking your horses. The heat does come into it.

HENRY PARKE:  How did you like Trace Adkins?

JENNIFER HUDGINS:  He was really, really intimidating at first. He's such a big guy and he has such a deep voice.  When he first walked up, I was like, Oh my gosh!  A very commanding presence.  But after the first few days, when we were around him a little bit more, he really seems like a good guy. He joked around with us a time or two, kind of laid back and pretty easy going for the most part. But when, when he gets down there in that arena at elimination time, he means business.

HENRY PARKE:  Can you tell me anything funny or interesting that happened that we might not see in the show?

JENNIFER HUDGINS:  When I got trampled by the calf, it ripped my pants pretty much completely off of me on one side. So I don't know how much of that will actually be on the TV because, literally, my whole butt is hanging out and here it is like our first immunity challenge. That was something that you just have to laugh about it and go on; you can't change it.

HENRY PARKE:  Did you learn anything of value from your competitors?

JENNIFER HUDGINS:  There were a lot of things that I took away from the competition.  I have a lot of respect for some of my fellow competitors that they are outstanding arena cowboys. They're good at what they do, and being able to watch them in their element when we had that type of challenge, you can really take a lot away from that. Maybe they don't do what I do, but that doesn't mean they're not good at what they do.

HENRY PARKE:  Looking back, is there anything you would have done differently in the competition?

JENNIFER HUDGINS:  After it's all over with, you can always see your mistakes. I think there's some things I would've done a little differently. Maybe thinking things out a little longer instead of just reacting.

HENRY PARKE:  Were there any big surprises?

JENNIFER HUDGINS:  Going into it, I don't think any of us were prepared for how mentally, emotionally and physically exhausting it would be. We know we have to work hard, because we do every day. But being in that situation, you’re away from home, away from the people that you care about that, are your support system. And you're thrown in with all these strangers in this competitive environment. It can be very, very mentally challenging at times. And I don't think any of us were prepared for that.

If you’d like to start with season one, you can find every episode at INSP.com,  HERE https://www.insp.com/ultimate-cowboy-showdown/?=homepage_hero

If you’d like to read what I had to say about season one, including my earlier interview with Trace, go HERE.

 https://henryswesternroundup.blogspot.com/2019/10/ultimate-cowboy-showdown-premiere.html

SAVAGE STATE – A NEW FRENCH WESTERN

Several European nations have had a long association with Western filmmaking – Germany, Italy, Spain.  But France is among them.  True, many Spaghetti Westerns were international co-productions that included French financing and therefore some French cast members.  But aside from a pair of Brigitte Bardot films, 1965’s Viva Maria, and 1971’s The Legend of Frenchie King, there are very few Westerns from French filmmakers.  So I was surprised and delighted to learn that Samuel Goldwyn Films had acquired a new French Western, Savage State, which is now available On Demand and Digitally. 

It’s the story of a French family in Missouri at the start of the Civil War, who make the tactical error of allying with the Confederacy.  They quickly determine their safety demands that they return to France as quickly as possible.  They hire a mercenary to lead them, and find themselves confronting not only Union soldiers, but the former associates of their mercenary.  The cast includes Alice Isaaz, Deborah Francois, Kevin Janssens, and Kate Moran.  With striking exteriors, from town to forest to snow-covered fort, and elegant interior sets, particularly a ballroom where a celebration goes startlingly all to Hell, Florian Sanson’s art direction and Christophe Duchange’s cinematography combine to make one of the most beautiful Westerns in recent memory.

Writer-Director David Perrault first garnered admiration for his 2013 film Our Heroes Died Tonight,  a 1960s crime drama about a man who leaves the Foreign Legion to drift, reluctantly, into a career as a masked wrestler.   Savage State is a heavily atmospheric film, sometimes almost dream-like, and with that dream-like feel are some apparent lapses of logic.  I had the pleasure of interviewing Perrault, and learning about his passion for the genre, and his adventures making Savage State.

 

HENRY PARKE: I was surprised to learn that Savage State is not your first Western – that was No Hablo American.  France has produced great filmmakers since the Lumiere brothers, but not usually Westerns.  Why have you chosen this genre twice?

DAVID PERRAULT: I love westerns since I was a child. I had a Super 8 projector, and one of the 3-minute reels was the Indian Attack in John Ford's Stagecoach. Much later I discovered his films and he remains the greatest American filmmaker for me. Even though in writing and filming Savage State, I tried to forget all of those classics and move towards something almost radically opposed. We cannot redo what has already been done, it is unsurpassable!

HENRY PARKE: Is there actual history behind your story?  Were there French nationals in the U.S. who thought it best to leave when the Civil War broke out?  Are your characters based on real people? Or are they your invention?
DAVID PERRAULT: While writing the screenplay, I researched French settlers during the Civil War. The demand for neutrality by Napoleon 3 during the conflict is very real, for example. On the other hand, the characters are completely fictitious.

HENRY PARKE: I thought you actually shot in the U.S., but IMDB says you filmed in Canada, France and Spain.  Have you been to the United States, specifically the American west?
DAVID PERRAULT: Yes, that was the challenge of making people believe in the United States by filming in such different places. My wife has an American aunt so it's a country that I know well. But I know it especially through the films and in particular the classics of the Hollywood golden age.

HENRY PARKE: I believe your previous film, Our Heroes Died Tonight, while period, was not so long ago, and was shot in town.  Savage State, by contrast, is set 150 years ago, in a foreign land, requiring all manner of difficult-to-find costumes and props and locations, and was filmed in three countries, on two continents.  What were the biggest challenges?  What sort of unexpected problems did you have to overcome?

DAVID PERRAULT: The biggest challenge was the weather. You never knew what to expect. In Canada, for the final shootout scene, it was snowing and extremely cold. The team was going crazy in these extreme conditions. The guns, the kerosene lamps, the filming equipment… everything started to freeze. The camera was covered with a survival blanket, but the optics froze too!

HENRY PARKE: The film is beautifully lit and shot, wonderfully atmospheric, sometimes almost dreamlike.  What look and mood were you going for?  Do you storyboard extensively? 

DAVID PERRAULT: No storyboard. I am an extremely visual person, I have the film in my head and when I arrive on the set I adapt to the actors, to the weather. At one point in Savage State, we see the convoy going through the haze, it was not planned, but I jumped at the chance to make an iconic shot. Overall, I wanted it to have a gothic feel, close to fantasy cinema. As you say, the film is constructed as a daydream, sometimes nightmarish. This was really the line I wanted to follow.

HENRY PARKE: You have such a strong cast, so many talented women.  Is it hard to find performers who are convincing in historical stories?  Can you say something about the casting process?

DAVID PERRAULT: I wanted to create a very strong group of women on screen. So I chose actresses from very different horizons to create relief. During the casting, I am very sensitive to the voices and the way they go together. It's a very musical way of working.

HENRY PARKE: I understand why the smugglers were masked during crimes, but why were they masked even when sitting around the campfire, and presumably eating?

DAVID PERRAULT: It's an unrealistic bias that takes part in the nightmarish and hallucinatory atmospheres that I wanted to give to the film.

HENRY PARKE: Do you have plans for your next movie?  Is it a Western?

DAVID PERRAULT: It's not a western, nor a movie. It's a TV show about dreams precisely.

DVD REVIEWS

DON RICARDO RETURNS – or, if Zorro and the Cisco Kid had a baby…

With his story The Curse of Capistrano published in 1919, Johnston McCulley created Zorro, the prototype for the swashbuckling Mexican hero in Westerns for years to come.  Douglas Fairbanks played him to great success the following year, and he would later be portrayed by Tyrone Power, Guy Williams, Alain Delon, and twice by Antonio Banderas, among others.  McCulley would continue to write until his death in 1958, and many of his stories were turned into movies.  He was only credited with one produced screenplay, ironically based on another writer’s famous character: Doomed Caravan (1941), starring William Boyd as Clarence Mulford’s Hopalong Cassidy.  

In 1946, P.R.C. released Don Ricardo Returns, original story by McCulley, about a wealthy young nobleman, Don Ricardo (Fred Coby), who is Shanghaied, and when he escapes and returns to Monterey, learns that the culprit, his cousin Don Jose Luerra (Anthony Warde), has had Ricardo declared dead, and is trying to claim his property, and woo his intended, the lovely Dorothea (Lita Baron, aka Isabelita), who is handy with a sword herself.  While the film is itself a poor cousin to 20^th Century Fox’s Mark of Zorro (1940), and Fred Coby is no Tyrone Power, it is an entertaining 63 minutes, with good dialog and swordplay. 

Look quick, and Fred Coby looks like Tyrone Power.

That's the San Fernando Mission behind them.

Rather than being studio-bound, director Terry O’Morse  makes ample and effective use of two historical landmark locations, The San Fernando Mission, and the Andres Pico Adobe, both of which are happily still standing, and open to visitors.

Of particular interest is that the screenplay is co-written by Renault Duncan, the nom de plume of actor Duncan Renaldo, famous for his portrayal of O. Henry’s the Cisco Kid in eight movies and 157 TV episodes.  Renaldo also was associate producer on the film.  He would go on to write three more swashbucklers, Bells of San Fernando (1947), The Lady and the Bandit (1951), and The Highwayman (1951), all with cowriter Jack DeWitt.  Don Ricardo Returns is available from Alpha Video HERE. https://www.oldies.com/product-view/8366D.html

THE PHANTON PINTO – my first car

I’ve always had a fondness for Westerns made during World War II, where the characters were simultaneously fighting range wars and Nazi spies.  In the tiny budget Phantom Pinto, when rancher Wade (Milburn Morante) balks at selling apparently worthless land for a high price to German accented Kurt Hank (Sven Hugo Borg), he turns up dead.  Wade’s daughter (Dorothy Short) is eager to sell, but dad’s old confidante Jim (Dave O’Brien) and Wade’s 10-year-old son Buzzy (Robert “Buzzy” Henry) smell a rat, or maybe a Schweinhund, and discover Hank and his minions want the land to mine valuable deposits of strontium!  Jim says that’s something used to make fireworks, but the remarkable thing is that this film was released in May of 1941, long before the U.S. entry into the war, and Strontium 90 is a radioactive isotope produced during nuclear explosions!  I don’t know who screenwriter E.G. Robertson was listening to, but it was someone who talked too much!

Buzz Henry as a kid.

So cheap and crudely made that it seems more like an early 1930s rather than ‘40s film, it even features silent-movie style open-air sets pretending to be interiors, the most appealing thing about it is Buzzy Henry.  A talented for-real child cowboy, in addition to riding and roping, he gets all the best lines: “Get along there, you un-American polecat,” and “C’mon, Mr. Hand-kisser!  You’ve got a date with Uncle Sam!”

As an adult, Buzz Henry would become a much in-demand stuntman and stunt coordinator, and was second-unit director on Our Man Flint, The Wild Bunch and Macho Callahan, and in 1971 was doing the same job on The Cowboys when he was killed in a motorcycle accident, at age 40.  The Phantom Pinto is available from Alpha Video HERE.

https://www.oldies.com/product-view/8377D.html 

And that's a wrap!

Please check out the current True West, February/March 2021, featuring my interview with actor Graham Greene.

Happy Trails,

Henry

All original contents copyright February 2021 by Henry C. Parke -- All Rights Reserved

 

‘ULTIMATE COWBOY SHOWDOWN’ PREMIERE, INTERVIEW WITH TRACE ADKINS, PLUS ‘SILVER SPURS’ RED CARPET, LONE PINE FILM FESTIVAL!

‘ULTIMATE COWBOY SHOWDOWN’ PREMIERE

Pull your hat down tight next Monday, October 14, and keep it there all week!  The Ultimate Cowboy Showdown, a competition like none before it (that I’ve seen, anyway), begins on INSP, and runs for six days. A dozen professional cowboys will be going head-to-head in a series of challenges to test their overall cowboying skills, while Trace Adkins and his experts whittle down the field. There’s no show Saturday, but on Sunday night, the last cowpoke standing will win a shiny new belt-buckle – and a fifty-thousand-dollar herd of cattle, not coincidentally, the herd they’ve been working with all week.

The competitors come from all over the country – three from Texas, two from California, and one each from Florida, Utah, Oklahoma, Tennessee, North Dakota, Iowa, and even Washington D.C. – that last fellow describes himself as an urban cowboy. Some are rodeo cowboys, one is a movie stuntman, more are ranchers, more than one wants to win in order to save the family ranch. While the movies have mostly portrayed cowboying as a white man’s activity, the first cowboys were Mexican vaqueros, and after the Civil War there were many black cowboys, and both groups are represented here, as are women.   

Contestant J. Storme

Some challenges are group, and some are individual.  Some are typical, like calf roping, and some are not, like a relay race: the first person saddles and rides a horse, and passes the baton to the next, who has to load 21 bales of hay into a hayloft as fast as he can. The baton passes to the next, who has to change a flat tire on a trailer. The next person has to open the trailer, let out a horse and a calf, climb on the horse, and rope the calf. The final cowboy has to pick up that 200-pound calf and put it back in the trailer!

Although he’s grateful for the various experts’ input, the ultimate judge is three-time CMA Award-winning singer and actor Trace Adkins. I had the opportunity to talk to Trace about the show, and about his Western movies, when he took a brief break from his judging duties.

INTERVIEW WITH TRACE ADKINS

Henry Parke:   I'm very happy to finally meet you, because I'd been on three of your Western sets -- Hickock, Wyatt Earp’s Revenge, and Traded -- but never on days where you were working.

Trace Adkins: Well, let's see. Two of those I got killed in. That director, Timothy Woodward, I worked with on Hickok and Traded, and I just finished doing another western with him too, The Outsider. He kills me in every movie that he puts me in.  (laugh) I don't know what the deal is.

Henry Parke: Well, he must like you though. He kills you, but he keeps bringing you back. What kind of character do you play in it?

Trace Adkins: Well, I was a bad guy, but now I'm seeking redemption and trying to finish my life, doing hopefully something that'll get me into heaven. But my son is a lost cause. (My character’s) seed is bad, and there's just nothing he can to do about it. It's a really interesting role.

Henry Parke:   Well, with the Ultimate Cowboy Showdown, I hear you’re just coming back from an immunity challenge. What's been the most interesting of the challenges that they’ve done so far?

Trace Adkins: I think the team challenges. The immunity challenges are individual things. I tend to like the ones where they team up, and they have to work together and strategize. It's a little more nuanced, as opposed to just the mano a mano of roping or running a horse or something.

Henry Parke:   How did you get involved with the Ultimate Cowboy Showdown?

Trace Adkins: I've known (Producer) Andrew Glassman for a few years, and we talked years ago about trying to do something together. Andrew told me about this project and I just jumped right on it. It just sounded like it'd be something fun to do. I am at that beautiful place in my life and my career where I can make decisions on what I want to do based on the answer to the question, would that be something I would enjoy doing? I was involved from the very beginning, talking about who were the experts he was going to bring in to work with.  It's been a really, really interesting process and a lot of fun.

Henry Parke:   What experts has he brought in that you've enjoyed working with?

Trace Adkins: There’s a guy named Buddy Shnaufer, who owns a huge cattle company. It was interesting to hang out with Buddy and hear his insights on the cattle business. Fred Whitfield came, seven-time World Champion Calf Roper. He's a legend, and I got to spend a day riding next to Fred. I just had a blast, probably my favorite day so far. And then Chuck Tice, who’s former president of the Alabama Cattlemen's Association. I've learned from every expert that’s been on the show so far.

Contestant Hadley Hunting

Henry Parke:   And you're a rancher yourself?

Trace Adkins: No, I'm not a rancher. I mean, I grew up with horses, and I live on an old farm south of Nashville. I'm just never home; I feel guilty enough leaving my dogs. So, I'm looking forward to that day when I start to slow it down and not travel as much, and get back into having some livestock; right now, I don't have any.

Henry Parke:   Did you develop many cowboy skills when you were growing up?

Trace Adkins: You know, somebody asked me how I thought I would do in this competition. I said well, if you'd have caught me 35 years ago, maybe I'd have given you a run for your money, but at 57, no.  I'm in the perfect spot, standing on the sideline, cheering them on and judging. My participating days are over.

Henry Parke:   What do you think are the qualities and characteristics that add up to being the ultimate cowboy?

Trace Adkins: You know, every one of these contestants are experts at something. But this competition requires them to have some level of proficiency in a lot of different areas. It's the cowboy or cowgirl that has the most experience overall, a cowboying capacity, that's going to win this thing. Because they're being asked to do all kinds of different stuff, so they can't just rely on whatever their forte may be.

Henry Parke:  In your autobiography, TRACE ADKINS: A PERSONAL STAND, you talk about your roughneck work in the petroleum industry. How does that kind of work compare with cowboying?

Trace Adkins: I think the mentality was probably pretty similar. You're going to work 12 hours a day, and you're going to reach and get it all day long. And that's how these cowboys have to work. When it's time to work, you've got to work until the job's done. There's no calling time out, and taking a break. Just going to get it done. That's the way it was working oil fields, you know, we had a saying: it never rains, it never gets hot. And there are no holidays.

Henry Parke:   It's funny, I was just talking to my wife's two brothers who, like you, worked on oil rigs for Global Marine.

Trace Adkins: Oh wow!

Henry Parke:   And they told me that there were three things all successful men in that field have: a diamond pinky ring, a Rolex, and divorce papers. Is that true?

Trace Adkins: Well, I've got a pinky that I got cut off working on the drilling rig. That accounts for the pinky ring. I don't hardly ever wear a watch, but I have a couple of nice ones. And I've got three sets of divorce papers. So I guess I got that going for me.

Henry Parke:   Ever since the days of the singing cowboys like Gene Autry and Roy Rogers, there's been a connection between country music and Western movies. Do you feel a personal connection with Western film?

Trace Adkins: Well, I never would have even allowed myself to dream that I would ever be in a Western. And now I've had the opportunity to live that dream. I absolutely love it. As a kid I watched those movies and just idolized those people. Gary Cooper, John Wayne, the list goes on and on, and I thought, wow, that's the best job in the world. To get paid to pretend to be a cowboy and ride a horse all day. That must be fun. And now I've found out it is, it absolutely is. It's just like stealing money. It's just too much fun to get paid for doing it.

Henry Parke:   Which is your favorite of the movies you've done so far?

Trace Adkins: My favorite was not a western. The Lincoln Lawyer, the movie than I did with Matthew McConaughey. But I was a biker, which is just a cowboy on two wheels.

Henry Parke:   I liked your work in The Virginian very much.

Trace Adkins: Thank you. I enjoyed that. That was my first lead. The very first day I was on set, I made the announcement to the entire crew that the director had no idea what he was doing because he hired me as the lead in the movie, which unsettled everybody just a little bit.

Henry Parke:   Besides Matthew McConaughey, any other actors you're particularly pleased to work with?

Trace Adkins: Well, the biggest ones that I've had a chance to work with, Mark Wahlberg and Dennis Quaid, a few others. Without exception, they've been so gracious and kind and giving, and willing to rehearse when they don't have to. Those guys have been really, really kind. And Kris Kristofferson. I did Hickok with him, and what a treat that was.  I'd done a couple of shows with Kris, but I've never had a chance to do a movie with him until then.

Henry Parke:   So I take it you watched a lot of westerns growing up?

Trace Adkins: Oh yeah, my daddy, that's all he loved. Gunsmoke was appointment TV. Whatever we were doing, we can't do that then: Gunsmoke is going to be on. Gunsmoke, Bonanza, all those Westerns we watched growing up, and all those movies. He had prints of John Wayne on the wall. My daddy rodeoed when I was kid. He steer-wrestled. He was a big, tough cowboy. When my second brother came along, my Momma made him quit. But he loved horses and he was a good rider. Good hand. He was good man. I think I really got my love of all things Western from him.

Henry Parke:   Did you go to Rodeos as a kid?

Trace Adkins: Yeah, we always went to the Rodeo. We had that hometown rodeo in Springhill, Louisiana every year. Then we'd go to Shreveport, to the Hirsch Memorial Coliseum when they'd have a big Rodeo during the State Fair. And we a couple of times we went to Houston to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. So yeah, we traveled to go to the rodeo.

Henry Parke:   Does doing The Ultimate Cowboy Showdown bring back memories?

Trace Adkins: Absolutely. It just reminds me of so many of my friends back home, too. People that do team roping and cutting. It just feels very familiar to me to be hanging out with these guys and these ladies. Good people, and always a good day spending the day with them. It's been a great experience so far.

LONE PINE FILM FESTIVAL THURSDAY THROUGH SUNDAY!

The 30^th Annual Lone Pine Film Festival will be held from Thursday, October 10 through Sunday, October 13, headquartered at the Museum of Western Film History. About 800 movies have been filmed in the general area, 400 in the Alabama Hills just outside of Lone Pine. For three decades, folks who love the look of the area, and love movies, and Westerns in particular, have gathered around Columbus Day to celebrate the place’s unique history in filmmaking.

There are many tours and talks over the three days, highlighting topics such as the films that Randolph Scott and William “Hopalong Cassidy” Boyd made there. The locations of many shoots can be visited, including not just Westerns, but the biggest-budget film for its time shot there, Gunga Din.

Many films and TV shows that were filmed there will be screened, featuring stars like Tex Ritter, Roy Rogers, Sunset Carson, Allan “Rocky” Lane, Gene Autry, Bob Steele, Tim Holt, John Wayne, Joel McCrea, and Randolph Scott.

Western Historian Rob Word will be moderating a number of panel discussions, and guests taking part, and introducing films, will include Bill Wellman Jr.; Wyatt McCrea, grandson of Joel McCrea and Frances Dee; Jay Dee Whitney, son of Western director William Whitney; Patrick Wayne, actor and son of John Wayne; and Cheryl Rogers, daughter of Roy Rogers and Dale Evans.

Of particular interest, The Cowboys, the classic 1972 John Wayne film, will be presented with a Q&A featuring one of the picture’s stars, Robert Carradine, as well as Patrick Wayne and Richard Farnsworth’s son, Diamond Farnsworth.  Robert Carradine and Darby Hinton will do a Q&A with the brand-spanking-new Western that they co-star in, Bill Tilghman and The Outlaws.

Follow the link below to find out details and buy tickets. And don’t dawdle – many events are already sold out!

https://www.museumofwesternfilmhistory.org/

‘BILL TILGHMAN & THE OUTLAWS’ WINS SEVEN AWARDS AT WILD BUNCH FILM FESTIVAL!

The Wild Bunch Film Festival has just wrapped up, and director Wayne Shipley and screenwriter Dan Searles are still doing their victory dance, and with good reason. I heard from one of the film’s stars, Darby Hinton, that they won seven awards: Best 1st Time Screen Writer – Dan Searles, Best Stunts – Ken Arnold, Best Child Actor - Noah Deavers, Best Ensemble Cast,  The Wild Bunch Award (for Best Screenplay That Exemplifies The Spirt Of The West) - Dan Searles, Best Western Songwriting Competition – Dan Searles and his mother, and Best Supporting Actor – Darby Hinton.  Dan Searles tells me the film is now available to rent from Amazon Prime.

ON THE RED CARPET AT THE ‘SILVER SPUR’ AWARDS!

On Friday, September 20^th, the Reel Cowboys held their 22^nd annual Silver Spur Awards. For a change, it was held not at the Sportmen’s Lodge, which was recently levelled, but the Equestrian Center in Burbank, which has an appropriately Western atmosphere. Julie Anne Ream once again ran the event with Reel Cowboys President Robert Lanthier, this year in part as a benefit for The Gary Sinise Foundation.

I spoke to a number of attendees on the red carpet. I’m working with a new, tiny digital recorder, which works very well but, with a fuzzy wind-cover over the mic, startled some of my subjects.

Julia Rogers Pomilia took this picture

of me with my fuzzy recorder

JULIA ROGERS POMILIA

Granddaughter of Roy Rogers and Dale Evans

Julie Rogers:  Oh, I thought you were holding a hamster. What is that?

Henry Parke:   It’s my strange digital recorder. Well now, you're one of how many grandchildren of Roy and Dale?

Julie Rogers:   They had 16 and one passed away suddenly years ago. So we have 15. Lots of grandchildren and great grandchildren and great, greats.

Henry Parke:   What was Roy Rogers like as a grandfather?

Julie Rogers:   He was just so sweet and he loved kids. He would put us on Trigger. He would play with us in the pool. We'd play chicken and get up on his back. We'd watched The Roy Rogers Show with him on Saturday morning, and be crawling all over his back, and wrestling around on the floor, and he'd stop and say, "Go, Roy, go!" And we'd say, "Yeah, go get him!" And as far as I knew, every kid had a grandpa that had a TV show. I just thought that was normal because that's what was normal to me, you know? They were just so accessible and so loving. They never missed a birthday or a school play, even though they were so busy. They could be at the White House one night, and then at our house playing old maid with me on the floor the next night. They were wonderful.

Henry Parke:  And was Dale's personality really pretty much like the character she played?

Julie Rogers:   Oh my, you know, neither one of them were acting. When I see them on their shows, I don't mean this to sound negative, but I don't think they're very good actors, because they're just being themselves. So I don't ever see them act. And she was a hoot. She was so outgoing, she could never just fly under the radar when she came a room, and she didn't mean to. She just was. And grandpa was very quiet, just totally the opposite. So they were a cute couple.

Henry Parke:   Now, you said that he would put you on Trigger. Was this visiting on a set?

Julie Rogers:   No, no, no. After they were done with the show, he kept Trigger at the ranch where they lived in Chatsworth. So when we'd come over, we'd sometimes go down to the barn and pet him or feed him or sit on him and he'd ride us around. It was good memories.

Henry Parke:   How about Bullet?

Julie Rogers:   Bullet was one of their house dogs. They had six dogs, and they'd all come running out to greet us when we drove up. It was just magical. I didn't appreciate it as much growing up, until I look back on it and go, wow! I mean, I knew it was fun, but I really appreciate it now so much more.

Henry Parke:   Was Pat Brady around? Was he a friend?

Julie Rogers:   Yeah, he was around, but I was one of the last ones born, so he wasn't around a lot when I was. (Note: Pat Brady died in 1972) I didn't know him, but my sisters did. They said he was a really wonderful man. Funny, and just a really good friend of Grandpa's and Grandma's.

Henry Parke:   Now when you say that Roy and Dale weren't that great actors, or rather, that they didn’t get much of a chance to act, did you ever see Roy in Mackintosh and TJ (1975)? I thought he was wonderful in that.

Julie Rogers:   You know what? I need to see that. Somebody just sent me a copy of it, because you can't find it very easily, and I have never seen it, so I should look. But I mean back then, back in the 40s and 50s, he was just being himself and I bet that would be a whole different take on him.

Henry Parke:   Oh, it really is. It's a wonderful performance.  When I saw it I said, wow, I wish he'd been given more challenging roles more often. He really does so well.

Julie Rogers:   And he never aspired to be an actor. That was the last thing he probably thought he was going to be. But he was one of those that just sort of fell into it. Whereas grandma, she was born wanting to be an actress, and she would dance in front of the mirror, and think someday she was gonna marry Tom Mix and be an actress. And she did it.

Henry Parke:   She sure did. And she learned to ride very well.

Julie Rogers:   Yes, yes. Roy said that the first time she rode, he'd never seen so much sky between a woman's rear-end and a horse in his life. So she kind of bluffed her way in there and said she knew how to ride when she didn't. So she basically learned from him, on-set.

Henry Parke:   I think it's remarkable how accessible The Roy Rogers Show is now. It's on TV three times a day.

Julie Rogers:  I know. That's kind of fun.

Henry Parke:   Do you know if are younger people are watching it?

Julie Rogers:   No, that's a tough one, because with all of that computerized stuff and all the electronics and the special effects, there's not a whole lot of interest in those old westerns anymore. We're working on a musical (about Roy and Dale) coming out next year, opening in Atlanta. We're gonna see how that goes, and we're hoping to get his name out there a little bit more to the next generation.  Because kids don't like watching black and white. My kids were the same way. They didn't even want to watch their great grandpa because it’s black and white.  I teach kindergarten in Castaic.  I've talked about my grandparents to all my classes and show them little clips. It helps a little bit. Every little bit helps.

JOHN SCHNEIDER

Best remembered as Bo Duke on The Dukes of Hazzard, in1986, John Schneider co-starred in a remake of 1939’s Stagecoach, as the coach driver, co-starring with Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, and Kris Kristofferson.

Demonstrating how he held the reins

driving a six-up in Stagecoach

John Schneider:  Hi. What a nice dog.

Henry Parke:   Thank you for petting him. I've got to say, of all the men who played the stagecoach driver in the films of Stagecoach, you could not be less like Andy Devine or Slim Pickens.

John Schneider: (a screech-perfect imitation of Devine) "Not like Andy Devine?" Well you know, it was a great honor to be in that movie, especially considering Johnny (Cash) and I became best friends after that. I lived with John and June after we did Stagecoach because at that time, I had the number one album in the country. People don't necessarily remember that. My beard, they remember. That was my beard. But I so enjoyed Stagecoach, and working out there in Mescal (the Western movie town), and Old Tucson, before it burned down.  I've been there since. It's beautiful. It's actually, I think, much better for having burned down. Not the Hollywood way, where the Laramie Street burns down, so they build a parking lot. I'm glad that Old Tucson's back and thriving and beautiful. That was a great time for me and I actually drove the six-up. (Note: a stagecoach pulled by a team of six horses)

Henry Parke:   Really?

John Schneider:  Yeah. And I'm told that Ben Johnson and I were the only ones (who could). Ben was an amazing actor, but Ben was a cowboy. So I may be the only non-professional cowboy actor to actually drive a six-up on camera and I'm pretty damn proud of that.

Henry Parke:  Did you already know how to do that?

John Schneider:  I did not. I was taught.  There was a guy named Red, a red-haired cowboy that worked at Old Tucson.  I drove the stagecoach tours in Old Tucson for two days. It was a four-up. And then he would take me out after, and add the other team. You would have the lead team, and the wheel team. The swing team, the team in the middle, you would add.  Whenever I talk about Stagecoach, I do this – (he holds his hands up, separating his fingers) – because that's what you had to do. I mean, three sets of leather reins in your hands, with horses that would much rather run abreast. So, I loved it. I loved Dr. Quinn – Medicine Woman. I loved Guns of Paradise.

Henry Parke:   That's right. You've done all of the better TV westerns of the period.

John Schneider:  Thank you. And you know, in my heart and soul, I'm a seven-year-old who's watching the Sons of Katie Elder and McClintock and Cahill and wanting to be John Wayne. So one of these days, I guess by the time I get to be John Wayne, maybe I'll be playing him and that's okay.

Henry Parke:   That would be fine.

John Schneider:  I would love it. We share a name.

Henry Parke:   Now with Stagecoach, I was told that was originally going to be a full musical.

John Schneider:  I heard that too. I don't think that's true. What we were going to do is all of us had written songs. And the only one they wound up using was the "stagecoach, stagecoach, rolling on to glory, stagecoach," which was Willie's song. But they were going to put that music in there, and the music that we had written was going to be our individual themes. We weren't actually going to break out in "trouble in River City."  It wasn't going to be Paint Your Wagon, but there was gonna be a lot of music from all of us in it. Somehow that turned into just Willie's song. Well, I wrote this song, I don't remember what the song was, but I wrote, cause we all wrote. We had a lot of time there and we wrote.

KATHY GARVER

Kathy Garver is best remembered as Cissy, the oldest child being raised by Uncle Bill (Brian Keith) on Family Affair.

Henry Parke:   I was surprised when I checked IMDB to realize how many westerns you've done.

Kathy Garver: I started out doing Westerns. One of my first roles was in Sheriff of Cochise, and then (slipping into a French accent) in The Adventures of Jim Bowie, I played a little French girl. Merci. It's interesting to look back at some of the DVDs that some fans have sent me and see. Oh my gosh, I was so little!  But I just did a presentation yesterday of Ex Child Stars on the Western Frontiers. It's about a 45 minute presentation I do with PowerPoint. So I have profiled Johnny Crawford, and Jimmy Hawkins from Annie Oakley and there was Lee Aaker from Rin Tin Tin, and Darby Hinton from Daniel Boone. So they're all my friends and I worked with them when I was little. And you know what, I'm still doing Westerns.

Henry Parke:  I’d love to see your presentation.

Kathy Garver: I'm doing it in Oklahoma if you want to go out there. But I was thinking it would be good to do with the Gene Autry Museum. I think that would be a wonderful place to present this. I have a retirement home where I'm going to present it.

Henry Parke: This morning I was watching your former co-star, Johnny Whitaker on an episode of Lancer. I didn't remember that he had done Westerns.

Kathy Garver: I didn't either. And I'm doing two adult westerns. One is Grace, which is a lovely Western, and the other one's Eli Elder. So we're getting those together. And here's a bit of news. I just finished filming my new series called Aunt Sissy, and that's kind of a wink and a nod to Family Affair. It's not a sequel.  It's a standalone kind of sitcom. So that went very, very well.

WYATT MCCREA

Producer Wyatt McCrea is the grandson of Joel McCrea and Frances Dee, and the son of Jody McCrea. He lives on the ranch that his grandparents built.  The Johnny Crawford that we discuss starred in the series The Rifleman as Chuck Connor’s son, Mark McCain.

Henry Parke:   I hear that you just had a wonderful event at your ranch for Johnny Crawford.

Wyatt McCrea:  We did. It was a lot of fun. We were trying to do what we could to help Johnny out. We screened the last movie he was in, Bill Tilghman and The Outlaws. We had a good crowd and hopefully we raised a little money for him.

Henry Parke:  That's terrific.

Wyatt McCrea:  Well, Johnny's a great guy, and he's done a lot for a lot of people over the course of his lifetime, so it was the least we can do to pay him back a little bit.

Henry Parke:   That's great. Tell me, are you getting an award or presenting one tonight?

Wyatt McCrea:  I'm presenting to Mariette Hartley, which will be a lot of fun. Her first movie was with my grandfather.

Henry Parke:   Of course, Ride the High Country.

Wyatt McCrea:  Yeah. So it was fitting that I was allowed to do it, and I’m so happy to do it. She's a great lady.

Henry Parke:   Yes, she is. I recently interviewed her for a True West article, and she was talking all about the good advice that your granddad gave her.  He said before he does a scene, he always read --

Wyatt McCrea:  -- read the scene before.

Henry Parke:   Exactly, which I thought was extremely smart, and should be obvious, but I've never heard anyone else say it.

Wyatt McCrea:  No, it's true. It should be obvious, but there are people that don't do it, you know.

Henry Parke:   As you can tell when you see their films.

AND THAT’S A WRAP!

In the next week or two I'll have a new Round-up, and look at the 70th birthday celebration of the Lone Ranger TV series, the travel series Travels with Darly, the new Western Soldiers' Heart, and much more. 

Happy Trails,

Henry

All Original Content Copyright October 2019 by Parke -- All Rights Reserved