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Gathering will find some cowpokes moving a
bit slower
By Bill Whitaker
Bob Estes isn't sure what sort of rag-tag parade will proceed
down Baird's Main Street in two weeks' time, but at least he'll
be among friends.
The other day, the diminutive, 76-year-old veteran Wild West
showman was on the telephone with one-time trick rider Faye Blesing,
telling her about activities planned for a reunion of rodeo performers
he led many, many moons ago.
"I told Faye she was gonna have to ride a horse in the
parade, just like in the old days," Bobby said, recalling
the woman whose riding skills once thrilled thousands of Europeans.
"She said, 'Oh, my God, I haven't been on a horse in 15 years!'"
No matter how broken-down or decrepit some of his one-time
rodeo compadres might be today, ever-ornery Bobby says he's looking
forward to Bobby Estes Cowboy Gathering festivities, set for Oct.
4 in his old hometown of Baird.
The event is an outgrowth of plans for a Due Far West Show
reunion, initially involving those rodeo performers Bobby led
across the Atlantic in 1956 for a celebrated, pull-out-the-stops
rodeo show across Europe.
Since then, other performers from yet other Bobby Estes rodeo
extravaganzas have indicated a desire to be involved, too, so
that the reunion promises to be even bigger. If everything works
out, they'll all be in Baird in a few weeks.
WHERE THERE'S A WILL
Much of this took root in the mind of J.D. Killian, 57-year-old
proprietor of Baird's Cowboy Mercantile and a fellow who looks
a little like he stepped out of the "Lonesome Dove"
mini-series. Most every afternoon, Bobby whittles away a little
of the daylight at J.D.'s.
The other day, Bobby noticed a portrait of Will Rogers in J.D.'s
shop, which got him talking.
"Rode behind him on a horse, holding on to him,"
Bobby said. "I was at the Stamford reunion of 1935, when
I rode a steer. I was 14 years old. When I stepped off at the
back end, Will Rogers rode up and said, 'Cowboy, you wanna a ride
back to the chute?'
"Well, there was no way I was going to turn that down.
So I got up behind him and he talked all the way back. He said,
'You know, I think I'll take you back to California with me to
show all those prune-pickers how to rodeo.'"
Bobby indicated he was ready to go, but Will Rogers was only
joking.
Still, Bobby got to see plenty of the world, much of it on
the back of a bucking horse or bulls. At age 18 he and some other
rodeo performers took a ship down South America way for a series
of rodeos.
Only problem was, the cowboys got pretty disgusted being stuck
in steerage. One cowboy finally complained to the ship's captain,
then punctuated his complaints by knocking the captain into the
ship's swimming pool - a dunking that got the cowboys confined
to quarters the rest of the voyage.
"That whole trip was wild," Bobby said, thinking
back on his adventures in South America. "The president of
Venezuela had to OK our leaving, because we'd got into so much
trouble, fighting and raising hell and all. Later I wrote a story
about it. I called it, 'Dodge City, Venezuela.'"
JUST LIKE BUFFALO BILL
Eventually Bobby Estes became a busy rodeo producer, putting
together shows that included everything from western singers to
authentic Indians to top-flight rodeo performers to imaginatively
staged Wild West shows.
The high point of his life came when he led a tour of Indians,
cowboys and musicians across Europe in 1956. The show included
Chief Brave Scout and his wife, "Mrs. Chief Brave Scout,"
both of Pawnee, Okla. The "Mrs." had supposedly traveled
to Paris years before with no less than Buffalo Bill.
For the record, no one on Bobby Estes' trip to Europe traveled
in steerage.
Others on the tour included Jack Watson, who rode bulls and
bareback horses and later retired to his old stomping ground in
Burkett; Bill Barton, a saddle bronc rider and bulldogger who,
ironically, now runs a saddle shop in Abilene; and Polly Burson
of Hollywood, who dabbled in countless movies besides shining
in the rodeo arena.
The tour, including a month of performances in Paris, proved
so successful, Bobby was invited on the spot by a representative
of several oil companies to take his Wild West show to the arid
oil fields of the Middle East.
However, the U.S. State Department nixed that one, owing to
the area's continuing political and tribal strife.
"I stood to make $90,000 out of it, and for only two weeks'
work," Bobby said, "but the state department wouldn't
let us. Said it was too dangerous to have that many Americans
over there - especially cowboys.
"I told them, 'Heck, for that kind of money, they can
shoot at me a couple of times and I won't take it personal.'"
The West won't be nearly so wild when Bobby Estes gets together
with his friends in Baird, but at least no one will be shooting
at them.
The Bobby Estes Cowboy Gathering, which promises chuckwagon
cooking, cowboy trade shows, gunfights (fake ones, we hope), Indian
dancers (real ones, we hope), poets and singers, a cowboy dance
and a full-scale parade, is set for Oct. 4. Help of all kinds
is needed. Call J.D. Killian for more information at 854-1265.
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Copyright ©1996 or
1997, Abilene Reporter-News / Texnews / E.W. Scripps. Publications
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