|
'English cowboy' learns acceptable lingo to
'talk Texan'
By Bill Whitaker
Right about now, English-born horseman Ronald Shelley is making
his way through the American West, hoping to hook up with graying
compadres in Callahan County.
His motivation: Taking one last ride on horseback alongside
veteran Wild West showman Bob Estes.
So what if it's just a small-town parade in Baird, Texas, not
a glittery procession in Paris, France? The important thing is
he's back among people he has thought of frequently.
"I still remember, when I joined Bobby's Wild West Show
in Paris in 1956, what Bobby's truck-driver and Bobby himself
told me," said Ronald, who still boasts an English accent.
"If anybody asked me anything, I was to say one of three
things."
"Howdy."
"Why, sure."
"Y'all stop by the house before leaving." Apparently,
rodeo showman Bobby Estes, Callahan County's answer to Buffalo
Bill, felt that if the 22-year-old Englishman tending horses for
him kept to those pat responses, no one would ever accuse Bobby's
show of being anything less than authentic.
No doubt Bobby thought this all out, even before hiring Ronald
Shelley. After all, the Wild West Show Bobby was guiding across
France also had some "Indians" who happened to be authentic,
full-blooded Irish!
HIS DADDY WAS SOMETHING
So it was in 1956, when Bobby led "Rodeo du Far West"
all throughout France. Some of his performers are coming to Baird
this very weekend to help honor Bobby and salute the way of life
he championed during his colorful days as a rodeo producer.
"He was a born publicity person," Ronald said before
flying out of Miami to take part in the Bobby Estes Cowboy Gathering
in Baird. "When we were in France and Bobby got to talking
with some Frenchman, he'd say, 'Hell, my daddy was French!'
"If we came across someone from England, he'd say, 'Hell,
my daddy was English!'
"He made sure, best as he could, that he had some tie
with whatever audience he had. If there was a convention of left-handers
out there, he'd say, 'Hell, my daddy was left-handed!' His relations
seemed to change relative to his audience.
"But that was OK with us."
Ronald, 63, who later dabbled in the realms of acting and architecture,
has not seen Bobby since the 1950s. At first sight, Ronald seemed
a strange addition to Bobby Estes' celebrated "Rodeo du Far
West," being English and all.
"In 1955, I had gone to France from England with some
Americans who had an automobile show. It was a show that wrecked
the cars. It was sponsored by Ford. They took brand new Ford cars
and did all sorts of stunts with them."
Ronald, who had worked as a "roustabout" for the
show, returned to France in 1956 for a repeat gig. But the show
was held up in America by a dock strike and the young Englishman
quickly found himself needing money.
"Fortunately, I kept seeing all these billboards that
said, Rodeo du Far West, and I thought, 'I've got to make some
money.' Besides, I liked cars all right but not like I did horses."
RUBBER TOMAHAWKS
Ronald's first meeting with the show's diminutive but rugged-looking
producer, 35-year-old Bobby Estes, went well enough. Ronald worried
his being English might torpedo a job tending the show's horses,
but Bobby was quick to hire him. "To hell with knowing about
horses," Bobby said at Ronald's interview. "Do you know
any French?"
"So I got a job there and then. At first he told me, 'Well,
we don't want you to ride any horses for insurance purposes.'
But a few weeks later I got to ride in the outlaws sequence, then
I got to play the sheriff in the Indian attack.
"Toward the end of the show, I was riding bareback."
Certainly it was a far cry from the work his cousin, Norman
Shelley, had done during World War II, more than a decade before.
Norman Shelley used his deep voice to imitate and read Winston
Churchill's radio speeches when the famous prime minister was
too busy.
Ronald recalled Bobby's Indians -- most of them from Pawnee,
Okla. -- as being particularly memorable. Whatever their thoughts
about playing blood-thirsty savages, most seemed to enjoy the
madcap Wild West spectacles they highlighted.
"I think they enjoyed it," Ronald said. "Most
of them were young and they had these piercing screams when they'd
attack. I'd run out of bullets and then they'd pull me off the
horse and we'd scuffle around in the dust, and when I heard one
of them scream a certain way, I knew that rubber tomahawk had
to come down.
"Unfortunately, I always had to die."
LONG RED HAIR
Ronald Shelley has fond memories of the month or so Bobby Estes'
Wild West show dominated Paris, including the rides he took around
the "city of lights" in Bobby's big, canary-yellow Oldsmobile
"with six or eight cowboys packed in there."
He remembers, too, Bobby's wife, Marianne, now ailing but then
a lively rodeo star: "She'd been one of Gene Autry's cowgirls
and she was like the queen of the cowgirls in the show. She had
this lovely, long red hair, and when she came out she looked like
a princess."
Bobby was ornery, just as he is now, but Ronald liked him:
"My father was about Bobby's size -- a small man but full
of bravado. He was quite a character. Bobby once told me I wouldn't
have any trouble if I came to America to find work."
"You like to work," Bobby explained, "and everyone
else there wants to be a boss!"
After the rodeo finished in France, Ronald went to Mexico,
where Bobby was planning another rodeo show. Again, he tended
to the horses, including a sharp spotted appaloosa named "Little
Britches" that once saved his life. Then Ronald got drafted.
Ronald has done plenty since coming to America, but some of
his finest memories are his days in Bobby's rodeo show of 1956.
He says he's now glad that Ford smash-'em-up car show got stuck
in a dock strike.
"Once I found the horses," he said, "I found
my type of people."
Most activities during Saturday's Bobby Estes Cowboy Gathering
are set to begin at 10 a.m., though the parade will be at 2 p.m.
Send a Letter to the Editor about This
Story | Start or Join A Discussion about This Story
Send the URL (Address)
of This Story to A Friend:
Copyright ©1996 or
1997, Abilene Reporter-News / Texnews / E.W. Scripps. Publications
|