Hungry for a livestock show in hometown, cattlemen deliver
Before cowboys and concerts entered the arena, Brahmans were main draw
In January 1931, seven Houston businessmen met for lunch at the Texas State Hotel along Fannin near Rusk. The stock market had crashed in 1929, and the country was quickly sliding into the Great Depression.
But it was beef that brought these men together that day, and when they got up from the table at the posh high-rise hotel, the Houston Fat Stock Show and Livestock Exposition was born.
The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo — as it has been called since 1961 — now may be a nearly monthlong extravaganza of cowboys, concerts and fried snack foods, but in its earliest incarnation it was seen primarily as a way to promote Texas agriculture and cattle, including a hearty breed developed in this area called the American Brahman.
“It was relatively new, and there wasn’t a place to show the Brahman cattle,” said current rodeo president Joel Cowley.
The businessman who organized that fateful lunch was J.W. Sartwelle, owner of the Port City Stockyards in Sealy. He was elected as the founding president of the city’s new livestock exposition and even coined the term “American Brahman” for a type of cattle that mixed the best of four different breeds originally from India.
In the late 1920s, Sartwelle and other breeders brought some of their Brahman cattle to the Texas Fat Stock Show in Fort Worth, now known as the Southwestern Exposition and Livestock Show. Things could have gone better, though. The Fort Worth stock show officials weren’t exactly neighborly to the Houston visitors and thought the breed, with an odd-looking hump, was simply inferior to other cattle like Hereford or Angus. They wouldn’t even let them in the main arena.
“They had to go out in the back. They were a novelty and weren’t taken seriously,” said J.D. Sartwelle, the founder’s grandson.
The chilly reception in Cowtown helped inspire the Gulf Coast-based cattlemen to start their own livestock show. J.W. Sartwelle was one of the organizers of the American Brahman Breeders’ Association before setting into motion Houston’s new fat stock show.
“They kind of got their nose out of joint because they weren’t welcome up there in Fort Worth,” said his grandson, who often goes by “Bubba.”
But what the Houston cattlemen’s Brahmans may have lacked in aesthetic appeal, they more than made up for in adaptability to harsh environments.
“They secrete an oily substance in their skin that’s repugnant to flies and mosquitoes. It stinks,” Sartwelle said. “There are just a lot of things that make them adaptable to this area.”
Unlike other cattle breeds, Brahmans have the ability to sweat, which contributes to their heat tolerance.
J.W. Sartwelle and the others knew that if a Houston-area cattle industry was to survive and thrive, it was crucial to have an ongoing livestock show. Once that decision was made, the next step was to find a venue. The only suitable arena in Houston was Sam Houston Hall, located where Hobby Center for the Performing Arts now stands. It was originally built for the 1928 Democratic National Convention and took only 64 days to complete.
“The Houston ‘can do’ attitude dates back that far,” Cowley said.
Sam Houston Hall proved to be more than acceptable for the first Houston Fat Stock Show and Livestock Exposition that opened in late April 1932. It was centrally located near the downtown Houston Farmer’s Market and in a time when automobiles were not as commonplace as today, the streetcar lines that crisscrossed the city offered easy access to the site.
Still, at this time all kinds of industries had fallen on hard times. Local ranchers often helped out, providing bucking horses for the cowboys and the occasional greased pig for a popular finale race.
According to “February Fever,” a history of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, about 2,000 people attended that first show. George Kelley, a Houston restaurant owner, paid $504 for the Grand Champion Steer — an Angus named Texas Pride II that was shown by students from Texas A&M. The Future Farmers Band — a 68-piece orchestra composed of high school students from throughout the state — provided musical entertainment.
However, the 1932 Houston Fat Stock Show and Livestock Exposition was not a financial winner, losing $2,800. By comparison, today’s Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo annually pumps about half a billion dollars into the local economy.
“The livestock shows were not huge revenue generators but they did a nice job of promoting cattle production,” Cowley said.
The shows continued at Sam Houston Hall until it was torn down following the 1936 livestock exposition. In its place would rise the Sam Houston Coliseum — at the time the largest such arena in the Southwest with a seating capacity of 10,000. But, it wouldn’t be ready until 1938 so there was no show in 1937.
“It (the delay) was a blessing. It gave them time to plan the 1938 show,” Cowley said. “It was a bigger, grander venue.”
The 1938 show added a downtown parade — with Houston television pioneer W. Albert Lee as grand marshal — led by a mounted police escort and color guard. Residents lined the streets of downtown Houston to watch local, county and state officials roll past to the musical accompaniment of a 65-piece cowboy band and local drum and bugle corps from area high schools, according to “February Fever.” It also was the year that an organized rodeo first became part of the exposition. That year, Hoytt Hefner of Wichita Falls won first place in the bareback bronc riding competition. The purse in that competition was the princely sum of $640.50, according to “February Fever.” The rodeo organizers also introduced a midway and carnival rides, which were located near the animal barn along the banks of Buffalo Bayou.
“It was a landmark year where a lot of the things we now associate with the show were added,” Cowley said.