Cowboy up
Exhibit shows cowboy culture’s role in retail history
Cowboy culture and its effect on retail economy are explored in a new Oklahoma History Center exhibit.
Saddle up, pardner.
Cowboy culture has value to Oklahoma businessmen and women, and through displays within the Oklahoma History Center’s “Crossroads of Commerce: A History of Free Enterprise in Oklahoma,” that value can be traced back to the state’s earliest days.
Cowboys, of course, are an integral part of the state’s early history, as they helped settle the land and build the farms and ranches that formed the initial backbone of commercial enterprise here.
During the late 19th century, those ranch and farm operators discovered that traveling western shows (and eventually rodeos) needed animals and performers. Those operators and their Oklahoma cowboy employees helped fill that niche.
In 1903, a full-length feature film, “The Great Train Robbery,” became a huge financial success, and before long, filmmakers were looking for cowboys who could ride, shoot, rope and look the part of a rugged frontiersman.
Oklahoma willingly provided. By 1929, four of the film industry’s greatest silent-era cowboy movies stars had Oklahoma roots. Ken Maynard, Buck Jones, Hoot Gibson and Tom Mix all had started their careers on the world-famous Miller Brothers’ 101 Ranch.
Oklahomans also made their mark in Hollywood “talkie” films as cowboys, including Gene Autry, and three Oklahoma lawmen who were frustrated with how most movies of the day glorified bandits formed their own movie company to make films they felt more realistically portrayed the state’s history of bringing law and order to its communities.
Then, of course, there had to be places where people could see movies. Before long, cinemas dotted the downtown landscapes of Oklahoma City and Tulsa. While most in smaller communities were small, one of the state’s most opulent theaters was the Coleman Theatre in Miami, Oklahoma.
The theater was built by George Coleman, whom had made a fortune mining lead and zinc in Ottawa County. When it opened in 1929, it included central heating and air, a Wurlitzer organ, and seated 1,600.
Changing times
While the Great Depression and then World War II prompted more and more Oklahomans to leave their farms and ranches and move to cities, they still were able to partake in the lives they left behind by participating in roundup clubs and cowboy competitions.
A proliferation of rodeos boosted the need for the cattle and horses used in those events, and the Beutler Brothers Rodeo Stock Co., based near Elk City, was started in 1929 to fill that need. By the 1950s, it was one of the state’s most successful businesses serving the cowboy culture of the day.
They also innovated the use of singing and acting stars as draws for rodeo events. Autry, Buck Owens, Roy Clark and others were feature draws throughout the years, and even in 2017, musical stars continue to perform on tractor-drawn stages at arenas across the state.
Of course, as those singing and acting stars dominated movies, radio and later, television, the western outfits they wore sparked Oklahomans to form companies to sell those types of goods to consumers.
George and Lovilla Trego discovered a market for western wear when their daughter, Thurlene, needed an outfit to wear after being selected as the first queen of the Woodward Elks Rodeo in 1934.
They created Trego’s Westwear Manufacturing, which made outfits for Neiman-Marcus to sell, but also opened its own clothing outlets in Woodward, and in New Mexico and Colorado.
At the same time, cowboys in Oklahoma were always hunting for saddles, and at the end of World War II, the Veach Saddlery of Trenton, Missouri, expanded to open the Veach Saddlery Shop at Tulsa’s fairgrounds.
Eventually, its line of clothing and tack included bareback riggings, western clothing, bits, spurs, polo and racing equipment, jeans, boots and hats.
It was still operating in 2015 from the family ranch near Colcord.
Continued impact
Bob Blackburn, executive director of the Oklahoma Historical Society, is excited about the Oklahoma History Center’s Crossroads of Commerce exhibit, because it ties together Oklahoma’s history of free enterprise using stories pulled from agriculture, retail, services, manufacturing, transportation, broadcasting, entertainment, sports and tribal enterprises.
The Oklahoma History Center often holds special events to highlight some of those stories, and one is planned for 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on March 18 on its front lawn.
The center’s seventhannual “Cowboy RoundUp” is free and will feature various special activities including rope making, Dutch oven cooking and more.
While Blackburn and other Baby Boomers grew up playing cowboys and (American) Indians, and today’s youth probably don’t, he said he still hopes they can be exposed to it.
“Cowboy culture was a commodity that could drive the wheels of commerce,” Blackburn. “People found different ways to make money,” whether it be through selling stock for rodeos or putting on the events themselves and including musical entertainment, or making and selling western clothing lines.
And, as the world changes, Blackburn predicts Oklahoma’s entrepreneurs will adapt as Oklahoma City continues to host various horse shows and rodeos and remains the home for the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.
“All these different types of things help drive our economy because these people find a way to make a living from it, and they reinvest their money.”
Jack Money jmoney@ oklahoman.com