Saddle up
National Day of the Cowboy rounds up art exhibits, film series, Wild West shows and more
Jack Fowler is bringing a figurative sword to the proverbial gunfight, married couple Kevin and Alyce Webb are helping to re-create Pawnee Bill's legendary Wild West Show, and Butterfield's Mercantile and Ballroom in historic downtown Duncan is dishing up traditional grub with a side of cowboy poetry.
From the Chisholm Trail to Persimmon Hill, Oklahomans are celebrating the 15th annual
National Day of the Cowboy on
Saturday and throughout the weekend with film series, live music, art shows and other festivities.
Landmark celebrations
The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, 1700 NE 63, is tying up its Kids Take Over the Cowboy month with free showings of “Cars 3,” a ledger art station and Prix de West Jr., an interactive art area in honor of the museum's prestigious Prix de West exhibit, on view through Aug. 11.
“We've spent July focusing on family fun, and now we get to finish out the month with a huge party to celebrate National Day of the Cowboy,” said Natalie Shirley, the museum's president and CEO, in an email.
From 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, the Persimmon Hill landmark will offer special activities like rope making, bandana decorating and pony hop racing. G.O.A.T. Beef Jerky Co. will serve samples of sarsaparilla and jerky, Cowboy Jim Garling will serenade guests and Cowboy Mike will talk about the cowpoke life. For more information, go to nationalcowboymuseum.org.
In Duncan, the Chisholm Trail Heritage Center, 1000 Chisholm Trail Parkway, will celebrate the National Day of the Cowboy with free admission from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, plus Western-themed games, live music by Cowboys at Heart, work by Oklahoma artists and a last look at the traveling exhibit “Bison: Ancient. Massive. Wild.” For more information, go to onthechisholmtrail.com. Butterfield's Mercantile
and Ballroom, 805 W Main in Duncan, will serve up traditional foods, a yodeling class, a sing-along and more from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday. For more information, go to www.facebook.com/butterfieldmercantileand-ballroom.
Western legends
After flooding rains in June, the yearly Pawnee Bill Wild West Show has been rescheduled for this weekend at the Pawnee Bill Ranch a half-mile west of Pawnee on U.S. 64. The historic show thunders into the arena at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, with a sideshow and carnival games from 5 to 7 p.m. and preshow entertainment at 7 p.m. Gunfights, a rainmaker and other activities are slated from 2 to 6:30 p.m. Saturday.
The Oklahoma Historical Society maintains the ranch and the stone mansion where the legendary Western showman born Gordon William Lillie and his wife, May Lillie, lived. Kevin Webb is the head cowboy at the ranch, but once a year, he dons the fringed buckskin jacket of Pawnee Bill, presenting a two-hour recreation of the classic Wild West Show.
After previously playing roles ranging from sideshow mermaid to saloon girl, Webb's wife, Alyce Webb, a history professor at Northern Oklahoma College in Tonkawa, will debut this year as May Lillie. It will be the first time in the 31-year history of the show that a real-life husband-and-wife duo have played Pawnee Bill and May Lillie.
For more information, go to www.okhistory.org/sites/pawneebill. For tickets, call 918-762-2513.
`Cowboy Swordfight!'
Oklahoma City artist Jack Fowler is gleefully mashing up cultures in his “Cowboy Swordfight!” art show and film series Sunday and Monday at the Tower Theatre, 425 NW 23.
On Sunday, a $10 day pass grants entry into Fowler's exhibit and three divergent Westerns: Jim Jarmusch's “Dead Man,” Bradley Beesley's Oklahoma documentary “Sweethearts of the Prison Rodeo” and the iconic “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.”
On Monday, the theater will screen for free “The Magnificent Seven” and the Japanese epic that inspired it, “Seven Samurai.”
Inspired by framed posters of vintage French wine ads, Fowler created a series of paintings that includes a bronc-busting cowpoke riding under the phrase “worst volleyball team ever” dramatically rendered in Italian and a landscape of Monument Valley featuring a quote from the film “Office Space” translated into Chinese.
For tickets and information, go to www. towertheatreokc.com.