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Pie And Trigger Were Famous Western Movie Stars

By
Frank Buchman
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Frank J Buchman
Frank Buchman

Two veteran movie horses with long careers increased the popularity of silver screen cowboys, according to writer Steve Hulett.
Jimmy Stewart explained his love for his four-legged co-star named Pie.
“I rode Pie for 22 years,” Stewart said. “I never was able to buy him because he was owned by a little girl by the name of Stevie Myers, who is the daughter of an old wrangler who worked for Tom Mix and W.S. Hart.”
“When Hart retired, he gave this horse to Stevie. Pie was a sort of a maverick and hurt a couple of people,” Stewart said. “Pie nearly killed Glenn Ford, ran right into a tree.”
“But I liked this darned little horse. He was a bit small Quarter Horse and Arabian. I got to know him like a friend,” Stewart continued. “Pie understood about making pictures. I ran at a full gallop, straight towards the camera, pulled him up, did a lot of dialogue, and Pie stood still.
“Pie never moved. He knew when the camera would start rolling and his ears came up,” Stewart said.
Petrine Mitchum Day, Robert Mitchum’s daughter, horse enthusiast and author of “Hollywood Hoofbeats,” said Jimmy Stewart rode Pie in 17 Westerns.
“They just became so attuned to each other that in one film, ‘The Far Country,’ Stewart was able to get the horse to perform at liberty when the trainer was not around.
“Jimmy Stewart just went up to Pie, whispered in his ear, told him what he needed done, and the horse did it. Everyone on the set was absolutely amazed.”
Beyond the work Pie did with Stewart, on film, he was also ridden by Kirk Douglas, Audie Murphy, and more than likely a number of other actors. There is no exact count of the number of films in which the horse appeared.
Hudkins Stables in Hollywood supplied horses to Golden Age film studios. In 1937, they purchased a five-year-old Palomino born on a ranch near San Diego named Golden Cloud.
Hudkins rented the horse to Republic Pictures for a low-budget movie “Under Western Stars.” The lead star in the film was the up-and-coming singing cowboy Roy Rogers, (originally Leonard Slye) and he bonded with Golden Cloud.
Like Jimmy Stewart with Pie, Rogers wanted to buy the horse, and Hudkins Stables was happy to comply.
But the stables drove a hard bargain. They charged the actor a then-steep $2,500 which would be $53,818.84 today for ownership of the Palomino that Roy Rogers renamed Trigger.
All told, Trigger had an entertainment career that spanned 20-plus years, encompassing 88 feature films and 104 TV episodes. There were also numerous personal appearances.
When the horse died in 1965, his earthly remains were mounted and put on display at the Roy Rogers Museum in Apple Valley, California, remaining there 45 years.
After the death of Roy Rogers, the museum was moved to Branson, Missouri. The museum closed in 2010, and Trigger sold for $266,500 to RFD-TV. He is now displayed at the Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame in the Fort Worth Stockyards National Historic District.
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Purpose For Detour Signs

By
Frank Buchman
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“Detours are a common aggravation for highway drivers, seemingly more commonplace today than ever.”

As much as drivers dread seeing a detour sign and attempting to follow confusing directions, no detour sign is worse.

That became apparent when major highways were barricaded off to and from the ranch headquarters.

Signs indicated “No Through Traffic,” but there were no detour signs. Drivers were given no directions on how to get from the main highway to other locations.

Hundreds of vehicles including semi tractors pulling heavily loaded livestock and grain trailers drove right around the barricades.

They were sorry for doing so when realizing through traffic on paved highways was impossible.

Cars and pickups were able to make U-turns and head back to figure out some way to find their destination.

For the 18-wheelers, getting turned around became a major ordeal. Several truckers jackknifed their big rigs and spent considerable time and effort getting turned around.

There was damage to certain trucks which remained stranded for extended time with their hoods up.

When headed back in the direction they came, drivers still didn’t know how to get where they wanted to go. While there were gravel rural roads, no signs pointed out which ones to take to get to any certain locale.

In urban areas, there are always detour signs which are often perplexing, but better than no driver guidance whatsoever.

“Why aren’t there detour signs posted several times along the highway before the no through traffic barricades which people ignore?” That question was asked dozens if not hundreds of times before any answer was provided.

“There can be no detours onto country graveled roads, only on paved highways.” That sounded like a probable Department of Transportation ruling. But it was no help to drivers who couldn’t figure out how to get where they wanted to go.

There are still no advance signs advising drivers that the main paved highways ahead are completely impassible. However, enough lost vehicles must have spread warning to others as there haven’t been as many forced driver turnarounds.

How they figure out which graveled road to take for their destination is complex, seemingly.

While road construction continues, promises are it’ll be “better than before” when completed.

Reminded of Proverbs 4:15: “Avoid it, do not travel on it; Turn away from it and go back.”

+++ALLELUIA+++

XVII–36–9-3-2023

Grandfather’s Collection (Best Of)

By
Lee Pitts
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lee pitts
  Sunday’s have always been special to me. When I was a kid they were for shooting pool at my Grandfather’s house while Grandma sang at two different churches.
We shot pool and the breeze, surrounded by Grandfather’s collection of western memorabilia. There were rusty branding irons in the corner, dusty old hats hanging from the ceiling (even one signed by Roy Rogers himself), and everything western on the wall. This was the shrine where I paid homage when I was growing up. I went on many imaginary round-ups sitting on a saddle in that room.
I suppose Grandma made Grandpa hide his collection in the musty downstairs room where guests would not see the dust and the rust. I took a friend to see the collection once and he thought it was a bunch of junk. But I didn’t care, because  on Sunday mornings Grandpa and I would enter that room and live in another day and another time, if just for awhile.
Grandpa never threw anything away if it was old. Maybe that is how it should be. As Grandpa’s collection grew it got tougher to shoot pool. You would pull your cue stick back and hit something on the wall.
“What the heck is that?”  I’d say.
“Oh, those are some new old spurs I got. Aren’t they beauties? They called them “Mexican Gut Robbers.” I could believe it. They had rowels on them three inches long. But if the horses had to be tough back in the good old days so did the cowboys. Grandpa’s got a pair of brass knuckles and a pearl handled derringer on the wall … and they belonged to a banker! I will admit that one man’s junk is another man’s gold, but even Grandma would have to concede that part of the collection is valuable. There are two handmade violins that took a lot of time and talent to make. But I guess the craftsman had a lot of time. He was in prison for murder. But even the cowboy’s tools, like the braided horse hair rope, stand as testimony to a time when things were done right no matter how long it took.
One of the more interesting pieces in the collection is a  long tube of thin metal with a large cupped opening at one end and a small opening at the other. “It’s a  hearing aid,” joked Grandpa. “Actually they were called ear trumpets. You put the big end up to the deaf person’s ear and you yelled like hell into the other end.”
There was always great excitement whenever Grandpa got something new for his collection. “Look at this,” he said one Sunday. It looked to me like an old piece of wood with a bunch of square nails in it. “It’s a piece of wood from a county courthouse that the government actually built in the wrong county.”
In the story of human progress some things never change.
The pool room turned into a family museum, a symbol of our heritage. There is the number that Grandpa wore on his back when he won the team roping at the county fair. There are my brother’s first cowboy boots that eventually got handed down to me. The room was full of hand me downs, from one generation to another.
I think my Grandpa always wanted me to be a lawyer or something upper crust but it was his fault I always dreamed about being a cowboy. We don’t shoot pool anymore because Grandpa is gone. I miss him terribly as he was the father-figure in my life. I like to think that Grandpa knows I did grow up to be something important… I became a cowboy. I’d like him to know that the dream never died.
Grandpa left everything in that room to me and I’ve added to the collection, so much so that’s it’s taken over every room in our house. And
 when guests are invited to shoot a game or two of pool on that same pool table invariably someone will pull back their cue stick and hit something new. At least it’s new to my collection. In reality it’s probably 150 years old.
You might be surprised to learn I have another collection that’s way more valuable than all my old cowboy stuff, at least to me it is. It’s my collection of memories. Memories of those long-gone Sundays when I fell in love with the romance of the cow business.
Thanks Grandpa! This country already had enough lawyers… and not nearly enough cowboys.

“With New Knowledge comes New Discoveries”

By
Guest Columnist
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0

 

My son is a Boy Scout. Hopefully, he will become an Eagle Scout like his dad, his grandpa, his uncle, and not to mention eleven of the twelve men that walked on the moon. Whether he does or not, it has been an honor seeing the program help him and other boys mature into responsible young men.

This summer, our troop took our canoes along the 108 miles on the Missouri River in Montana, in the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument. That stretch of the Missouri, where the river has carved impressive rock formations that create “breaks” in the land, is largely untouched and flows as it did for Lewis and Clark’s expedition in 1804 to 1806.

Canoeing and camping along the same places as the Corps of Discovery was an amazing experience, and provided ample time to ponder the immense changes our nation has made in 200 years.

Medicine has also made immense changes and progress in the last two centuries. For instance, bloodletting, which had been used for thousands of years, was still in practice at the time of Lewis and Clark, although some physicians were doing studies that showed its harms and limited benefit. Contrast that to advances today in germ theory, insulin for diabetes, surgical advances, tiny stents that can open up blood vessels in the heart and brain, x-rays, CTs and MRIs, amazing new drugs, the list is exponential.

Dr. Benjamin Rush was a leading American physician at the time of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. A big proponent of bloodletting and purging, he convinced Meriweather Lewis to bring 600 of his “Rush’s Thunderbolts” pills along the journey. Containing mercury and other strong purgatives, they were used for about anything. They cleared your bowels if nothing else. Higher levels of mercury in the soil have helped identify where Lewis and Clark camped.

As “Prairie Docs” we know we do not have all the answers, and some of our answers, because of science and research, can and do change with time. That is one reason we invite other medical experts to write articles and be on the “On Call with the Prairie Doc” shows. We are dedicated to enhancing health and diminishing suffering by communicating useful information, based on honest science, provided in a respectful and compassionate manner. We want to highlight the changes and progress in medicine, while also stressing the importance of good old preventative care, a healthy diet, and exercise. We do this as volunteers, because we all know the importance of providing trusted health information free to our audience. We are funded by you, our readers and viewers. Thank you for your support and trust as we begin our 22nd season.

Andrew Ellsworth, M.D. is part of The Prairie Doc® team of physicians and currently practices family medicine in Brookings, South Dakota. Follow The Prairie Doc® at www.prairiedoc.org and on Facebook and instagram featuring On Call with the Prairie Doc® a medical Q&A show celebrating its 22nd season of health information based on science, built on trust, streaming live on Facebook most Thursdays at 7 p.m. central.

KU News: KU Alumni Association honors two recipients of Fred Ellsworth Medallion

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Guest Columnist
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From the Office of Public Affairs | http://www.news.ku.edu

Headlines

KU Alumni Association honors two recipients of Fred Ellsworth Medallion
LAWRENCE — Two pivotal leaders of organizations vital to the University of Kansas will receive the KU Alumni Association’s 2023 Fred Ellsworth Medallion for their dedicated service. David Mucci, who directed KU Memorial Unions for 23 years, and Dale Seuferling, who guided KU Endowment as president for 20 years of his 41-year career with the foundation, will be honored Sept. 7 in conjunction with the fall meeting of the Alumni Association’s national board of directors. Both leaders retired in 2022.

Paper Plains Zine Fest returns with creative workshops, fair and more
LAWRENCE — The Emily Taylor Center for Women & Gender Equity at the University of Kansas will partner with local organizations Sept. 2-3 to celebrate the zine — a self-published creation, usually reproduced by photocopier and circulated as a physical medium — at the second annual Paper Plains Zine Fest. The free public events include workshops, panels, a film screening and vendor fair. Some activities require advance registration.

Full stories below.

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Contact: Jennifer Sanner, KU Alumni Association, 785-864-9782, [email protected]; @KUAlumni
KU Alumni Association honors two recipients of Fred Ellsworth Medallion
LAWRENCE — Two pivotal leaders of organizations vital to the University of Kansas will receive the KU Alumni Association’s 2023 Fred Ellsworth Medallion for their dedicated service. David Mucci, who directed KU Memorial Unions for 23 years, and Dale Seuferling, who guided KU Endowment as president for 20 years of his 41-year career with the foundation, will be honored Sept. 7 in conjunction with the fall meeting of the Alumni Association’s national board of directors. Both men retired in 2022.
The association created the medallion in 1975 in tribute to Ellsworth, a 1922 KU graduate who led the organization as executive director and secretary from 1929 to 1963.
David Mucci
Mucci built strong relationships across KU and championed the interests of students as he led the Union through dramatic growth in facilities and programs.
He arrived in Lawrence in 1999 after overseeing student unions at the University of Idaho, Ohio State University and his alma mater, the University of Kentucky, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in English and film studies and his master’s in business administration. As an undergraduate, he was elected student body president, a role that prepared him well to mentor a succession of KU students who participated in Student Union Activities, Student Senate and KJHK radio. More recently, he supported new student initiatives, including the annual community volunteer day (known as The Big Event) and KU’s Esports team.
Jay Howard, a 1979 graduate who served five years as an alumni representative on the KU Memorial Unions board, credited Mucci for uniting teams and finding solutions to even the most vexing challenges.
“I doubt this is in any business school textbook, but David embodied what I call ‘management by cheerfulness,’” said Howard, who also led the Alumni Association as national chair. “He never failed to have a sense of positivity, happiness and empowerment for everybody he met.”
Under Mucci’s leadership, the Union completed ambitious renovations that modernized the Jayhawk Boulevard landmark while preserving traditions and history. His devotion to Mount Oread’s history is evident not only in the physical spaces of the Kansas Union, the Burge Union and the DeBruce Center, but also through his collaboration with a team of staff members and graduate students (led by the late Henry Fortunato, a 2007 graduate) to create the website kuhistory.com and add history display panels throughout the unions.
Mucci also oversaw expansion in union programs on the Lawrence campus, and he helped establish programs to serve students on the Edwards Campus in Overland Park as well as KU Medical Center campuses in Kansas City and Wichita. He led the repurposing of the Jaybowl for students in architecture and graphic design, the transformation of the KU Bookstore and the opening of the South Dining Commons. Through the years, he provided vital employment opportunities for hundreds of students.
Mucci served on the KU Master Plan Steering Committee and the Sesquicentennial Steering Committee. He helped develop the Union Alumni Council to engage recently graduated student leaders and encourage them to continue their involvement with KU. During the pandemic, he guided the Union through tremendous challenges, continuing to connect students and the community despite severely limited budget and staff resources.
Dale Seuferling
Throughout his KU Endowment career, Seuferling nurtured trusted relationships with countless alumni and guided fundraising campaigns that provided unprecedented support for students and faculty, along with new buildings and major renovations that transformed and expanded KU across all campuses.
After earning his KU journalism degree in 1977, Seuferling landed his first job as a radio news reporter for the Office of University Relations. In 1981, he became public relations director for KU Endowment, where he soon transitioned to a fundraising role and through the years took on added responsibilities. He served as director of major gifts, vice president for development and executive vice president before he became president in 2002.
His KU tenure spanned seven chancellors and included three of Endowment’s four multiyear fundraising campaigns. The most recent, Far Above: The Campaign for Kansas, which concluded in 2016, raised $1.66 billion to benefit KU. More than 131,000 donors — 49% of them new donors — from all 50 states and 59 countries made gifts. The historic campaign resulted in 735 new scholarships and fellowships, 53 new professorships and 16 new buildings or major renovations across KU’s campuses in Lawrence, Overland Park, Kansas City, Salina and Wichita.
Seuferling also helped develop new programs, including Women Philanthropists for KU (WP4KU) and the Student Endowment Board. Sue Shields Watson, a 1975 graduate who led the Alumni Association as national chair and, with her husband and KU classmate, Kurt, co-chaired Endowment’s Far Above campaign, praised Seuferling for creating new leadership avenues through WP4KU.
“Dale realized that some women hadn’t had the opportunity to get to know the university,” she said, “and the fact that he brought them in and gave them the opportunity to know what was going on, to become involved, to serve on KU boards and ultimately to serve on the Endowment board, was such an important touch.”
Seuferling provided essential fundraising guidance for comprehensive landmark initiatives across the university, most recently the successful quest to earn the National Cancer Institute’s comprehensive designation for the University of Kansas Cancer Center in July 2022. He also strongly advocated for the new Jayhawk Welcome Center and renovated Adams Alumni Center, a $29.4 million project funded entirely through private gifts.
In addition, he became a national leader in higher education philanthropy through his many years of involvement in the Council for Advancement and Support of Education and his work with longtime KU Endowment consultant Grenzebach Glier and Associates (GG+A). He was the first KU Endowment president to acquire membership in an elite group of 20 public universities who participate in industry research, benchmarking and sharing of best practices under the auspices of GG+A.
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The official university Twitter account has changed to @UnivOfKansas.
Refollow @KUNews for KU News Service stories, discoveries and experts.


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Contact: Nikita Haynie, Emily Taylor Center for Women & Gender Equity, 785-864-7674, [email protected], @KUETCWGE
Paper Plains Zine Fest returns with creative workshops, fair and more
LAWRENCE — Paper Plains Zine Fest, a two-day event celebrating and showcasing zine culture in Lawrence and beyond, returns for a second year at multiple venues over Labor Day weekend.
The Emily Taylor Center for Women & Gender Equity at the University of Kansas will partner with multiple local organizations Sept. 2-3 to celebrate the zine — a self-published creation, usually reproduced by photocopier and circulated as a physical medium.
“We’re so excited for the return of Paper Plains Zine Fest,” said planning committee member Megan Williams, assistant director of the Emily Taylor Center. “The success of last year’s event inspired us to expand our programming to a second day, allowing us to look deeper into the impact of zines in our community as well as to grow partnerships with organizations and institutions across KU and Lawrence that support our burgeoning zine culture.”
Sept. 2
The first day of the festival will include programming, panels and workshops at KU, some of which require advance registration on the Paper Plains Zine Fest website. Imani Wadud, KU doctoral student in American studies, will give a keynote address about zine-making as a solidarity practice with a focus on decolonial and Black feminist thought at 4 p.m. at the Spencer Museum of Art.
The day’s programming will conclude with a 7 p.m. screening of “Queercore: How to Punk a Revolution” (2017) at the Lawrence Arts Center, hosted in partnership with Lawrence Arts Center Microcinema, KU Libraries and Trans Lawrence Coalition. The documentary traces the cultural phenomenon known as Queercore and the place of zines within this LGBTQ punk movement. The screening is recommended for ages 18-plus and will be followed by a panel of queer and trans zinesters moderated by Zine Fest co-organizer and KU undergraduate Monty Protest.
Sept. 3
The second day of the festival will feature the Vendor Fair from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Van Go, 715 New Jersey St., featuring over 100 local and regional artists, including Black, Indigenous, people of color, woman/femme, LGBTQIA+ and youth zine-makers as well as zinesters with disabilities. These vendors from around the Midwest and beyond will have zines, comics, chapbooks, pamphlets and more to sell and trade. Also planned is a youth zine-making workshop hosted by Jenny Cook, children’s librarian at Lawrence Public Library, and Williams at 11:30 a.m. at Van Go.
Paper Plains Zine Fest is sponsored by Wonder Fair, Emily Taylor Center and Van Go and made possible with a grant from the City of Lawrence.

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KU News Service
1450 Jayhawk Blvd.
Lawrence KS 66045
Phone: 785-864-3256
Fax: 785-864-3339
[email protected]
http://www.news.ku.edu

Erinn Barcomb-Peterson, director of news and media relations, [email protected]

Today’s News is a free service from the Office of Public Affairs

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