April 15, 2021 • 48 mins
Bill Pickett, the greatest showman of Wild West. A Black cowboy born free, in 1870, in Travis County, Texas. He invented a whole rodeo sport, became an icon of toughness, and thrilled crowds across North America. But when his promoters set him up to face a raging bull in Mexico City, the ensuing fight over cultural supremacy has dangerous consequences.
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
In the middle of California, down in the fertile land
of Salinas Land later made famous by John Steinbeck. That's
where the black cowboy Jesse Stall secured his own piece
of history. The year is nineteen twelve. Black cowboys have
roamed the West as cattle herders and trail bosses. There's
nat Love and also the outlaws like Cherokee Bill and
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law men like Bass Reeves. Of course, starting with all
these same skills on horseback and with roping cattle and horses,
men found a way to turn those talents into a
competition entertainment. Rodeo soon become popular spectacles across the West.
They're also big fun social events, something to look forward
to in between days of hard work and solitude. People
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would travel far and wide for the occasion. The Mayor
of San Francisco makes the trip down to Salinas to
see Stall in action. He's joined by four thousand others.
Before the swelling crowd, Jesse Stall draws a horse named
glass Eye. You can imagine he earned that name the
hard way. The animal is a thousand pounds of fury,
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wrapped in a hide and all loaded into a chute.
The Black cowboy drops down onto the bronco's back. Glass
eye resists its new riders, which every ounce of fight
it can muster. The horse bucks and picks, it leaps
and spins. As soon as hoofs touched the earth, it
bucks again and reaches its body back up towards the sky.
(01:27):
But jesse Stall holds fast to the animal. He stays
on the bucking broncho until it's just still as a
sleeping infant. The crowd, which has been cheering his ride
throughout a russ when jesse Stall stands tall above the
now calmed bronco. When the judges score his ride, jesse
Stall comes in third. White cowboys in first and second.
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Everyone knows that score isn't fair. It isn't right. Jesse
Stall deserves the first place. He hops on the back
of another bronco. The broncos turned loose in the arena.
The crowd sees that jesse Stall is seated backwards, and
just like that, he rides the bronco all around the
arena backwards. He doesn't get thrown. No one has ever
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seen anything like this ever. It isn't for a score.
The ride is purely an exhibition. It's a protest. His
defiant ride brings down the house. The crowd loses their
ever loving minds. It's further proof racism has turned the
judges into public embarrassments. Everyone else can see the truth
Jesse Stall has clearly one. Twice. In nine, Jesse Stall
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was posthumously inducted into the Rodeo Hall of Fame. He
was the second black cowboy to be inducted. The first
black cowboy to be inducted was a man named Bill Pickett,
the greatest showman of the Wild West. A black cowboy
from Texas, he invented a whole rodeo sport. He became
an icon of toughness and thrilled crowds across America and Mexico.
(02:58):
This is his story. Yeah, this is a home. It's
been a long road for us. We taken ownership over
everything else to us realty. We surrounded by our heritage,
our fist up because we're proud to be Ammerican. I'm
(03:20):
Zaran Bernat. Welcome to Black Cowboys and I hear original podcast.
He after the self was really in the name. Sitting
on a musstand Friday, through the Place, Buffalo Soldier, the King,
Little Range, We in love with the cowboy Way Chapter seven,
(03:44):
Bill Pickett, King of the bull Riders, Bronco Busters, and Bulldoggers. So, Paul,
you used to take me to the rodeo when I
was a boy. You took me to the rodeo in Atlanta,
and it was one of my favorite earlier childhood memories.
When we moved to California, one of the first things
we did was been to a rodeo. How important was
it to you to take your son to a rodeo?
It was extremely important, and it's important to know that
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people like you have done everything that can be done.
So you just take you to the rodeo. Then you
can see that black black people are cowboys, so then
it's not it doesn't have to be researched, and you
can see it with your own eyes. So that was
very important. You definitely stuck with me when you were
a boy. Do you remember like the wild West shows
and and wanting to go see the rodeo? Is that
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something for you as well? Well? W I was a
little boy, we were living in Virginia and North Carolina
and segregation was the law of the land, so we
we didn't go to any shows in North Carolina or
Virginia because there was always the possibility of running into
klansman or or they're like who had too much to
drink and couldn't get in, and not mad at anybody
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who got in. So no, we didn't go to anything
until we moved to Pennsylvania. Then we started going to circuses.
I always wanted to go to uh Rodeo. Now that
close as that came was at my great grandmother's farm,
when there all the time to break a mule or
break a horse, or in any of the regular ranch activities.
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So even though it wasn't a big ranch, you could
feel it. Bill Pickett was born free in eighteen seventy
in Travis County, Texas, in a community just outside of
the capital Austin. Both of Bill Pickett's parents have been
slaves in South Carolina. Both were mixed. His father had
Cherokee ancestors, his mother had Cherokee and Mexican ancestors. Bill
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is the oldest of thirteen siblings or second oldest, records
are hard to confirm. When he's a school kid, little
Bill walks past a cattle ranch every day on the
way to the school house. Cattle culture is all around Austin.
At that time. The Texas Trail that leads the cattle
drives north to Dodge City passes along the eastern edge
of Austin. It then runs north to where it parallels
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the famed Chisholm Trail, but for it crosses the Red River,
the bound indry between Texas and Indian territory known as
present day Oklahoma. Young Bill Picket studies the cattleman and
cowboys who passed through. There's much to watch and learn. Chiefly,
there's the rope known as a lariat fashioned into a noose.
It's thrown around the necks of stray cattle and obstinate mustangs.
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Those are rhythm to how the cowboys swing the lariat
above their heads. There's a grace to how they make
it land in the perfect spot, and then there's a
sudden authority when they yank it tight. There's also all
the brands to study, those marks burned into the sides
of livestock. Each brand signifies a different ranch. Young Bill
soon becomes a pint sized expert in reading all the
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many brands of the ever growing number of Texas ranches.
It helps that his older cousins are black cowboys. They've
been to Dodge City. They've ridden hard on the trail,
through driving sleet and punishing hail. They've chased an angry
steer through bramble brush and forded rivers as a guide
a freeway of cattle to safely cross. His cousins fill
his head with stories of stampedes and Indian raids, shootouts
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and gunfights with bad men, the ever present risk of
horse thieves and cattle rustlers. They've each escaped from those perils,
leaving behind only a thundering cloud of dust. And so
when he walks to school, Bill Pickett doesn't just see
the big, friendly eyes of a cow staring at him
from behind the corral fence. He sees adventure and family tradition.
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He learns to ride and to shoot. He learns to
throw a lariat. He begins to break wild horses. Even
as a boy, Bill has an order nous about him
that makes him a natural cowboy, a feisty spirit. But
the talent that will become most famous for is one
he teaches himself. He learns it by watching, but not
the cowboys. Instead, he learns it from a bulldog. In
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one at age ten or so, Bill spots a bulldog
sees a cow and wrestle it to the ground. What
captures his imagination is how the dog does it. The
dog bites down on the cow's upper lip, sinks it's
canine fangs into the cow's most tender flesh. There are
so many nerve endings in a cow's lip. The pain
of being bitten there renders a cow stunned. It's like
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a cow short circuits. A dog no more than fifty
or sixty pounds can use this technique to bring down
a thousand pound cow. The same technique works on bulls.
Thus the name of the dogs who do this best bulldogs.
The trick that young Bill Pickett will develop from this
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one observation will make him famous around the world. He
calls it bulldogging. The first time he shows anyone his
new trick for how to make a bull submit to
his will, the ten year old black boy is nearly
laughed out of Texas. When he walks to school each day,
Bill passes the Little Field Cattle Company. One day, he
notices the cowboys are fighting to brand a particularly stubborn calf.
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Young Bill Pickett offers to help them out. Of course,
the dust coded trail hardened cowboys almost die laughing at
this black boy's offer, but they can see he's serious.
The hell is his cocky kid who thinks he could
wrestle a four underd pound calf to the ground. Looking
at him, they can also see he weighs maybe a
hundred pounds with his boots on. However, the cowboys agree
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to let the cocky kid help them with their difficult livestock.
They rope the calf. As the cowboys heat up the
brand they tell Bill to hold the animal stock still
while they branded. Young Bill nods, then he walks over
to the troublesome animal. He approaches it from behind and
the side. He gets ahold of the calf's short horns,
maneuvers himself in front of its head. Then he bites
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down on the animal's upper lip, just like he'd seen
the bulldog do it. With a sharp, sudden twist of
his ten year old frame, Young Bill tosses the four
pound animal to the ground as instructed. He holds the
calf still for the cowboys to brand it. The cowboys
are gape mouth with shock. Who is this kid? As
flesh smokes and sears, Young Bill holds the calf. The
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animal hardly moves all as the cowboys burned the brand
into its hide. Bill doesn't let go until he's given
the signal. The calf scrambles to its feet, then trots
over to the rest of the herd, freshly branded. By
the time young Bill gets home that day, word has
crisscrossed Austin. There's a boy in town, a little cowboy
who can toss a steer to the ground with his teeth. Soon,
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Bill Pickett is locally famous. From that day forward, he
has steady work as a cowboy. Bill Pickett leaves school
after finishing the fifth grade. He goes pro and black
families oftentimes there's this tradition of passing on skills and talents,
and it's not really necessarily made into a big deal,
but it's kind of just something that is you you
learn over time. So did the family teach you about
(10:44):
tending animals? Absolutely that you learned anything you were near.
If one of my cousins was going out to collect eggs,
you go with them, and then they show you how
to how to handle the chickens, how to handle the
chicks when you see them, what to do about the rooster.
When Alcalester was shooing his mules. He would take his
time and show you how to claim the hoof, how
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to handle the animal. He was always talking about the
animal as if it was a person that he was
talking to. Each animal had a name, Each animal had
a personality. Each animal had a job to do that
didn't change from day to day. During his teen years,
Bill Pickett turns his attention to the more difficult task
of learning how to ride a bucking bronco. It doesn't
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take him long. Soon enough, Each Sunday afternoon, he puts
on a show riding broncos for any curious onlookers. Like
a street musician, he passes the hat among the crowd,
hoping to pull in a little spare cash. He doesn't
know it yet, but this is the start of his
life as a cowboy showman. In the eighteen nineties, Bill
Pickett starts a family business with four of his brothers.
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They called their outfit the Pickett Brothers Bronco Busters and
Rough Riders Association. Their advertisement reads, we ride and break
all wild horses with much care, good treatment to all animals,
perfect satisfy action, guarantee catching and taming wild cattle speciality
at the turn of the new century. Bill Pickett and
his brothers arrive in Rocky Forward, Colorado to put on
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a show. They appear at the Arkansas Valley Fair. It's
the first time that Bill Pickett gives a public performance
of his unique style of bulldogging. The crowd is stunned
when he flips a thousand pound bull, but Bill does
it a little different. He doesn't even use his hands.
He flips the bull with just his teeth. Of course,
he is an immediate sensation. He wows crowds in Blue Rapids, Kansas.
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We'll pick it. A colored man from Taylor, Texas has
made a great record as a steer thrower. At an exhibition,
he started on horseback after a wild steer caught up
with it, threw his arms over the steer's neck and
holding onto it, let go of his horse, then stop
the steer by holding on to both horns. He next
got around in front of between his horns, and then
by grasping the horns, he tipped the steers nose up
so that he could lean forward and catch his upper
lip in his teeth and north into Wyoming. He does
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the same. Thicket is not a big man, but is
built like an athlete in his feet will undoubt really
be one of the great features of this year's celebration.
It is difficult to conceive how a man could throw
a powerful steer in his hands, unaided by rope or
a contrivance of some kind, and yet Pickett accomplishes this
seemingly impossible task with only his teeth. Anytime. While is
a Western audience with his bulldogging technique, questions are raised,
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how is he doing it? And also why is he
doing it? In the Denver Post, Bill Pickett explains his
technique from his perspective, Hope, it's all right to hang
people with, but they're getting the way. When you want
a rope of steer, yes, sir, I throw them with
my teeth. I'm telling you the truth. The rope is
just in the way, you see. I just get my horse,
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and then they turned the steel loose, and I go
to him just like I have a rope. And when
I come up to his head, I jump off the
horse and nail the steer by the horns, and my
right hand grabs right on. And then I pulled up
to his head and I stopped his running. And then
I reached over the top of the head with my
own head and grabbed him by the upper lip with
my teeth and what's left of him, and I throw
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myself back. Mighty Hall in the stick flops on the ground.
Sometimes he lights on me, sometimes he don't, But anyhow,
I hold him till I tie his feet. I've seen
a dog throw a cow. That's where I got my idea.
By this time, Bill pick It or Will pick It
is being billed as the Dusky Demon. This adds a
sense of drama and flair to the cowboys routine, but
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it also obscures the fact that he's black. Bill Pickett
just wants to compete and live as a professional showman,
which means he has to downplay and obscure his race,
so he often appears in the ring dressed as a
Mexican bullfighter. He fights back against the demoralizing fiction to
turn of the century racism with his own fictions. There
is an interesting parallel between jazz music of the twenties
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and black cowboys at that same time, because both of
them have to kind of rely on these fictions based
on race to get around the racist fictions that they
are being imposed upon them. So with jazz musicians, they
couldn't go and play certain places because they were black
jazz musicians. So they would lie and say, no, no,
I'm a Mohammedan, I'm Muslim. They're like, oh, okay, they
didn't really know what a Muslim was it looked like
so they could get away with it in the South
and can play as a jazz musician. Now Bill Picket
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is doing the same thing, calling himself the dusky demon
and going out there and Mattador closed because can kind
of obscure his blackness and make it more of like,
I'm a brown guy. Now, what do you think about
that use of the of like, you know, racialized fictions
to combat racist fictions at that time. I always have
a very difficult time trying to have an opinion about
it because the times were so different and the options
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and choices presented were in such a different context. For example,
I can't tell if Bill Pickett just didn't give a
damn about race, or if he was trying to obscure it.
I've gone through my life not giving the damn about race,
fully conscious of the existence of it, but not really caring.
That's never been part of my decision making, So I
know that can be done. I give him the credit
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for that being among the possible choices that he made.
Dusky demons like the brown bomber. You know, that's just
that's just that's just promotion. See. The other thing is
he's born in eighteen seventy one. From the eighteen seventies
up to nineteen twenty, there was a huge, big change
in the West. At first, it was optimism after Civil
War when people were coming out there. It was unpopulated
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and it was pretty much come on out and do
what you can to make it a better place. And
then after the Hayes Tilden election and that they took
the army out in the South and this Confederacy moved
to Texas. Then the nature of the West change. So
the same event that had been fun for Bill Pickett
two years earlier than as hell because the people who
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are coming there are from Alabama and not from Texas,
so his experience, uh, it will be seen through a
different set of eyes. From then on. It's hard to
tell exactly where the lines are, but nineteen Bill Pickett
is a crowd certified top builled cowboys showman. His name
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is known from coast to coast. The Miller family owners
of one of the most famous ranches in the West,
the Wonder One Ranch in Oklahoma, hires Bill Picket for
a show called the Miller Brothers Big Round Up. Sixty
thousand people show up by train to visit the ranch
and witness the Wild West Show. It's a veritable display
of all that's right and wrong in the American West.
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It's authentic, at least in its cruelty. The famous Native
warrior Geronimo is one of the main attractions. He's presently
a captive of the U. S Army at a nearby fort.
For reasons of their own, the army decides to loan
out Geronimo for the show. He appears in front of
delighted fans as promised, in manacles, escorted by soldiers. Despite
the objectified strangeness of his situation. From inside a moving car,
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Geronimo shoots and kills a buffalo. The animal is then
cooked and served two guests. It's billed as quote the
last buffalo killed by Geronimo. This statement is technically true
since the Apache chief is in army custody and the
man known as the last resistance fighter of his generation
will die four years later in nearby fort Sill. His
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buff below hunt is an ultimate experience of the dying West.
Back in the Wild West Show, it's Bill Pickett's turn
to wow the crowd. He does what he does best,
bulldogs a one thousand pounds steer. The crowd is thrilled
beyond expectation. His is a mythic feat. Here is a
man who can toss beasts like he's some kind of
black demigod in a ten gallon hat. Charged up by
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the success of their show, the Miller Brothers plan to
hire Bill Pickett to become a permanent part of their
new traveling Wild West Show. They intend to travel the
country by train like the circus coming to Town, only
instead of elephants and high wire acts, they bring real
live cowboys and Indians. While he's out on the road
traveling America by rail, Bill Pickett enjoys his life as
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the star of the Miller Brothers Wild West Show. He
has no idea that the very next year he will
test his good luck with a brush with death down
in Mexico. The most epic fight in his brock busting
bulldogging life will arrive in the form of a Mexican
bull down in Mexico, there is a centuries long love
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affair with the bull. Cattle culture first took hold in
the ranchos around Mexico City in the early fifteen hundreds
in the days of her Non Cortes. Back then, the
Spaniards had the indigenous and black cowboys worked their cattle.
The early cattle industry was regulated by the Mesta, an
Association for shape Herding and cattle ranching in the province
of New Spain. The first livestock herding regulations were created
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in the sixteenth century. For instance, there was the seventy
four requirement that for every two thousand head of cattle
on a ranch, there had to be four black or
indigenous cowboys to tend them, and two of the four
had to be on horseback as well. There was an
ordinance that forbid the black and indigenous cowboys from using
a traditional lands called the dea as a tool to
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tend the cattle. It was banned for his sharp cruelty.
According to the fifteen seventy four ordinances, that there be
no or any hook livestock. Any Native, Lato, black or
Mestizo that has been a vacco cannot carry or possess
for any reason on their penalty, and he who encouraged
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the said penalty and does not have the means to
pay will be given a hundred largest in public. The
new method of tending cattle soon developed. It was a
mix of indigenous land and plant knowledge, Spanish and the
Lucian hurting traditions Spanish las marismas traditions of rope lariats
called lazos, along with West African traditions such as the
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use of a Senegambian style military saddle with a saddle horn.
These influences breyed together to create a new form of
roping livestock while riding horseback. This is what comes to
be known as vaccaro culture, which in a Merica becomes
cowboy culture. The culture soon spreads east to Spanish Florida,
west to Spanish California, north to what would become Texas,
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New Mexico and Arizona, and eventually all across the West. However,
in Mexico City, in the roots of Accero culture have
been obscured by time. The black and indigenous ancestors who
created the culture are all but forgotten, and thus it's
a great insult when one of the Miller brothers is
down in Mexico, and he boasts that the Black Cowboys,
star of his Wild West show, Bill Pickett, could easily
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do what any Mexican mattador does, and certainly no matta
door could do what Bill Pickett does to a steer. Meanwhile,
back in Oklahoma, Bill Pickett has a bad dream. In
his nightmare, an enormous black bull is chasing him he
can hardly escape. When he wakes up, he tells his
wife about his bad dream. Later that day, a telegram arrives.
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It's from his boss, the Miller's down in Mexico, asking
for Bill to travel down to Mexico City as soon
as possible to join their wild West Show touring. There,
Bill and his wife discussed the trip and his dream
from the night before. His wife believes the bull was
Satan himself, certainly a bad omen. However, she has faith
in her husband despite his dream about a double bull.
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She encourages him to go to Mexico City. She practically
insists he arrives in Mexico City on December six. Down
in Mexico at that time, there are almost five hundred
professional matadors. The most famous of them all is Manuel
maheis Bien Danita, known as Manolo ben Danita. He's terribly
amused by Bill Pickett's performance as a steer thrower. He
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and the other bullfighters mocked the black cowboy, saying it's
a terribly easy thing that Bill does. Any bullfighter could
do the same. The sporting press in Mexico takes the bait.
They report this same opinion as fact. If you compare
Bill Pickett's bulldogging with Mexican bullfighting, as far as the
Mexican press is concerned, there's no contest. One is vulgar, brutish,
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and savva. The other is a graceful dance with death
measured in bravery. Joe Miller, one of the brothers, sees
a marketing opportunity. He reiterates that none of them can
do what Bill Pickett does to a steer. How dare
the Americans come down to Mexico City and insult the
national sport of Mexico to the face to the sport's
most famous star, the matador, Ben Vaneta, demands satisfaction. Joe
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Miller challenges a bullfighter with a bet. Ben Veneta accepts
the wager. The next day, Ben Vanetta will bulldog a
steer for the sake of Mexican pride. It'll be before
a private audience and by invitation only. The next day,
Ben Vaneta doesn't show, he sends word that he's been
forbidden from taking part by his contract the arena, where
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he is a top build matador won't let their star
attraction risk injury just to defend Mexican honor. Joe Miller
isn't satisfied, so he proposes an alternative. The matadors can
select the most vicious rank bull they can find in Mexico,
and Bill Pickett will bulldog it, this time for a crowd.
Ben Venita, acting on behalf of all the matadors of Mexico,
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accepts this new wager. The men bet five thousand pacos
plus a steep cut of the collected ticket sales at
the Bull Arena. There's one small trouble. No one has
told Bill Pickett about this bet. When he does finally
hear about it, he just asked Joe Miller for one condition.
If he's killed by the bull, he wants Joe's word
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that his body will be shipped back to Oklahoma for burial.
Bill Pickett doesn't want Mexican coyotes picking through his bones
and his shallow grave. The day of the contest is
set for the day before Christmas Eve, December. Everyone in
Mexico who can afford a ticket turns out to see
this black cowboy who thinks he can throw a killer bull.
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The president of Mexico Port, Ferro Diaz, is in attendance.
To hype up the crowd, a group of matadors parades
into the arena. They carry an ornate black casket. The
words l pincerino are written on the car. Often it
means one who has been gored through the crowd loses
its ever loving mind. At the mattador's dark humor, it's
exactly what they expect. They've all come to see this
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cocky black American die at the hands of a Mexican bull.
The restless crowd begins to chant the haunting refrain oh
featuring backstage, one of the Miller brothers, Zach, gives Bill
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Pickett a bottle of whiskey to steal his nerves. He
downs half of it. Then he saddles up on his
best horse, Spradley, named for how it walks, and he
rides out to meet his fate in the bullfighting arena.
Bill Pickett wears a red cowboys shirt, a neckerchief, and
a tall stetson hat. The Mexican crowd boom and jeers
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the black cowboy. A blare of a trumpet breaks up
their booze and jeers. A respectful and expectant silence falls
over the crowd. The real star has arrived. The gate
to the bullpen swings open. One thousand pounds of bull
charge into the arena. Its snorts hot plumes of angry air.
It scratches at the earth like the Earth called it
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a bad name. Then the bull walks eyes on Bill Pickett.
The crowd erupts and triumphant cheers. They salute the bull
as the killer they've come to see. The bull's name
is Frijole Chiquita. It means little beans. It's a curious
name for such a vicious animal. He's been bred for
death in the arena, presumably at the hands of a matador.
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A thousand generations of bulls before him were bred all
leading up to this moment. Each bull was specifically selected
for its aggression, its outsized muscularity, picked for the forward
bend of its horns, which, when turned forward to become
a far more brutal natural weapon. Poly Chiquita stands at
the apex of a thousand bulls. The very first bullfight
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in the Old World took place back in Spain in
the eleventh or twelfth century, depending on who you ask.
Either it was an honor first given to El sid
sometime in the mid eleventh century, or the tradition possibly
began when King Alfonso the Eighth was crowned king in
the twelfth century. However it began, it soon became a
glorious tradition to mark a special occasion with a career
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de de toros, or in English, a bullfight. Pope Pious
the Fifth in fifteen sixties six tried to ban bullfights
in Catholic nations. He abhorred the blood lust they incited
and the cruelty of bullfight requires. The devout Spaniards considered
his official edict issued from their highest religious leader, but
then they promptly ignored his order. They loved bullfighting too
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much to listen to the Church. The next Pope, Pope
Gregory the eighth, was like, yeah, never mind. He recanted
most of the Church's earlier prohibition. The first bullfight in
the New World took place in Mexico City in fifty Now,
by the time Bill Pickett is standing there in the
El Toro Arena in Mexico City, in nearly four centuries
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have passed since that first bullfight in the New World,
and for all that time, the breeders of Mexican fighting
bulls have been making them bigger and more aggressive. Pretty
Holy Chikeda stares at him. Bill Pickett is the greatest
bulldogger of all time. But this isn't a wild bull,
this is a born and bred killing machine. Before this moment,
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Bill Pickett has never seen a fighting bull, not once
in all his cowboy days. On horseback, Bill circles the arena,
keeping his eyes on the bull, and the bull does
the same, eyeing him. Another cowboys on horseback in the
arena to lead the bull so that Bill can ride
up behind the bull and try to bulldog it. The
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bull doesn't do as expected. He chases the leading cowboy,
gores his horse and its hip. The horses peer badly
by the bull's horn. It winnies and screams in pain.
As the bull starts to pull its horn out of
the horse's flank, Bill Pickett throws himself at the bull,
but the blood of the horse now wets the bull's horns.
Bill's grip on the horns fails. He falls to the earth.
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He's nearly trampled under the bull. Only dumb luck saves him.
Bill catches up with his horse Spradley, hops back in
the saddle and rides out of the arena. The crowd
reins down, jeers and booze upon Bill and his horse.
The crowd returns to chanting in unison, and meanwhile Bill
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rides up to Joe Miller and asks for a new horse.
Bill is not scared for himself, He's worried about Spradley,
his favorite pony. Joe Miller tells him he doesn't have
time for all that. The promoter can sense the rising
blood lust of the crowd. He shouts, get back out
there and take that goddamn hill. Bill Pickett's rows his
horse and rides back into the arena to face the bull.
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The one with the horse blood staining its horns for
Holy Choked, immediately charges again at Bill Pickett. His horse
sharply evades the first part of the charge, but it
gets caught by the bull's lady twist. The bull pierces
his horn deep into the horse's thigh and buttock. The
horn rips open horse flesh and muscle, until finally the
bull's horn tears free at the horse's hip. Spradley sounds
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with pain. The bull is close enough for Bill Pickett
to try bulldogging him again. Plus, if he leaps from
his horse, it will protect his horse from a third
bull charge, so they'll pick it. Throws himself backwards down
at the bull's horn, but again his grip slips on
horse blood. His boots skip across the arena, but he
doesn't let go. He tries to grab hold, his grip
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continues to slip. His third attempt fails just the same.
He can't seem to get ahold of the bull. The
crowd feels certain that the grim specter of death has
entered the arena. The cheers grow death in his hand.
Bill tries one last time. He's finally able to grab
the fighting bull by both horns, and he pulls himself
up onto the bull's head. He wraps his arm around
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both horns and holds on for dear life. It's his
only chance he can survive the day. The bull shakes
its head from side to side. Bill holds fast to
its horns as he slapped around and against the bull's
head and face. The bull smashes Bill against the fence brds.
It doesn't work. Bill Pickett still holds on. Finally, the
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bull slows it's running. It comes to a stop and
stands still. The crowd turns uglier. It grows more violent
and drunken. People start to throw things at Bill and
the bull to see if they can knock that black
cowboy off. Mostly it just seems to further piss off
the bull. The bull shakes its head from side to side.
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The crowd is unsatisfied. A brick is thrown. It slices
Bill's forehead. Bill now bleeds from a new open wound
in his face. His blow it streams from his face
as he clings to the bull's head, his arms still
wrapped around its horns. Another man in the stands throws something,
a full beer bottle. His aim is dead. On breaking
three of his ribs, Bill Pickett aches all over everywhere.
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His fingers are numb, his body long past exhaustion. He
lets go of the bull's horns and falls into the
dusty arena, dirt and sand. The crowd cheers, some take
aim at the black cowboy, lying still in the dirt
of the bull ring. As the newspaper l Impartial reports later,
the crowd quote pelted him with open knives, bottles, stones, oranges,
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and cushions. End Quote bleeding in the dirt with multiple
broken ribs, struggling to breathe on the thin air of
Mexico City, exhausted from hanging onto the horns of a
fighting bull. For God knows how long, Bill Pickett looks
to be at the end of his trail. All told,
Bill Pickett has been inside the ring with the bull
for thirty eight minutes. For Holy each Keita takes a breather,
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turns and looks back at Bill. A fighting bull spots
the badly bleeding, exhausted cowboy still lying in the dirt.
The bull sets up for its final rush. The crowd
is all blood lust and mormid anticipation. The bull charges
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at the beaten cowboy. Bill is somehow able to evade
the initial rush, avoiding the bull's horns with the grace
of a matador, but the bull catches him with his hip,
knocks him down, and runs over Bill. Not dead yet,
Bill looks up from the dirt to see the bull
run past him. There's something in Bill's performance. Perhaps it's
his bravery or his unwillingness to give up, or perhaps
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it's the grace with which he protected his horse by
throwing himself on the bull. Whatever it is, Bill Pickett's
performance in the bull ring inspires a young Mexican bullfighter.
The man hops over the barricade and runs into the arena.
The young bullfighter waves his fest wildly. He uses it
like a red cape to catch the eye of the bull.
It works. His distraction gives Bill Pickett enough time to
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get to his feet. Someone, most likely a cowboy from
the one oh one Ranch, opens a gate and the
arena is flooded by ranch steers. The steers crowd the
bull ring, making it impossible for the Holy Chakda to
locate Bill Pickett and fitch him off. The crowd erupts
with violence of their own. More objects are thrown. There
is a new chorus of booze at chefs, but Bill
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Pickett has one. It's not the glory he might have
hoped for, but leaving the ring with your life is
some kind of victory. As Bill Pickett limps out, of
the bullfighting arena, spittle and warm beer rained down on him.
The victorious black cowboy is only thinking of his wounded horse, Spradley.
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He wants to know if his favorite pony will be okay.
An old Mexican man, a veteran of the bullring, a
wizened face man who knows secrets and soon to be
forgotten things, promises that he can heal the horse. Bill
trust the old Mexican man. A boy is sent together bananas,
two of them. They must be ripe and red, not yellow.
The boy does as he's told. The wizened face man
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peels the fruit. Then he smushes banana into the horse's
open wound. He explains to Bill that his favorite horse
will be fine. Soon after the man is done, Bill's
horse lies calm and still. It's labored breathing grows even
and steady. Ten minutes past, the horse is soon standing
well enough to walk. Whatever the old Mexican man did,
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it works, and likely it saves Bill's horse from having
to be euthanized. Of course, Bill too will have to
recover from his wounds. The next day, Bill tells the
Mexican press, if I had have gotten the kind of
hold I usually get kind of wanted. I would stayed
with that bull until he starved in death. That same day,
SMIs Eve nineteen eight, the Mexican newspaper l and Parsial
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reports on the results of the bulldogging exhibition. Pickett defeated
the bull, and the crowd departed disappointed, as they were
hoping to see, not precisely that which they did see.
They were hoping for blood, and the red liquid fumes
did not darken the sand as at other times. Picket
subdued the beast and put his snout on the ground,
doubling his neck under the weight of his herculean strength.
But the crowd wanted blood. Is that is the reason
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they go to the circus. Blood of bulls, blood of
horses or of men, but blood which stains and darkens
the gravesh and monot in the sand of the bull ring.
But this occasion did not give them that pleasure. Now
will be another time. Joe Miller wins his bet. Bill
Pickett beats a fighting bull in a one on one
face off, and it's clear no one else on earth
could do what he did. The black cowboy is certainly
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no matador, but it's equally true, No Mattador could do
what Bill Pickett did as a bulldogger. Miller's point is made.
Bill has somehow survived both nightmares, the black Bull of
his dreams and the real for Ho Chiquita. When Bill
Pickett goes down to Mexico and he's supposed to basically
go one on one with a bull, he has spending
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time in this this hostile environment. The Mexican crowd is
throwing things out him. They're yelling all sorts of epithets
and just this terrible situation, and he's grinning at them,
defiant as all hell, because he's Bill Pickett. They did,
like Ali and Jack Johnson, they made it a moral contest,
like our way of doing it is better than your
way of doing it. Now, can you imagine that scene yourself?
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Can you place yourself in the shoes of Bill Pickett? No, no, no, no.
I remember a couple of years ago when Ocho Sinko
decided to ride a bull, you know, the football player,
and so he thought it'd be easy, and I heard
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him discussed him the afterwards. He said, man, I got
on that damn bull and he started swelling up. You
can feel those muscles getting bigger, and they never stopped.
They just kept getting bigger and bigger. And I said,
what the funk am I doing on this ball? It's
nothing very long at ballam I think he was gone?
But that's me I would I have no desire, as
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much as I would like to do it. Uh, you know, philosophically, theoretically,
I have no interest in. I can't picture me being
in the ring on the ground with a bull loose.
At the same time, Bill Pickett is earning eight dollars
a week. He makes no extra money for fighting the bull,
only has a good story to show for it. After
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the show's return from Mexico, the Miller Brothers Traveling Wild
West Show tours America with great success and fewer near
death experiences for Bill Pickett. Their nineteen eleven season ends
in Los Angeles. They arrived in November. The climate was
good for the animals as well as the performers. Plus
there was a new film industry in Hollywood popping up.
The producers there paid top dollar for the authentic wild
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West performances, horse in real live natives and cowboys, performers
from the one oh one Ranch star and a handful
of silent films. A few years later, in nineteen fourteen,
Bill Pickett is invited across the Atlantic to perform before
the King and Queen of Great Britain. It's the hundred
year anniversary of the end of the War of eighteen twelve.
The British want to celebrate their century of peace with
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an Anglo American exposition in London. The Miller Brothers Wild
West Show has brought over as a star attraction which
promises to recreate the ever receding past for British royalty
and spectators. The culture that developed in the Old West
as a way of escaping the evils of colonialism is
brought back to England as something to be celebrated. How ironic,
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how American. There is one trouble that they run into
in the UK, the Humane Societies for the Protection of Animals.
At one performance, a humane society insists that the Black
Cowboy be arrested for his cruelty to animals. He is.
Ultimately Bill Pickett must pay a fine of twenty five dollar.
But there's bigger trouble than animal welfare. Before the Traveling
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Wild West Show can return to the States, war breaks
out in Europe. They would later call it World War One.
At the time, it's called the Great War, and as
everyone soon learns, the Great War will require great sacrifices.
King George the Fifth writes an edict declaring a national emergency.
The horses and vehicles of the wonderh One Ranch Show
are commandeered for public service guests, not every horse thief.
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Where's a cowboy hat? Without any horses or wagons, the
Wild West Show tries to flee back home to America.
No one wants to take a British ship, though, afraid
it will be sunk by a German U boat before
they can make it across the Atlantic, they plead for
help from the U. S. Embassy. Finally, Bill Pickett makes
it back home to America on a U. S. Male ship,
the USS St. Paul. When the depression first hits America,
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it's particularly devastating to the Miller brothers. By on the
Wild West Show can no longer afford to travel. There's
still an eager curiosity, but not nearly enough of a
paying crowd. The ranch has assets, livestock land, even mineral
rights and oil rights, but there are few buyers for
such high price commodities. Within a short period of time,
the Miller brothers are flat busted. They have to sell
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off what they can so they can keep the rest.
Ever loyal, Bill Pickett helps the brothers to dispose of
their livestock. It's the one thing they own that has
immediate value, at least to the bargain buyers. On March
fifty two, a man arrives at the one oh one
ranch looking to buy some cheap horses. The man likes
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the site of one old bronco. He asked if the
horse could be saddled and ridden. Bill Pickett saddles the
bronco and climbs on its back. Bill Pickett is sixty
two years old. The horse is old too, but on
this day the animal decides to relive its youth. It
fights to pitch the rider off its back, bucking and leaping,
twisting and lurching, but Bill Pickett hangs fast to reins
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his feet squarely in the stirrups. Eventually the horse is
ridden to a standstill. Just a few days later, on
the nineteenth of March, the livestock manager, Red Taggert, orders
Bill and another cowboy to round up a few more
horses and get them prepared and ready to be sold.
Bill spies a horse he thinks would catch the eyes
of a buyer. It's a three year old gelding chestnut
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brown in color. The horse weighs roughly a thousand pounds.
He's a surly mustang. Bill, riding a horse named Hornet,
casually approaches the chestnut mustang. Hornet gets him close enough
so that he can last so the unbroken horse. He
ties off his lariat around the horn of his saddle
his horse. Hornet can now hold the unbroken mustang steady
and in place, at least somewhat, as Bill works his
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way closer. A few other young cowboys gather on the
rails of the corral to see how Bill breaks the mustang.
Bill hops off his horse and works his way down
the rope hand overhand, pulling himself closer to the mustang
at the other end. The rope is still tied off
to his saddle horse. When Bill gets close, one of
the other horses in the corral steps on the rope
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tied to his saddle horse. This causes the rope to
go slack. The chestnut mustang feels the rope go slack
and pulls away with a quick, sharp jerk. The rope
goes taut again, and it flings Bill pick It up
into the sky. He goes up about fifteen feet before
he arcs back down to earth. His boots smack the dirt.
He lands legs unsteady. Before he can make a second move,
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the Mustang rears up and kicks Bill in the head.
His head makes a sickening sound like a cantalope dropped
off of a roof into a parking lot. Bill somehow
gets back to his feet, but he soon doubles back over.
His hands find his knees. The first man to rush
over to him turns back and shouts for a car.
A blue n pierced arrow roadster serves as Bill's ambulance.
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It's a beautiful car, a sleek last ride for Bill Pickett.
When he arrives at the hospital, the doctor instantly recognizes him.
He tells anyone listening, Hell, it's pick It. He'll live.
The doctor is wrong. On the second day of April,
Bill Pickett dies. At the beginning of his career, Bill
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Pickett once said, I'm promised for this world just so long,
and when I go, that'll be the end of it.
Sometimes I suppose I'll make a mistake, fatal mistake, It'll
be all over. After his death, humorist and world famous
all around good guy Will Rogers wrote a tribute. A
little small, good natured, likable negro died last week in
(44:37):
Oklahoma named Bill Pickett don't mean a thing to you,
does it? Well? He was the originator of a stunt
that is thrilled millions. It was the rodeo stunt of bulldog.
And he worked with white cowboys all his life and
never had an argument or an enemy. President Theodore Roosevelt
said of the world famous black cowboy, Bill Pickett's name
will go down in Western history as being one of
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the best trained ropers in it was the West has
produced Teddy Roosevelt isn't wrong. Bill Pickett once estimated that
he bulldoged five thousand steers during his time as a
cowboy showman. That's likely an underestimate. His legacy now lives
on in the annual Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo founded in
The rodeo was established to quote celebrate an honor black
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cowboys and cowgirls and their contributions to building the West.
And what better legacy could there be for the hard
riding bronc busting bulldogger. His love of cowboying started when
he was a boy watching the cowboys in his hometown
and the ones in his family. Hard to think of
something that would make him happier than to see a
young black girl or black boy discovered the joys of
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spending their life tending to animals. Now, do you also
think of like Bill Pickett and uh say, other writers
like Jesse Stalard? Did you think of them when you
were young? Oh? Absolutely. We were told from a young
age that the best cowboys in the world were black cowboys.
They are that teaching all the white ones how to
how to be cowboys. So we did not have a
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shortage of confidence in the existence of black cowboys. And
Bill Pickett was like John Henry, only he was a
real person. You know. John Henry was a myth. But
Bill Pickett was a real person. Who did John Henry
like things? I mean, just biting a bull on the
lip just to get in front of a bull, potentially
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place yourself in the bus this end of a bull
and then and then bite him on the limp until
he gives up. I admire that a lot. There is
a film, a moving picture made of the whole saga.
It's called a Bullfight in Mexico. It's one of the
earliest films ever released in theaters sometime around Sadly that
(46:54):
footage is now lost, but the image of Bill Pickett, bloodied,
battered but triumphant remains vivid today. Up next on Black Cowboys,
we'll look at the legacy of Black Cowboys in American cinema.
Thanks for listening. Black Cowboys is written by me Zaren Burnett,
(47:15):
produced and edited by Ryan Murdoch and Michelle Lands. Our
theme song is written and performed by Demeanor. Sound design
and music by Jeremy Thal. Additional music by Alvin Young
Blood Heart, Greg Chitzwick and Nathan Cosey. Research and fact
checking by Austin Thompson, Marissa Brown, Jocelyn Sears, and Aaron
Blackmore performances by j Charlesworth, Marc o'quanielli, Ryan Murdoch and
(47:38):
Frank Nemick. Show logo by Lucy Quintinia. Executive producers are
Jason English and mangesh Particular Special thanks as always to Bipop.
Ask yourself What's really in a name? Sitting on a
Mustang Friday, to the Place Voloso, to the King of
(48:01):
the France, we allow for the charpoys Way
In the middle of California, down in the fertile land
of Salinas Land later made famous by John Steinbeck. That's
where the black cowboy Jesse Stall secured his own piece
of history. The year is nineteen twelve. Black cowboys have
roamed the West as cattle herders and trail bosses. There's
nat Love and also the outlaws like Cherokee Bill and
(00:24):
law men like Bass Reeves. Of course, starting with all
these same skills on horseback and with roping cattle and horses,
men found a way to turn those talents into a
competition entertainment. Rodeo soon become popular spectacles across the West.
They're also big fun social events, something to look forward
to in between days of hard work and solitude. People
(00:46):
would travel far and wide for the occasion. The Mayor
of San Francisco makes the trip down to Salinas to
see Stall in action. He's joined by four thousand others.
Before the swelling crowd, Jesse Stall draws a horse named
glass Eye. You can imagine he earned that name the
hard way. The animal is a thousand pounds of fury,
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wrapped in a hide and all loaded into a chute.
The Black cowboy drops down onto the bronco's back. Glass
eye resists its new riders, which every ounce of fight
it can muster. The horse bucks and picks, it leaps
and spins. As soon as hoofs touched the earth, it
bucks again and reaches its body back up towards the sky.
(01:27):
But jesse Stall holds fast to the animal. He stays
on the bucking broncho until it's just still as a
sleeping infant. The crowd, which has been cheering his ride
throughout a russ when jesse Stall stands tall above the
now calmed bronco. When the judges score his ride, jesse
Stall comes in third. White cowboys in first and second.
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Everyone knows that score isn't fair. It isn't right. Jesse
Stall deserves the first place. He hops on the back
of another bronco. The broncos turned loose in the arena.
The crowd sees that jesse Stall is seated backwards, and
just like that, he rides the bronco all around the
arena backwards. He doesn't get thrown. No one has ever
(02:08):
seen anything like this ever. It isn't for a score.
The ride is purely an exhibition. It's a protest. His
defiant ride brings down the house. The crowd loses their
ever loving minds. It's further proof racism has turned the
judges into public embarrassments. Everyone else can see the truth
Jesse Stall has clearly one. Twice. In nine, Jesse Stall
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was posthumously inducted into the Rodeo Hall of Fame. He
was the second black cowboy to be inducted. The first
black cowboy to be inducted was a man named Bill Pickett,
the greatest showman of the Wild West. A black cowboy
from Texas, he invented a whole rodeo sport. He became
an icon of toughness and thrilled crowds across America and Mexico.
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This is his story. Yeah, this is a home. It's
been a long road for us. We taken ownership over
everything else to us realty. We surrounded by our heritage,
our fist up because we're proud to be Ammerican. I'm
(03:20):
Zaran Bernat. Welcome to Black Cowboys and I hear original podcast.
He after the self was really in the name. Sitting
on a musstand Friday, through the Place, Buffalo Soldier, the King,
Little Range, We in love with the cowboy Way Chapter seven,
(03:44):
Bill Pickett, King of the bull Riders, Bronco Busters, and Bulldoggers. So, Paul,
you used to take me to the rodeo when I
was a boy. You took me to the rodeo in Atlanta,
and it was one of my favorite earlier childhood memories.
When we moved to California, one of the first things
we did was been to a rodeo. How important was
it to you to take your son to a rodeo?
It was extremely important, and it's important to know that
(04:06):
people like you have done everything that can be done.
So you just take you to the rodeo. Then you
can see that black black people are cowboys, so then
it's not it doesn't have to be researched, and you
can see it with your own eyes. So that was
very important. You definitely stuck with me when you were
a boy. Do you remember like the wild West shows
and and wanting to go see the rodeo? Is that
(04:27):
something for you as well? Well? W I was a
little boy, we were living in Virginia and North Carolina
and segregation was the law of the land, so we
we didn't go to any shows in North Carolina or
Virginia because there was always the possibility of running into
klansman or or they're like who had too much to
drink and couldn't get in, and not mad at anybody
(04:49):
who got in. So no, we didn't go to anything
until we moved to Pennsylvania. Then we started going to circuses.
I always wanted to go to uh Rodeo. Now that
close as that came was at my great grandmother's farm,
when there all the time to break a mule or
break a horse, or in any of the regular ranch activities.
(05:10):
So even though it wasn't a big ranch, you could
feel it. Bill Pickett was born free in eighteen seventy
in Travis County, Texas, in a community just outside of
the capital Austin. Both of Bill Pickett's parents have been
slaves in South Carolina. Both were mixed. His father had
Cherokee ancestors, his mother had Cherokee and Mexican ancestors. Bill
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is the oldest of thirteen siblings or second oldest, records
are hard to confirm. When he's a school kid, little
Bill walks past a cattle ranch every day on the
way to the school house. Cattle culture is all around Austin.
At that time. The Texas Trail that leads the cattle
drives north to Dodge City passes along the eastern edge
of Austin. It then runs north to where it parallels
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the famed Chisholm Trail, but for it crosses the Red River,
the bound indry between Texas and Indian territory known as
present day Oklahoma. Young Bill Picket studies the cattleman and
cowboys who passed through. There's much to watch and learn. Chiefly,
there's the rope known as a lariat fashioned into a noose.
It's thrown around the necks of stray cattle and obstinate mustangs.
(06:18):
Those are rhythm to how the cowboys swing the lariat
above their heads. There's a grace to how they make
it land in the perfect spot, and then there's a
sudden authority when they yank it tight. There's also all
the brands to study, those marks burned into the sides
of livestock. Each brand signifies a different ranch. Young Bill
soon becomes a pint sized expert in reading all the
(06:39):
many brands of the ever growing number of Texas ranches.
It helps that his older cousins are black cowboys. They've
been to Dodge City. They've ridden hard on the trail,
through driving sleet and punishing hail. They've chased an angry
steer through bramble brush and forded rivers as a guide
a freeway of cattle to safely cross. His cousins fill
his head with stories of stampedes and Indian raids, shootouts
(07:02):
and gunfights with bad men, the ever present risk of
horse thieves and cattle rustlers. They've each escaped from those perils,
leaving behind only a thundering cloud of dust. And so
when he walks to school, Bill Pickett doesn't just see
the big, friendly eyes of a cow staring at him
from behind the corral fence. He sees adventure and family tradition.
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He learns to ride and to shoot. He learns to
throw a lariat. He begins to break wild horses. Even
as a boy, Bill has an order nous about him
that makes him a natural cowboy, a feisty spirit. But
the talent that will become most famous for is one
he teaches himself. He learns it by watching, but not
the cowboys. Instead, he learns it from a bulldog. In
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one at age ten or so, Bill spots a bulldog
sees a cow and wrestle it to the ground. What
captures his imagination is how the dog does it. The
dog bites down on the cow's upper lip, sinks it's
canine fangs into the cow's most tender flesh. There are
so many nerve endings in a cow's lip. The pain
of being bitten there renders a cow stunned. It's like
(08:09):
a cow short circuits. A dog no more than fifty
or sixty pounds can use this technique to bring down
a thousand pound cow. The same technique works on bulls.
Thus the name of the dogs who do this best bulldogs.
The trick that young Bill Pickett will develop from this
(08:29):
one observation will make him famous around the world. He
calls it bulldogging. The first time he shows anyone his
new trick for how to make a bull submit to
his will, the ten year old black boy is nearly
laughed out of Texas. When he walks to school each day,
Bill passes the Little Field Cattle Company. One day, he
notices the cowboys are fighting to brand a particularly stubborn calf.
(08:50):
Young Bill Pickett offers to help them out. Of course,
the dust coded trail hardened cowboys almost die laughing at
this black boy's offer, but they can see he's serious.
The hell is his cocky kid who thinks he could
wrestle a four underd pound calf to the ground. Looking
at him, they can also see he weighs maybe a
hundred pounds with his boots on. However, the cowboys agree
(09:12):
to let the cocky kid help them with their difficult livestock.
They rope the calf. As the cowboys heat up the
brand they tell Bill to hold the animal stock still
while they branded. Young Bill nods, then he walks over
to the troublesome animal. He approaches it from behind and
the side. He gets ahold of the calf's short horns,
maneuvers himself in front of its head. Then he bites
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down on the animal's upper lip, just like he'd seen
the bulldog do it. With a sharp, sudden twist of
his ten year old frame, Young Bill tosses the four
pound animal to the ground as instructed. He holds the
calf still for the cowboys to brand it. The cowboys
are gape mouth with shock. Who is this kid? As
flesh smokes and sears, Young Bill holds the calf. The
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animal hardly moves all as the cowboys burned the brand
into its hide. Bill doesn't let go until he's given
the signal. The calf scrambles to its feet, then trots
over to the rest of the herd, freshly branded. By
the time young Bill gets home that day, word has
crisscrossed Austin. There's a boy in town, a little cowboy
who can toss a steer to the ground with his teeth. Soon,
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Bill Pickett is locally famous. From that day forward, he
has steady work as a cowboy. Bill Pickett leaves school
after finishing the fifth grade. He goes pro and black
families oftentimes there's this tradition of passing on skills and talents,
and it's not really necessarily made into a big deal,
but it's kind of just something that is you you
learn over time. So did the family teach you about
(10:44):
tending animals? Absolutely that you learned anything you were near.
If one of my cousins was going out to collect eggs,
you go with them, and then they show you how
to how to handle the chickens, how to handle the
chicks when you see them, what to do about the rooster.
When Alcalester was shooing his mules. He would take his
time and show you how to claim the hoof, how
(11:05):
to handle the animal. He was always talking about the
animal as if it was a person that he was
talking to. Each animal had a name, Each animal had
a personality. Each animal had a job to do that
didn't change from day to day. During his teen years,
Bill Pickett turns his attention to the more difficult task
of learning how to ride a bucking bronco. It doesn't
(11:25):
take him long. Soon enough, Each Sunday afternoon, he puts
on a show riding broncos for any curious onlookers. Like
a street musician, he passes the hat among the crowd,
hoping to pull in a little spare cash. He doesn't
know it yet, but this is the start of his
life as a cowboy showman. In the eighteen nineties, Bill
Pickett starts a family business with four of his brothers.
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They called their outfit the Pickett Brothers Bronco Busters and
Rough Riders Association. Their advertisement reads, we ride and break
all wild horses with much care, good treatment to all animals,
perfect satisfy action, guarantee catching and taming wild cattle speciality
at the turn of the new century. Bill Pickett and
his brothers arrive in Rocky Forward, Colorado to put on
(12:09):
a show. They appear at the Arkansas Valley Fair. It's
the first time that Bill Pickett gives a public performance
of his unique style of bulldogging. The crowd is stunned
when he flips a thousand pound bull, but Bill does
it a little different. He doesn't even use his hands.
He flips the bull with just his teeth. Of course,
he is an immediate sensation. He wows crowds in Blue Rapids, Kansas.
(12:33):
We'll pick it. A colored man from Taylor, Texas has
made a great record as a steer thrower. At an exhibition,
he started on horseback after a wild steer caught up
with it, threw his arms over the steer's neck and
holding onto it, let go of his horse, then stop
the steer by holding on to both horns. He next
got around in front of between his horns, and then
by grasping the horns, he tipped the steers nose up
so that he could lean forward and catch his upper
lip in his teeth and north into Wyoming. He does
(12:55):
the same. Thicket is not a big man, but is
built like an athlete in his feet will undoubt really
be one of the great features of this year's celebration.
It is difficult to conceive how a man could throw
a powerful steer in his hands, unaided by rope or
a contrivance of some kind, and yet Pickett accomplishes this
seemingly impossible task with only his teeth. Anytime. While is
a Western audience with his bulldogging technique, questions are raised,
(13:18):
how is he doing it? And also why is he
doing it? In the Denver Post, Bill Pickett explains his
technique from his perspective, Hope, it's all right to hang
people with, but they're getting the way. When you want
a rope of steer, yes, sir, I throw them with
my teeth. I'm telling you the truth. The rope is
just in the way, you see. I just get my horse,
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and then they turned the steel loose, and I go
to him just like I have a rope. And when
I come up to his head, I jump off the
horse and nail the steer by the horns, and my
right hand grabs right on. And then I pulled up
to his head and I stopped his running. And then
I reached over the top of the head with my
own head and grabbed him by the upper lip with
my teeth and what's left of him, and I throw
(13:58):
myself back. Mighty Hall in the stick flops on the ground.
Sometimes he lights on me, sometimes he don't, But anyhow,
I hold him till I tie his feet. I've seen
a dog throw a cow. That's where I got my idea.
By this time, Bill pick It or Will pick It
is being billed as the Dusky Demon. This adds a
sense of drama and flair to the cowboys routine, but
(14:21):
it also obscures the fact that he's black. Bill Pickett
just wants to compete and live as a professional showman,
which means he has to downplay and obscure his race,
so he often appears in the ring dressed as a
Mexican bullfighter. He fights back against the demoralizing fiction to
turn of the century racism with his own fictions. There
is an interesting parallel between jazz music of the twenties
(14:43):
and black cowboys at that same time, because both of
them have to kind of rely on these fictions based
on race to get around the racist fictions that they
are being imposed upon them. So with jazz musicians, they
couldn't go and play certain places because they were black
jazz musicians. So they would lie and say, no, no,
I'm a Mohammedan, I'm Muslim. They're like, oh, okay, they
didn't really know what a Muslim was it looked like
so they could get away with it in the South
and can play as a jazz musician. Now Bill Picket
(15:04):
is doing the same thing, calling himself the dusky demon
and going out there and Mattador closed because can kind
of obscure his blackness and make it more of like,
I'm a brown guy. Now, what do you think about
that use of the of like, you know, racialized fictions
to combat racist fictions at that time. I always have
a very difficult time trying to have an opinion about
it because the times were so different and the options
(15:27):
and choices presented were in such a different context. For example,
I can't tell if Bill Pickett just didn't give a
damn about race, or if he was trying to obscure it.
I've gone through my life not giving the damn about race,
fully conscious of the existence of it, but not really caring.
That's never been part of my decision making, So I
know that can be done. I give him the credit
(15:48):
for that being among the possible choices that he made.
Dusky demons like the brown bomber. You know, that's just
that's just that's just promotion. See. The other thing is
he's born in eighteen seventy one. From the eighteen seventies
up to nineteen twenty, there was a huge, big change
in the West. At first, it was optimism after Civil
War when people were coming out there. It was unpopulated
(16:09):
and it was pretty much come on out and do
what you can to make it a better place. And
then after the Hayes Tilden election and that they took
the army out in the South and this Confederacy moved
to Texas. Then the nature of the West change. So
the same event that had been fun for Bill Pickett
two years earlier than as hell because the people who
(16:30):
are coming there are from Alabama and not from Texas,
so his experience, uh, it will be seen through a
different set of eyes. From then on. It's hard to
tell exactly where the lines are, but nineteen Bill Pickett
is a crowd certified top builled cowboys showman. His name
(16:52):
is known from coast to coast. The Miller family owners
of one of the most famous ranches in the West,
the Wonder One Ranch in Oklahoma, hires Bill Picket for
a show called the Miller Brothers Big Round Up. Sixty
thousand people show up by train to visit the ranch
and witness the Wild West Show. It's a veritable display
of all that's right and wrong in the American West.
(17:15):
It's authentic, at least in its cruelty. The famous Native
warrior Geronimo is one of the main attractions. He's presently
a captive of the U. S Army at a nearby fort.
For reasons of their own, the army decides to loan
out Geronimo for the show. He appears in front of
delighted fans as promised, in manacles, escorted by soldiers. Despite
the objectified strangeness of his situation. From inside a moving car,
(17:38):
Geronimo shoots and kills a buffalo. The animal is then
cooked and served two guests. It's billed as quote the
last buffalo killed by Geronimo. This statement is technically true
since the Apache chief is in army custody and the
man known as the last resistance fighter of his generation
will die four years later in nearby fort Sill. His
(17:59):
buff below hunt is an ultimate experience of the dying West.
Back in the Wild West Show, it's Bill Pickett's turn
to wow the crowd. He does what he does best,
bulldogs a one thousand pounds steer. The crowd is thrilled
beyond expectation. His is a mythic feat. Here is a
man who can toss beasts like he's some kind of
black demigod in a ten gallon hat. Charged up by
(18:22):
the success of their show, the Miller Brothers plan to
hire Bill Pickett to become a permanent part of their
new traveling Wild West Show. They intend to travel the
country by train like the circus coming to Town, only
instead of elephants and high wire acts, they bring real
live cowboys and Indians. While he's out on the road
traveling America by rail, Bill Pickett enjoys his life as
(18:44):
the star of the Miller Brothers Wild West Show. He
has no idea that the very next year he will
test his good luck with a brush with death down
in Mexico. The most epic fight in his brock busting
bulldogging life will arrive in the form of a Mexican
bull down in Mexico, there is a centuries long love
(19:17):
affair with the bull. Cattle culture first took hold in
the ranchos around Mexico City in the early fifteen hundreds
in the days of her Non Cortes. Back then, the
Spaniards had the indigenous and black cowboys worked their cattle.
The early cattle industry was regulated by the Mesta, an
Association for shape Herding and cattle ranching in the province
of New Spain. The first livestock herding regulations were created
(19:39):
in the sixteenth century. For instance, there was the seventy
four requirement that for every two thousand head of cattle
on a ranch, there had to be four black or
indigenous cowboys to tend them, and two of the four
had to be on horseback as well. There was an
ordinance that forbid the black and indigenous cowboys from using
a traditional lands called the dea as a tool to
(20:02):
tend the cattle. It was banned for his sharp cruelty.
According to the fifteen seventy four ordinances, that there be
no or any hook livestock. Any Native, Lato, black or
Mestizo that has been a vacco cannot carry or possess
for any reason on their penalty, and he who encouraged
(20:26):
the said penalty and does not have the means to
pay will be given a hundred largest in public. The
new method of tending cattle soon developed. It was a
mix of indigenous land and plant knowledge, Spanish and the
Lucian hurting traditions Spanish las marismas traditions of rope lariats
called lazos, along with West African traditions such as the
(20:46):
use of a Senegambian style military saddle with a saddle horn.
These influences breyed together to create a new form of
roping livestock while riding horseback. This is what comes to
be known as vaccaro culture, which in a Merica becomes
cowboy culture. The culture soon spreads east to Spanish Florida,
west to Spanish California, north to what would become Texas,
(21:08):
New Mexico and Arizona, and eventually all across the West. However,
in Mexico City, in the roots of Accero culture have
been obscured by time. The black and indigenous ancestors who
created the culture are all but forgotten, and thus it's
a great insult when one of the Miller brothers is
down in Mexico, and he boasts that the Black Cowboys,
star of his Wild West show, Bill Pickett, could easily
(21:30):
do what any Mexican mattador does, and certainly no matta
door could do what Bill Pickett does to a steer. Meanwhile,
back in Oklahoma, Bill Pickett has a bad dream. In
his nightmare, an enormous black bull is chasing him he
can hardly escape. When he wakes up, he tells his
wife about his bad dream. Later that day, a telegram arrives.
(21:52):
It's from his boss, the Miller's down in Mexico, asking
for Bill to travel down to Mexico City as soon
as possible to join their wild West Show touring. There,
Bill and his wife discussed the trip and his dream
from the night before. His wife believes the bull was
Satan himself, certainly a bad omen. However, she has faith
in her husband despite his dream about a double bull.
(22:14):
She encourages him to go to Mexico City. She practically
insists he arrives in Mexico City on December six. Down
in Mexico at that time, there are almost five hundred
professional matadors. The most famous of them all is Manuel
maheis Bien Danita, known as Manolo ben Danita. He's terribly
amused by Bill Pickett's performance as a steer thrower. He
(22:37):
and the other bullfighters mocked the black cowboy, saying it's
a terribly easy thing that Bill does. Any bullfighter could
do the same. The sporting press in Mexico takes the bait.
They report this same opinion as fact. If you compare
Bill Pickett's bulldogging with Mexican bullfighting, as far as the
Mexican press is concerned, there's no contest. One is vulgar, brutish,
(22:59):
and savva. The other is a graceful dance with death
measured in bravery. Joe Miller, one of the brothers, sees
a marketing opportunity. He reiterates that none of them can
do what Bill Pickett does to a steer. How dare
the Americans come down to Mexico City and insult the
national sport of Mexico to the face to the sport's
most famous star, the matador, Ben Vaneta, demands satisfaction. Joe
(23:24):
Miller challenges a bullfighter with a bet. Ben Veneta accepts
the wager. The next day, Ben Vanetta will bulldog a
steer for the sake of Mexican pride. It'll be before
a private audience and by invitation only. The next day,
Ben Vaneta doesn't show, he sends word that he's been
forbidden from taking part by his contract the arena, where
(23:45):
he is a top build matador won't let their star
attraction risk injury just to defend Mexican honor. Joe Miller
isn't satisfied, so he proposes an alternative. The matadors can
select the most vicious rank bull they can find in Mexico,
and Bill Pickett will bulldog it, this time for a crowd.
Ben Venita, acting on behalf of all the matadors of Mexico,
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accepts this new wager. The men bet five thousand pacos
plus a steep cut of the collected ticket sales at
the Bull Arena. There's one small trouble. No one has
told Bill Pickett about this bet. When he does finally
hear about it, he just asked Joe Miller for one condition.
If he's killed by the bull, he wants Joe's word
(24:25):
that his body will be shipped back to Oklahoma for burial.
Bill Pickett doesn't want Mexican coyotes picking through his bones
and his shallow grave. The day of the contest is
set for the day before Christmas Eve, December. Everyone in
Mexico who can afford a ticket turns out to see
this black cowboy who thinks he can throw a killer bull.
(24:47):
The president of Mexico Port, Ferro Diaz, is in attendance.
To hype up the crowd, a group of matadors parades
into the arena. They carry an ornate black casket. The
words l pincerino are written on the car. Often it
means one who has been gored through the crowd loses
its ever loving mind. At the mattador's dark humor, it's
exactly what they expect. They've all come to see this
(25:10):
cocky black American die at the hands of a Mexican bull.
The restless crowd begins to chant the haunting refrain oh
featuring backstage, one of the Miller brothers, Zach, gives Bill
(25:38):
Pickett a bottle of whiskey to steal his nerves. He
downs half of it. Then he saddles up on his
best horse, Spradley, named for how it walks, and he
rides out to meet his fate in the bullfighting arena.
Bill Pickett wears a red cowboys shirt, a neckerchief, and
a tall stetson hat. The Mexican crowd boom and jeers
(26:00):
the black cowboy. A blare of a trumpet breaks up
their booze and jeers. A respectful and expectant silence falls
over the crowd. The real star has arrived. The gate
to the bullpen swings open. One thousand pounds of bull
charge into the arena. Its snorts hot plumes of angry air.
It scratches at the earth like the Earth called it
(26:22):
a bad name. Then the bull walks eyes on Bill Pickett.
The crowd erupts and triumphant cheers. They salute the bull
as the killer they've come to see. The bull's name
is Frijole Chiquita. It means little beans. It's a curious
name for such a vicious animal. He's been bred for
death in the arena, presumably at the hands of a matador.
(26:45):
A thousand generations of bulls before him were bred all
leading up to this moment. Each bull was specifically selected
for its aggression, its outsized muscularity, picked for the forward
bend of its horns, which, when turned forward to become
a far more brutal natural weapon. Poly Chiquita stands at
the apex of a thousand bulls. The very first bullfight
(27:08):
in the Old World took place back in Spain in
the eleventh or twelfth century, depending on who you ask.
Either it was an honor first given to El sid
sometime in the mid eleventh century, or the tradition possibly
began when King Alfonso the Eighth was crowned king in
the twelfth century. However it began, it soon became a
glorious tradition to mark a special occasion with a career
(27:28):
de de toros, or in English, a bullfight. Pope Pious
the Fifth in fifteen sixties six tried to ban bullfights
in Catholic nations. He abhorred the blood lust they incited
and the cruelty of bullfight requires. The devout Spaniards considered
his official edict issued from their highest religious leader, but
then they promptly ignored his order. They loved bullfighting too
(27:50):
much to listen to the Church. The next Pope, Pope
Gregory the eighth, was like, yeah, never mind. He recanted
most of the Church's earlier prohibition. The first bullfight in
the New World took place in Mexico City in fifty Now,
by the time Bill Pickett is standing there in the
El Toro Arena in Mexico City, in nearly four centuries
(28:11):
have passed since that first bullfight in the New World,
and for all that time, the breeders of Mexican fighting
bulls have been making them bigger and more aggressive. Pretty
Holy Chikeda stares at him. Bill Pickett is the greatest
bulldogger of all time. But this isn't a wild bull,
this is a born and bred killing machine. Before this moment,
(28:33):
Bill Pickett has never seen a fighting bull, not once
in all his cowboy days. On horseback, Bill circles the arena,
keeping his eyes on the bull, and the bull does
the same, eyeing him. Another cowboys on horseback in the
arena to lead the bull so that Bill can ride
up behind the bull and try to bulldog it. The
(28:54):
bull doesn't do as expected. He chases the leading cowboy,
gores his horse and its hip. The horses peer badly
by the bull's horn. It winnies and screams in pain.
As the bull starts to pull its horn out of
the horse's flank, Bill Pickett throws himself at the bull,
but the blood of the horse now wets the bull's horns.
Bill's grip on the horns fails. He falls to the earth.
(29:16):
He's nearly trampled under the bull. Only dumb luck saves him.
Bill catches up with his horse Spradley, hops back in
the saddle and rides out of the arena. The crowd
reins down, jeers and booze upon Bill and his horse.
The crowd returns to chanting in unison, and meanwhile Bill
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rides up to Joe Miller and asks for a new horse.
Bill is not scared for himself, He's worried about Spradley,
his favorite pony. Joe Miller tells him he doesn't have
time for all that. The promoter can sense the rising
blood lust of the crowd. He shouts, get back out
there and take that goddamn hill. Bill Pickett's rows his
horse and rides back into the arena to face the bull.
(30:03):
The one with the horse blood staining its horns for
Holy Choked, immediately charges again at Bill Pickett. His horse
sharply evades the first part of the charge, but it
gets caught by the bull's lady twist. The bull pierces
his horn deep into the horse's thigh and buttock. The
horn rips open horse flesh and muscle, until finally the
bull's horn tears free at the horse's hip. Spradley sounds
(30:26):
with pain. The bull is close enough for Bill Pickett
to try bulldogging him again. Plus, if he leaps from
his horse, it will protect his horse from a third
bull charge, so they'll pick it. Throws himself backwards down
at the bull's horn, but again his grip slips on
horse blood. His boots skip across the arena, but he
doesn't let go. He tries to grab hold, his grip
(30:46):
continues to slip. His third attempt fails just the same.
He can't seem to get ahold of the bull. The
crowd feels certain that the grim specter of death has
entered the arena. The cheers grow death in his hand.
Bill tries one last time. He's finally able to grab
the fighting bull by both horns, and he pulls himself
up onto the bull's head. He wraps his arm around
(31:09):
both horns and holds on for dear life. It's his
only chance he can survive the day. The bull shakes
its head from side to side. Bill holds fast to
its horns as he slapped around and against the bull's
head and face. The bull smashes Bill against the fence brds.
It doesn't work. Bill Pickett still holds on. Finally, the
(31:31):
bull slows it's running. It comes to a stop and
stands still. The crowd turns uglier. It grows more violent
and drunken. People start to throw things at Bill and
the bull to see if they can knock that black
cowboy off. Mostly it just seems to further piss off
the bull. The bull shakes its head from side to side.
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The crowd is unsatisfied. A brick is thrown. It slices
Bill's forehead. Bill now bleeds from a new open wound
in his face. His blow it streams from his face
as he clings to the bull's head, his arms still
wrapped around its horns. Another man in the stands throws something,
a full beer bottle. His aim is dead. On breaking
three of his ribs, Bill Pickett aches all over everywhere.
(32:15):
His fingers are numb, his body long past exhaustion. He
lets go of the bull's horns and falls into the
dusty arena, dirt and sand. The crowd cheers, some take
aim at the black cowboy, lying still in the dirt
of the bull ring. As the newspaper l Impartial reports later,
the crowd quote pelted him with open knives, bottles, stones, oranges,
(32:39):
and cushions. End Quote bleeding in the dirt with multiple
broken ribs, struggling to breathe on the thin air of
Mexico City, exhausted from hanging onto the horns of a
fighting bull. For God knows how long, Bill Pickett looks
to be at the end of his trail. All told,
Bill Pickett has been inside the ring with the bull
for thirty eight minutes. For Holy each Keita takes a breather,
(33:01):
turns and looks back at Bill. A fighting bull spots
the badly bleeding, exhausted cowboy still lying in the dirt.
The bull sets up for its final rush. The crowd
is all blood lust and mormid anticipation. The bull charges
(33:27):
at the beaten cowboy. Bill is somehow able to evade
the initial rush, avoiding the bull's horns with the grace
of a matador, but the bull catches him with his hip,
knocks him down, and runs over Bill. Not dead yet,
Bill looks up from the dirt to see the bull
run past him. There's something in Bill's performance. Perhaps it's
his bravery or his unwillingness to give up, or perhaps
(33:50):
it's the grace with which he protected his horse by
throwing himself on the bull. Whatever it is, Bill Pickett's
performance in the bull ring inspires a young Mexican bullfighter.
The man hops over the barricade and runs into the arena.
The young bullfighter waves his fest wildly. He uses it
like a red cape to catch the eye of the bull.
It works. His distraction gives Bill Pickett enough time to
(34:12):
get to his feet. Someone, most likely a cowboy from
the one oh one Ranch, opens a gate and the
arena is flooded by ranch steers. The steers crowd the
bull ring, making it impossible for the Holy Chakda to
locate Bill Pickett and fitch him off. The crowd erupts
with violence of their own. More objects are thrown. There
is a new chorus of booze at chefs, but Bill
(34:34):
Pickett has one. It's not the glory he might have
hoped for, but leaving the ring with your life is
some kind of victory. As Bill Pickett limps out, of
the bullfighting arena, spittle and warm beer rained down on him.
The victorious black cowboy is only thinking of his wounded horse, Spradley.
(34:56):
He wants to know if his favorite pony will be okay.
An old Mexican man, a veteran of the bullring, a
wizened face man who knows secrets and soon to be
forgotten things, promises that he can heal the horse. Bill
trust the old Mexican man. A boy is sent together bananas,
two of them. They must be ripe and red, not yellow.
The boy does as he's told. The wizened face man
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peels the fruit. Then he smushes banana into the horse's
open wound. He explains to Bill that his favorite horse
will be fine. Soon after the man is done, Bill's
horse lies calm and still. It's labored breathing grows even
and steady. Ten minutes past, the horse is soon standing
well enough to walk. Whatever the old Mexican man did,
(35:41):
it works, and likely it saves Bill's horse from having
to be euthanized. Of course, Bill too will have to
recover from his wounds. The next day, Bill tells the
Mexican press, if I had have gotten the kind of
hold I usually get kind of wanted. I would stayed
with that bull until he starved in death. That same day,
SMIs Eve nineteen eight, the Mexican newspaper l and Parsial
(36:03):
reports on the results of the bulldogging exhibition. Pickett defeated
the bull, and the crowd departed disappointed, as they were
hoping to see, not precisely that which they did see.
They were hoping for blood, and the red liquid fumes
did not darken the sand as at other times. Picket
subdued the beast and put his snout on the ground,
doubling his neck under the weight of his herculean strength.
But the crowd wanted blood. Is that is the reason
(36:24):
they go to the circus. Blood of bulls, blood of
horses or of men, but blood which stains and darkens
the gravesh and monot in the sand of the bull ring.
But this occasion did not give them that pleasure. Now
will be another time. Joe Miller wins his bet. Bill
Pickett beats a fighting bull in a one on one
face off, and it's clear no one else on earth
could do what he did. The black cowboy is certainly
(36:47):
no matador, but it's equally true, No Mattador could do
what Bill Pickett did as a bulldogger. Miller's point is made.
Bill has somehow survived both nightmares, the black Bull of
his dreams and the real for Ho Chiquita. When Bill
Pickett goes down to Mexico and he's supposed to basically
go one on one with a bull, he has spending
(37:09):
time in this this hostile environment. The Mexican crowd is
throwing things out him. They're yelling all sorts of epithets
and just this terrible situation, and he's grinning at them,
defiant as all hell, because he's Bill Pickett. They did,
like Ali and Jack Johnson, they made it a moral contest,
like our way of doing it is better than your
way of doing it. Now, can you imagine that scene yourself?
(37:31):
Can you place yourself in the shoes of Bill Pickett? No, no, no, no.
I remember a couple of years ago when Ocho Sinko
decided to ride a bull, you know, the football player,
and so he thought it'd be easy, and I heard
(37:51):
him discussed him the afterwards. He said, man, I got
on that damn bull and he started swelling up. You
can feel those muscles getting bigger, and they never stopped.
They just kept getting bigger and bigger. And I said,
what the funk am I doing on this ball? It's
nothing very long at ballam I think he was gone?
But that's me I would I have no desire, as
(38:15):
much as I would like to do it. Uh, you know, philosophically, theoretically,
I have no interest in. I can't picture me being
in the ring on the ground with a bull loose.
At the same time, Bill Pickett is earning eight dollars
a week. He makes no extra money for fighting the bull,
only has a good story to show for it. After
(38:36):
the show's return from Mexico, the Miller Brothers Traveling Wild
West Show tours America with great success and fewer near
death experiences for Bill Pickett. Their nineteen eleven season ends
in Los Angeles. They arrived in November. The climate was
good for the animals as well as the performers. Plus
there was a new film industry in Hollywood popping up.
The producers there paid top dollar for the authentic wild
(38:58):
West performances, horse in real live natives and cowboys, performers
from the one oh one Ranch star and a handful
of silent films. A few years later, in nineteen fourteen,
Bill Pickett is invited across the Atlantic to perform before
the King and Queen of Great Britain. It's the hundred
year anniversary of the end of the War of eighteen twelve.
The British want to celebrate their century of peace with
(39:21):
an Anglo American exposition in London. The Miller Brothers Wild
West Show has brought over as a star attraction which
promises to recreate the ever receding past for British royalty
and spectators. The culture that developed in the Old West
as a way of escaping the evils of colonialism is
brought back to England as something to be celebrated. How ironic,
(39:42):
how American. There is one trouble that they run into
in the UK, the Humane Societies for the Protection of Animals.
At one performance, a humane society insists that the Black
Cowboy be arrested for his cruelty to animals. He is.
Ultimately Bill Pickett must pay a fine of twenty five dollar.
But there's bigger trouble than animal welfare. Before the Traveling
(40:03):
Wild West Show can return to the States, war breaks
out in Europe. They would later call it World War One.
At the time, it's called the Great War, and as
everyone soon learns, the Great War will require great sacrifices.
King George the Fifth writes an edict declaring a national emergency.
The horses and vehicles of the wonderh One Ranch Show
are commandeered for public service guests, not every horse thief.
(40:26):
Where's a cowboy hat? Without any horses or wagons, the
Wild West Show tries to flee back home to America.
No one wants to take a British ship, though, afraid
it will be sunk by a German U boat before
they can make it across the Atlantic, they plead for
help from the U. S. Embassy. Finally, Bill Pickett makes
it back home to America on a U. S. Male ship,
the USS St. Paul. When the depression first hits America,
(40:56):
it's particularly devastating to the Miller brothers. By on the
Wild West Show can no longer afford to travel. There's
still an eager curiosity, but not nearly enough of a
paying crowd. The ranch has assets, livestock land, even mineral
rights and oil rights, but there are few buyers for
such high price commodities. Within a short period of time,
the Miller brothers are flat busted. They have to sell
(41:18):
off what they can so they can keep the rest.
Ever loyal, Bill Pickett helps the brothers to dispose of
their livestock. It's the one thing they own that has
immediate value, at least to the bargain buyers. On March
fifty two, a man arrives at the one oh one
ranch looking to buy some cheap horses. The man likes
(41:39):
the site of one old bronco. He asked if the
horse could be saddled and ridden. Bill Pickett saddles the
bronco and climbs on its back. Bill Pickett is sixty
two years old. The horse is old too, but on
this day the animal decides to relive its youth. It
fights to pitch the rider off its back, bucking and leaping,
twisting and lurching, but Bill Pickett hangs fast to reins
(42:00):
his feet squarely in the stirrups. Eventually the horse is
ridden to a standstill. Just a few days later, on
the nineteenth of March, the livestock manager, Red Taggert, orders
Bill and another cowboy to round up a few more
horses and get them prepared and ready to be sold.
Bill spies a horse he thinks would catch the eyes
of a buyer. It's a three year old gelding chestnut
(42:23):
brown in color. The horse weighs roughly a thousand pounds.
He's a surly mustang. Bill, riding a horse named Hornet,
casually approaches the chestnut mustang. Hornet gets him close enough
so that he can last so the unbroken horse. He
ties off his lariat around the horn of his saddle
his horse. Hornet can now hold the unbroken mustang steady
and in place, at least somewhat, as Bill works his
(42:45):
way closer. A few other young cowboys gather on the
rails of the corral to see how Bill breaks the mustang.
Bill hops off his horse and works his way down
the rope hand overhand, pulling himself closer to the mustang
at the other end. The rope is still tied off
to his saddle horse. When Bill gets close, one of
the other horses in the corral steps on the rope
(43:06):
tied to his saddle horse. This causes the rope to
go slack. The chestnut mustang feels the rope go slack
and pulls away with a quick, sharp jerk. The rope
goes taut again, and it flings Bill pick It up
into the sky. He goes up about fifteen feet before
he arcs back down to earth. His boots smack the dirt.
He lands legs unsteady. Before he can make a second move,
(43:29):
the Mustang rears up and kicks Bill in the head.
His head makes a sickening sound like a cantalope dropped
off of a roof into a parking lot. Bill somehow
gets back to his feet, but he soon doubles back over.
His hands find his knees. The first man to rush
over to him turns back and shouts for a car.
A blue n pierced arrow roadster serves as Bill's ambulance.
(43:53):
It's a beautiful car, a sleek last ride for Bill Pickett.
When he arrives at the hospital, the doctor instantly recognizes him.
He tells anyone listening, Hell, it's pick It. He'll live.
The doctor is wrong. On the second day of April,
Bill Pickett dies. At the beginning of his career, Bill
(44:17):
Pickett once said, I'm promised for this world just so long,
and when I go, that'll be the end of it.
Sometimes I suppose I'll make a mistake, fatal mistake, It'll
be all over. After his death, humorist and world famous
all around good guy Will Rogers wrote a tribute. A
little small, good natured, likable negro died last week in
(44:37):
Oklahoma named Bill Pickett don't mean a thing to you,
does it? Well? He was the originator of a stunt
that is thrilled millions. It was the rodeo stunt of bulldog.
And he worked with white cowboys all his life and
never had an argument or an enemy. President Theodore Roosevelt
said of the world famous black cowboy, Bill Pickett's name
will go down in Western history as being one of
(44:58):
the best trained ropers in it was the West has
produced Teddy Roosevelt isn't wrong. Bill Pickett once estimated that
he bulldoged five thousand steers during his time as a
cowboy showman. That's likely an underestimate. His legacy now lives
on in the annual Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo founded in
The rodeo was established to quote celebrate an honor black
(45:20):
cowboys and cowgirls and their contributions to building the West.
And what better legacy could there be for the hard
riding bronc busting bulldogger. His love of cowboying started when
he was a boy watching the cowboys in his hometown
and the ones in his family. Hard to think of
something that would make him happier than to see a
young black girl or black boy discovered the joys of
(45:42):
spending their life tending to animals. Now, do you also
think of like Bill Pickett and uh say, other writers
like Jesse Stalard? Did you think of them when you
were young? Oh? Absolutely. We were told from a young
age that the best cowboys in the world were black cowboys.
They are that teaching all the white ones how to
how to be cowboys. So we did not have a
(46:05):
shortage of confidence in the existence of black cowboys. And
Bill Pickett was like John Henry, only he was a
real person. You know. John Henry was a myth. But
Bill Pickett was a real person. Who did John Henry
like things? I mean, just biting a bull on the
lip just to get in front of a bull, potentially
(46:30):
place yourself in the bus this end of a bull
and then and then bite him on the limp until
he gives up. I admire that a lot. There is
a film, a moving picture made of the whole saga.
It's called a Bullfight in Mexico. It's one of the
earliest films ever released in theaters sometime around Sadly that
(46:54):
footage is now lost, but the image of Bill Pickett, bloodied,
battered but triumphant remains vivid today. Up next on Black Cowboys,
we'll look at the legacy of Black Cowboys in American cinema.
Thanks for listening. Black Cowboys is written by me Zaren Burnett,
(47:15):
produced and edited by Ryan Murdoch and Michelle Lands. Our
theme song is written and performed by Demeanor. Sound design
and music by Jeremy Thal. Additional music by Alvin Young
Blood Heart, Greg Chitzwick and Nathan Cosey. Research and fact
checking by Austin Thompson, Marissa Brown, Jocelyn Sears, and Aaron
Blackmore performances by j Charlesworth, Marc o'quanielli, Ryan Murdoch and
(47:38):
Frank Nemick. Show logo by Lucy Quintinia. Executive producers are
Jason English and mangesh Particular Special thanks as always to Bipop.
Ask yourself What's really in a name? Sitting on a
Mustang Friday, to the Place Voloso, to the King of
(48:01):
the France, we allow for the charpoys Way
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