Overview

"After 1912, when the great cattle empires began to crumble, hundreds of seasoned cowboys found themselves jobless. A handful of discarded horsemen, however, stumbled upon an entirely new frontier - Hollywood. From an insider's viewpoint, Diana Serra Cary tells the story of these cowboys, who survived for another 50 years as riders, stuntmen and doubles for the stars. Filled with humorous anecdotes, ""The Hollywood Posse"" reveals the full story of the cowboys' long and bitter feud with autocratic director Cecil B. De Mille; their relationships with the great Western stars - from the flamboyant Tom Mix to the durable John Wayne; and above all, their touching loyalty, code of honour, and devotion to each other."

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9780806128351

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Reviews

Fifty-five years ago Diana Cary - barely twenty months old - made 150 two-reel comedies in the Century studio which stood on the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Gower Street. At the same time a few hundred legitimate out-of-work cowboys were hired by Century and Universal as riders, stunt men and doubles for Western stars. This raunchy, colorful, widemouthed crew of storytellers became known as the Gower Gulch men, and this book pays a warmly eloquent tribute to them. In 1940 Cary began noticing that these oldtimers were passing away, so she recorded verbatim their tales about DeMille, John Ford and others. From this material she has produced a wonderful book about movies, not a gush phrase anywhere, just cussed authenticity overflowing with the pride of their work. The horsepower bottled up in six high-strung, speed-hungry stage horses, has simply got to be felt to be appreciated. When an experienced driver climbs up on the box and takes the four lines knowingly into his hands, threading them through his fingers and letting them ripple over the backs of his ponies like silk floss, he can feel that strength surging up through his wrists and arms and across his powerful shoulders. The book is also a coda for all the lost horses rigged for neck-breaking falls - The Charge of the Light Brigade was a horror: 25 horses killed, scores lamed and a dozen cowboys hospitalized on the critical list. A stylish canter on those chromocolored cardboard lots. (Kirkus Reviews)

Author Information

"Diana Serra Cary dates her knowledge of Hollywood back to the two-reeler day when she was the famed child star """"Baby Peggy."""" She is the author of Hollywood's Children and, most recently, Whatever Happened to Baby Peggy?"

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