Cowgirls were fringy-skirted mavericks who roped cattle and kicked outlaw ass without ever mussing up their mascara. Stereotypes like these are not entirely unfamiliar. But being a cowgirl - in the movies and in real life - was not that easy, nor that glamorous. In her book Cowgirls (Ten Speed Press), Canadian historian and author Candace Savage kicks the tumbleweeds aside to uncover the unabridged cowgirl experience. Savage dedicates two-thirds of her book to "Rhinestone Cowgirls" - the TV and motion-picture, white-toothed beauties like Dale Evans, Ruth Roman, Barbara Stanwyck - and "Living Legends" - real-life sharpshooters like Annie Oakley and the cowgirls who made a living in traveling shows such as Buffalo Bill's Wild West. TV cowgirls like Evans were tough, but there were inconsistencies in their roles. "Dale's piece of the action was smaller than [Roy Rogers'] - and even than Trigger's [Rogers' horse] at times… Evans spent much of her time making coffee, serving sandwiches and mothering anyone who seemed to need it." Annie Oakley, on the other hand, shot her way to the front. In the 1880s, at about age 25, Oakley was the main shooter in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. Her husband was her assistant. In the public eye, Oakley did not act like a proper woman - she was athletic, a competitive career woman and she didn't ride sidesaddle. But the world loved her anyway. Off stage, writes Savage, Oakley actually rode sidesaddle, didn't bother herself with the suffrage movement, and embroidered between shows. Regardless, Oakley made it acceptable for a woman to be in her position. Years before Oakley and Buffalo Bill, there were everyday women living on the frontier fighting these same battles. In the 1880s and 1890s, women migrated West in hordes, upping the one-woman-to-four-men ratio to near equal. These "real" cowboy girls, as Savage calls them, were frontier women plucked from the clean white dresses and tea parties of Eastern domestic life and plopped on a dusty prairie to toil in the hot sun. "Their martyrdom was their heroism," writes Savage. Savage contends there were many women eager to lose their 19th-century "womanliness." Take the story of Agnes Morley Cleveland, a lady whose first "great concession to a new age" was to trash her ridiculous sidesaddle and ride in a man's saddle. It all started when she refused to wear a sunbonnet. She instead donned a five-gallon Stetson and started wearing blue denim knickers under her skirt. "The descent from the existing standards of female modesty to purely human comfort and convenience was swift," wrote Cleveland in a memoir. Though her brother refused to ride with her at first, he eventually got used to the idea of the woman wearing the pants. Now, it seems trivial to be concerned with such small matters of appearance. But to these women of the early American and Canadian West the mere shedding of a long skirt for a divided one was no small task. Such bold rejection of feminine standards, coupled with the ability to speak up, often resulted in harsh public scrutiny (such cowgirls were often described as whores and viragos), and in one case, death. Savage tells the story of Ellen Watson, a.k.a. Cattle Kate, who was the only woman lynched in the West. Hanged in 1889 by cattle barons, after her murder the newspapers wrote: "Of robust physique she was a daredevil in the saddle, handy with a six-shooter and adept with the lariat and branding iron… She rode straddle, always had a vicious broncho for a mount and seemed never to tire of dashing across the range." These "crimes," Savage adds, justified her death. Cowgirls is the Funk & Wagnalls of fringed feminism. But you needn't be a cowgirl to appreciate Savage's thorough research. It is a contribution to women's - and American - history; yet another facet of feminism that has been swept under the rug.
Catching a bad Western can ache more than saddlebutt. And video-goers are afraid to ask clerks their opinions. But the guys and gals at TLA Video know their shit (or at least more than I do). EarSHOT caught up with Spring Garden Street TLA's counter boy Marty Pepe and found out which Westerns he recommends. Rio Bravo (1959): Directed by Howard Hawkes. This is Pepe's favorite. John Wayne is a sheriff who tries to keep a criminal in jail. Pepe likes it for the eclectic cast, which includes Angie Dickinson, Dean Martin and Ricky Nelson. Says Pepe: "It's a bizarre curiosity." Pale Rider (1985): It's the land barons versus the little people and guess who saves the day? Clint Eastwood's remake of the 1953 George Stevens classic Shane, Pepe calls this western "beautiful," "lyrical." He adds, "The cinematography is hauntingly gorgeous." The Wild Bunch (1969): This "weird buddy movie" by Sam Peckinpah stars Ernest Borgnine (he rules!), William Holden, Robert Ryan, Edmond O'Brien and Warren Oates. Pepe says this is the first ultraviolent film in America that didn't get an X rating. "It's a Reservoir Dogsy kinda film," he says coolly. Hey you anti-violence types, don't let that scare you; it is only a movie. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962): This John Ford western "is all about legend-making," says Pepe. Cast includes Lee Marvin, John Wayne, Vera Miles, Jimmy Stewart, Edmond O'Brien, Andy Devine, Woody Strode, Strother Martin, Lee Van Cleef and Jeanette Nolan. "Jimmy Stewart, he makes you really feel for the character," adds Pepe. Note: Here I pressure Pepe to tell me his favorite "chick" western. Cat Ballou (1965): Jane Fonda stars in this tale of good versus evil, but Lee Marvin got the Oscar. Pepe notes Nat King Cole's small part as a traveling minstrel in this flick. Just don't watch it around any Vietnam vets. "Any westerns that are so cheesy they are good?" I ask Pepe. "The Ballad of Little Jo" (1993), a female voice chimes in from the background. Maggie Greenwald's Civil War-era film about a woman who cross dresses to survive. Johnny Guitar (1954): Though Pepe hasn't seen this one, I recently watched and loved it. Joan Crawford stars in this Nicholas Ray film as a gun-totin' saloon owner who's on the shit list of local do-gooder townspeople. Though it's hard to block out the Mommie Dearest imagery, this is a must-see. Watch for the shot of Crawford standing 10 feet in front of a steerhead trophy - she's absolutely devilish.
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