Hollywood Talent Scout
Hollywood Talent Scout
Bob Crismon
Back in those early days Fast Draw and event Entertainment Reenacting blended together. In 1957 just west of Canyon City in Colorado the ghost town tourist attraction named Buckskin Joe invited the Colorado Springs Fast Draw Club to provide weekend entertainment. The town is a western movie filming location with more than 21 films to its credit, including Cat Ballou, The Cowboys and The Sacketts. The 1991 television feature Conagher starring Sam Elliott, Katharine Ross, Ken Curtis and Barry Corbin was filmed at Buckskin Joe. At Buckskin Joe about a dozen or so of us had a bunch of fun shooting our single actions in contests and staged shootouts held on the town streets. Since we played the Bad Guys during skits, our costumes were usually black. Town employee professional stunt men wore white hats and played the Sheriff and his Deputies. Of course, we held a Fast Draw contest several times during the day using our Faber FasDraw Timer.
One Saturday we were informed a Hollywood talent scout would be in Buckskin Joe to look us over. Wow, maybe someone would be chosen to be the next Rowdy Yates! We decided to do our normal skits and stunts to make sure we looked as good as possible. An event popular with the tourists was to hold up and rob the narrow gauge train that circled the town. Normally, we would rob the express car. However, this time I thought I would upstage my buddies and bring attention to myself; I would kidnap a passenger! Without his prior knowledge, I ordered a five-year-old kid (Sammy on the left) to get off the train. He had no idea I was going to do that and loudly refused. Giving him my most ferocious snarl, I demanded he get off the train and fired a blank in the air. Now he began screaming, kicking, and yelling, “Help me – Someone help me” so I just pulled him off as the train continued its journey with the kicking and squirming kid shouted to the passengers, “Tell the Sheriff – Call the Sheriff!” The tourists were quite excited at the realism – I just hoped the Hollywood talent scout was equally impressed.
The next stunt was to hold up the stagecoach on Main Street while it was loaded with tourist passengers. We had performed this stunt many times and had it down to clockwork. Wearing bandanna masks, as the coach approached we fired a few blanks in the air and demanded the old “Stand and Deliver” line. One outlaw held the reins of the lead horse and others were positioned on both sides of the stagecoach. With guns drawn, we told the guard riding shotgun to toss down the strong box. About the time the guard had crawled up on the top of the coach to toss the box off, for some unknown reason our fellow outlaw holding the horses had his single action cocked. Perhaps he also was also hamming it up for the talent scout. All of a sudden his five-in-one blank unexpectedly went off right next to the lead horse’s ear. The entire team bolted and took off – stagecoach passengers and all! Caught off balance, the guard on top of the coach took a headfirst off the end of the coach. On his way to the ground his sawed off shotgun went off, firing another blank at the departing coach, exciting the horses even more. As the racing team made the corner of the town street, with the coach precariously balanced on two wheels, the driver fell into the boot. We all stood there in shock as the horses followed their usual course around the block. Fortunately they ended up in front of the hotel again where this disaster began. On their own, with one driver gone and the other still in the boot, the horses and coach came to a screeching halt. The tourists began piling out of the stagecoach, laughing, loudly talking and grinning from ear to ear. This was perhaps the most exciting thing to happen during their vacation – they thought it was all staged!
Well, we were all immediately fired and told to never show up in Buckskin Joe again, even as a tourist or we would be shot on sight. What the heck, maybe something could be salvaged? I asked the Hollywood talent scout if he was interested in any of us cowboys. He said “You clowns? Hell no! But I sure want to talk to that kid on the train! What an actor, what realism! Introduce me to his parents.” I said, “You’re talking to his dad.” With that he didn’t say a single word, just grinned and walked away. Dang, there went the kid’s college fund.