Bill Pickett

Bill Pickett

Pickett's image on a handbill advertising the movie "The Bull-Dogger," released in 1922 by The Norman Film Manufacturing Company. Pickett was billed as "the world's colored champion" in "death-defying feats of courage and skill."
Born Willie M. Pickett
(1870-12-05)December 5, 1870
Jenks-Branch, Texas, U.S.
Died April 2, 1932(1932-04-02) (aged 61)
Ponca City, Oklahoma, U.S.
Occupation Rodeo performer

Willie M. "Bill" Pickett (December 5, 1870[1] - April 2, 1932[2]) was a cowboy, rodeo, and Wild West show performer.

Personal life

Bill Pickett was born in the Jenks-Branch community of Travis County, Texas near Taylor, Texas in 1870. He was the second of 13 children born to Thomas Jefferson Pickett, a former slave, and Mary "Janie" Gilbert. Pickett had four brothers and eight sisters. The family's ancestry was African-American and Cherokee.[3]

In 1890, Pickett married Maggie Turner, a former slave and daughter of a white southern plantation owner. The couple had nine children.[4]

Career

Pickett left school in the 5th grade to become a ranch hand; he soon began to ride horses and watch the longhorn steers of his native Texas.

He invented the technique of bulldogging, the skill of grabbing cattle by the horns and wrestling them to the ground. It was known among cattlemen that, with the help of a trained bulldog, a stray steer could be caught. Bill Pickett had seen this happen on many occasions. He also thought that if a bulldog could do this feat, so could he. Pickett practiced his stunt by riding hard, springing from his horse, and wrestling the steer to the ground. Pickett's method for bulldogging was biting a cow on the lip and then falling backwards. He also helped cowboys with bulldogging.[4] This method eventually lost popularity as the sport morphed into the steer wrestling that is practiced in rodeos.[5][6]

Pickett soon became known for his tricks and stunts at local country fairs. With his four brothers, he established The Pickett Brothers Bronco Busters and Rough Riders Association. The name Bill Pickett soon became synonymous with successful rodeos. He did his bulldogging act, traveling about in Texas, Arizona, Wyoming, and Oklahoma.[3][7]

In 1905, Pickett joined the 101 Ranch Wild West Show that featured the likes of Buffalo Bill, Will Rogers, Tom Mix, Bee Ho Gray, and Zach and Lucille Mulhall. Pickett was soon a popular performer who toured around the world and appeared in early motion pictures, such as a movie created by Richard E. Norman.[8] Pickett's ethnicity resulted in his not being able to appear at many rodeos, so he often was forced to claim that he was of Comanche heritage in order to perform. In 1921, he appeared in the films The Bull-Dogger and The Crimson Skull.[9][10]

Death

In 1932, after having retired from Wild West shows, Bill Pickett was kicked in the head by a bronco and died after a multi-day coma.[3][4][7]

Recognition and legacy

Bill Pickett has a headstone beside the graves of the Miller brothers at the Cowboy Hill Cemetery, but he is buried near a 14-foot stone monument to the friendship of Ponca Tribal Chief White Eagle and the Miller Brothers on Monument Hill, also known as the White Eagle Monument to the locals, less than a quarter of a mile to the north-east of Marland in Noble County, Oklahoma.

In 1971, he was inducted into the National Rodeo Cowboy Hall of Fame.[11]

The United States Postal Service chose to include Bill Pickett in the Legends of the West commemorative sheet unveiled in December 1993.[12] One month later, the Pickett family informed the Postal Service that the likeness was incorrect. Its source material was a misidentified photograph of Bill Pickett's brother and fellow cowboy star, Ben Pickett. In October 1994, the USPS released corrected stamps based on the poster for The Bull-Dogger.[13]

In March 2015, the Taylor City Council announced that a street that leads to the rodeo arena will be renamed to honor Bill Pickett.

References

  1. ↑ Library of Congress name authority file
  2. ↑ "Bill Pickett". Retrieved 30 July 2010.
  3. 1 2 3 "Bill Pickett". Contemporary Black Biography (Detroit: Gale) 11. 26 April 1996. Retrieved 1 March 2015.
  4. 1 2 3 Smith, Jessie Carney, ed. (12 October 1998). "Bill Pickett". Notable Black American Men, Book II (Detroit: Gale). Retrieved 1 March 2015.
  5. ↑ "Steer Wrestling" (Video). National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. Retrieved 1 March 2015.
  6. ↑ Coppedge, Clay (1 December 2004). "Never another like Bill Pickett". Texas Escapes. Retrieved 1 March 2015.
  7. 1 2 "Bill Pickett, (a Cowboy)". Williamson County Historical Commission. Retrieved 1 March 2015.
  8. ↑ Lupack, Barbara Tepa (2013). Richard E. Norman and Race Filmmaking. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. pp. 263–264. ISBN 0253010721. Retrieved 1 March 2015.
  9. ↑ "The Bull-Dogger (1921)". IMDb. Retrieved 1 March 2015.
  10. ↑ "The Crimson Skull (1922)". IMDb. Retrieved 1 March 2015.
  11. ↑ "Rodeo Inductees". National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. (Press "View Inductee Details" for a listing.)
  12. ↑ "The Bill Pickett incident: A U.S. stamp repeats—and then corrects—an error in the historical record". Smithsonian National Postal Museum. Retrieved 2 March 2015.
  13. ↑ "Recalled Legends of the West". Kenmore Stamp Company. Retrieved 2 March 2015.

Further reading

External links

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