Edmund Richard "Hoot" Gibson (August 6, 1892 – August 23, 1962) was an American
rodeo champion, film actor, film director, and producer. While acting and stunt work began as a sideline to Gibson's focus on rodeo, he successfully transitioned from silent films to become a leading performer in Hollywood's growing cowboy film industry.
During the period between
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
and
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, he was second only to cowboy film legend
Tom Mix
Thomas Edwin Mix (born Thomas Hezikiah Mix; January 6, 1880 – October 12, 1940) was an American film actor and the star of many early Western films between 1909 and 1935. He appeared in 291 films, all but nine of which were silent films. He w ...
as a box office draw. He has a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame and was inducted into the
Western Performers Hall of Fame at the
National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.
Early life
Born Edmund Richard Gibson
in
, he learned to ride a horse as a young boy. His family moved to California when he was seven years old. As a teenager, he worked with horses on a ranch, which led to competition on
bucking broncos at area rodeos.
Given the nickname "Hoot Owl" by co-workers, the name evolved to just "Hoot". (Michael Wallis' book, ''The Real Wild West: The 101 Ranch and the Creation of the American West'', says that Gibson "picked up the nickname 'Hoot' while working as a bicycle messenger for Owl Drug Company."
Dan L. Thrapp's ''Encyclopedia of Frontier Biography'' says that Gibson "is said to have been nicknamed because he once hunted owls in a cave.")
Hoot, himself, stated in an episode of "
You Bet Your Life
''You Bet Your Life'' is an American comedy quiz series that has aired on both radio and television. The original and best-known version was hosted by Groucho Marx of the Marx Brothers, with announcer and assistant George Fenneman. The show deb ...
" (January 19. 1956), that he acquired the nickname "Hoot", when he used to look for hoot owls in caves as a child in Nebraska.
Career
While acting for Gibson was a minor sideline, he continued competing in rodeos to make a living. In 1912, he won the all-around championship at the famous
Pendleton Round-Up
The Pendleton Round-Up is a major annual rodeo in the northwestern United States, at Pendleton in northeastern Oregon. Held at the Pendleton Round-Up Stadium during the second full week of September each year since 1910, the rodeo brings roug ...
[ in Pendleton, Oregon and the ]steer roping
Steer roping, also known as steer tripping or steer jerking, is a rodeo event that features a steer and one mounted cowboy.
Technique
The steer roper starts behind a "barrier" - a taut rope fastened with an easily broken string which is fastene ...
world championship at the Calgary Stampede
The Calgary Stampede is an annual rodeo, exhibition, and festival held every July in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The ten-day event, which bills itself as "The Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth", attracts over one million visitors per year and featu ...
.
Gibson's career was temporarily interrupted with service in the United States Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...
during World War I as a sergeant in the Tank Corps
An armoured corps (also mechanized corps or tank corps) is a specialized military organization whose role is to conduct armoured warfare. The units belonging to an armoured corps include military staff, and are equipped with tanks and other armo ...
. When the war ended, he returned to the rodeo business and became good friends with Art Acord
Arthemus Ward "Art" Acord (April 17, 1890 – January 4, 1931) was an American silent film actor and rodeo champion. After his film career ended in 1929, Acord worked in rodeo road shows and as a miner in Mexico.
Early life and career
Acord ...
, a fellow cowboy and movie actor. The two participated in summer rodeo, then went back to Hollywood for the winter to do stunt work. For several years, Gibson had secondary film roles (primarily in Westerns) with stars such as Harry Carey Harry Carey may refer to:
*Harry Carey (actor) (1878–1947), American actor
* Harry Carey Jr. (1921–2012), American actor
* Harry Carey (footballer) (1916–1991), Australian rules footballer
See also
* Henry Carey (disambiguation)
* Harry Car ...
. By 1921, the demand for cowboy pictures was so great, Gibson began receiving offers for leading roles. Some of these offers came from up-and-coming film director John Ford
John Martin Feeney (February 1, 1894 – August 31, 1973), known professionally as John Ford, was an American film director and naval officer. He is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers of his generation. He ...
, with whom Gibson developed a lasting friendship and working relationship.
Financial difficulties and later life
From the 1920s through the 1940s, Gibson was a major film attraction, ranking second only to Tom Mix as a Western film box-office
A box office or ticket office is a place where tickets are sold to the public for admission to an event. Patrons may perform the transaction at a countertop, through a hole in a wall or window, or at a wicket. By extension, the term is fr ...
draw. He successfully made the transition to sound films, and as a result, became a highly paid performer. After being released by Universal Pictures
Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Ameri ...
in the early 1930s, he signed a contract with the Poverty Row
Poverty Row is a slang term used to refer to Hollywood films produced from the 1920s to the 1950s by small (and mostly short-lived) B movie studios. Although many of them were based on (or near) today's Gower Street in Hollywood, the term did ...
outfit Allied Pictures
Allied Pictures was an American film production company that operated between 1931 and 1934. Controlled by the producer M.H. Hoffman, it was one of the Poverty Row companies of the era turning out low-budget B pictures. The company's best known f ...
, making a series of profitable releases for the company. He appeared in his own comic books and was popular until singing cowboys such as Gene Autry and Roy Rogers
Roy Rogers (born Leonard Franklin Slye; November 5, 1911 – July 6, 1998) was an American singer, actor, and television host. Following early work under his given name, first as co-founder of the Sons of the Pioneers and then acting, the rebra ...
displaced him.
In 1927, Gibson and five other California businessmen sponsored ''The Spirit of Los Angeles'', a modification of the International CF-10 for an attempt at winning the Dole Air Derby. Gibson had his name painted on the nose for publicity. The aircraft crashed in the San Francisco Bay before the start of the race. In 1933, Gibson injured himself when he crashed his plane while racing cowboy star Ken Maynard in the National Air Races. Later, the two friends teamed to make a series of low-budget movies in the twilight of their careers.
Gibson's years of substantial earnings did not see him through his retirement. He had squandered much of his income on high living and poor investments. By the 1950s, Gibson faced financial ruin, in part due to costly medical bills from serious health problems. To get by and pay his bills, he earned money as a greeter at a Las Vegas casino
A casino is a facility for certain types of gambling. Casinos are often built near or combined with hotels, resorts, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships, and other tourist attractions. Some casinos are also known for hosting live entertai ...
. For a time, he worked in a carnival and took virtually any job his dwindling name value could obtain. At one point he hosted a booth at rodeos that encouraged ranchers to raise nutria
The nutria (''Myocastor coypus''), also known as the coypu, is a large, herbivorous, semiaquatic rodent.
Classified for a long time as the only member of the family Myocastoridae, ''Myocastor'' is now included within Echimyidae, the family of ...
. He also appeared in an episode of Groucho's ''You Bet Your Life
''You Bet Your Life'' is an American comedy quiz series that has aired on both radio and television. The original and best-known version was hosted by Groucho Marx of the Marx Brothers, with announcer and assistant George Fenneman. The show deb ...
'', filmed in December 1955. He made the final game with his contestant, but did not win the big money, though he earned himself a share of the $440 prize money for the show.
Personal life
On September 6, 1913, Gibson married Rose August Wenger, a rodeo performer. They had met at the Pendleton Round-Up in Oregon sometime between 1911 and 1913. Under the name Helen Gibson, she became a major film star in her own right for a time, notably in the lead role of ''The Hazards of Helen
''The Hazards of Helen'' is an American adventure film serial (or possibly a film series) of 119 twelve-minute episodes released over a span of slightly more than two years by the Kalem Company between November 7, 1914, and February 24, 1917.
At 2 ...
''. Census records for 1920 indicate they were living separately; Hoot Gibson listed himself as married; Helen listed herself as widowed.
Gibson married vaudeville actress Helen Johnson on April 20, 1922, in Riverside, California. They had one child, Lois Charlotte Gibson. They were divorced on February 2, 1929, in Hollywood, California.
The fact that Hoot Gibson was consecutively married to two women who used the name Helen Gibson in some fashion has led to a good deal of confusion.
Gibson married film actress Sally Eilers
Dorothea Sally Eilers (December 11, 1908 – January 5, 1978) was an American actress.
Early life
Eilers was born in New York City to a Jewish-American mother, Paula (or Pauline) Schoenberger, and a German-American father, Hio Peter Eilers ( ...
on June 28, 1930. The marriage ended in 1933.
Gibson married a final time to Dorothy Dunstan, a 22-year-old yodeler, on July 3, 1942.
Death
Hoot Gibson died of cancer in 1962 in Woodland Hills, California at age 70, and was interred in the Inglewood Park Cemetery in Inglewood, California.
Legacy
In 1960, for his contribution to film, Gibson was inducted to the Hollywood Walk of Fame and was honored with a star at 1765 Vine Street in the Motion Pictures section. In 1979, he was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
In popular culture
References to Gibson in American media include:
*''From Here to Eternity
''From Here to Eternity'' is a 1953 American drama romance war film directed by Fred Zinnemann, and written by Daniel Taradash, based on the 1951 novel of the same name by James Jones. The picture deals with the tribulations of three U.S. A ...
'' (1951): "'I wonder,' he said,' what ever happened to old Hoot Gibson? I can just barely remember him. My God, he had grey hair when I was just a kid."[
*'']The Carpetbaggers
''The Carpetbaggers'' is a 1961 bestselling novel by Harold Robbins, which was adapted into a 1964 film of the same title. The prequel '' Nevada Smith'' (1966) was also based on a character in the novel.
In the United States, the term "car ...
'' (1961): "'The Bijou's got a new Hoot Gibson picture,' Tommy said."[
* '' The Bullwinkle Show'': Hoot Gibson is mentioned in "The Lion and the Aardvark" episode of ''Aesop and Son''.
*'']The Beverly Hillbillies
''The Beverly Hillbillies'' is an American television sitcom that was broadcast on CBS from 1962 to 1971. It had an ensemble cast featuring Buddy Ebsen, Irene Ryan, Donna Douglas, and Max Baer Jr. as the Clampetts, a poor, backwoods family f ...
'' (1963): A phony relative, Jake Clampett, manipulates the Clampett family into pursuing Hollywood dreams in an attempt to further his own filmmaking ambitions. Granny is on to him when he isn't familiar with Hoot Gibson, but Jake wins her over by promising her a role in a Hoot Gibson picture.
*''Petticoat Junction
''Petticoat Junction'' is an American television sitcom that originally aired on CBS from September 1963 to April 1970. The series takes place at the Shady Rest Hotel, which is run by Kate Bradley; her three daughters Billie Jo, Bobbie Jo, and ...
'' (1966): In Season 3 Episode 27, "Second Honeymoon", Charlie and Floyd (The Cannonball engineers) are discussing the poetic quote, "As each returning spring renews the promise of youth, so a second honeymoon renews the dream of love in two blissful hearts." Charlie attributes the quote to Hoot Gibson. Charlie adds, "He said it to his horse."
*'' Myra Breckinridge'' (1968 novel): "More than ever was Buck, revoltingly, the Singin' Shootin' Cowboy, so inferior in every way to Hoot Gibson."[
* '' Laverne & Shirley'' (1977): Hoot Gibson is mentioned in "Guilty Until Proven Not Innocent" Season 2 Episode 11. Shirley exclaims, "Good God! It’s the devil and Hoot Gibson!"
*'']Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe
''Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe'' is a 1987 novel by American author Fannie Flagg. Set in Alabama, it weaves together the past and the present through the blossoming friendship between Evelyn Couch, a middle-aged housewife, and N ...
'' (1987 novel): "Most of those guards are pretty simpleminded old boys ... they'll go to a picture show and see Tom Mix or Hoot Gibson and then they come back and ride around the farm, pulling their guns, trying to be cowboys."[
]
Filmography
References
External links
*
Hoot Gibson at b-westerns.com
Photographs of Hoot Gibson
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gibson, Hoot
1892 births
1962 deaths
People from Tekamah, Nebraska
Male actors from Nebraska
American male film actors
American film producers
American male silent film actors
American stunt performers
Burials at Inglewood Park Cemetery
Deaths from cancer in California
Male Western (genre) film actors
20th-century American male actors
All-Around
Roping (rodeo)
Articles containing video clips