NAMES like Billy the Kid, the Earp Bros., the Clantons, the McOwerys, Doc. Holiday, Sam Bass, Kit Carson, Bill Longley and Deadwood Dick are revived from time to time on our TV. Screens in half- hour "cowboy" shows, known to the legitimate stage as Horse Operas.
Forty years ago, on a site at St. Dennis now occupied by a small Bank which is nearing completion, a little wooden cinema provided shows In which cowboy films predominated over all other types. The cinema was run by a man and his wife who gave two shows a week - both on Saturday. The first was in the afternoon and it was followed by a big show in the evening. The husband, as projectionist, turned the crank of the acetylene gas-lit projector; with seven reels to wind off, the inter-mission was a welcome relief and provided the old boy with an opportunity to nip down to the local, sink a pint of liquid refreshment - two if the takings were good - before returning to the "Circle Work". The second half of the programme usually went with a swing.
Before the start of the show, the routine was always the same. The old gentleman would trot down into the hall with the bulls-eye of the projector wrapped in a chamois. He would then warm the glass over a tortoise stove to rid it of condensation. While this operation was taking place there would be suggestions from the youthful audience: 'put a jerk into it!' or 'ride him Bronco!' All this gratuitous advice fell on deaf cars as he went through the solemn ritual in his unhurried but efficient way.
Law and order was maintained by the female side of the team. On Saturday afternoon, when, after "lights out", some outlaw tried to rustle from the three ha'-penny seats in front to the threepennies at the back, a bicycle bell would ring in the projection box. The film and the piano player, who provided suitable background music, stopped as the good lady made her weekly speech: "Order please! I must have order or else the show will not continue." This always had the desired effect.
They were pioneers of the early film shows, this regal pair, Victorian in dress and manner, charming and understanding to their youthful audience, who handed over a few coppers for hours of entertainment, excitement and thrills as Comanches, Cheyennes, Cherokees, Seminoles, Navajos and the Sioux bit the dust of Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, Utah, California and Dakota, in the black and white shadows of the Silver Screen.
One might ask what all this had to do with the clay country. Let's have a look at that youthful audience of forty years ago. At that time cowboy films had a personal link with nearly everyone in that cinema. This is not a modern romantic gimmick but hard fact! As a result of low wages and a depression in mining, their fathers, brothers or relations had emigrated to the United States - from the villages of Cornwall to Grass Valley, California, to Deadwood in South Dakota and a variety of places with names made familiar by "Westems". Cornish Clay miners - the Brays, Bests, Phillips, Trevennas, Bunts, Varcoes, Stephens, Truscotts and Bullocks-names that have adorned the payroll of gold, silver and copper mines throughout the New World have played a major part in making the U.S.A. one of the richest countries in the world.
In the State of South Dakota, the Black Hills, a granite mass 125 miles long, tower into the North West sky. Islands of granite pushed up millions of years ago, through a huge salt sea, a geological phenomenon, called by the Sioux Indians 'PAHA SAPA'-The Mountains that are Black, for the slopes are covered with thick pine trees. Deadwood! Mecca for gold seekers. In 1873 came one Richard Bullock, aged 26, son of Cap'n John Bullock, Captain of Dunn's Clay- works of Retew, Cornwall. Old Cap'n John was a keen sportsman and his hunting "territory" extended from the Goss Moors, through Retew, Mellangoose and Rosevallen. Richard inherited the skill of the gun from his father; in the many pigeon shoots around the clay country Richard's name was preceded by two words- 'First Prize'. On arrival in Deadwood, Richard started in the mines. He held this job for about ten years. Hold-ups and gun fights were so frequent, however, that mining companies were forced to hire gun fighters or guards. Richard Bullock became a bullion guard for the Homestake Mine, owned by Senator George Hearst, a scion of the family later to become famous as news-paper proprietors and publishers.
The most celebrated of the feats of Richard Bullock, who rode shot-gun on the Deadwood Stage, concerned the hold-up on the old Cheyenne trail leading into "Hurricane Flats". A sidewinder by the name of Lame Johnny tried to hold up the stage. At the time Richard was wearing side arms-"six shooters". Before Lame Johnny had time to say "Stick 'em up!" Dick's revolver went into action. Five shots found their mark and Johnny's hold-up days were over. From then on "Deadwood Dick" became a gunfighter.
One old miner from Butte, Montana, used to say, "Dick was fast with shotgun or revolver-faster than streaks of lightning if that was possible." His fame spread through the whole of the Wild West as a man who was master of the gunfighters' "Triggernometry". His pride was the shot.gun. "Remember this", he once said, "you can miss with a 45 slug, but a man with a shot-gun, loaded with Granny Bullock's Blue Whistlers, stands a good chance of living to a ripe old age".
Deadwood Dick played a great part in bringing law and order to a young country with plenty of growing pains. By virtue of his reputation and his record he became a target for rival gunfighters. He fooled them all. In 1921 Richard Bullock died at the age of 73, in the Thorncroft Sanatorium, Glendale, California- with his boots off.
Today four giant likenesses of U.S. Presidents which are carved in the granite cliffs, look down from the Mount Rushmore National Memorial in Black Hills, the one-time home of the Sioux and Cheyenne, who annihilated General Custer and his men in the battle of the Little Big Horn, land of tobacco chewing miners, prospectors and one remarkable Cornishman, Richard Bullock of Retew, Comwall.
G. E. STARK (Blackpool). (The author would like to express his thanks to Mr. Fred Bullock of Indian Queens for the information supplied to make this article possible and also for the photograph).