Hoot Gibson

At 70 years old, Hoot Gibson has this physical status:

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 and World War II, he was second only to cowboy film legend Tom Mix as a box office draw.

Early life

Born Edmund Richard Gibson in Tekamah, Nebraska, 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" (January 19. 1956), that he acquired the nickname "Hoot", when he used to look for hoot owls in caves as a child in Nebraska.

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 draw. He successfully made the transition to sound films, and as a result, became a highly paid performer. After being released by Universal Pictures in the early 1930s, he signed a contract with the Poverty Row outfit Allied Pictures, 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 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. 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. He also appeared in an episode of Groucho's You Bet Your Life, 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. 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 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.

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Career

In 1910, film director Francis Boggs was looking for experienced cowboys to appear in his silent film Pride of the Range. Gibson and Tom Mix, both a young Western film actor, were recruited. In 1911, Gibson made a second film for Boggs. After a deranged employee murdered Boggs, director Jack Conway hired Gibson to appear in his 1912 Western His Only Son.

Gibson was then a minor pastime, and he continued to compete in rodeos to make a living off it. He won the all-around championship at Pendleton, Oregon, and the steer roping world championship at the Calgary Stampede in 1912.

During World War I as a sergeant in the Tank Corps, Gibson's career was temporarily suspended while serving in the United States Army. He returned to the rodeo trade and became good friends with Art Acord, a fellow cowboy and film actor, after the war ended. The two appeared in the summer revue and then returned to Hollywood for the winter to do stunt work. Gibson appeared in secondary films (mainly in Westerns) with actors such as Harry Carey for many years. Gibson began receiving calls for leading roles by 1921, and by 1921, the demand for cowboy pictures had soared. Several of these offers came from up-and-coming film director John Ford, with whom Gibson formed a lasting friendship and working relationship.

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