Bee Ho Gray
Encyclopedia
Wild West Shows
Wild West Shows were traveling vaudeville performances in the United States and Europe. The first and prototypical wild west show was Buffalo Bill's, formed in 1883 and lasting until 1913...
, vaudeville
Vaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
, circus
Circus
A circus is commonly a travelling company of performers that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, unicyclists and other stunt-oriented artists...
, silent films and radio. While he was primarily known as an expert at trick roping
Trick roping
Trick roping is an entertainment or competitive art involving the spinning of a lasso or lariat. It is particularly associated with wild west shows or western arts in the United States....
, he was also skilled with knife throwing
Knife throwing
Knife throwing is an art, sport, combat skill, or variously an entertainment technique, involving an artist skilled in the art of throwing knives, the weapons thrown, and a target.-A throwing knife:...
, bullwhip
Bullwhip
A bullwhip is a single-tailed whip, usually made of braided leather, which was originally used as a tool for working with livestock.Bullwhips are pastoral tools, traditionally used to control livestock in open country...
s (specifically the Australian black snake whip), trick riding and the banjo
Banjo
In the 1830s Sweeney became the first white man to play the banjo on stage. His version of the instrument replaced the gourd with a drum-like sound box and included four full-length strings alongside a short fifth-string. There is no proof, however, that Sweeney invented either innovation. This new...
. He wove all of these skills together in a homely comic routine. Throughout his long career he was constantly compared to Will Rogers
Will Rogers
William "Will" Penn Adair Rogers was an American cowboy, comedian, humorist, social commentator, vaudeville performer, film actor, and one of the world's best-known celebrities in the 1920s and 1930s....
, which was befitting, considering the two performers worked together several times and developed their acts together in the early 1900s.
Biography
Emberry Cannon Gray was born on April 7, 1885 in Leon, Chickasaw NationChickasaw Nation
The Chickasaw Nation is a federally recognized Native American nation, located in Oklahoma. They are one of the members of the Five Civilized Tribes. The Five Civilized Tribes were differentiated from other Indian reservations in that they had semi-autonomous constitutional governments and...
, Indian Territory
Indian Territory
The Indian Territory, also known as the Indian Territories and the Indian Country, was land set aside within the United States for the settlement of American Indians...
, in what is present-day Oklahoma
Oklahoma
Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...
. His family moved to the small town of Cache (near Fort Sill
Fort Sill
Fort Sill is a United States Army post near Lawton, Oklahoma, about 85 miles southwest of Oklahoma City.Today, Fort Sill remains the only active Army installation of all the forts on the South Plains built during the Indian Wars...
), Indian Territory within two years of his birth. Bee Ho's mother was one-quarter Chickasaw; his father had been a Texas Ranger
Texas Ranger Division
The Texas Ranger Division, commonly called the Texas Rangers, is a law enforcement agency with statewide jurisdiction in Texas, and is based in Austin, Texas...
in the Trinity Division, and later served in the Confederate Army.
Gray grew up among the Apache
Apache
Apache is the collective term for several culturally related groups of Native Americans in the United States originally from the Southwest United States. These indigenous peoples of North America speak a Southern Athabaskan language, which is related linguistically to the languages of Athabaskan...
, Comanche
Comanche
The Comanche are a Native American ethnic group whose historic range consisted of present-day eastern New Mexico, southern Colorado, northeastern Arizona, southern Kansas, all of Oklahoma, and most of northwest Texas. Historically, the Comanches were hunter-gatherers, with a typical Plains Indian...
and Kiowa
Kiowa
The Kiowa are a nation of American Indians and indigenous people of the Great Plains. They migrated from the northern plains to the southern plains in the late 17th century. In 1867, the Kiowa moved to a reservation in southwestern Oklahoma...
, as Cache was the commercial center of their territories. He and his brothers played with the children of Comanche Chief Quanah Parker
Quanah Parker
Quanah Parker was a Comanche chief, a leader in the Native American Church, and the last leader of the powerful Quahadi band before they surrendered their battle of the Great Plains and went to a reservation in Indian Territory...
, and his parents became good friends with the Parker family. By the time Emberry was five years old, he began going by the name "Bee Ho," a name meaning "Brother of the Cripple" given to him by Chief Quanah, because Bee Ho's brother, “Ho” Emmet Gray, was stricken with polio as a small boy and walked with a crutch for the remainder of his life.
Bee Ho developed his Western skills on the plains of Indian Territory
Indian Territory
The Indian Territory, also known as the Indian Territories and the Indian Country, was land set aside within the United States for the settlement of American Indians...
, but had never seen a real trick roper until about 1900. Bee Ho and his younger brother, Weaver, heard about the amazing tricks that were being performed by trick ropers in Wild West shows. Together they rode 60 miles on one horse to the town of Chickasha to see the Pawnee Bill
Pawnee Bill
Pawnee Bill , born Gordon William Lillie, was a Wild West showman and performer.Best known for his short partnership with Buffalo Bill, Pawnee Bill was born February 14, 1860, in Bloomington, Illinois. Pawnee Bill and his show made several false starts during the latter part of the nineteenth...
Wild West exhibition, making the trip in two days. They were very impressed with the trick ropers and began teaching themselves rope tricks, using clothesline and anything else they could spin. Within a few years, both were performing with Wild West shows. Both brothers would enjoy amazing 50-year careers in western performance.
During the early years of his career as a Western performer, Bee Ho performed with several Wild West shows. Bee Ho’s first notable performances were with Colonel Cummins’ Wild West Indian Congress and Rough Riders of the World at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition
Louisiana Purchase Exposition
The Louisiana Purchase Exposition, informally known as the Saint Louis World's Fair, was an international exposition held in St. Louis, Missouri, United States in 1904.- Background :...
, also known as "The Saint Louis World's Fair." Other notable performers from this show include Geronimo
Geronimo
Geronimo was a prominent Native American leader of the Chiricahua Apache who fought against Mexico and the United States for their expansion into Apache tribal lands for several decades during the Apache Wars. Allegedly, "Geronimo" was the name given to him during a Mexican incident...
, Will Rogers
Will Rogers
William "Will" Penn Adair Rogers was an American cowboy, comedian, humorist, social commentator, vaudeville performer, film actor, and one of the world's best-known celebrities in the 1920s and 1930s....
, Zach Mulhall, Lucille Mulhall
Lucille Mulhall
Lucille Mulhall was a well known cowgirl and Wild West performer. She was raised on her family's Mulhall Ranch in Oklahoma Territory, near what is now Mulhall, Oklahoma...
, and a number of well-known Native American chiefs.
Bee Ho joined the Miller Brothers 101 Ranch
Miller Brothers 101 Ranch
The Miller Brothers 101 Ranch was an cattle ranch in the Indian Territory of Oklahoma before statehood. Located near modern-day Ponca City, it was founded by Colonel George Washington Miller, a veteran of the Confederate Army, in 1893. The 101 Ranch was the birthplace of the 101 Ranch Wild West...
Real Wild West in 1907, its first year of touring the United States. Other famous people who performed with the 101 Ranch include Tom Mix
Tom Mix
Thomas Edwin "Tom" Mix was an American film actor and the star of many early Western movies. He made a reported 336 films between 1910 and 1935, all but nine of which were silent features...
, Ken Maynard
Ken Maynard
Ken Maynard was an American motion picture stuntman and actor.-Biography:Born Kenneth Olin Maynard in Vevay, Indiana, he was one of five children. His younger brother, Kermit Maynard, also became a stuntman and actor....
, Hoot Gibson
Hoot Gibson
Hoot Gibson was an American rodeo champion and a pioneer cowboy film actor, director and producer.-Early life and career:...
, Buck Jones
Buck Jones
Buck Jones was an American motion picture star of the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, best known for his work starring in many popular western movies...
, Tex McLeod, Chester Byers, Iron Tail
Iron Tail
Iron Tail was an Oglala Sioux who fought alongside Sitting Bull at the Battle of the Little Big Horn. He also performed with Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show during the 1890s and with the Miller Brothers 101 Ranch Wild West show from 1913 to 1916. He died of pneumonia on May 28, 1916 while traveling...
, “Buckskin Bessie” Herberg, Bill Pickett
Bill Pickett
Willie M. "Bill" Pickett was a cowboy and rodeo performer.Pickett was born in the Jenks-Branch community of Travis County, Texas. He was the second of 13 children born to Thomas Jefferson Pickett, a former slave, and Mary "Janie" Gilbert. Pickett had 4 brothers and 8 sisters...
, “Buffalo Bill
Buffalo Bill
William Frederick "Buffalo Bill" Cody was a United States soldier, bison hunter and showman. He was born in the Iowa Territory , in LeClaire but lived several years in Canada before his family moved to the Kansas Territory. Buffalo Bill received the Medal of Honor in 1872 for service to the US...
” Cody, Milt Hinkle, Billy Lorette, Luka Chkhartishvili (Prince Lucca), Art Acord, and Princess Wenona (Lillian Smith
Lillian Smith
Lillian Smith may refer to:*Lillian Smith *Lillian Smith...
). While Will Rogers
Will Rogers
William "Will" Penn Adair Rogers was an American cowboy, comedian, humorist, social commentator, vaudeville performer, film actor, and one of the world's best-known celebrities in the 1920s and 1930s....
was never actually employed by the 101 Ranch, he spent a lot of time there visiting with friends and taking part in the informal roping contests and other events. Bee Ho and his wife, Broadway actress, equestrienne and horse trainer Ada Sommerville, traveled with the 101 Ranch for most of the years 1907-1916, with occasional departures to perform with other shows and to compete in early rodeo
Rodeo
Rodeo is a competitive sport which arose out of the working practices of cattle herding in Spain, Mexico, and later the United States, Canada, South America and Australia. It was based on the skills required of the working vaqueros and later, cowboys, in what today is the western United States,...
s. The Miller Brothers 101 Ranch Real Wild West toured from 1907–1916 and again from 1925-1931.
Some of the many other shows with which Bee Ho performed include California Frank’s All-Star Wild West (Frank Hafley), Irwin Brothers Cheyenne Frontier Days Wild West Show, Diamond Dick’s Wild West, Barnum and Bailey Circus, Ringling Brothers Circus
Ringling Brothers Circus
The Ringling Brothers Circus was a circus founded in the United States in 1884 by five of the seven Ringling Brothers: Albert , August , Otto , Alfred T. , Charles , John , and Henry...
, Shrine Circus, and his own show, Bee Ho Gray’s Wild West.
Bee Ho learned the sign language and spoken language of various Native American tribes while growing up in Indian Territory. In about 1912, Bee Ho accompanied Sioux Chief Iron Tail
Iron Tail
Iron Tail was an Oglala Sioux who fought alongside Sitting Bull at the Battle of the Little Big Horn. He also performed with Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show during the 1890s and with the Miller Brothers 101 Ranch Wild West show from 1913 to 1916. He died of pneumonia on May 28, 1916 while traveling...
to Washington D.C. and New York where Iron Tail modeled for sculptor James Earle Fraser as he worked on designs for the new Buffalo nickel. The two men had been working together on Wild West shows prior to this time and Bee Ho traveled with Iron Tail to act as an interpreter and guide.
Bee Ho won the World Champion Trick and Fancy Roper title at Guy Weadick
Guy Weadick
Guy Weadick was an American performer and promoter. Today, he is best known as the founder of the Calgary Stampede in Alberta, Canada.- Early years :Weadick was born in 1885, in Rochester, New York....
's Winnipeg Stampede in 1913 when he displayed a rope catch that had never been seen before. The trick was called the “Three-Rope Catch” and involved catching a galloping horse and rider with three ropes. One rope would catch the rider around the torso, and one rope would catch the horse around the neck. The final rope would catch the horse by all four legs. Bee Ho won the title from Tex McLeod and held it until 1916, when he lost it to Chester Byers. Bee Ho was the only person who could do the trick for several years. He later taught it to Will Rogers, who performed it in the 1922 silent film The Ropin' Fool. Bee Ho earned the championship again in the early 1920s when he competed at the Cheyenne Frontier Days and Pendleton Round-Up
Pendleton Round-Up
The Pendleton Round-Up is a rodeo held in Pendleton, Oregon, United States, during the second full week of September each year, since 1910. The rodeo brings roughly 50,000 people every year to the city of Pendleton...
.
Bee Ho Gray moved out of competitive roping by the mid-1920s to focus on his vaudeville and film career.
Bee Ho performed in Erich von Stroheim
Erich von Stroheim
Erich von Stroheim was an Austrian-born film star of the silent era, subsequently noted as an auteur for his directorial work.-Background:...
's Greed (film)
Greed (film)
Greed is a 1924 American dramatic silent film. It was directed by Erich von Stroheim and starring Gibson Gowland, Zasu Pitts, Jean Hersholt, Dale Fuller, Tempe Pigott, Sylvia Ashton, Chester Conklin, Joan Standing and Jack Curtis....
in 1924. Even though his performance was apparently cut from the film when the length was reduced by about 80%, his name still shows up on lists of actors who were in the film. However, one of his feats of skill still appears in the film. During an argument between the two main characters (McTeague and Marcus), a knife is thrown and sticks into the wall next to the lead actor's face. According to a 1926 Cedar Rapids (Iowa) Republican newspaper article, “Erich von Storheim [sic] featured Gray in his famous picture, Greed because of his ability to throw a knife.”
Bee Ho also performed in a number of more obscure early western films from the Miller Brothers 101 Ranch Bison Films, Monogram Pictures and The Vitaphone
Vitaphone
Vitaphone was a sound film process used on feature films and nearly 1,000 short subjects produced by Warner Bros. and its sister studio First National from 1926 to 1930. Vitaphone was the last, but most successful, of the sound-on-disc processes...
Corporation including Hey! Hey! Westerner.
In May and June 1922, Bee Ho and Ada Sommerville were featured in a Broadway musical called Red Pepper which appeared at the Shubert Theatre
Shubert Theatre (Broadway)
The Shubert Theatre is a Broadway theatre located at 225 West 44th Street in midtown-Manhattan, New York, United States.Designed by architect Henry Beaumont Herts, it was named after Sam S. Shubert, the second oldest of the three brothers of the theatrical producing family...
. The stars of the show were the minstrel duo James McIntyre
James McIntyre (theatrical actor)
James McIntyre , minstrel performer, vaudeville and theatrical actor, and a partner in the famous blackface tramp comedy duo act McIntyre and Heath.- Family and early career :...
and Thomas Kurton Heath
Thomas Kurton Heath
Thomas Kurton Heath was a vaudeville actor with James McIntyre. They started their act in 1874.-References:...
. The show then went on the road for one year, closing in North Dakota in June 1923.
Bee Ho added a trained coyote named "Chink" to be part of his act in the early 1930s, and began making radio appearances with his witty Oklahoma comedy. He appeared on stage and on the radio with personalities such as Bing Crosby
Bing Crosby
Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby was an American singer and actor. Crosby's trademark bass-baritone voice made him one of the best-selling recording artists of the 20th century, with over half a billion records in circulation....
, Will Rogers, Fred Stone
Fred Stone
Fred Andrew Stone was an American actor. Stone began his career as a performer in circuses and minstrel shows, went on to act on vaudeville, and became a star on Broadway and in feature films, which earned him a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.-Biography:He was particularly famous for appearing...
, Joe E. Brown (comedian)
Joe E. Brown (comedian)
Joseph Evans Brown was an American actor and comedian, remembered for his amiable screen persona, comic timing, and enormous smile. In 1902 at the age of nine, he joined a troupe of circus tumblers known as the Five Marvelous Ashtons which toured the country on both the circus and vaudeville...
, Mary Beth Hughes
Mary Beth Hughes
Mary Beth Hughes was an American film, television, and stage actress best known for her roles in B movies.-Early life and career:...
, Eddie Nugent, Tom Mix, Hoot Gibson, Ken Maynard and many others. Many of the western stars who performed in the first half of the 1900s got their start with him at the Miller Brothers 101 Ranch Wild West as they saw their way of life on the open range disappearing.
Ada Sommerville died in 1940 at the age of sixty-eight. Bee Ho continued with his act using other assistants to fill her role, but the days of vaudeville were over and his career was relegated to county fairs, small corporate events and school benefits. During his career, Bee Ho gave command performances for at least four United States presidents, members of European royalty and many diplomats and notables. He died in Pueblo, Colorado on August 3, 1951 at the age of sixty-six while visiting his sister. Many of his fans, friends and family members never knew what became of him.
Other sources
External links
- Bee Ho Gray - the Forgotten Cowboy
- 101 Ranch
- Musicians Collection at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research CenterHarry Ransom Humanities Research CenterThe Harry Ransom Center is a library and archive at the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in the collection of literary and cultural artifacts from the United States and Europe. The Ransom Center houses 36 million literary manuscripts, 1 million rare books, 5 million photographs, and more...
- Dickinson Research Center
- Bandwagon, January-February 1969
- Will Rogers Memorial Museums