Guy Weadick
Encyclopedia
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 features one of the world's largest rodeos, a parade, midway,...
in Alberta
Alberta
Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
.
Early years
Weadick was born in 1885, in Rochester, New YorkRochester, New York
Rochester is a city in Monroe County, New York, south of Lake Ontario in the United States. Known as The World's Image Centre, it was also once known as The Flour City, and more recently as The Flower City...
.
He was a well known Wild West performer, on and off the 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...
circuit.
Weadick worked the vaudeville circuit all across North America and Europe, performing rope tricks in a fifteen minute western act. He was popular in the United States and Europe.
His career led him to meet his eventual wife, Grace Bensell, another famous trick rope rider, performing under the stage name of Florence LaDue
Florence LaDue
Florence LaDue was the stage name of Grace Bensell. She was a rodeo performer and was married to Guy Weadick and they lived in Calgary.-Legacy:In 2001 she was inducted into the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame....
. As a couple, they toured the vaudeville halls and circuses of Europe, before coming to Western Canada.
When not traveling, they lived together in Wyoming
Wyoming
Wyoming is a state in the mountain region of the Western United States. The western two thirds of the state is covered mostly with the mountain ranges and rangelands in the foothills of the Eastern Rocky Mountains, while the eastern third of the state is high elevation prairie known as the High...
.
Calgary Stampede
In 1912, Weadick traveled to Calgary, where he met with H.C. McMullen, a livestockLivestock
Livestock refers to one or more domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to produce commodities such as food, fiber and labor. The term "livestock" as used in this article does not include poultry or farmed fish; however the inclusion of these, especially poultry, within the meaning...
agent
Agency (law)
The law of agency is an area of commercial law dealing with a contractual or quasi-contractual, or non-contractual set of relationships when a person, called the agent, is authorized to act on behalf of another to create a legal relationship with a third party...
for the Canadian Pacific Railway
Canadian Pacific Railway
The Canadian Pacific Railway , formerly also known as CP Rail between 1968 and 1996, is a historic Canadian Class I railway founded in 1881 and now operated by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited, which began operations as legal owner in a corporate restructuring in 2001...
. The two of them put together a program for a frontier
Frontier
A frontier is a political and geographical term referring to areas near or beyond a boundary. 'Frontier' was absorbed into English from French in the 15th century, with the meaning "borderland"--the region of a country that fronts on another country .The use of "frontier" to mean "a region at the...
show. They envisioned a cowboy
Cowboy
A cowboy is an animal herder who tends cattle on ranches in North America, traditionally on horseback, and often performs a multitude of other ranch-related tasks. The historic American cowboy of the late 19th century arose from the vaquero traditions of northern Mexico and became a figure of...
championship along with a tribute the Old West. Weadick gained financing from the Big Four: George Lane
George Lane (politician)
George Lane was an American-born Canadian politician and rancher and known as one of the Big Four who helped found the Calgary Stampede in 1912.George was foreman at the world famous Bar U Ranch....
, owner of the Bar U Ranch; two other wealthy ranchers, Patrick Burns
Patrick Burns (politician)
Patrick Burns was a Canadian rancher, meat packer, businessman, senator, and philanthropist.A self-made man, he built one of the world's largest integrated meat-packing empires, P. Burns & Co., and was one of the wealthiest Canadians of his time...
and A. E. Cross
A. E. Cross
Alfred Ernest Cross was a Canadian politician, rancher and brewer, known as one of the Big Four who founded the Calgary Stampede in 1912.-Early life:Born in Montreal, Cross was the oldest of seven children...
; and Archie Maclean, provincial secretary. He staged the first Calgary Stampede September 2-7, 1912, when ranchers and farmers had finished the harvesting and would be free to attend.
Weadick arranged for 200 head of Mexican steers, 200 bucking steers, and wild horses to be brought in from the ranches around Calgary. In order to entice top quality competitors, $20,000 in championship money and world championship titles were offered. The prize money was about four times the closest competition, causing riders from across North America to arrive in the 1912 Stampede.
Later years
Following on the success of the Calgary StampedeCalgary 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 features one of the world's largest rodeos, a parade, midway,...
, Guy Weadick continued promoting his own personal Old West shows (outside Calgary). He continued running the Stampede for 20 years after its initial creation. His next appearance at the Stampede was to appear in the parade in 1952. He died in 1953.