Slap some bacon on a biscuit and let’s go, we’re burnin’ daylight

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Some of the most successful movies in 1972 were The Godfather, Deliverance,  and The Poseidon Adventure. Ranked number 13 in popularity for 1972 films by IMDb.com was a coming-of-age western, The Cowboys.

Last month marked its 50th Anniversary. This iconic film starred John Wayne as rancher Wil Anderson, Roscoe Lee Browne as the rough and mysterious cook and Bruce Dern in his customary role as the villain.

Based on the 1971 novel by William Dale Jennings of the same name, the Duke’s character has to hire 11 inexperienced boys as cowhands to get his herd of cattle to the market — giving the movie its name.

Nine of the original “cowboys” gathered on June 26 at John Wayne: An American Experience in Fort Worth, Texas for a celebration. Hosted by Wayne’s son, Ethan Wayne, a panel discussion was aired live on The Cowboy Channel and is available for anyone to listen to as a podcast called the John Wayne Gritcast.

The story about manhood and growing up resonates well with me — and many in my age group — because in 1972 when the movie was released, I was 13 years old, around the same age as the young cowboys in the film. Coincidentally, Wayne was 64 during filming. The cowboys are now in their mid-60s (and I’m close behind them.)

It’s no secret that Duke was a staunch conservative. The director for The Cowboys was Mark Rydell. Directing his first western movie, Rydell, who considered himself almost a communist then, wanted George C. Scott for the lead role because he couldn’t envision working with Wayne.  The studio wanted Wayne. Rydell explains their first meeting.  

Rydell: Duke, how are we going to work together? We’re so different.

Wayne: Look, you’re the director, and I’m the actor. You’re going to tell me how to act, and we’re going to make a great movie.

Shot eight years before Wayne passed away from stomach cancer, he referred to this movie as “the greatest experience of my life.”

It was also a defining experience for the 11 cowboys. They were divided into two groups: those who had never ridden a horse and those who had never acted.

The non-cowboys had to learn how to ride a horse for the movie. They took riding lessons every day after school, eight hours every Saturday, and five hours on Sunday. That is dedication.

The lessons paid off. According to the discussion on the podcast, 90 percent of the riding the boys do in the film is the actual boy actors, not stunt doubles. They rode the horses through brush and trees, across rivers, and around 1,200 head of cattle.

These boys had the experience of a lifetime, spending three and a half months on set with the Duke. He became a father figure to them. The actors became a family, and it shows on set. Rydell told Ethan Wayne in another podcast that before the movie was over, Wayne truly loved and respected each of them.

Mike Pyeatt, who played cowboy Homer Weems in the movie, was 14  in 1971. He related that when around Wayne, “you got better, you wanted to be better, to walk taller, you wanted to do better, you wanted to say the truth. I learned so much just by watching him.”

The movie helped launch the careers of many of the boys and changed their lives.

Sam OBrian, who played cowboy Jimmy Phillips in the film, joined the military later in life. “It was life-changing to me in the fact that it finally made me realize as a young man where I wanted to go with my life.”

Clay O’Brian was known as the  pint-sized cowboy Hardy Fimps. He returned to cowboying full-time after finishing acting in 1976 to win seven world titles in team-roping in the rodeo circuit. 

The Cowboys was the acting debut of Robert Carradine who played cowboy Slim Honeycutt, the oldest of the cowboys. Carradine went on to produce Revenge of the Nerds (1984), Escape from L.A. (1996) and The Lizzie McGuire Movie (2003).

Norman Howell, who was known as Weedy in the movie, became a stunt man doubling for such actors as John Travolta, Bruce Willis and Roger Moore in 007.

A Martinez currently has 142 acting credits from 1968 to 2022. He played the cowboy Cimarron.

The best line from the movie was by Wil Anderson: “Slap some bacon on a biscuit and let’s go! We’re burnin’ daylight!”