The First Indoor Rodeo, 1918
By Ray Mckinley; reporter of livestock news
Somewhere about 1900 such men as Burk Burnett, Marion Samson, C.C. French, Mark Hovencamp and W. H Myers undertook to hold what they called a Fat Stock Show and the site was a plot of ground near a small packing house owned and operated by a man named Niles in the present location of the Armour & Swift plants of today. These men with a vision and a desire to build the livestock industry started this effort under a tent they rented that had been formerly used by Sarah Earnhart (I guess Sarah had some trouble with theatres and used the tent to keep from being held up by opera house owners), anyway it was a huge tent that accommodated more than a hundred head of show stock, such as they were, the prizes offered were donated by interprizing merchants and consisted of saddles, harness, a wagon and numerous useful articles.
This was an annual event for a few years until Capt. Burnett made a trip to Chicago a year or two after Armour & Swift had established here in 1909 and induced J. Ogden Armour to inlist the cooperation of Swift and build the coliseum, which was built in 1908 and became the home of the National Feeders & Breeders Show. The leadership in all of this activity was Burk Burnett a Marion Samson. Burk was elected president, and Samson Vice President and it remained in their hands and under their control until their death a period of more than 25 years.
I was 15 years old when as a kid I attended the first show under the tent and 7 years later I secured a job as advertising salesman for the Daily Livestock Reporter, a newspaper published at the stockyards, which was the only medium of that day to furnish market information to shippers of live stock all over the south west. This paper of course was very close to the interest of the Fort Worth Market and the Fat Stock Show. The merchants of Fort Worth obviously were very much interested in this annual event and all were called upon and always responded with an underwriting agreement against loss, the amount never exceeded $7,500.00 but the shows were never a financial success and the merchants contributed the loss each year until 1913. Prior to this date the night program consisted of a horse show managed and produced by such men as Warren G. Gilbrath, Capt. WF Furse and Milt Mooney. These events cost a lot of money and did not draw enough attendance to make them financially successful.
By 1913 I had managed my way up to Vice President & General Manager of the Reporter Publishing Co; and in 1915 a Sunday paper, The North Fort Worth Sunday News was born, and in 1917 I bought the stake in the company heretofore owned by Armour & Swift and became Editor & Publisher of the Daily and Sunday papers. During all of this time I was very close to the Southwestern Exposition a Fat Stock Show, which some years before had become the name of the original N.F. & E Show.
In 1916 an experiment was tried Mr. Burnett through friendship with Joe Miller of 101 Ranch fame induced Miller to come down to Ft Worth with a limited number of cow boy show hands and a few head of wild bronks and steers and put on a matinee performance of more or less exhibitions for which an admission fee of 0.25-0.50 cents was charged and the liked it and filled the building each of the six matinees. This was such a success that they next year, 1917, the management desired to repeat the deal with Miller, however he was not interested and turned that matter of putting on the exhibition to Lucille Mulhalan and Homer Wilson who in turn presented a somewhat larger program of exhibitions of riding, roping, tricks and fancy riding, steer riding, bull-dogging and bronc riding. This went over big, filling the coliseum, for the 6 afternoons of the show week but at the same nominal admission. These performances were advertised and called Wild West Show. Up to this time the show as a whole lost money and the underwriters paid the deficate.
Sometime in the late winter of 1917 I was having lunch in the old Saddle & Sirloin Club with Marion Samson and A.B. Case, then manager of Armour & Co. And just in passing I said to Mr Samson “why don’t we put on a real wild west contest of our own for the coming spring show and do away with these out side producers”. To which he replied “ and just how would you go about do it”? To which I replied, “ I would appoint a committee, of 5 or more men, here on the yards, to plan and produce it”. “Alright” said Samson, “just who would you appoint” and I named “Buck Samson, Bob Tadlock, Bill Rominger, Wad Ross and Herbert Graves” to which he replied, “what about yourself”? And he further said “I don’t agree to Buck or Bob, but I will go along with the others if you will organize it”. I stated to Mr Samson that I knew nothing of such matter but would undertake the project if he would agree to Buck or Bob obtainable. He agreed to waive his objections to the two men and to make it a 7 man committee adding Wade Farmer and myself to the 5 I had suggested. He further requested me to organize the group at once and to report to a meeting of the executive committee of the show which was to be had in a few days with a plan of program and an approximate cost of the undertaking.
I called the heretofore men and asked them to meet with my in my office the following afternoon and they all responded. I explained the entire matter to them and they all agreed to serve and were enthusiastic regarding the possibilities. I then nominated Buck Samoson as chairman, and he was elected. The rest of the afternoon was devoted to making a program and a prize list for the 7 or 8 events and the estimating the cost of putting on the show, and it was decided that a prize list of $3,000.00 with a cost of about the same amount would be necessary to produce the contest. Some thought this amount would startle the executive committee and the matter would end there, but when Bill Rominger and myself presented the matter to them a few days later, they agreed to approve $6,000 for the project.
This committed then went to work in earnest, Rominger was acquainted with Leonard Stroud who had spent some time in the wild west show business, he was sent for and agreed to work with the group and direct the contest. A set of rules was adopted(many of which are still in use) and the name “Rodeo” (meaning “round up”) was adopted and the first indoor show of this kind named and called Rodeo was born.
The price of admission was set at $L.2 & 3 and from 1918 until the present date the rodeo matinee and night held in connections with the Southwestern Exposition & Fat Stock Show at Fort Worth Texas has been a sell out.
No correct history of this show that is ever written will be correct and authentic that fails to name in addition to the men already mentioned; John Buchanan, Joe Googins, Phil and John Lee, J.E(Boog) Scott, John Burgo, Ed Henry, Al Donavan and John Burns.
Most of all these men have gone to their reward, the only two left that served the original Rodeo committee dare John Burns and Ray McKinley.
The above resume covers the subject from 1900 to 1925 only. Burk Burnett died in 1922, Marion Samson soon after WW2 became incapacitated and with their passing the activities and management was taken over by a group headed and directed by Amon Carter and has gone on to its present greatness.
