Fred Harmon, Red Ryder, and Albuquerque's Little Beavertown

New Mexico Historical Review

Volume 85 Number 3 Article 1

7-1-2010

Ferenc M. Szasz

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Recommended Citation Szasz, Ferenc M.. "Fred Harmon, Red Ryder, and Albuquerque's Little Beavertown." New Mexico Historical Review 85, 3 (2010). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/nmhr/vol85/iss3/1

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by UNM Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in New Mexico Historical Review by an authorized editor of UNM Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]. Fred Harman, Red Ryder, and Albuquerque’s Little Beavertown

Ferenc M. Szasz

he saga of the U.S. West has long fascinated both Europeans and Ameri- T cans. Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show began traveling to Europe in 1886. Eighteen years later, in 1904, he and his entourage made positively their last tour of the British Isles, thrilling thousands of Scots on the show’s second journey north of the River Tweed. In 1893 historian Frederick Jackson Turner famously declared that the American frontier had “closed,” although authentic frontier conditions persisted for well over two decades in Colorado, Montana, and New Mexico, among other regions.1 In 1899 the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing drew on the popular appeal of the West in a very pragmatic way. That year it featured a portrait of Ta-to-ka-in-yan-ka (Running Antelope of the Oncpapa branch of the Sioux tribe) as the central fi gure for the fi ve-dollar silver certifi cate. About two decades later, a steady stream of songwriters migrated to California, creating a new record company, Capitol, that aggressively championed cowboy music and the cowboy way of life. The emergence of singing-cowboy fi lm stars such as Roy Rogers and Gene Autry helped make the western a Hollywood staple from the 1930s through the 1950s.2

Ferenc M. Szasz is Regents’ Professor of History at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque. He is the author or editor of several books on New Mexico history, including The Day the Sun Rose Twice: The Story of the Trinity Site Explosion, July 16, 1945 (University of New Mexico Press, 207 1984) and Larger than Life: New Mexico in the Twentieth Century (University of New Mexico Press, 2006). 208 N new mexico historical review volume 85, number 3

Born at the crest of the wave, southwestern artist Fred Harman Jr. (1902–1982) played a crucial role in the emergence of the popular-culture West.3 Harman’s enormously successful cartoon characters Red Ryder and Little Beaver helped shape mid-twentieth-century Americans’ understanding of the nation’s frontier past. In addition his 350 oil paintings and western bronzes became highly prized by collectors. Harman, however, met the limits of the popularized West’s appeal in 1961, when he attempted to establish a western-themed family amusement center called Little Beavertown, just east of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Promoters simply could not sell this version of the West to New Mexico, a region that contained a mythologized frontier past all its own. After a promising start, Little Beavertown collapsed within two years. Thus, the saga of Fred Harman, Red Ryder, and Little Beavertown echoed, in miniature, the rise and fall of the national popular-culture West. Although Montana cowboy painter Charles M. Russell (1864–1926) still reigns as the most popular western artist of all time, many people place Harman in the same exalted category.4 Like Russell, Harman had actually worked as a cowboy on a western ranch. Unlike his contemporary from New York Frederic Remington (1861–1909), Harman knew fi rsthand the world depicted in his art.5 The challenge of producing a daily newspaper comic strip, however, offered Harman even greater opportunities to showcase his artistic talents. He began the Sunday strip featuring Red Ryder (with Little Beaver) on 6 November 1938, with a daily comic strip following on 27 March 1939. Although he occasionally employed “ghost writers,” Harman drew most of the strips from his homes in Pagosa Springs, Colorado, and Albuquerque for twenty-seven years.6 In 1963 he withdrew his cartoon duo from newspapers, but they remained a fi xture of western popular culture for almost three decades. A Sunday newspaper strip averages about six panels each and a daily strip has about three and a half. Even acknowledging the various ghost writers, a twenty-seven-year newspaper run meant that Harman drew approximately thirty-eight thousand separate western sketches during his career. If one adds his earlier cartoon work, oil paintings, various posters, and “chalk talks,” Har- man probably ranks as the most prolifi c western artist of all time. Harman’s career coincidentally overlapped with the emergence of the American mass media. In the early 1920s, both he and his two brothers found themselves on the ground fl oor of the fi lm animation industry. While his brothers forged successful careers in the new fi eld of “talking comics,” Fred took another route. Although he dabbled with screen animation, he felt much more at home with his fi rst love: western cartoon strips. Once syndicated, summer 2010 szasz N 209

Red Ryder and Little Beaver met great enthusiasm and acceptance from the American public. At its height in the early 1950s, the strip ran in about 750 newspapers. The readership was estimated at 40 million. Harman’s characters branched out from newspapers to other forms of popular culture, including radio, fi lm, comic books, and Whitman novels. The Big Little Books, a forerunner of the graphic novel, with pictures on one side of the page and text on the other, also reproduced stories featuring the heroic pair. Although corporate sponsorship still lay in its infancy, Red Ryder and Little Beaver eventually lent their names to more than seventy commercial products. The most famous endorsement, Daisy Manufacturing Company’s “Red Ryder BB Gun,” with the hero’s name burned into the stock, has sold over nine million units since Daisy fi rst manufactured the toy in 1938. It remains available today. Both Colorado and New Mexico enthusiastically claimed Harman as “their” resident western artist, but his reputation has largely faded from the public eye. If Americans today remember Harman at all today, they recall his cartoon fi gures Red Ryder and Little Beaver.7 Harman was born in Missouri in 1902 to a lawyer father and an upper- class mother, whose portrait had been painted by famed artist Charles Dana Gibson. When Harman was two months old, his father moved the family to Pagosa Springs, then called Fort Lewis, where he homesteaded a cattle ranch. Harman grew up there and learned to draw by copying illustrations from various ranch catalogs during the long winters. Southern Colorado remained Indian country in the early twentieth century, and young Har- man worked side-by-side on local ranches with Navajo, Ute, and, especially, Jicarilla Apache Indians, whose one million-acre reservation lay thirty-fi ve miles south of Pagosa Springs in northern New Mexico. “It was a wonder- ful country to have been a boy in,” Harman recalled in 1969. “We had the sustenance of life and wanted for very little.”8 Gifted with a natural talent, young Harman won a drawing contest when he was only six, but a stint on a Kansas City, Missouri, newspaper as a teenager introduced him to the craft of professional illustrator. Like Russell, Harman had no formal artistic training. After he studied cartooning in Kansas City, Harman teamed up with his friend Walt Disney on a couple of failed animation ventures during the early 1920s.9 Both migrated to California, but Disney achieved a fame that bypassed Harman. Returning to his Colorado ranch in the San Juan Mountains, Harman tried a number of cartoon ventures. From 1934 to 1938, he self-syndicated a single-panel western cartoon, On the Range; published a Big Little Book titled Cowboy Lingo: Boy’s Book of Western Fact 210 N new mexico historical review volume 85, number 3

(1938); and wrote and illustrated an attractive but short-lived western-themed magazine called Ride, a venture on which he “went broke.” “My fi rst attempt at a magazine,” Harman sadly noted.10 The Great Depression hit the Harman family hard. By then Harman had married his life-long rock of support, Lola Andrews, and they had one son, Fred Harman III. The ranch and his infrequent illustration work barely allowed Harman to put bread on the table. In 1934 he inaugurated Bronc Peeler, a newspaper comic strip that introduced readers to a tall, lanky, red- headed cowboy with a comic-relief sidekick named Coyote Pete. Little Beaver played a minor role in the strip, but when the sole Big Little Book version of Bronc Peeler: The Lone Cowboy (essentially reprints from the newspaper strips) appeared in 1937, Little Beaver was nowhere to be found. Well-drawn and well-plotted, Bronc Peeler developed a considerable readership in both France and Mexico but never really caught on with the American public.11 At Lola’s suggestion, Harman switched the sidekick role to Little Beaver and later changed the hero’s name to the more alliterative Red Ryder. A chance meeting with New York licensing promoter Stephen Slesinger proved fruitful. After Slesinger sold Red Ryder to the Newspaper Enterprise Associa- tion in 1938, Harman’s career blossomed, but not without cost. The comic strip/comic book industry of the late 1930s proved exceptionally callous toward relationships between artists and their promoters. Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Schuster, for example, lost the rights to Superman to their publisher DC Comics, and the same thing happened to Harman. Although Slesinger remained in the background, from 1938 onward, Red Ryder and Little Beaver always showcased “by Fred Harman” above the artist’s bold signature, but the copyright remained in Slesinger’s hands.12 Harman later boasted that his adventure strip had two unique aspects. First, he was the only western cartoonist who claimed fi rsthand experience with cowboy life. Second, Harman based all his main characters on his real- life neighbors in southern Colorado. The model for Red Ryder came from both himself (he had red hair) and a local cowboy named Bill Flaugh. Har- man derived Little Beaver from his friendship with Jicarilla Apache youth, although the strips usually depicted Little Beaver as Navajo, a tribe much better known to American audiences. For The Dutchess (Red’s “aunt” in the strip), Harman drew on Gertrude Larson, an eccentric Pagosa Springs ranch woman.13 The 1940s and 1950s found the larger-than-life western hero surging at full strength in the United States and Europe. During the 1950s, westerns summer 2010 szasz N 211 accounted for almost one-third of Hollywood’s feature fi lms.14 Tom Mix, Hopalong Cassidy (William Boyd), Lash LaRue, Tom Holt, Roy Rogers, and Gene Autry represented the most famous in a long line of Saturday-afternoon fi lm idols. In 1951 alone, Republic Pictures noted that Roy Rogers received over 250,000 fan letters in a three-month period. His horse Trigger received about 50 letters of his own.15 The ubiquitous newsstands and drugstores carried about one hundred different western comic books, bearing such titles as Blazing West, The Cisco Kid, Western Adventure Comics, Western Crime Bust- ers, Western Hero, Western Love Trails, and Western Outlaws. Indian-related comics included Straight Arrow, Red Arrow, Tomahawk, and White Eagle: Indian Chief. During this era, young people encountered the popular-culture West at literally every turn. Although Harman benefi ted from this widespread appeal, he also had to devise ways to separate his cartoon duo from the larger western herd. He did so through two primary means. First, he regularly encouraged visitors to drop by his Pagosa Springs-area ranch to watch him draw his newspaper strips. Second, Harman perfected the art of “Red Ryder” personal appearances, during which he would ride horses, chat, sketch, and sign autographs. Both the newspaper strips and his equally popular Red Ryder Comics provided excellent venues to promote these activities. From at least 1945 onward, Har- man printed photographs of his Colorado ranch inside the front or back covers of the monthly Red Ryder comic book. These images showed scenes of typical ranch life, such as herding cattle, cooking over a campfi re, and riding horses, along with ill. 1. red ryder comic stunning photographs of nearby Navajo For a quarter century, Red Ryder’s and Jicarilla country. One image even western adventures appeared in showed his wife Lola petting their tame newspaper comic strips and in a deer, which rested by her chair. long-running comic book series. Along with these folksy photos, the artist (Courtesy Ferenc M. Szasz urged young readers to send him their own Collection) 212 N new mexico historical review volume 85, number 3

pictures and cowboy drawings. Every participant received an autographed photo in return.16 Harman also encouraged various nationwide contests, whereby newspaper carriers, Boy’s Club leaders, and others could win a trip to his ranch. He made it clear that he welcomed visitors to his ranch. One photo shows a group of young boys watching Harman draw a Sunday install- ment of the strip. Only after he had retired his characters did he confess that the constant stream of onlookers, sometimes over a hundred a day, actually distracted him.17 Numerous personal appearances also went a long way toward promoting Red Ryder and Little Beaver. Other western heroes of the day (Mix, LaRue, Rogers, Holt, and Autry) all made their share of personal appearances, of course, but they more or less represented themselves. Personifying a cartoon character demanded a slightly different approach. Although Harman in the role of Red Ryder rode as Grand Marshal for the Colorado State Fair parade in 1948, he needed a more permanent venue to showcase his heroic duo. In 1949 he and Slesinger collaborated with local Colorado promoters to inaugurate the initial Red Ryder Roundup in Pagosa Springs. Given southern Colorado’s long tradition of fall roundups and traveling rodeos, the event was well received from the start. At the ﬁ ftieth anniversary of the rodeo, a local reporter claimed that the Red Ryder Roundup still ranked as “the event” for the entire area.18 Harman appeared as Red Ryder at many of these early gatherings. Red Ryder, however, needed his Native American sidekick Little Beaver. Around 1956 Harman asked his friend, Jicarilla Apache leader Leo Vicenti, if his son Troy Vicenti would be interested in playing the role. Leo and Troy agreed. Impressed with how Pa- ill. 2. red ryder comic with gosa Springs treated the two heroes, Jicarilla little beaver Apache leaders decided to begin the tribe’s Red Ryder’s Native American own rodeo, the Little Beaver Roundup, in sidekick Little Beaver (usually depicted as Navajo) saved the nearby Dulce, New Mexico. Troy appeared day in many an adventure. locally as Little Beaver from age eight until he (Courtesy Ferenc M. Szasz turned fourteen. An expert hoop dancer (he Collection) could keep twelve hoops spinning at once), summer 2010 szasz N 213

Troy helped open Albuquerque’s Indian Plaza at Indian School and Carlisle avenues in June 1961. Not only did he pose for photographers as Little Beaver, he also performed hoop dances, with Red Ryder playing drum, every hour on the hour. Later, Troy fl ew east to appear as Little Beaver on various national television variety shows. The Little Beaver Roundup continues today as a major attraction for the region, and the youth chosen to portray Little Beaver dons the role with great pride.19 Harman appeared all over the West as Red Ryder, especially at rodeos, for years. When personal appearances proved too time consuming, he encouraged New Mexico cowboy Dave Saunders to take over the role. The Harman-Saunders personal touch, aided by a number of Little Beavers, helped distinguish Harman’s cartoon duo from the competition in the crowded fi eld of popular-culture cowboys. Because the heavy snowpack in southern Colorado often hindered the timely mailing of Fred’s winter newspaper strips, the Harmans bought a home in the Ridgecrest area of Albuquerque in 1951. Realtors still refer to the dwelling as “the Red Ryder house.” It did not take long for the state to claim Harman as “New Mexico’s cowboy artist.”20 For years afterward, the Harmans usually spent their summers in Colorado and winters in New Mexico. By all accounts, Fred and Lola proved themselves model citizens for their adopted state. They served on numerous local committees, and Fred frequently donated original artwork to New Mexico charities for various fundraising auc- tions. Albuquerque city offi cials also tapped his skill to draft offi cial posters

ill. 3. post card Fred Harman in his studio at Little Beavertown. (Courtesy Ferenc M. Szasz Collection) 214 N new mexico historical review volume 85, number 3 to promote special events, such as the highly touted Albuquerque Inventors’ Institute of 1967. In addition Harman helped found the Cowboy Artists of America and the National Cartoonists Association.21 The U.S. government similarly drew on Harman’s widespread reputation. During the Second World War, “Little Beaver” bombers fl ew in the European theatre. Following the Battle of Cape St. George in November 1943 on the island of New Ireland, Papua New Guinea, a naval destroyer squadron was called the “Little Beavers” of the Pacifi c.22 Throughout the confl ict, Harman made several publicity tours to raise money for various war bond drives. Children of the era could join the Red Ryder “Victory Patrol” and receive a “secret decoder” to help foil local spies. The federal government called upon Harman’s generosity during the Cold War era as well. In 1953 the State Department asked him, along with six other newspaper cartoonists of the day, to make a grueling six-week “chalk talk” tour of U.S. military installations in Europe. The cartoonists visited hospitals, military bases, and troop encampments to talk about and sketch their characters. Afterward, they gave their drawings to soldiers. Harman once wore his cowboy gear into East Berlin, where he was met with considerable derision. Harman also made a similar government-sponsored tour of Asia as a “globe-circling ambassador of good will.”23 When he returned to Albuquerque from these excursions, he was usually exhausted. Later, the Social Security Department asked him to contribute a painting of a disabled cowboy watching a roundup to assist its disability awareness drive. The government also made a fi fteen-minute fi lm of Harman’s life to aid its promotion of social security benefi ts. Tall and somewhat gruff, yet simultaneously genial and welcoming, Har- man emerged as a prominent spokesman from Colorado/New Mexico for western popular culture. When he turned seventy-two, his Pagosa Springs friends presented him with two large wooden carvings of his famous characters.24 Eventually the Harmans moved to Phoenix, Arizona, where Fred died at age seventy-nine in 1982.25 Everywhere he went, Harman was celebrated as the creator of Red Ryder and Little Beaver.

Red Ryder and Little Beaver

As the fi rst western newspaper adventure strip to catch the public eye, Red Ryder and Little Beaver celebrated all the stereotypical western virtues of the day. Strong, honest, shy with women, relatively unsophisticated, and a seeker summer 2010 szasz N 215 of social justice, Red Ryder essentially shared the same attributes as other major cowboy heroes. The initial newspaper stories drew on familiar western plot scenarios. Red Ryder and Little Beaver became entangled with cattle rustlers; card sharks; crooked lawmen, such as Ace Hanlon; train robbers; and assorted stagecoach highwaymen, all of whom were dispatched with relative ease. Most of the early stories were well plotted and often contained considerable ambiguity. In one episode, for example, confi rmed-bachelor Red Ryder meets Rose, the beautiful sister of a villain, who initially tries to kill him but later repents (and escapes). Harman always drew the large “splash panel” Sunday depictions of stagecoaches and horses and bold vistas of the American Southwest with great empathy. Indeed, historian Maurice Horn has labeled Harman as “the pen that won the west.”26 Although Red Ryder clearly echoed other western heroes of his day, Little Beaver was cut from a different piece of cloth. Although not exactly “politi- cally correct” by today’s standards, Little Beaver and the Native American world were nevertheless portrayed with considerable understanding. Unlike contemporary fi lms, which abounded with crude stereotypes of Native Ameri- cans, newspaper strips and comic books moved at a more leisurely pace. Here cartoon artists could present Native lifestyles, foodways, and games far more sympathetically than harried screenwriters and fi lm directors. Always imbued with a strong didactic side, Harman often infused his strips and books with positive depictions of Native American lifeways. Unlike other Native comic book heroes during this era, such as Straight Arrow and Injun Jones, who were really white men in disguise, Little Beaver is clearly Native.27 In some of the early stories, he and Red even speak to each other in Navajo.28 Similar to his creator, Little Beaver dislikes school; becomes a master rider on his horse, Papoose; and meets with occasional social abuse. Although none of Red Ryder’s comments proved especially memorable, Little Beaver’s catch phrase, “You betchum, Red Ryder,” became part of the language of youth for a generation. Yet, the heart of the strip lies in the relationship between the two characters. Historians have noted that Little Beaver ranks as the fi rst authentic child sidekick in a comic strip, anticipating Batman’s Robin, Captain America’s Bucky, and Green Arrow’s Speedy by about three years. The orphaned Indian boy is adopted by Red in the fi rst episode, and he remains his loyal friend for over two decades. In an early strip that appeared in 1938, Red explains to the owner of Beth’s Café, “But I couldn’t let Ace Hanlon kick Little Beaver around, Miss Beth—he’s my pal! Ain’tcha, kid?”29 216 N new mexico historical review volume 85, number 3

Without Little Beaver, Red would have perished in the fi rst month. Plot after plot revolves around the boy’s overhearing treacherous plans laid by the villain or riding in and saving the day. In the standard western formula, the cavalry gallops in at the last minute, but in the Red Ryder stories, Little Beaver assumes that role. In one episode, Little Beaver shoots a fl aming arrow into the saddle of the villain, giving the heroine a chance to fl ee to Red’s arms.30 In another story, he stuffs grass into a stovepipe of the outlaws’ cabin, thus forcing the rascals to surrender to Red.31 Another tale has Little Beaver shooting a gun out of the villain’s hand with a well-aimed arrow. In yet another occurrence, Little Beaver throws a rope to Red who has been pitched into a raging river.32 In one fi lm version, he hides Red, who has hit his head and fallen unconscious, from the villain’s sight. And so on. Red was not unappreciative of these efforts. As the bumbling Sheriff Newt remarks after one adventure, “And so Little Beaver turned th’ trick, eh?” Red replies, “If it hadn’t been for him, I’d still be counting th’ stars!”33 Interestingly, while contemporary Native American scholars have heaped considerable scorn on the portrayal of the Lone Ranger’s Tonto, they have seldom spoken ill of Little Beaver.34 In retrospect Little Beaver’s appeal is obvious. Young readers might admire Red Ryder but they could identify with his Navajo sidekick. Little Beaver was their age and often proved a great deal wiser than adults (read: parents and teachers). Popular characters such as Red Ryder and Little Beaver could never be confi ned to one form of mass culture. From the daily newspapers, the duo quickly reached other forms of mass media, especially fi lm. Red Ryder leaped from the newspapers to the silver screen in only two years. In 1940 Republic Pictures created a serial adventure starring Donald “Red” Barry and followed with twenty-three Red Ryder B-westerns from 1944 to 1947. Child actors Robert “Bobby” Blake and Tommy Cook assumed the role of Little Beaver. Eagle- Lion Films reprised the tale with four more fi lms that played from 1949 to 1950. Given that Harman had little control over the story content, the caliber of the fi lms varied considerably. Although some critics have praised them as among the best western-themed serials of the day, others have denounced them as trite and predictable. Red Ryder and Little Beaver also reached the airwaves soon after national radio producers realized the duo’s potential audience appeal. “We never did bad business with a good Western,” recalled one early radio supervisor. “In fact we did good business with bad Westerns.”35 Beginning in 1942, half-hour Red Ryder adventure shows appeared on the Mutual Broadcasting System (MBS) or the Blue Network (later ABC) and lasted for over a decade. For summer 2010 szasz N 217

Left ill. 4. movie poster Red Ryder and Little Beaver soon leaped to the silver screen in a popular twelve- chapter serial. Donald “Red” Barry played Red and Tommy Cook starred as Little Beaver. (Courtesy Ferenc M. Szasz Collection)

Right ill. 5. movie poster The two heroes also starred in several full- length western feature films. (Courtesy Ferenc M. Szasz Collection)

Left ill. 6. robert “bobby” blake Child actor Bobby Blake appeared as Little Beaver in many of Republic Studio’s Red Ryder films. (Courtesy Ferenc M. Szasz Collection) 218 N new mexico historical review volume 85, number 3 a period of time, Red Ryder aired six days a week and commanded higher ratings than the famed Lone Ranger show.36 A number of western characters made a successful transition from radio to television, but Red Ryder and Little Beaver were not among them. Although two pilot shows were created for television in the early 1950s, the duo never reached the nation’s living rooms on the small screen. Still, the opening of the pilots proved exceptionally clever. First, a branding iron burned a double R onto a wall; then a bullet split one R and an arrow the other. Given the many writers for the fi lms, radio shows, ghost-written novels, and the Big Little Books, the Red Ryder and Little Beaver stories varied considerably in quality. Some were excellent but some were decidedly banal. In retrospect Harman’s considerable talents can best be seen in two areas: the early years of the newspaper strips and the long-running Red Ryder comic books. (The initial comic book stories often reprinted the newspaper strip adventures.) The Red Ryder comic book title lasted from 1941 to 1957, the longest continuous run of a western comic in newsstand history. A Mexican publishing company kept a Spanish-language version in print for another two decades. From 1949 to 1958, Little Beaver appeared in an eighteen-issue comic book series of his own. These ghost-written stories were mediocre at best. Left alone the two characters had little to distinguish themselves from their countless western counterparts. Instead, the success of Red Ryder and Little Beaver hinged on their deep trust and abiding loyalty to one another. Left to themselves, they were rather ordinary. The role of Little Beaver in radio and fi lm relied on the talents of numerous child actors, none of whom were Native. Only an authentic Native American, however, would do for the various southwestern rodeos, parades, and local festivals. The character was depicted as Navajo, but over the years a number of Jicarilla Apache youth took on the Little Beaver role. This as- signment proved challenging, for the boys had to be both skilled horsemen and relatively comfortable with crowds. Naturally turnover was rapid, and most of the youngsters outgrew the role after a few years. By the late 1960s, for example, Troy Vicenti, the fi rst Little Beaver, was serving his second tour in the Vietnam War.37

Personal Appearances

Although the stage life of any child actor is necessarily brief, Dave Saunders, a native of Mountainair, New Mexico, has portrayed Red Ryder for over four summer 2010 szasz N 219 decades. As a teenager, Saunders once accepted a dare to knock on Harman’s door in Albuquerque. The artist invited him in for cookies and a tour of his studio, and the two became friends. They kept in touch, and when Saunders matured, his lean, lanky frame actually resembled that of Red Ryder. Having grown up on a New Mexico ranch, Saunders knew well the western world that Harman sketched. About 1959 Harman asked Saunders if he would like to portray Red at the proposed Albuquerque Little Beavertown amusement park. “I’m not an actor, I’m just a cowboy,” Saunders protested. Harman replied, “That’s O.K. That’s what Red Ryder is.”38 Although several professional actors, including Barry, Wild Bill Elliot, and Allan Lane, had portrayed Red Ryder on screen, none made any personal appearances. Saunders, who also occasionally played Red on fi lm, proved to be cut from a different cloth. Alone among the Red Ryders, Saunders turned a brief fi lm role into a lifelong career. Indeed, he has kept Red Ryder before the public eye for almost forty-fi ve years. During this time, he has ridden in countless inaugural parades, has presided at state and county fairs, and has been a regular at both the Red Ryder Rodeo in Pagosa Springs and Little Beaver Days in Dulce. In addition Saunders once had a brief weekly radio show in Albuquerque.

ill. 7. tin sign Daisy Manufacturing Corporation still produces the Red Ryder BB Gun today. (Courtesy Ferenc M. Szasz Collection) 220 N new mexico historical review volume 85, number 3

Saunders also became an effective spokesman for the Daisy Manufactur- ing Company. In 1938 Daisy offi cials had sought a national name to brand onto their newly created BB gun. Initially inclined to hire a sports fi gure, they pulled back after a contemporary sports hero became embroiled in a scandal involving women and alcohol. As a result, Daisy signed Red Ryder, who has never embarrassed the company in any way. As early as 1941, Red Ryder ads promised to help youngsters obtain the Daisy air rifl e they wanted for Christmas. For only a stamp, Red would send them “Daisy’s copyrighted free Christmas reminder kit,” which instructed youngsters how to “put ‘Reminders’ under milk bottles, in the mail-box! On Dad’s easy chair! Mail one to Dad where he works!”39 This campaign received a major boost with the now classic television movie A Christmas Story (1983). Currently shown every holiday season, the tale celebrates the Red Ryder BB gun as the ultimate Christmas gift for boys. As an employee of Daisy during the 1960s, Saunders traveled around the region as Red Ryder to instruct youngsters on gun safety and cowboy values. Saunders took his role seriously. During the 1980s, when Red Ryder started to fade from the nation’s consciousness, Saunders developed a short program of western stories and practical advice that he introduced into the New Mexico public school system. He also created a copyrighted “Cowboy Code of Ethics,” which he printed up and distributed on his visits.40 Part of the creed reads: Be happy, joyful and live your life the very best you know how. When you work or are given chores, do all in an excellent way. Choose your friends carefully. Stay away from those who are looking for trouble. Show concern for the other fellow. Be the champion of the underdog, the oppressed, the disadvantaged. Help someone, some way, every day.41 Ever conscious that his representation of Red Ryder served as a role model, Saunders went to great lengths to set a proper example for youth. He never smoked or drank when children were present. Still, as he recalled in 1994, “Being a hero is not what it’s cracked up to be. People want to go over and hug you and it’s embarrassing.”42

Little Beavertown

Red Ryder and Little Beaver were enjoying enormous popularity in the late 1950s when Harman decided to move into yet another arena of western summer 2010 szasz N 221 popular culture: the family-oriented theme park. Teaming with Albuquerque entrepreneurs Howard Hull and Ernest Sudron, both from the local city branch of Standard Oil, Harman sank much of his fortune into purchasing a forty-four-acre parcel of land on U.S. Route 66 at the extreme eastern end of the city. Disneyland and Knott’s Berry Farm had recently opened in Cali- fornia, and the promoters obviously had them in mind as a model for New Mexico’s fi rst western-themed family-fun center. After incorporating as First American Indian Land, Inc., the trio laid plans for a gigantic three-stage building program. The fi rst would be a combination western town/Indian village; the second, a ghost mining town carved out of the north face of a nearby mountain; and the third, a waterfall and lagoon for boating. (Only the fi rst stage was completed.) The company incorporated and sold much of its stock locally. About 1 percent of the city’s population, approximately two thousand people, purchased shares of stock.43 The times seemed ripe for such a business venture. Not only was national western culture riding high, but New Mexico had just set a tourism record in 1956 when 7.6 million visitors entered the state to explore the scenic won- ders of the Land of Enchantment. The local press proudly declared 1962 as the best tourist year in the state’s fi fty-year history. The following year, Look magazine hailed New Mexico as “a tourist’s happy dream.”44 The New Mexico State Tourist Bureau, the predecessor of the New Mexico Tourism Department, bragged that the tourist appeal of the state was well ahead of New Mexico’s closest regional rival, Arizona.45 The state’s national parks (especially Carlsbad Caverns National Park), various historic sites, abundant recreation areas, and stunning climate were all major attractions. Offi cials concluded, however, that the presence of seventy thousand Native Americans living within the state served as New Mexico’s chief tourist draw. A Santa Fe New Mexican reporter noted that one did not have to speak Tanoan, Keresan, Zunian, or Athapaskan to appreciate the diversity and vitality of the state’s Native American cultures.46 Put somewhat more crudely, the Albuquerque Tribune headlined, “The Indian Means Money,” declaring that Apaches, Navajos, and Pueblos had become the state’s biggest tourist attractions.47 A fi ve-year study concluded in 1967 that tourism represented a hundred million-dollar business annually in New Mexico.48 The state government purchased advertisements in eastern publications that boasted “New Mexico—Where the Fun Never Sets.”49 In 1967 the city of Albuquerque made a concerted effort to procure an authentic Egyptian temple that had once rested by the Nile and move it to the shores of the Rio 222 N new mexico historical review volume 85, number 3

Grande.50 Although neighboring Arizona eventually succeeded in bringing over part of the London Bridge to the Colorado River, New Mexico’s exotic venture to obtain an Egyptian temple eventually came to naught. Equally enticing for Harman’s investors in the early 1960s was the fact that New Mexico contained no lasting family amusement center. Albuquerque’s modest Playland Amusement Park, located near Old Town on U.S. Route 66, featured a Ferris wheel and the body of a C-97 cargo plane but provided little competition, and the other family entertainments proved temporary. Although some enterprises, including the National Mexican Rodeo and International Horse Show, regularly fi lled Tingley Coliseum, they traveled through the region and never remained long.51 Similarly, the popular New Mexico State Fair, reopened in 1938 after a twenty-one-year absence, lasted only three weeks in the fall. Clifford and Zella Hammond’s rides and go-cart track on Lomas Boulevard might have served as a potential rival, but neighborhood opposition to their noisy operation forced the Hammonds to relocate. In 1961 the Ham- monds agreed to place their amusement park in Little Beavertown. Billed as “half Native American” and “half cowboy,” Little Beavertown opened on 15 June 1961 to gigantic crowds. The park contained something for everyone. The amusement center’s highlights featured a model train from 1865 that hauled passengers around a mile-long track, as well as a four-horse stagecoach also available for hire. Honky-tonk saloons, complete with can- can girls, hosted shows carefully timed to alternate with periodic cowboy shoot-outs on the main street. The Red Bull Saloon also contained a large amphitheatre to showcase cowboy or Indian performances. The Turquoise Indian Dance Group performed daily as well. Santo Domingo Pueblo native Ben Atencio owned the prominent Keva shops, where visitors could purchase local Indian pottery, as well as other Native arts and crafts. The Harmans also set up a studio of western art there. The Daisy Company maintained a shop where it retailed the Red Ryder BB gun, in addition to other Daisy products. An advertisement on a map of the region in 1962 proclaimed Little Beavertown as “New Mexico’s complete amusement park” and a place “where the Old West lives again.” A visiting reporter from the Denver Post, however, remained somewhat skeptical. Although the buildings were real structures, not artifi cial storefronts, she thought Little Beavertown was “about authentic as a ‘Maverick’ set.”52 Still, the crowds fi lled Little Beavertown for over a year. Saunders later recalled that his initial days there were exhausting. He appeared in a variety of roles as Red Ryder from nine o’clock in the morning to about ten o’clock at night. He performed rope tricks and told cowboy stories summer 2010 szasz N 223

ill. 8. western skies shootout A staged shoot-out (with Hollywood stunt men) at Little Beavertown. (Photograph courtesy Albuquerque Museum Photo Archives, no. 1993-34-7)

ill. 9. gun battle with crowd Dave Saunders dispatches Waco Williams, leader of The Outlaws, at Little Beavertown. Note the size of the crowd. (Photograph courtesy Albuquerque Museum Photo Archives, no. 1998-10-13) 224 N new mexico historical review volume 85, number 3

ill. 10. inside the red bull saloon Little Beavertown’s elegant Red Bull Saloon featured many performances, including local can-can girls. (Photograph courtesy Albuquerque Museum Photo Archives, no. 1998- 10-15)

ill. 11. harman art gallery and studio in little beavertown Dave Saunders and Arnold Vigil (Jicarilla Apache) with trick roper Monte Montana and Montana’s show horse, c.1962. (Photograph courtesy Albuquerque Museum Photo Archives, no. 1998-10-17) summer 2010 szasz N 225

ill. 12. monte montana, arnold vigil, and monte’s horse at the red bull saloon (Photograph courtesy Albuquerque Museum Photo Archives, no. 1998-10-16)

ill. 13. tony purley (laguna pueblo) displaying his skills as an eagle dancer Little Beavertown showcased performances from several New Mexico Indian nations. (Photograph courtesy Albuquerque Museum Photo Archives, no. 1998- 10-2) 226 N new mexico historical review volume 85, number 3 from the stage of the Red Bull Saloon, and he made himself available for various television crews shooting western commercials or documentaries. Saunders also participated in the regularly scheduled street shoot-outs. On one occasion, a psychotic “villain” loaded his pistol and ﬁ red real shells rather than the required blanks. Both Saunders and Little Beaver rode their own horses through the grounds, stopping to greet people and sign autographs along the way. Local merchants sold ﬁ ve-cent postcards of the two heroes, and both Saunders and Little Beaver autographed thousands of such items. Saunders also inscribed scores of Red Ryder BB guns. His salary was two hundred dollars a week.53

Conclusion

In spite of this promising beginning, Albuquerque’s Little Beavertown collapsed within two years. No references to it can be found in any city publications after 1964. The previous year, Cliff’s Amusement Park Rides moved to its present location on north San Mateo Avenue. The crowds simply evaporated from Little Beavertown. The fi nancial repercussions of this collapse were extensive. The Harmans were forced to sell their lovely Ridgecrest home to cover expenses, and thousands of local investors lost their shirts. Given the auspicious beginning, why did New Mexico’s half cowboy–half Indian family theme park collapse so quickly? The answer is complex. One item that cannot be listed is a lack of tourists, for the number of visitors to New Mexico increased steadily during the 1960s. In 1967 Santa Fe claimed the tourist business as the best in years.54 Several reasons account for the collapse. The most probable include a subtle shift in the national mood toward the popular-culture West; practical matters, such as ease of access to Little Beavertown as well as the quality of the western performers; and, fi nally, an overall misjudgment regarding the basic allure of New Mexico to outside visitors. By the early 1960s, the appeal of the popular-culture West had begun its long, slow decline. Ironically, the Red Ryder newspaper strips of the day (often ghost-written by now) refl ected this collapse. A sequence of newspaper strips that appeared in January 1959 featured a star-struck nurse named Bovina, who chased after all the males (including Red), and an annoying little girl, Susie-Jo, who taunted Little Beaver and threatened to give Red the mumps.55 Similarly, a Sunday sequence that ran in January and February 1960 introduced the twins, Oliver and Boliver Bingle, whose goal in life seemed to be to torment The summer 2010 szasz N 227

Dutchess.56 Gone were the stagecoach robberies, the lost gold mines, and treacherous villains like Ace Hanlon. Instead, Red Ryder newspaper strips in the late 1950s and early 1960s became virtual parodies of the western genre. Simultaneously, the cultural earthquake that characterized the decade of the 1960s diverted public attention from celebration of the heroic West to the injustices facing Native Americans and African Americans, as well as the tragic war in Southeast Asia. A new sense of social liberty (some would say hedonism) began to sweep through young people to replace the stereo- typed stoicism of “western values.” Prolifi c New Mexican author S. Omar Barker complained bitterly that he could no longer sell his western fi ction to national publications. Republic Pictures’ last singing-cowboy fi lm, The Phantom Stallion, starring Rex Allen, appeared in 1954. Roy Rogers later jested that Hollywood had begun to produce movies that he would not even allow Trigger to watch.57 The appeal of the old mythic West had started its downward slide among the American consumer. This subtle national shift in mood also merged with more practical matters. Little Beavertown began life on the heavily traveled U.S. Route 66 at the mouth of Tijeras Canyon east of Albuquerque. The arrival of Interstate 40 in 1962 made the site diffi cult to access because the highway’s exits were placed at awkward locations.58 Complaints about high parking fees, as well as high admission fees, added to the woes. These issues were complicated by legal problems regarding the sale of Little Beavertown stock in Texas, which had been prohibited by the original charter. As the mass of visitors declined, so too did the quality of the staged performances. Initially, the can-can girls were California-trained dancers and the cowboys who fell from horses and roofs were all professional Hollywood stunt men. When they departed, local amateurs rushed to fi ll their places. Albuquerque ballet studios, such as Kay Winsors, began to provide the can-can dancers, and volunteer cowboys dropped by the score in the mock shootouts. During the second summer of operation, Saunders moved to Arkansas to work for the Daisy Company, and the Apache boy playing Little Beaver had little to do but hang about. Things became “corny.”59 Faced with seemingly unsolvable dilemmas, Harman decided to pull the name “Little Beavertown” from the enterprise. Owing to Little Beaver’s considerable appeal elsewhere, Harman did not want the amusement park’s collapse to sully his other commercial ventures. By the 1960s, the list of Red Ryder/Little Beaver tie-in products included jigsaw puzzles, coloring books, toy trucks, target games, children’s suspenders, cap guns, holsters, jackknives, 228 N new mexico historical review volume 85, number 3

ill. 14. durango herald cartoon In 1963 Fred Harman “retired” his two characters to focus on western paintings. (Courtesy Durango (Colo.) Herald) wagons, wall clocks, wallets, and numerous items of children’s clothing, as well as the famed BB gun.60 With the collapse of Little Beavertown, Harman simultaneously “retired” his two characters from the newspapers in 1963. For the remainder of his life, he devoted his creative energies to painting large western scenes for the collectors’ market. With his oil paintings soon com- manding premier prices, this creative shift allowed him, in part, to recoup his ﬁ nancial losses. The sole published collection of his formal artwork, entitled The Great West in Paintings, appeared in 1969.61 Perhaps the main reason for the failure of Little Beavertown lay with the promoters’ failure to grasp the essence of New Mexico’s appeal to outside visitors. As New Mexico writer Jack Schaefer noted in an article for Holiday magazine in 1963, the attraction of the new Southwest to outsiders lay pri- marily with outdoor recreation. New Mexico, he noted, was not a place for “gambling and girlie shows as in Nevada [or the] multiplicity of Disneylands and Coney Islands and frippery-frappery amusement parks.” The state’s natural amenities—its mountains, canyons, deserts, sunsets—provided the recreational goals most desired by tourists.62 summer 2010 szasz N 229

Equally important was that New Mexico possessed a quasi-mythological western past all its own. The state’s history was fi lled with Spanish conquista- dors, brilliant Native leaders, the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, powwow celebrations, the Gallup Indian Festival, and nonconventional literary and artistic com- munities such as Taos and Santa Fe. Likewise, the New Mexico landscape boasted its own unique magic. A Santa Fe postcard boasted in 1935 that with less than half a million people in the third largest state of the union, “New Mexico is the last of the old West, as Americans with their trains, automobiles and modern buildings are found side by side with the Indians, native Mexicans and their burros, adobe houses and ancient agricultural implements.”63 In short New Mexico contained its own authentic, albeit often tragic, western past, one that remained just below the surface of everyday life in the intermingling of the famed “three cultures.” Why should visitors pay good money to watch “show Indians” or “show cowboys” when the authentic article lay only a few minutes away? The popular-culture West could only reach so far. Almost fi fty years after Little Beavertown’s collapse, New Mexico still lacks a western family-fun venue like the ones found in neighboring states such as Colorado and Texas. The subsequent history of Little Beavertown was decidedly checkered. The buildings were hauled away, and for several years, the property was rented out for teenage sock hops. Eventually, developers purchased much of the land to erect expensive homes. During the 1980s, the remaining area gained a tawdry reputation as a spot for high school students to party and drink beer. At this writing, the city of Albuquerque is attempting to purchase the remainder of Little Beavertown as part of its open-space program.64 Harman and his name fared much better than Little Beavertown. A Fred Harman Art Museum exists in Pagosa Springs to showcase his work, and his paintings command premium prices worldwide. A recent discovery of eighty- seven original Harman sketches, including what was likely the fi rst drawing of Little Beaver, was termed “the biggest art fi nd in the history of American West art history.”65 Although Harman’s oil paintings remain in demand, the reputation of his two famous characters has dimmed with each generation. In 1998 New Mexico State Fair offi cers stopped Saunders, in full performing costume, to ask why he was carrying an unloaded six shooter. Saunders replied that he was Red Ryder “but they didn’t know who Red Ryder was.”66 Today, the legacy is considerably limited. Daisy Corporation continues to produce Red Ryder BB guns and, in 1998, issued commemorative coins to celebrate their 230 N new mexico historical review volume 85, number 3

ill. 15. modern little beaver rodeo, dulce, new mexico, 2004 (Photograph courtesy Dave Saunders)

ﬁ fty-year connection. Pagosa Springs still relishes its Red Ryder Rodeo, the Jicarilla Apache Nation continues to host its popular Little Beaver Days, and Saunders regularly promotes cowboy values in his various appearances as Red Ryder throughout the area. In 2008 he even carried the theme of the cowboy to the Republic of Turkmenistan in Central Asia. The audiences for these modern presentations, however, are a far cry from the estimated forty million national readers of the newspaper adventure strip during the 1950s. The saga of Red Ryder and Little Beaver, along with Little Beavertown, rose and fell in two generations.

Notes

1. Richard White, “When Frederick Jackson Turner and Buffalo Bill Both Played Chi- cago in 1893,” in Frontier and Region: Essays in Honor of Martin Ridge, ed. Robert C. Ritchie and Paul Andrew Hutton (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press in conjunction with the Huntington Library Press, 1997), 201–12. The literature on the popular West is extensive. The best studies include Richard W. Etulain, Beyond the Missouri: The Story of the American West (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2006); William H. Goetzmann and William N. Goetzmann, The West of the Imagination (New York: W. W. Norton, 1986); Stephen Tatum, Inventing Billy the Kid: summer 2010 szasz N 231

Visions of the Outlaw in America, 1881–1981 (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1982); Christine Bold, “Malaeska’s Revenge; or, the Dime Novel Tradition in Popular Fiction,” in Wanted Dead or Alive: The American West in Popular Culture, ed. Richard Aguila (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1996), 36–37; Richard W. Slatta, The Mythical West: An Encyclopedia of Legend, Lore, and Popular Culture (Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO, 2001); and Richard Slotkin, Gunﬁ ghter Nation: The Myth of the Frontier in Twentieth-Century America (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1998). 2. For Hollywood westerns, see Paul Andrew Hutton, “Silver Screen Desperado: Billy the Kid in the Movies,” New Mexico Historical Review 82 (spring 2007): 149–96; Bob Herzberg, Savages and Saints: The Changing Image of American Indians in Westerns (Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland and Company, 2008); Robert Sklar, Movie- Made America: A Cultural History of American Movies, rev. ed. (New York: Vintage Books, 1994); Edward Buscombe, ed., The BFI Companion to the Western (New York: Atheneum, 1988); Richard W. Etulain and Glenda Riley, eds., The Hollywood West: Lives of Film Legends Who Shaped It (Golden, Colo.: Fulcrum Publishing, 2001); Boyd Magers and Michael G. Fitzgerald, Westerns Women: Interviews with 50 Leading Ladies of Movie and Television Westerns from the 1930s to the 1960s (Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland and Company, 1999); Boyd Magers, Gene Autry Westerns (Madison, N.C.: Empire Publishing, 2007); and Western Movie Hero, 2000. 3. No full-length biography of Fred Harman Jr. exists. Articles about Harman and his work include Walter Briggs, “Fred Harman: Painter of the Old West,” New Mexico Magazine, February 1969, pp. 33–37; and Brenda Dunagan, “Little Beaver Rydes Again,” Accent Magazine, August 2008, pp. 8–10, 12–15. Fred Harman III manages the Fred Harman Art Museum in Pagosa Springs, Colorado. 4. Roy Starling, “Couple Hits Jackpot with Harman Sketches,” Pagosa Springs (Colo.) Sun, 1 July 1999. 5. As historians Brian W. Dippie and Raphael James Cristy have shown, Russell pro- duced literally hundreds of western images, ranging from the majestic painting, Lewis and Clark Meeting Indians at Ross’ Hole, which now graces the Montana state house in Helena, to the tossed-off sketches that he sometimes added to his correspondence. He also provided a number of illustrations for various humorous stories that he wrote. Brian W. Dippie, Remington and Russell: The Sid Richardson Collection (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1982); Raphael James Cristy, Charles M. Russell: The Storyteller’s Art (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1995), 97–130; and Charles M. Russell, Trails Plowed Under (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1927). 6. Maurice Horn, Comics of the American West (South Hackensack, N.J.: Stoeger Publishing Company, 1977), 70–72. See also Paul Andrew Hutton, “True Comics: Western History . . . with Balloons,” True West, November-December 2007, pp. 30–40. 7. Historian Richard Slotkin, for example, fails to mention Harman in his 850-page study, Gunﬁ ghter Nation. 8. Fred Harman, “New Tracks in Old Trails,” True West, September-October 1968, pp. 1–23, 57–61; Stan Lynde, “The Western Art of Fred Harman,” Nemo, August 1983, 232 N new mexico historical review volume 85, number 3

pp. 53–59. The quotation comes from Dean Krakel, introduction to The Great West in Paintings, by Fred Harman (Chicago: Swallow Press, 1969), v. 9. Fred Harman III, interview by author, 1 September 2008, Pagosa Springs, Colorado. 10. Copy of Ride magazine from December 1937 with Harman comments on front cover, Harman Vertical Files, Albuquerque Genealogical Library, Albuquerque, New Mexico; and Fred Harman, Cowboy Lingo: Boy’s Book of Western Fact (Racine, Wisc.: Whitman Publishing Company, 1938). 11. Fred Harman III, interview. 12. For the story of this combative, cutthroat publishing world, see Gerard Jones, Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters, and the Birth of the Comic Book (New York: Basic Books, 2004); and Bradford W. Wright, Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001). Fred Harman III, interview; and Dave Saunders, interview by author, 20 August 2008, Albuquerque, New Mexico. After Jerry Siegel and Joe Schuster won their lengthy law suit against DC Comics on this issue in the 1990s, Harman’s son Fred considered similar legal action but decided against it. 13. James Poling, “Ryder of the Comic Page,” Collier’s, 14 August 1948, pp. 16–17, 77. 14. See Hutton, “Silver Screen Desperado,” 178; Roy Rogers and the Silver Screen Cow- boy (Longwood, Fla.: AC Comics/Paragon Publications, 1997); Roy Rogers Western (Longwood, Fla.: AC Comics/Paragon Publications, 1998); and Roy Rogers Western 3 (Longwood, Fla.: AC Comics/Paragon Publications, 1999). 15. Roy Rogers Western (Longwood, Fla.: AC Comics/Paragon Publications, 1999), 21. 16. Red Ryder Ranch Magazine, January–March 1956. Other representative examples include Red Ryder Comics, October 1946; and Red Ryder Comics, September 1948. 17. Harman, “New Tracks in Old Trails,” pp. 1–22, 57–61. 18. Advertisement for the Red Ryder Roundup, www.harmanartmuseum.com/events. htm; and John M. Motter, “Rodeos Big Part of Pagosa History,” http://www.pagosasun. com/Archives/jul199.htm. 19. Ollie Reed, “Fortuitous Arrow,” Albuquerque (N.Mex.) Tribune, 29 July 1999. 20. Santa Fe New Mexican, 5 February 1956. 21. Krakel, introduction to The Great West in Paintings, iv. 22. For a brief history of the “Little Beavers” destroyer squadron, see www.globalsecurity. org/military/agency/navy/desron23.htm. 23. Santa Fe New Mexican, 5 February 1956. 24. Lynn B. Villella, “A Birthday Party: Fred Harmon [sic] ‘Fan Club’ Gathers in Pagosa to Toast Cowboy Artist,” Albuquerque (N.Mex.) Tribune, 14 February 1974, p. B-1. 25. “Former Albuquerque Resident: Creator of ‘Red Ryder’ Dies at 79 in Phoenix,” Albuquerque (N.Mex.) Journal, 3 January 1982, p. A-8. 26. Horn, Comics of the American West, 39. 27. For these “white Indians,” see Straight Arrow, August 1950; and Blazing West, November-December 1948. 28. Red Ryder Sunday, 1 July 1945. 29. Red Ryder and Little Beaver, Sunday strip, 4 December 1938. 30. Red Ryder Comics, October 1954. summer 2010 szasz N 233

31. Red Ryder Comics, July 1948. 32. Red Ryder Comics, July–September 1955. 33. Red Ryder Comics, September 1948. 34. Sherman Alexie, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistﬁ ght in Heaven (New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1993). The lone exception is Michael A. Sheyahshe, who is extremely critical of Harman’s portrayal of Little Beaver. Michael A. Sheyahshe, Native Ameri- cans in Comic Books: A Critical Study (Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland and Company, 2008). 35. Anthony Tollin, “Old-Time Radio Famous Westerns,” booklet 1, Old-Time Radio Famous Westerns, 10 compact discs, Smithsonian Collection (New York: Radio Spirits, 2001). 36. Ibid., 24. 37. Saunders, interview, 20 August 2008. 38. Dolly Summer, “Call of the Cowboy,” Albuquerque (N.Mex.) Journal, 28 September 2001; and Ollie Reed, “Cowboy Revives Red Ryder,” Albuquerque (N.Mex.) Tribune, 18 May 2007. 39. Daisy Manufacturing Company advertisement, back cover of Daredevil, July 1941. 40. For other cowboy code of ethics, see Ernest Morris, Vaquero Enterprises, “The Cowboy Code,” http://www.elvaquero.com/The_Cowboy_Code.htm. 41. Dave Saunders, “Cowboy Code of Ethics,” in author’s possession. 42. Dave Saunders, quoted in Slim Randles, “Red Ryder Cowboy Still Rides High,” Albuquerque (N.Mex.) Journal, 30 August 1994. 43. Vern Rogers, “Little Beaver Town,” New Mexico Magazine, April 1962, pp. 29–31, 35. 44. Albuquerque (N.Mex.) Tribune, 13 September 1956; Albuquerque (N.Mex.) Tribune, 30 September 1962; and Albuquerque (N.Mex.) Journal, 23 September 1963. 45. Albuquerque (N.Mex.) Journal, 13 September 1956. 46. “Vacation in Northern New Mexico the Real Land of Enchantment,” special travel edition, Santa Fe New Mexican, 28 May 1969. 47. Robert E. Huber, “The Indian Means Money,” Albuquerque (N.Mex.) Tribune, 8 April 1965, p. B-12. For the story of tourism in the Southwest, see Earl Pomeroy, In Search of the Golden West: The Tourist in Western America, 2d ed. (Lincoln: University of Ne- braska Press, 2010); Hal K. Rothman, The Culture of Tourism, The Tourism of Culture: Selling the Past to the Present in the American Southwest (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press in cooperation with the Clements Center for Southwest Studies at Southern Methodist University, 2003); Hal K. Rothman, Devil’s Bargains: Tourism in the Twentieth Century American West, Development of Western Resources series (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1998); and Marta Weigle and Peter White, The Lore of New Mexico, Publications of the American Folklore Society (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1988). 48. “N.M. Tourist Industry Labeled $100 Million Business Venture,” Albuquerque (N.Mex.) Journal, 12 November 1967, p. D-2. 49. “‘Fun Never Sets’ Parade Magazine to Carry New Type New Mexico Ad,” Albuquerque (N.Mex.) Journal, 20 March 1968, p. C-4. 50. Margie Taylor, “Our Bid Is on Its Way for Nile,” Albuquerque (N.Mex.) Tribune, 13 January 1967, p. C-6. 234 N new mexico historical review volume 85, number 3

51. “National Mexico Rodeo Opens Here Saturday,” Albuquerque (N.Mex.) Journal, 26 September 1968. 52. Phyllis Nibling, “New Mexico Enjoys a Quiet Boom,” Denver (Colo.) Post, 1962, Tourism Vertical Files, Albuquerque Public Library, New Mexico. 53. Dave Saunders, interview by author, 25 April 2007, Albuquerque, New Mexico; and Saunders, interview, 20 August 2008. 54. “Albuquerque Is a City of Sheer Beauty Oakland Columnist Says,” Albuquerque (N.Mex.) Tribune, 23 October 1967. 55. Sequence of newspaper strips, January 1959. 56. Sequence of newspaper strips, 16 January–6 February 1960. 57. Roy Rogers Western 1 (Longwood, Fla.: AC Comics/Paragon Publications, 1998). 58. Mary Marcilla, “Little Beavertown,” Accent Albuquerque Magazine, August 2004, http://www.codywells.com/canyonrun/canyonrun/BEAVERTOWN.html. 59. Linda Hays, telephone interview by author, 17 May 2007, Albuquerque, New Mexico. 60. Saunders, interview, 25 April 2007. 61. Fred Harman, The Great West in Paintings (Chicago: Swallow Press, 1969). 62. Jack Schaefer, “The New Southwest,” Holiday, May 1963, p. 57. 63. Santa Fe, New Mexico, postcard, 1935. 64. Jonathan Rath, interview by author, 2 July 2007, Albuquerque, New Mexico. 65. Starling, “Couple Hits Jackpot with Harman Sketches.” 66. Ollie Reed, “Good Guys Do Finish First: Fair Allows Red Ryder to Keep His Six Shooter,” Albuquerque (N.Mex.) Tribune, 13 October 1998.