العربية
中国
Français
Deutsch
Ελληνική
हिन्दी
Italiano
日本語
Português
Русский
EspañolEARL W. BASCOM
'Earl W. Bascom' (June 19, 1906 - August 28, 1995) was an American painter, printmaker and sculptor, raised in Canada, who portrayed his own experiences cowboying and rodeoing across the American and Canadian West.
Childhood
Earl Bascom was born in a sod-roofed log cabin on the Bascom 101 Ranch in Vernal, Utah. His father, John W. Bascom, had been a deputy sheriff in Utah who chased Butch Cassidy and the Wild Bunch Gang. Both sets of Earl's grandparents (Joel A. Bascom and C.F.B. Lybbert) were Mormon pioneers,[1] ranchers and frontier lawmen.
Earl Bascom's paternal ancestral background was a colorful aray of nationalities and ethnicities including Quaker, French Basque and Huguenot, as well as an American Colonial Governor, John Webster, and a Revolutionary War soldier, Oliver Greene.[2] His maternal family was of Norwegian, Danish, Dutch and German ancestry.[3] As a child growing up, he was sometimes affectionately addressed by his British-born aunts as "Lord Bascom - King of the Canadian Cowboys," as he was a descendant of European royalty back to Charlemagne.
While Bascom was still a child his family moved to the Bascom Bar-B-3 Ranch in Alberta, Canada. He quit school while in grade three to work on the Hyssop 5H Ranch. Although he was soon marched back to school by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Earl was reprieved to get the job of driving an old stagecoach each day to the surrounding ranches transporting fellow students to and from school.[4]
Cowboy
Earl Bascom was known as the ''Cowboy of Cowboy Artists'' due to his wide range of western experiences as a professional bronc buster, cowpuncher, trail driver, blacksmith, freighter, wolf hunter, wild horse chaser, rodeo champion, cattle rancher, dude wrangler, and Hollywood actor.[5] Bascom was among the last of those who experienced the Old West before the end of free-range ranching. Bascom reminisced:
Professional Cowboy
For Earl Bascom, ranch life and cowboy life was his life. "The life of a cowboy and the West, I know," he stated.[6] Bascom worked on some of the largest horse and cattle ranches in the United States and Canada — ranches that ran thousands of cattle on a million acres (4000 km²) of land. He broke and trained hundreds of horses. He worked on ranches where he chased and gathered horses, cows and even donkeys in Utah, Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, Mississippi, Washington, California and Canada. He worked on cattle drives out of the Rockies and horse drives through the Teton Range. He took part on large roundups of horses and cattle, and brandings. He made saddles and stirrups, quirts, chaps, spurs, bridles and bits, ropes and hackamores, and even patched his own boots.[7] Earl's father, John W. Bascom, and Earl's brothers were all experienced ranch cowboys.
Rodeo Rider
A professional rodeo cowboy, Earl Bascom rodeoed from 1916 to 1940 in the rough stock events of saddle bronc riding, bareback riding and bull riding, and in the timed events of steer decorating and steer wrestling.[8] He also performed trick riding.[9] He held memberships in the Cowboys Turtle Association, the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association, the Canadian Rodeo Cowboys Association (now the Canadian Pro Rodeo Association) and the National Police Rodeo Association. An all-around rodeo champion, he has been inducted into several rodeo Halls of Fame in Canada and the United States. He received international acclaim for his rodeo equipment inventions and designs.[10] Earl's brothers - Raymond "Tommy" Bascom, Melvin "High Pockets" Bascom and Weldon "Preacher" Bascom - were also professional rodeo cowboys and Hall of Fame inductees.
Mississippi Rodeo
During his college years, Earl and his brother Weldon produced the first rodeos in Columbia, Mississippi in 1935, 1936 and 1937 while working for Sam Hickman's B Bar H Ranch near Arm, Mississippi. Hickman financed these rodeos.
Marriage
In 1939, Earl married Nadine Diffey, who was part Creek and Catawba. He met her in Mississippi while cowboying and rodeoing there. They were married in Salt Lake City, Utah and raised five children. Later in life, Nadine Bascom became a sculptor in her own right, creating bas-relief sculptures.
Rodeo Clown
Besides being a serious-minded rodeo contestant, Earl tried his hand as a rodeo clown and rodeo bullfighter during his rodeo career. Just after his 89th birthday, Earl was honored as the oldest living rodeo clown in the world.[11]
Artist
Jim Thorpe's Influence
While working for the Nilsson Rafter-E-N Ranch, Earl happened to read a story in a western magazine about Native American Jim Thorpe. Thorpe had been working as a horse wrangler, but got fired. The camp cook gave him some advice - go to school. Thorpe took that advice, went to school, excelled in sports and became an Olympic champion.
Jim Thorpe’s life touched Earl Bascom’s. "I felt like I had walked in his boots," Earl said. "Like Jim Thorpe, cowboy life was the only life that I knew. But what about my art, what about art school?"[12]
Russell and Remington's influence
Wanting to be an artist since childhood, Earl Bascom filled the pages of his school books in the one-room school house he attended with cowboy scenes. Earl Bascom’s desire to be a cowboy artist was greatly enhanced after seeing art works of the two great icons of Old West art, Charles M. Russell and Frederic S. Remington - both cousins to Earl’s father (Remington and Russell were both related to Bascom through their mothers, Clarissa Bascom Sackrider Remington and Mary Elizabeth Mead Russell, respectively). Charles Russell was on the Knight Ranch when Earl was working there, and had drawn a sketch on the bunkhouse wall and also finished a large oil painting of Raymond Knight on his favorite mount, Blue Bird, roping a steer.[13]
Earl only completed one full year of school and never finished high school, but he never lost his desire to be an artist. He subscribed to a correspondence art course wherein both Russell and Remington gave instructions on their drawing techniques. "Through those art lessons these two masters of western art were my first real art teachers," Earl recalled. "In fact the only instructions I ever had in western art were from Remington and Russell."[14]
College Art Training
Even though he had no high school diploma, the Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah accepted him as a student in the fall of 1933. “There I was a 27 years old college freshman who hadn’t been to school in years,” Earl recalled. “I felt like a wild horse in a pen.”[15] But his persistence was tough, taking every art course the college offered. He studied painting and drawing under professors E.H. Eastmond and B.F. Larsen, and sculpture under Torlief Knaphus. Earl graduated from B.Y.U. in 1940. Later he attended classes at Long Beach City College, Victor Valley College and the University of California Riverside.
Hollywood
In 1917, Earl saw his first Hollywood movie "The Silent Man" with William S. Hart. Earl and his older brother Melvin were extras in a silent movie in 1920 being filmed in Lethbridge, Alberta. In 1924, a team of palomino horses from the Bascom Ranch was used by Hoot Gibson in the movie "The Calgary Stampede." After graduating from college, Earl and his wife moved to California. Retiring from rodeo, he pursued his art career and ranched. He worked a bit in the movie industry with his brother Weldon Bascom in the Hollywood western, "The Lawless Rider", starring Weldon's wife Texas Rose Bascom.[16] Later Earl and his son-in-law Mel Marion did TV commercials with Roy Rogers for the Roy Rogers Restaurant chain. Earl and his son John Bascom were in the documentary "Take Willy With You" about the rodeo riding Greenough family. When the Roy Rogers Riding Stables opened up in Apple Valley, California, Earl and his son John worked there wrangling horses and driving the hay wagon.
Art teacher
In 1966, after getting his teaching certificate, Earl taught art classes at John F. Kennedy High School and at Barstow High School. He also served as president of the High Desert Artists, and later as president of the Buckaroo Artists of America. Among his art associates were Bill Bender, Charles LaMonk. Leslie B. DeMille, Glen Turner and Cecil Smith.
International Artist
Earl Bascom became internationally known as a cowboy artist and sculptor. His art has been exhibited in the United States, Canada and Europe. He was honored by the Professional Rodeo Cowboy Artists Association as the first rodeo cowboy to become a professional cowboy artist and sculptor. He was the first cowboy artist to be honored as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts of London. In the summer of 2005, the Earl W. Bascom Memorial Rodeo was held in Berlin, Germany where his cowboy art was exhibited as an honor by the European Rodeo Cowboys Association for Bascom's world-wide influence upon the sport of rodeo.
Later Years
Always one who had deep thoughts and religious leanings, Earl Bascom was ordained a Latter-day Saint Bishop later in life. As the late cowboy celebrity Roy Rogers, who worked with Earl Bascom in TV commercials and was a collector of Bascom art, once said, “Earl Bascom is a walking book of history. His knowledge of the Old West was acquired the old fashioned way – he was born and raised in it.”[17]
Bascom died at the age of 89 on his ranch in Victorville, California, August 28, 1995.
Lists
Rodeo Championships
★ 1930 3-Bar Ranch Stampede, All-Around Champion, Saskatchewan
★ 1933 Calgary Stampede, Reserve Champion, Steer Decorating, North American Championship, Calgary, Alberta
★ 1933 Lethbridge Stampede, World Record time, Steer Decorating, Alberta
★ 1933 Lethbridge Stampede and Raymond Stampede, Arena Record time, Steer Decorating, Alberta
★ 1933 Championship of the World, Third Place in Steer Decorating, Rodeo Association of America
★ 1934 Lethbridge Stampede, Bareback and All-Around Champion, Alberta
★ 1935 Raymond Stampede, Saddle Bronc, Steer Decorating and All-Around Champion, Alberta
★ 1936 Nephi Stampede, All-Around Champion, Utah
★ 1937 Pocatello Rodeo, Saddle Bronc, Bareback, Bull Riding and All-Around Champion, Idaho
★ 1938 Rigby Rodeo, Bareback and All-Around Champion, Idaho
★ 1939 Portland Rodeo, Bareback, Bull Riding and All-Around Champion, Oregon
★ 1940 Raymond Stampede, Saddle Bronc, Bareback and All-Around Champion, Alberta
Honorary Titles
★ Grand Marshal, Cardston, Alberta, 1982
★ Grand Marshal, Raymond, Alberta, 1984
★ Grand Marshal, Columbia, Mississippi, 1985
★ Grand Marshal, Vernal, Utah, 1989
★ Grand Marshal, Hesperia, California, 1997
Tributes
★ Congressional Record July 9, 1985, "Earl Bascom - An American Hero"
★ Bascom Brothers - 50 Year Anniversary Rodeo, Columbia, Mississippi 1985
★ Earl W. Bascom Award 1999, Marion County Cattlemen's Association Rodeo, Mississippi
★ Earl W. Bascom Memorial Rodeo 2005, Berlin, Germany
★ Earl Bascom All-Around Champion Award, Dillon Rodeo, Montana
★ Earl W. Bascom All-Around Champion Award, Hesperia Rodeo, California
★ Earl W. Bascom Bareback Champion Award, Dinosaur Roundup Rodeo, Vernal, Utah
★ Earl W. Bascom - Utah Heritage Award, Days of '47 Rodeo, Salt Lake City, Utah
★ Earl W. Bascom - Lethbridge Heritage Award, Whoop-Up Days Pro Rodeo, Lethbridge, Alberta
★ Earl Bascom Saddle Bronc Rookie Award, National High School Finals Rodeo
★ Earl Bascom Bareback Rookie Award, National High School Finals Rodeo
Legacy
★ Honored for the development of the first side-delivery rodeo chute
★ Honored as the designer and maker of rodeo's first hornless bronc saddle
★ Honored as the designer and maker of rodeo's first one-hand bareback rigging
★ Honored for producing the first outdoor night rodeo held under electric lights
★ Honored for pioneering the sport of rodeo in Mississippi
★ Honored as the designer and supervisor of construction of Mississippi's first permanent rodeo arena and grandstands
★ Honored as the first collegiate rodeo cowboy to graduate from Brigham Young University
★ Honored as the world's oldest living rodeo clown in 1995
★ Honored as a rodeo pioneer by Paul Harvey News
★ Honored as the first rodeo cowboy to become a professional artist and sculptor by the Professional Rodeo Cowboy Artists of America
★ Honored for world-wide influence on the sport of rodeo by the European Rodeo Cowboy Association
★ Honored as rodeo's greatest innovator by Canadian Cowboy Country magazine
★ Honored as one of the world's most famous excogitators and inventors of all time
★ Honored as Father of Modern Rodeo in documentary by Cowboy Country Television
★ Honored as rodeo pioneer, inventor and artist by National Public Radio "Word for the Wise"
Hall of Fame Honors
★ Canadian Rodeo Hall of Fame
★ Utah Sports Hall of Fame
★ Raymond Alberta Sports Hall of Fame
★ Marion County Mississippi Cattleman's Hall of Fame
★ Cowboy Memorial Museum
★ United States Sports Academy Walk of Fame
★ Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, London
★ California Rodeo Hall of Fame
Rodeo Innovations
Earl Bascom is known as an innovator and designer of rodeo equipment and rodeo gear. His inventions include:
★ first side-delivery bucking chute (1916) at Welling, Alberta (assisted by brothers Raymond, Melvin and father John W. Bascom)
★ first reverse-opening side-delivery bucking chute (1919) at Lethbridge, Alberta (assisted by his father John W. Bascom)
★ first hornless bronc saddle (1922) at Lethbridge, Alberta
★ first one-hand bareback rigging (1924) at Stirling, Alberta
★ first high-cut rodeo chaps (1926) at Raymond, Alberta
★ rodeo exerciser (1928) at Raymond, Alberta
★ first night rodeo held outdoors under electric lights (September 24, 1935), at Columbia, Mississippi
★ first permanent rodeo arena with bucking chutes and grandstands in the state of Mississippi (1936) at Columbia, Mississippi
Rodeo family
Earl Bascom's rodeo relatives:
★ John W. Bascom - rodeo stock contractor
★ Raymond "Tom" Bascom - calf roper, Roman racer, rodeo pickup man, rodeo arena director, 1990 Hall of Fame inductee
★ Melvin Bascom - rodeo champion, rodeo stock contractor, rodeo producer, 1989 Hall of Fame inductee
★ Weldon Bascom - rodeo champion, rodeo producer, 1988 Hall of Fame inductee
★ Texas Rose Bascom - trick rider, trick roper, 1981 National Cowgirl Hall of Fame inductee
★ Ron Bascom - 1989 Canadian Senior Pro Rodeo Bull Riding Champion
★ Chris Lybbert - 1982 All-Around Champion of the World, 1986 World Champion Calf Roper, 1982 Hall of Fame inductee
★ Sheri Saville - barrel racer, first Rodeo Queen of Alberta 1980, rodeo's first female pickupman
★ Deedra Lybbert - barrel racer, 1992 Miss Rodeo Canada
Family of famous inventors
Earl Bascom is related by family bloodlines to other notable inventors:
★ Sam Morse - invented the telegraph
★ Eli Whitney - invented the cotton gin in 1793
★ Robert Ingersoll - "Dollar Watch" founding company of Timex
★ Daniel French - steamboat engine inventor, first steamboat to travel up the Mississippi
★ Samuel Morey - invented internal combustion engine
★ The Wright Brothers - airplane inventors
★ Fred Tone - automobile designer of the American Underslung, revolutionizing auto suspension
★ Philo Farnsworth - inventor of television
★ Buckminster Fuller - inventor of the geodesic dome
Family of Artists
Famous artists related by family bloodline to Earl Bascom include:
★ Andrew Jackson Bascom - New England portrait miniaturist
★ Ruth H. Bascom - primitive portraitist
★ George Catlin - portrait painter of Native Americans
★ Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec - post-impressionist painter
★ Daniel Chester French - sculptor of The Minute Man sculpture in Concord, Massachusetts, and the Abraham Lincoln Memorial
★ Frederick Law Olmsted - father of American landscape architecture, designer of Central Park in New York City
★ Samuel F. B. Morse - portrait artist, founder of National Academy of Design, inventor of Morse code
★ Henry Inman - American portrait and landscape painter, first vice-president of the National Academy of Design
★ Dr. Brewster Higley - author of the song "Home on the Range" in 1872
★ Robert Lee Frost - poet, Pulitzer prize recipient
★ Frederic S. Remington - western artist and sculptor
★ Charles M. Russell - cowboy artist
★ Charles Greene and Henry Greene - architects and designers with firm of Greene and Greene
★ Walt Disney - artist, cartoonist
★ Joyce Crowley - design artist for Hallmark Cards and American Greetings
Footnotes
1. List of Mormon pioneers
2. "Earl's ancestors Herodius Long was a Quaker, Gilbertus Bask'omme was a French Basque nobleman and Robert Bascom was a Huguenot"
3. "Earl's maternal grandmother, Antonette Marie Olsen Lybbert, was from Oslo, Norway; his maternal grandfather, C.F.B. Lybbert, was from Flade, Denmark but was of German, Prussian and Dutch ancestry"
4. "Earl's father got the contract to drive the school district's coach wagon using a team of horses from the Bascom Ranch"
5. Roundup Magazine "Rodeo Champion - Cowboy Artist Earl W. Bascom" (December 1995, Volume III Number 2)
6. Alberta Beef "Cowboy Artist, Earl W. Bascom" (October 1995, page 30)
7. Buckle News "Rodeo Champion - Cowboy Artist, Earl W. Bascom, Rides into Sunset" (November 1995, pages 6 and 7)
8. ProRodeo Sports News "Bascom dies at 89" (September 13, 1995)
9. Smith, Norma, editor, ''Our Town 2002: Raymond Stampede Centennial'' (Raymond Historical Society, page 53) ISBN 0-9685225-4-8 "Earl and Weldon learned trick riding from their boyhood friend and world champion trick rider Ted Elder who gave one of his extra trick saddles to them to perform on."
10. "Bascom's influence on European rodeo is acknowledged by the European Rodeo Cowboys Association"
11. Vernal Express (August 30, 1995 "World's oldest living rodeo clown and bullfighter dies"
12. United Lumbee Nation Times, ibid.
13. "The bridle headstall shown on C. M. Russell's depiction of the horse, Blue Bird, was the same one that Raymond Knight gave to Earl as payment for breaking a horse for him"
14. United Lumbee Nation Times, ibid.
15. ibid
16. "Texas Rose Bascom"
17. Johnston, Ron (2007). ''Famous Mormons, Interesting Profiles of Well-known Latter-day Saints'' (Spring Creek, pages 13-14). ISBN 978-1-932898-57-6
External links
★ Bascom Web Portal
★ Bascom's rodeo innovations
★ Congressional tribute to Earl Bascom
★ European rodeo tribute to Earl Bascom
This article provided by Wikipedia. To edit the contents of this article, click here for original source.
psst.. try this: add to faves
Featured Companies
| Great Time Travel | |
| Sheraton Vancouver Airport Hotel | |
| Optimum 1 Travel | |
| Aquaworld Cancun |
