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.Raymond, Alberta, for example, claims that a stampede held on its main street in 1901 or 1902 was the first formal rodeo5in Canada.While such events drew upon regional ranching traditions, thepopularity of cowboy sports was stimulated in a major way by other elementsas well, especially commercial Wild West shows.The most famous of thesewere mounted by Buffalo Bill Cody beginning in 1882.When Cody gaveup the business at the turn of the century, his imitators had made Wild Westshows generic events, with troupes of actors travelling the continent puttingon performances.Popular shows in Alberta included the Miller BrothersWild West Show that brought riding and roping acts and dramatizations ofthe Old West to Calgary in 1908 and the Oklahoma Wild West Show thatvisited Red Deer in 1913.Travelling vaudeville shows also often included6fancy roping, horse tricks, or other cowboy features.Such shows doubtlessstimulated popular interest in rodeo and helped legitimize local contests asfashionable and attractive mass entertainment.Even so, the occasional lapse into vulgarity at these events confirmed aview that they were only marginally respectable.Respectability was a vaguebut powerful concept that shaped sporting life and reflected a complex mixof gendered and class attitudes about character, physical hardiness, social7responsibility, and self-control.When animals were involved in sport, thepicture was further complicated by notions about the proper relationshipbetween people and animals.An alleged bucking contest in the [town]square in Fort Macleod in 1911, for example, prompted the local newspaperto argue that when unwilling beasts have to be goaded and frightened intoaction, and are ridden about with blood from the spurs dripping from theirflanks, the whole outfit responsible for the show should be hauled up forcruelty to animals. The days of the Wild West are past, said the editor,8 and the bucking contest is a relic of barbarism. Much the same reactionarose relative to the cowboy sports, probably put on by travelling show-men, in Victoria Park (the site of the annual Calgary agricultural exhibition) 26 MAKING TRADITION: THE CALGARY STAMPEDE, 1912 1939in 1905.About a thousand spectators showed up, a significant number fora city with a population of around ten thousand, but the occasion was notwithout controversy and elicited a demand that cowboy sports conform tothe etiquette and definitions of respectability acceptable to the community sleaders.An event in which a huge cowboy grabs a steer by the nose with histeeth and throws the animal to the ground drew particular outrage fromthe pulpit and the Calgary Herald.Indeed, the Herald reported that thisspectacle had been seen previously and had aroused widespread feelings of disgust. This negative reaction, noted the Herald, was to the credit of theCalgary public, for clean sports are liberally patronized in Calgary andthe city had no room for offensive displays. Local colour can be introducedinto these cowboy exhibitions without this sort of thing, warned the Herald,and when a man is permitted to make an exhibition of this character in the9presence of women and children, the finer sensibilities are outraged. Suchdevotion to clean sports clearly trumped the value of local colour, whichseems to have been acceptable as a memento of place and historical moment,but not as a basis for civic life.Indeed, the episode demonstrated local deter-mination to discard the uncouthness of the frontier, to prove that Calgarywas a respectable town.It may have been new, but it had standards of socialtaste and civic life as high as those of more developed parts of Canada.Interwoven into such concerns was a commonly expressed fear that rec-reational events and leisure time could be socially dangerous and must bemanaged in order to uphold and reinforce social conventions.In Canada, asin Britain and the United States, it was commonly argued that inappropriateuse of leisure time would lead to social decay and would erode the centralplace of work in social life.This view held that recreation should be are-creation of the individual for work.Since fun and play were necessary for afull life and for productive labour, good recreation could be defined as thatwhich stimulated the mind and body and improved character, while bad 10recreation diverted people from work and led to dissipation or frivolousness.In hierarchies that ranked recreational activities by their social worthand utility, sport almost always met with approval.Sport built character,improved health through physical activity, and taught important lessonsabout the importance of good manners and how to be a graceful winnerand a gracious loser.Team sports built character by teaching camaraderie,group loyalty, and obedience, while individual sports tested character andresourcefulness in combination with physical and mental skill.These virtueswere also said to contribute to nation building and often evoked British-ness, since Britain s success as an imperial power with a stable social order DONALD G [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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.Raymond, Alberta, for example, claims that a stampede held on its main street in 1901 or 1902 was the first formal rodeo5in Canada.While such events drew upon regional ranching traditions, thepopularity of cowboy sports was stimulated in a major way by other elementsas well, especially commercial Wild West shows.The most famous of thesewere mounted by Buffalo Bill Cody beginning in 1882.When Cody gaveup the business at the turn of the century, his imitators had made Wild Westshows generic events, with troupes of actors travelling the continent puttingon performances.Popular shows in Alberta included the Miller BrothersWild West Show that brought riding and roping acts and dramatizations ofthe Old West to Calgary in 1908 and the Oklahoma Wild West Show thatvisited Red Deer in 1913.Travelling vaudeville shows also often included6fancy roping, horse tricks, or other cowboy features.Such shows doubtlessstimulated popular interest in rodeo and helped legitimize local contests asfashionable and attractive mass entertainment.Even so, the occasional lapse into vulgarity at these events confirmed aview that they were only marginally respectable.Respectability was a vaguebut powerful concept that shaped sporting life and reflected a complex mixof gendered and class attitudes about character, physical hardiness, social7responsibility, and self-control.When animals were involved in sport, thepicture was further complicated by notions about the proper relationshipbetween people and animals.An alleged bucking contest in the [town]square in Fort Macleod in 1911, for example, prompted the local newspaperto argue that when unwilling beasts have to be goaded and frightened intoaction, and are ridden about with blood from the spurs dripping from theirflanks, the whole outfit responsible for the show should be hauled up forcruelty to animals. The days of the Wild West are past, said the editor,8 and the bucking contest is a relic of barbarism. Much the same reactionarose relative to the cowboy sports, probably put on by travelling show-men, in Victoria Park (the site of the annual Calgary agricultural exhibition) 26 MAKING TRADITION: THE CALGARY STAMPEDE, 1912 1939in 1905.About a thousand spectators showed up, a significant number fora city with a population of around ten thousand, but the occasion was notwithout controversy and elicited a demand that cowboy sports conform tothe etiquette and definitions of respectability acceptable to the community sleaders.An event in which a huge cowboy grabs a steer by the nose with histeeth and throws the animal to the ground drew particular outrage fromthe pulpit and the Calgary Herald.Indeed, the Herald reported that thisspectacle had been seen previously and had aroused widespread feelings of disgust. This negative reaction, noted the Herald, was to the credit of theCalgary public, for clean sports are liberally patronized in Calgary andthe city had no room for offensive displays. Local colour can be introducedinto these cowboy exhibitions without this sort of thing, warned the Herald,and when a man is permitted to make an exhibition of this character in the9presence of women and children, the finer sensibilities are outraged. Suchdevotion to clean sports clearly trumped the value of local colour, whichseems to have been acceptable as a memento of place and historical moment,but not as a basis for civic life.Indeed, the episode demonstrated local deter-mination to discard the uncouthness of the frontier, to prove that Calgarywas a respectable town.It may have been new, but it had standards of socialtaste and civic life as high as those of more developed parts of Canada.Interwoven into such concerns was a commonly expressed fear that rec-reational events and leisure time could be socially dangerous and must bemanaged in order to uphold and reinforce social conventions.In Canada, asin Britain and the United States, it was commonly argued that inappropriateuse of leisure time would lead to social decay and would erode the centralplace of work in social life.This view held that recreation should be are-creation of the individual for work.Since fun and play were necessary for afull life and for productive labour, good recreation could be defined as thatwhich stimulated the mind and body and improved character, while bad 10recreation diverted people from work and led to dissipation or frivolousness.In hierarchies that ranked recreational activities by their social worthand utility, sport almost always met with approval.Sport built character,improved health through physical activity, and taught important lessonsabout the importance of good manners and how to be a graceful winnerand a gracious loser.Team sports built character by teaching camaraderie,group loyalty, and obedience, while individual sports tested character andresourcefulness in combination with physical and mental skill.These virtueswere also said to contribute to nation building and often evoked British-ness, since Britain s success as an imperial power with a stable social order DONALD G [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]