Volume 13 , Issue 23

NW Okie's Corner & Illegal July, 1948 Alva Bull Fights

Jim Barker sent me an email this week with a copy of the 1948 2-Day July 4th Celebration Alva Bull Fights story. I know we talked about this Alva Bullfights of July 1948 in Vol. 10, Iss. 12 & 13, but I am going to go ahead and reprint the story in this week's OkieLegacy Ezine, because I love reading and re-reading this old, illegal Alva Bull Fights story of 1948.

1948 - 2 Day July 4th Alva Bull Fights- by Jim Barker

"A man came to town one day and wanted some civics club to put on an exhibition bull fight. But no civics club would take it on. Finally they came to the ABC (American Business Club). I was out of town, so some of the boys said to wait until Bert gets back the next day. When they told me, I said 'OK, Let's do it.'

"The first thing they asked was 'where will we get $500.' I said if I can't get 500 people to see a bull fight, I'd put up the rest. So we started, signed the contract for $500. and $300 if we killed a bull. We got started advertising and getting the Roundup Club to let us borrow their rodeo grounds one mile west of Alva, which is now PanEastern. (Author's Note: This is where Moser Repair and Towing is today.)

"When the Mexican men saw the rodeo arena, they said 'Too big,' so we put a fence across the middle. The bull fight started on a Sunday which was the fourth of July and ran over to Monday, which was a holiday.

"In the meantime Harry Coffman was an ABC member and wanted to sell pop and beer. But we had to have a license. So Cecil Wilhite was a lawyer and a member of the ABC. He said he would see Judge Glazier tomorrow, which was Saturday. So Cecil went over to the judge's office. The first thing the judge said was, 'Do you know, to get a license you have to apply three days before you start your bullfight show?' The judge did say, 'When you were over here the other day and I was busy, did you want the license then?' Of course you know what Cecil said - - - yes!

"So the next day we all got started. Those days everybody worked six days a week. We got our pop, hamburgers, buns, beer and candy bars. We were to start the bullfight at 1:30 p.m. We had everybody in place ready to go. I had five or six men on the gate and one asked: 'If the law comes out shall we charge them?' 'Yes, if they haven't been called.' I had not more than got it out of my mouth, that all three drove in.

"Ken Greer was the sheriff and his two deputies were Nels Nelson and Dewey Randalls. The first thing they wanted to know was, 'Who was in charge?' They did not have to ask that question, because they all looked at me.

"The first thing Ken said was 'What are your boys having?' and I said 'A bullfight.' And that was the wrong thing to say. Ken said 'If you draw a drop of blood, I will lock every one of you boys up.'

"So I changed my story quickly. 'A bull exhibition.' Then I said 'You think more of these bulls than you do of us boys.' Ken jumped out of his car. Dewey and me was sitting in the back seat and the window was down about three inches. Where I was sitting next to Dewey and talking and laughing, I did not pay any attention to what Ken was trying to do or say.

"I finally figured out that he was trying to hit me. So I told him I would give him a chance for a sandwich. Then he said, 'You draw any blood and I will fine you and lock you up.'

"They all left, but said 'Send all the Mexican boys down to the sheriff's office.' Thirty minutes went by and no bullfighters. So I sent Arty Ware, Gene Lamley (Chamber of Commerce manager) and two more boys to ask what was the sheriff trying to do to us.

"Because only one of the bullfighters could speak a little English, all the rest could only say 'si,si.' I don't know what that means.'

"We finally got started. The man on the microphone was J. G. Gillen, who had just returned from the army and was running for sheriff and was furnishing us boys the loud speaker system. Ken Greer was present and had been sheriff for 17 years. As Ken was talking to us, Mr. Gillen was telling the crowd they should vote for him. The election was in the next two days. I don't think the sheriff (Ken) liked it.

"When we signed the contract, they did not tell us what kind of bull to get. When they saw what Bill Arganbright got for them, they said that kind of bulls don't play fair. They only jump three times and then stop to see where your feet is. Bill told them they did not tell us to get a lot of milk cows for them. They finally said O. K.

"Just about then the boys turned out the first bull from the pen. The bull looked a couple of times and he must not have liked what he saw, because he never stopped running and tried to jump over the middle fence that I had just put in. We had used a three foot roll of hog wire, one on top of the other, but had put the first roll on the ground, the second on top of the other, which made a six foot fence.

"I had a big pair of bobwire pinchers in my hip pocket. They had turned over and was hanging down and I had to climb over another wooden fence. I looked through the fence and there stood Nels Nelson, the deputy sheriff. The first thing I said was, 'What will Ken do if he broke his leg?' Nels said, 'You did not tell the bull to jump the fence.'

"We left that bull in the back pen. Then they turned out another bull. He looked around and he must have seen the same thing. He was luckier than the other bull. He made the fence out the west side, but landed between two cars. He brushed the front fender of one car. Mr. Hubbard wanted $125 to fix his fender. But we got Del Brunsteter to fix it for nothing. He ran a body shop.

"The second bull went down in a canyon back of the rodeo pen. So Bill Arganbright and Charley Shalloup both had jeeps and lariat ropes. They both went after the bull. After that they had caught the bull.

"On the way back out of the canyon, when the bull got to the top, he did not like the look of the people and jumped over into the canyon and broke his neck. There went 300 dollars. But Charley ran the Shalloup Packing Co. and saved us $200.

"By that time we had used what was left of the bulls, and the bulls had caught most of the bullfighters and they were pretty well all banged up. So I took what money we had and went home. I had not been home five minutes and Mrs. Wilma Coffman came by and said 'Your bulls are out.' 'Somebody had left the gate open and three bulls were out and going south. When they came to a fence they would jump over it or just walk through it. I don't think they knew where the wire fence was.'

"I rounded up that evening six cowboys and horses that was helping us at the ABC. By two o'clock that night, we had rounded up two bulls by rope and drug them back 'one four miles and the other six miles. The third bull got in a pen of Mr. Myers' milk cows, so he put all of them in the barn until the next morning.

"Then is when I told Ollie Brewer and his brother Forrest to be sure and put a wire over the top of this truck because I knew the bull would try to jump out. Sure enough the next morning the first thing the bull tried to do was jump out of the truck. -- (NOTE: Evidently the wire held, for Bert made no further mention of it in his writing.)

"The Sunday was the 4th of July -- Monday was the holiday for the 4th of July. Therefore we had a two-day show. On account of all the bullfighters was so bad beat-up, we all figured we should give the public a good show. A young man that used to live here was a rodeo clown. Buddy Heaton. He guaranteed us he would put on a good show.

"So the next day we started with a bang. Two salesmen crawled over the fence and they wanted to be toreadors and they had their coats off, like a bull fighter. The bulls did not pay any attention to the coats and just ran over them. That was enough for the two salesmen. We got them out of the arena and going on down the road before they got hurt any more.

"By that time it was ready for Buddy Heaton to come on. He had a red suit and red shawl. He went out in the middle of the arena waving his red shawl at the bull. The bull did not pay any attention to the red shawl -- just Buddy Heaton. Buddy could tell the bull was coming after him. He tried to throw the red shawl over the bull's head.

"Buddy did not have time to get over the middle fence (the one I had just put in). The bull knocked him down with his head three times, and every time Buddy would pull himself down to the ground and all that time Bud Hill from Kiowa was hitting the bull in the forehead as hard as he could with a hammer. (After the ordeal was over, Buddy told me he was sure he would kill the bull.)

"By then, they all got Buddy out from under the hogwire fence. He was pretty well banged up so we took him to the Alva Hospital for overnight. That got him a bath and a good night's sleep.

"The next day his father Loyd Heaton came from Kansas and took him home. He was not hurt and we paid him anyway after putting us on a good show. After all the good and bad experience we all made $500 for the ABC.

"The next day Betty and myself were having dinner at the Larison Cafe and we were both having hammered steak. I looked up and said, 'Momma, that was the last of ol' dinner.'

"If you don't think we all did not have a lot of fun, you are mistaken!'

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EDITOR'S NOTE by Jim Barker: For any of you who doubt the authenticity of Bert Reed's bullfight story, I want you to know that I checked it out. Back in 1996 the copies of the Alva Review Courier were still in the stacks of the Alva Public Library, so I got down the July, 1948 issues and looked for myself. Sure enough, a full-page ad appeared there ballyhooing the upcoming extravaganza. The bullfighters were listed as Alberto Contreras of Mexico City and Jose Lara and Gregorio Ontiveros of Chihuahua. Also listed was 'Oklahoma's only authentic bullfighter' (and I'll bet he was, too!), Manuel Flores Sanchez of Poteau.

The 1948 two-day Independence Day celebration featured two dances, two days of bull fighting, two baseball games, a diving contest at the pool, a '$500 Fireworks Display,' and the Rockwell Carnival was in town all week. They knew how to celebrate the Fourth back then! The small mountain community of Victor, Colorado claims to be the only city in the United States to ever stage a bull fight. Now you know better!

NW Okie says, "Thanks, Jim, for resubmitting the 1948 Alva Bull Fights story! I love it each time I read it and know of most of those Old Alvans involved in the story via my Dad, Gene McGill!

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