The Cowboy Millionaire
“See Bud bulldog a steer.”
About The Cowboy Millionaire
Bud Noble, foreman of the Circle D outside Circle City, Idaho, ropes a steer and bulldogs one. A telegram says Uncle John is dead and Bud is sole heir to an estate of several millions in Chicago. The bunkhouse heads for the bar. A year later Bud is bored with his wife, the club, and the city. He sends for the outfit, horses and band included. They hit a suburban depot, a yacht, and a melodrama in which a colonel objects to the villain’s treatment of Bertha, the Sewing Machine Girl. At his wife’s request he sends the cowboys home and stays.
Cast & crew
More about The Cowboy Millionaire
Francis Boggs and Otis Turner directed. William N. Selig produced. The United States release was 21 October 1909. Tom Mix, William Garwood, and William Stowell make their film debuts. Mac Barnes and Adrienne Kroell are billed with them. Carl Winterhoff is also in the cast. The Selig blurb claims only three men had bulldogged a steer and lived. Mix’s part is not named in the cast lists consulted.
Themes
Making
Selig opens on a roping and a bulldogging, then spends the rest of the reel on a cowboy who imports the bunkhouse into Chicago because the clubs bore him. The wife is who sends them back.
Music
Silent.
Preservation
A print survives.
Notes
- The ranch is the Circle D. The town is Circle City, Idaho. The money is in Chicago.
- The melodrama they attend is built around Bertha, the Sewing Machine Girl.
- Mix’s first film credit is this short, shared as a debut with Garwood and Stowell.
- A Commons copy carries the 1909 title.
Scenes
- Bud bulldogs the steer, then reads the telegram.
- The cowboys arrive at a suburban depot with horses and a band.
- They interrupt a melodrama about Bertha, the Sewing Machine Girl.
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (The Cowboy Millionaire (1909).webm)
