Everything about Bee Ho Gray totally explained
Bee Ho Gray (
April 7,
1885 in
Leon,
Chickasaw Nation,
Indian Territory -
August 3,
1951 in
Pueblo, Colorado) was a Western performer who spent fifty years displaying his skills in
Wild West Shows,
vaudeville,
circus,
silent films and radio. While he was primarily known as an expert at
trick roping, he was also skilled with
knife throwing,
bullwhips (specifically the Australian black snake whip),
trick riding and the
banjo. He wove all of these skills together in a homely comic routine. Throughout his long career he was constantly compared to
Will Rogers which was befitting considering the two performers worked together several times and developed their acts together in the early 1900s.
Life
Emberry Cannon Gray (Bee Ho) was born on April 7, 1885 in Leon,
Chickasaw Nation,
Indian Territory in what is present-day Oklahoma. His family moved to Cache, Indian Territory within two years of his birth. The small town of Cache was near
Fort Sill. Bee Ho's mother was 1/4 Chickasaw. His father had been a
Texas Ranger in the Trinity Division and later served in the
Confederate Army.
Bee Ho grew up among the
Apache,
Comanche and
Kiowa, as Cache was the commercial center of their territories. He and his brothers played with the children of Comanche Chief
Quanah Parker and Bee Ho’s parents became good friends with the Parker family. By the time Emberry was five years old, he'd started going by the name "Bee Ho". Quanah Parker gave him this name, which means "Brother of the Cripple" since Bee Ho's brother, “Ho” Emmet Gray, was stricken with
polio as a small boy and walked with a crutch for the remainder of his life.
Bee Ho developed his Western skills on the plains of
Indian Territory but had never seen a real trick roper until about 1900. Bee Ho and his younger brother, Weaver Gray, heard about the amazing tricks that were being performed by trick ropers in Wild West shows. Together they rode sixty miles on one horse to the town of Chickasha making the trip in a couple of days. They made the journey to view the
Pawnee Bill Wild West exhibition. They were very impressed with the trick ropers and began teaching themselves rope tricks using clothesline and anything else they could spin. Within a few years, both were performing with Wild West shows. Both brothers would enjoy amazing fifty-year careers in western performance.
During the early years of his career as a Western performer, Bee Ho performed with several Wild West shows. Bee Ho’s first notable performances were with
Colonel Cummins’ Wild West Indian Congress and Rough Riders of the World at the 1904
Louisiana Purchase Exposition, informally known as The Saint Louis World's Fair. Other notable performers from this show include
Geronimo,
Will Rogers,
Zach Mulhall and
Lucille Mulhall, and a number of well-known Native American chiefs.
Bee Ho joined the
Miller Brothers 101 Ranch Real Wild West in 1907, its first year of touring the United States. Other famous people who performed with the 101 Ranch include
Tom Mix,
Ken Maynard,
Hoot Gibson,
Buck Jones,
Tex McLeod,
Chester Byers,
Iron Tail,
“Buckskin Bessie” Herberg,
Bill Pickett, “
Buffalo Bill” Cody,
Milt Hinkle,
Billy Lorette,
Luka Chkhartishvili (Prince Lucca), and Princess Wenona (
Lillian Smith). While
Will Rogers was never actually employed by the 101 Ranch, he spent a lot of time there visiting with friends and taking part in the informal roping contests and other events. Bee Ho and his wife, Broadway actress, equestrienne and horse trainer
Ada Sommerville, traveled with the 101 Ranch for most of the years 1907-1916, with occasional departures to perform with other shows and to compete in early
rodeos. The Miller Brothers 101 Ranch Real Wild West toured from 1907-1916 and again from 1925-1931.
Some of the many other shows that Bee Ho performed with include California Frank’s All-Star Wild West (Frank Hafley),
Irwin Brothers Cheyenne Frontier Days Wild West Show, Diamond Dick’s Wild West,
Barnum and Bailey Circus,
Ringling Brothers Circus, Shrine Circus and his own show, Bee Ho Gray’s Wild West.
Bee Ho learned the sign language and spoken language of various Native American tribes while growing up in Indian Territory. In about 1912, Bee Ho accompanied Sioux Chief
Iron Tail to Washington D.C. and New York where Iron Tail modeled for sculptor
James Earle Fraser as he worked on designs for the new
Buffalo nickel. The two men had been working together on Wild West shows prior to this time and Bee Ho traveled with Iron Tail to act as an interpreter and guide.
Bee Ho won the World Champion Trick and Fancy Roper title at
Guy Weadick's Winnipeg Stampede in 1913 when he displayed a rope catch that had never been seen before. The trick was called the “Three-Rope Catch” and involved catching a galloping horse and rider with three ropes. One rope would catch the rider around the torso. One would catch the horse around the neck. The final rope would catch the horse by all four legs. Bee Ho won the title from Tex McLeod and held it until 1916 when he lost it to Chester Byers. Bee Ho was the only person who could do the trick for several years. He later taught it to Will Rogers who performed it in the 1922 silent film
The Ropin' Fool. Bee Ho earned the championship again in the early 1920s when he competed at the
Cheyenne Frontier Days and
Pendleton Round-Up. He moved out of competitive roping by the mid-1920s to focus on his vaudeville and film career.
Bee Ho and Ada spent many years as Vaudeville performers with the
B. F. Keith circuit,
Orpheum Circuit and Western circuit. The show consisted of a comic banter that was delivered while performing intricate rope tricks, knife throwing, whip cracking, banjo, and horse dancing. Their show usually received top billing and was sought after across the country. The couple traveled to Europe to perform on several occasions. They maintained a packed schedule of performances and literally played thousands of venues and shows during their career.
Bee Ho performed in
Erich von Stroheim's
Greed (film) in 1924. Even though his performance was apparently cut from the film when the length was reduced by about 80%, his name still shows up on lists of actors who were in the film. However, one of his feats of skill still appears in the film. During an argument between the two main characters (McTeague and Marcus), a knife is thrown and sticks into the wall next to the lead head face. According to a 1926 Cedar Rapids (Iowa) Republican newspaper article, “Erich von Storheim [sic] featured Gray in his famous picture,
Greed because of his ability to throw a knife.”
Bee Ho also performed in a number of more obscure early western films from the Miller Brothers 101 Ranch Bison Films, Monogram Pictures and The
Vitaphone Corporation including
Hey! Hey! Westerner.
In May and June 1922, Bee Ho and Ada Sommerville were featured in a Broadway musical called
Red Pepper which appeared at the
Shubert Theatre (Broadway). The stars of the show were the famous minstrel duo, McIntyre and Heath (
James McIntyre (theatrical actor) and
Thomas Heath (theatrical actor)). The show then went on the road for one year, closing in North Dakota in June 1923.
Bee Ho added a trained coyote named "Chink" to his act in the early 1930s and began making radio appearances with his witty Oklahoma comedy. He appeared on stage and on the radio with personalities such as
Bing Crosby, Will Rogers,
Fred Stone,
Joe E. Brown (comedian),
Mary Beth Hughes, Eddie Nugent, Tom Mix, Hoot Gibson, Ken Maynard and many others. Many of the western stars who performed in the first half of the 1900s got their start with him at the Miller Brothers 101 Ranch Wild West as they saw their way of life on the open range disappearing.
Ada Sommerville died in 1940 at the age of sixty-eight. Bee Ho continued with his act using other assistants to fill her role, but the days of vaudeville were over and his career was relegated to county fairs, small corporate events and school benefits. During his career, Bee Ho gave command performances for at least four United States presidents, members of European royalty and many diplomats and notables. He died in Pueblo, Colorado on August 3, 1951 at the age of sixty-six while visiting his sister. Many of his fans, friends and family members never knew what became of him. He is buried at the Mountain View Cemetery in Pueblo, Colorado.
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