May 14, 2026 • 27 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, before Tim McCoy became one of Hollywood’s biggest Western movie stars and the face on the Wheaties box, he was a real Wyoming cowboy, rancher, cavalry officer, and friend of Buffalo Bill Cody. McCoy appeared in nearly 100 Western films during Hollywood’s golden age and later served in both World War I and World War II as a U.S. Army officer. For our ongoing Hollywood Goes to War series, Historian Roger McGrath shares the remarkable story of the cowboy actor who lived the life most movie stars only pretended to live.
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we continue with our American Stories, and it's time
for another Hollywood goes to Warr's story from Roger McGrath.
Tim McCoy was a major film star, most noted for
his roles in American westerns. He was so popular with
youngsters as a cowboy star that he appeared on the
cover of Wheaty's Cereal Boxes. Roger McGrath is the author
of Gunfighters and Vigilantes, Violence on the Frontier, the US Marine,
(00:34):
and former history professor at UCLA. Doctor McGrath has appeared
on numerous History Channel documentaries and he's a regular contributor
for US Here in our American Stories. Here's McGrath with
the story of Tim McCoy.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
From the late nineteen twenties and through the nineteen thirties,
Tim McCoy was not only one of the top cowboy actors,
he actually was a cowboy. Heppard in his first movie,
The Thunder Heard in nineteen twenty five and his last,
Requiem for a Gunfighter in nineteen sixty five. All together
appeared in ninety three movies. In nineteen seventy three, he
(01:12):
was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at
the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City.
It was also in nineteen seventy three that he was
given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. What
is less known about Tim McCoy is his service in
the US Army in both World War One and World
(01:34):
War Two. Timothy John McCoy is born in Saginaw, Michigan,
in eighteen ninety one. His parents are Gaelic speaking Irish immigrants.
At sixteen years old, the father enlists in the Union
Army when the Civil War erupts. He survives the Civil
War unscathed, only be wounded in the Fenian invasion of
(01:57):
Canada in July eighteen sixty six, hoping along with other Fenians,
to divert Britain's attention to Canada and allow Ireland to
win her independence. The mother, Katherine Fitzpatrick, is described as pretty,
with dark auburn hair, a rosy complexion, and an ever
(02:20):
present twinkle in her eye. She arrives in America in
eighteen seventy as a fifteen year old. Within months, she
becomes a McCoy. The couple will have six children. Tim
is the last. By the time Tim is growing up,
his father is police chief of Saginaw, a lumber down
(02:42):
that had experienced a boom in the eighteen sixties and seventies.
Ours was a home filled with warmth and affection. Recalled
McCoy and my family orientation, as might be expected, was nationalistically,
irish and devoutly his boy had years are typical for
(03:03):
use of that era in the Upper Midwest, except his
dad is the chief of police and the commander of
the local chapter of the Union Veterans Organization, the Grand
Army of the Republic. Because of police and Civil War
veterans participating in parades, McCoy learns to play the drums
(03:25):
and the bugle so he can march along with his father.
There is also a naval reserve unit in Saginaw, and
needing a bugler, McCoy is asked to join, but he's
under age, only thirteen. His case is pleated up the
chain of command. Even the Michigan Governor gets involved, and
finally the Navy grants McCoy special permission to join. Five
(03:50):
days before his fourteenth birthday, he's enlisted in the Naval Reserve.
He drills weekly and goes on summer cruises. Will stay
in the reserve unit until he goes off to college.
Three years later, at seventeen, McCoy is admitted to Saint
Ignatious College in Chicago. He lives off campus with maternal
(04:12):
uncles and aunts. His courses are demanding and he has
to study like never before. Moreover, many of his classmates
are intent on becoming priests and are academically brilliant. It's
not easy time for McCoy, especially because he has no
desire to wear a clerical collar. For pleasure, he reads
(04:35):
historical fiction about the Old West. Owen Wistards the Virginian
is one of his favorites. His interest in the Old
West was first peaked years before by reading dime novels
and meeting Buffalo Bill Cody. When the Frontiersman, an entertainer,
brought his Wild West show to Saginaw in eighteen ninety eight,
(04:58):
McCoy was captivated by the spectac of it all, especially
the riding and shooting. Since his father was the police chief,
McCoy was able to tag along with his dad to
Cody's tent outside the arena. He said he stood awestruck
before Buffalo Bill. During the fall of nineteen eight, the
(05:20):
Miller Brothers one oh one Ranch Wild West Show comes
to Chicago. McCoy slips away from St. Ignatius to watch
the performances. His imagination is again set on fire, as
it had been ten years earlier. He makes up his
mind to go out west. At the end of the
(05:41):
spring semester in nineteen nine, without telling any what, he
boards a westward bound train with only a few dollars
in his pocket. On the train, he happens to find
himself seated next to a horse trader from land Or, Wyoming,
who is involved in shipping mustangs to the east. At
(06:02):
Grand Island, Nebraska. The horse trader puts McCoy to work
with Jim Dollard, breaking mustangs for the market. The horse
trader tells McCoy the Dollard killed two men and one
day in Wyoming. Now look here, the eighteen year old
McCoy tells the horse trader. I know I'm a newcomer
to the West, but you don't have to feed me
(06:23):
that dime novel stuff. The horse trader laughs and tells
McCoy it's all true, and Dollard has just been released
from the penitentiary and is back to breaking horses instead
of stones, sporting a drooping red mustache. Dollard looked me
(06:43):
up and down with his sharp green eyes, said mc coy,
the coldest eyes I had ever seen. If a look
alone could kill, Dollard was capable of disposing of considerably
more than two men in a single day.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
And you're listening to Roger McGrath tell the story of
Tim McCoy as a part of our Hollywood Goes to
War series. We've done stories on Clark Cable, Jimmy Stewart,
and so many more. Go to our American Stories dot
com and search for our Hollywood Goes to War series.
When we come back, more of Tim McCoy's story here
on our American Stories. Liehabibe here the host of our
(07:33):
American Stories. Every day on this show, we're bringing inspiring
stories from across this great country, stories from our big
cities and small towns. But we truly can't do the
show without you. Our stories are free to listen to,
but they're not free to make. If you love what
you hear, go to Alamerican Stories dot com and click
the donate button. Give a little, give a lot. Go
(07:56):
to Alamerican Stories dot com and give and we continue
with our American Stories and with Roger McGrath as he
continues his storytelling in our Hollywood Goes to War series.
(08:17):
Now let's continue with Tim McCoy's story. Here again is McGrath.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
After several days breaking horses with Dollard, McCoy boards a
train with the horse Trader and begins to run to
Lander in west central Wyoming, just south of the Wind
River Reservation. The line to Lander was completed only two
years earlier, and the town gained the motto where the
Rails end and the Trails begin. The horse Trader takes
(08:47):
McCoy to an inexpensive boarding house and then leaves for
his own quarters, dropping his gear in his room. The
koy steps out of the boarding house and onto the
wooden sidewalks of Land Main Street, which appropriately is dirt.
Cowboys stroll into and out of saloons. Music comes from
(09:09):
a dance hall. Horses are tied to hitch racks. A
few Indians stand about the quoyous thrill. By his first
night in Lander, it's everything he dreamed the West to be.
He treats himself to a steak dinner with all the
trimmings and pie in ice cream for dessert. It costs
him fifty cents. He retires to his room and lies
(09:32):
on his bed, listening to the sounds of raucous cowboy laughter,
honky tonk piano, and the clump of high heeled boots
on the wooden sidewalks accented by jingling spurs. The next morning,
reality strikes. He's in the West, still somewhat the old West,
but he needs a job. Fortunately, the Double Diamond Ranch
(09:57):
fifty miles to the north needs a few men to work.
Hay fe McCoy won't be a cowboy, but it's a start.
For the next two months, he harvests and stacks hey
on the Double Diamond. The foreman likes McCoy's work, and
when the fall round up begins, he puts the eighteen
year old green Horn on a horse. McCoy is elated
(10:17):
and rushes down the lander to buy all the trappings
of a cowboy. Meanwhile, McCoy writes his father saying he
doesn't want to be a college man but instead a
cowboy and is now in Wyoming. Well Son replies his father,
it's your own grave you're digging. I just hope you
(10:38):
aren't going to be a horse's ass all your life.
During these years, he also comes to know the Indians well,
especially the Arapahoe, are romantic by nature. McCoy is fascinated
by the stories the older Indians tell of the days
before the reservation, when they followed buffalo herds and fought
(10:58):
their enemies, mostly other Indians and only occasionally white men.
McCoy learns Irapoi language as well as the sign language
common to the Indians of the high Plains. He becomes
friends with several Arapa, including some who had fought at
the Little Bighorn. Chief goes in Lodge makes him a
(11:21):
tribal brother. There are still cattle rustlers in Wyoming, and
ranchers still pay hired guns to track them down. The
most feared hired gun in McCoy's day is Sam Barry.
McCoy says Berry's arrival in any particular area usually puts
a stop to wrestling without Berry having to fire a shot.
(11:42):
Whenever he does kill a wrestler, Berry slices off one
of the wrestler's ears as evidence of a job completed.
When McCoy goes to town at south Thelander, east to Thermopolis,
or north to Cody, a town which features Buffalo Bill's
irma Hotel. The Old Showman can usually be found at
(12:04):
the thirty foot long, polished mahogany bar in the hotel's saloon.
Cody drinks prodigious quantities of whiskey and cap devates McCoy
and all others standing at Irma's bar with stories of
daring dew in the Old West. By nineteen fifteen, McCoy
files for a six hundred and forty acre homestead on
(12:27):
Owl Creek to the west of Thermopolis. He pays twenty
seven dollars and fifty cents for the property. During the
winter of nineteen seventeen, the talk of America's possible entry
into what is called the European War dominates many a conversation.
McCoy's interest is especially piqud by a Theodore Roosevelt newspaper
(12:51):
article tr proposes an American force that he would lead
that would feature a cavalry similar to the rough writers
of Spanish American War fame. Roosevelt theorizes the cavalry could
break through the German front and wreak havoc, operating as
raiders behind the enemy's lines. At the time I read
(13:15):
that article, said McCoy, I was twenty six years old,
bursting with energy, enjoying good health, and filled with that
roving spirit which is always constituted a substantial part of
my makeup. And like many young people, I have the
brashness or spunk that comes when you've passed most of
(13:37):
your time on life's hills rather than down in the valleys.
As soon as he finishes reading Roosevelt's article, McCoy begins
writing a letter to the former president. McCoy says he
will recruit a force of four hundred cowboys from Wyoming
and Montana for Roosevelt. McCoy addresses the envelope to the
(14:00):
Honorable Theodore Roosevelt, New York City, New York, reckoning the
Post Office will get the letter to t R. Two
weeks later, a writer dispatched from Thermopolis gallops up to
McCoy in handsome telegram. It's a reply from the former President,
(14:21):
bully for you, do proceed. Article on telegram in hand.
McCoy spends the next several weeks recruiting. In less than
two months, he has four hundred men signed up with
Wyoming Montana. Under a deep blanket of snow and little
to do, everyone is wharing to go anticipating a grand
(14:42):
adventure in Europe. No one is more excited than McCoy,
who sends word of his success to Roosevelt. In late March,
McCoy receives another telegram from Roosevelt. President Wilson will not
approve the plan. Wilson gives several excuses, but the real
reason is his fear that Roosevelt would once again be
(15:05):
catapulted into the presidency. A week after Wilson scuttles Roosevelt's plan,
Congress declares war. McCoy's immediately on a train for Cheyenne,
where he gets a letter recommendation from the governor, and
then on the Fort Logan near Denver. After several twists
(15:26):
of fate, he's sent to OCS at Fort Snelling near
Saint Paul, Minnesota. He excels an officer's school, and then
even more so in cavalry school, where is promoted to
captain upon graduation. The promotion is an unusual distinction, normally
(15:46):
bestowed only upon veteran lieutenants. Before he leaves for posting
at Fort Riley, Kansas, he marries his girlfriend from Wyoming,
Agnes Miller. Suddenly McCoy is a captain of cavalry in
the US Army and a married man at Fort Riley,
McCoy becomes part of the Officer Corps tasked with turning
(16:10):
recruits into cavalrymen. His life is made easier only when
he's allowed to make cowboys non coms to eat. In
the training morales high all are preparing for the day
when they will be making thunderous and glorious saber wielding
dashes on the backs of galloping steeds through enemy lines. Realists,
(16:36):
rather than romnics, win the day, though the use of
modern machine guns and artillery pieces on the front in
Europe is making it clear the days of cavalry charges
are over and where it comes to Fort Riley that
the bulk of the cavalry forces will be converted to
field artillery.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
And you're listening to Roger McGrath tell the story of
Tim McCoy and you can't make it up. Make you
imagine writing a former president known for putting forces together,
known for swashbuckling, and get a response, and then put
together four hundred folks to go ahead and fight a
foreign war. It sounds crazy, except it really happened, and
so many things like it happened back then, and my goodness,
(17:16):
look at his life. Michigan boy. His father's a police chief,
fought in the Civil War, and what does he decide
to do? Tell dad, I'm not a college boy anymore.
I met this guy named Buffalo Bill, and I've got
other ideas. And so with love, he said to his dad,
I disagree with the way you and I are going
to live our lives. And hopefully our fathers, well, they
(17:38):
don't just say, you know, well what his dad said,
which was wishing him actually not good things. When we
come back, we're going to cover more of this remarkable
American story, Tim McCoy's story here on our American Stories,
(18:08):
and we continue with our American stories and the story
of Tim McCoy. My goodness a part of the Hollywood
Walk of Fame and the Western Performers Hall of Fame,
both in the same year in nineteen seventy three. One
of the iconic actors in American life in his day
the cover of Wheaty's, which tells you everything that's more
(18:28):
than just an iconic actor. When you get to the
cover of Wheaty's, you're sort of an iconic brand. At
that point. Let's return to Roger McGrath to the rest
of Tim McCoy's story.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
McCoy is sent to West Point, Kentucky, where he leads
a funeral march of hundreds of cavalry troops, all wearing
black armbands with heads bowed while a band plays a dirge.
In the center of the procession is a caisson with
a black draped casket in the words United States Cavalry
(19:03):
died nineteen eighteen, rests in Peace. McCoy is now assigned
to Fort Sill, Oklahoma, for Officers Artillery School. Upon graduation,
he's put in command of an artillery battery. Now a
lieutenant colonel, McCoy is champion at the bit for deployment
(19:24):
to France, but the armises is declared and he musters
out of the army. He isn't home for long before
the new governor, Bob Carey, an old friend from McCoy's
first roundup, offers McCoy the job of Adjutant General of Wyoming.
McCoy accepts immediately and is now a brigadier general at
(19:46):
the age of twenty eight. McCoy's headquarters are in the
state Capitol building at Cheyenne. The Arapahoe are especially impressed
with their young friend, who is now a mighty chief
with a star on his shoulder. They decide he needs
a new name. In a ceremony conducted by the medicine
man Yellow Calf, McCoy is Christen Banny Natschaw, meaning Soldier Chief.
(20:14):
During the next several years, McCoy buys another fifteen hundred
acres of land and leases an additional twenty five hundred
from the federal government. His Owl Creek ranch now spreads
over five thousand acres. McCoy and his wife now have
three children, two boys and a girl. In the fall
of nineteen twenty two, into McCoy's office in the Capitol
(20:37):
Building comes a small, natalie dressed man with an alligator
skin briefcase. The man says, this Hollywood Motion Picture company
is making a Western. The covered wagon and five hundred
Indian extras are needed. The man says it's proving impossible
to get the Indians, and with the movie behind schedule
(21:00):
and over budget, financial disaster is near. The man is
Jesse Laski, one of the pioneer movie makers. He offers
McCoy big Bucks and McCoy can provide the needed Indians
and rescue the movie. McCoy signs a contract for nominally
providing the Indians, but also for serving as technical advisor
(21:22):
for the movie. McCoy also ensures contractually that the Indians
will be well paid. Within weeks, McCoy has five hundred
rappa host shoshone in Bannock and the necessary horses at
the filming location in Utah. In two months, the location
shoot is completed. McCoy is a hero and Laski now
(21:44):
wants him in Hollywood to stand on stage with some
of his Indian buddies to introduce the movie before each
of its showing at Gramman's Egyptian Theater. Laski offers to
pay the Indians and cover all their expenses, and contract
of one thousand dollars a week for McCoy. McCoy resigns
as Wyoming's Adjutant General and is off to Hollywood. After
(22:09):
a four month wildly successful run at Gramman's, it's off
to London for six more months of the same. In
the meantime, the Covered Wagon is released nationwide in the
US and the movie is a spectacular success. Back in Hollywood.
From London, McCoy goes to work as a technical advisor
(22:30):
on the second movie, The Thundering Herd. When his work
is finished, McCoy is hired to introduce John Ford's The
Iron Horse in the same manner he had introduced The
Covered Wagon. His Indian friends are making more money than
they had ever dreamed of, and so too is Tim McCoy.
(22:51):
The Indians are calling him by a new name, High Eagle,
because he seems so powerful and wise, soaring, high and observing.
McCoy now formerly names his al Creek Ranch Eagle's Nest.
Irving Thalberg of MGM thinks McCoy has the makings of
(23:11):
a cowboy star. McCoy is a six foot handsome, blue
eyed blonde who can ride and rope, shoot and fight,
and sign and track like an Indian studio, publicity agents
won't have to invent a matinee idol. In reality, McCoy
is a cowboy and a rap o blood brother, a rancher,
(23:35):
and a cavalry officer. From nineteen twenty six to nineteen
twenty nine, McCoy stars in sixteen MGM movies, mostly westerns.
He even writes the script for one movie. When Thalberg
grows upset with the staff writers, McCoy makes the studio
(23:56):
gobs of money and gobs for himself. McCoy is away
from home nearly all the time, and his marriage is suffering.
He tries to strike a new deal with MGM that
will give him more time off, but when Louis Mayer
stalls and equivocates, McCoy says goodbye. In nineteen thirty one,
(24:18):
McCoy signs with Columbia Pictures. Instead of slowing down, the
pace picks up, and over the next four years he
makes thirty two movies, and during this time that Hollywood
begins timing Western stars on their quick draws by counting
the number of frames on film from hand movement to
smoke from the gun barrel. McCoy is a frameer too
(24:40):
faster than anyone else. His success in Hollywood, though, destroys
his home life, and Agnes and E are divorced. McCoy
leaves Columbia and makes movies with production companies that allow
him to tour with the Ringling Brothers circus and with
his own Wild West show. In late nineteen thirties and
(25:01):
into the early nineteen forties, McCoy stars in twenty seven
more Westerns. Then comes the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor.
McCoy is fifty years old and he's a cowboy star,
but he turns his back on Hollywood and joins the
Army Air Corps as a lieutenant colonel. He's sent to Europe,
(25:24):
serving in intelligence and in operations, and occasionally is at
the front. In August nineteen forty four, is in parrass
for the liberation of the city. By the time the
war is over, McCoy has been promoted colonel. He returns
to Hollywood, but he's now in his mid fifties and
his career as a star of westerns is over. He
(25:48):
appears in only four more movies, and only in minor roles.
He does have a highly successful TV show, though, in
which he tells stories about the Old West, gives lessons
in Indian sign language, and interviews old timers about life
in the mining camps and on the cattle ranges. His
old Indian battles make frequent appearances. In nineteen fifty three,
(26:13):
McCoy's show is awarded an Emmy. In the meantime, McCoy
remarries and has two more children. He dies in nineteen
seventy eight at age eighty six. Tim McCoy lived one
of the fullest, most varied, most adventurous, and most accomplished
(26:33):
lives imaginable, including proudly serving his country in two World Wars.
He wasn't an invention of Hollywood. He was the real McCoy.
Speaker 1 (26:50):
Indeed, in great production work is always by Greg Angler,
and a special thanks to Roger McGrath as always for
telling these terrific stories about America's past, reminding us of
who we were and of course who we can always be.
Hollywood goes to war, and my goodness, here he is
at the peak of his powers, wealth beyond any measure,
and at fifty years old, fifty years old, volunteers to
(27:13):
give up his craft and go represent his country, and
of course leaves a full bird Colonel. The story of
Tim McCoy here on our American Stories
And we continue with our American Stories, and it's time
for another Hollywood goes to Warr's story from Roger McGrath.
Tim McCoy was a major film star, most noted for
his roles in American westerns. He was so popular with
youngsters as a cowboy star that he appeared on the
cover of Wheaty's Cereal Boxes. Roger McGrath is the author
of Gunfighters and Vigilantes, Violence on the Frontier, the US Marine,
(00:34):
and former history professor at UCLA. Doctor McGrath has appeared
on numerous History Channel documentaries and he's a regular contributor
for US Here in our American Stories. Here's McGrath with
the story of Tim McCoy.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
From the late nineteen twenties and through the nineteen thirties,
Tim McCoy was not only one of the top cowboy actors,
he actually was a cowboy. Heppard in his first movie,
The Thunder Heard in nineteen twenty five and his last,
Requiem for a Gunfighter in nineteen sixty five. All together
appeared in ninety three movies. In nineteen seventy three, he
(01:12):
was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at
the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City.
It was also in nineteen seventy three that he was
given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. What
is less known about Tim McCoy is his service in
the US Army in both World War One and World
(01:34):
War Two. Timothy John McCoy is born in Saginaw, Michigan,
in eighteen ninety one. His parents are Gaelic speaking Irish immigrants.
At sixteen years old, the father enlists in the Union
Army when the Civil War erupts. He survives the Civil
War unscathed, only be wounded in the Fenian invasion of
(01:57):
Canada in July eighteen sixty six, hoping along with other Fenians,
to divert Britain's attention to Canada and allow Ireland to
win her independence. The mother, Katherine Fitzpatrick, is described as pretty,
with dark auburn hair, a rosy complexion, and an ever
(02:20):
present twinkle in her eye. She arrives in America in
eighteen seventy as a fifteen year old. Within months, she
becomes a McCoy. The couple will have six children. Tim
is the last. By the time Tim is growing up,
his father is police chief of Saginaw, a lumber down
(02:42):
that had experienced a boom in the eighteen sixties and seventies.
Ours was a home filled with warmth and affection. Recalled
McCoy and my family orientation, as might be expected, was nationalistically,
irish and devoutly his boy had years are typical for
(03:03):
use of that era in the Upper Midwest, except his
dad is the chief of police and the commander of
the local chapter of the Union Veterans Organization, the Grand
Army of the Republic. Because of police and Civil War
veterans participating in parades, McCoy learns to play the drums
(03:25):
and the bugle so he can march along with his father.
There is also a naval reserve unit in Saginaw, and
needing a bugler, McCoy is asked to join, but he's
under age, only thirteen. His case is pleated up the
chain of command. Even the Michigan Governor gets involved, and
finally the Navy grants McCoy special permission to join. Five
(03:50):
days before his fourteenth birthday, he's enlisted in the Naval Reserve.
He drills weekly and goes on summer cruises. Will stay
in the reserve unit until he goes off to college.
Three years later, at seventeen, McCoy is admitted to Saint
Ignatious College in Chicago. He lives off campus with maternal
(04:12):
uncles and aunts. His courses are demanding and he has
to study like never before. Moreover, many of his classmates
are intent on becoming priests and are academically brilliant. It's
not easy time for McCoy, especially because he has no
desire to wear a clerical collar. For pleasure, he reads
(04:35):
historical fiction about the Old West. Owen Wistards the Virginian
is one of his favorites. His interest in the Old
West was first peaked years before by reading dime novels
and meeting Buffalo Bill Cody. When the Frontiersman, an entertainer,
brought his Wild West show to Saginaw in eighteen ninety eight,
(04:58):
McCoy was captivated by the spectac of it all, especially
the riding and shooting. Since his father was the police chief,
McCoy was able to tag along with his dad to
Cody's tent outside the arena. He said he stood awestruck
before Buffalo Bill. During the fall of nineteen eight, the
(05:20):
Miller Brothers one oh one Ranch Wild West Show comes
to Chicago. McCoy slips away from St. Ignatius to watch
the performances. His imagination is again set on fire, as
it had been ten years earlier. He makes up his
mind to go out west. At the end of the
(05:41):
spring semester in nineteen nine, without telling any what, he
boards a westward bound train with only a few dollars
in his pocket. On the train, he happens to find
himself seated next to a horse trader from land Or, Wyoming,
who is involved in shipping mustangs to the east. At
(06:02):
Grand Island, Nebraska. The horse trader puts McCoy to work
with Jim Dollard, breaking mustangs for the market. The horse
trader tells McCoy the Dollard killed two men and one
day in Wyoming. Now look here, the eighteen year old
McCoy tells the horse trader. I know I'm a newcomer
to the West, but you don't have to feed me
(06:23):
that dime novel stuff. The horse trader laughs and tells
McCoy it's all true, and Dollard has just been released
from the penitentiary and is back to breaking horses instead
of stones, sporting a drooping red mustache. Dollard looked me
(06:43):
up and down with his sharp green eyes, said mc coy,
the coldest eyes I had ever seen. If a look
alone could kill, Dollard was capable of disposing of considerably
more than two men in a single day.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
And you're listening to Roger McGrath tell the story of
Tim McCoy as a part of our Hollywood Goes to
War series. We've done stories on Clark Cable, Jimmy Stewart,
and so many more. Go to our American Stories dot
com and search for our Hollywood Goes to War series.
When we come back, more of Tim McCoy's story here
on our American Stories. Liehabibe here the host of our
(07:33):
American Stories. Every day on this show, we're bringing inspiring
stories from across this great country, stories from our big
cities and small towns. But we truly can't do the
show without you. Our stories are free to listen to,
but they're not free to make. If you love what
you hear, go to Alamerican Stories dot com and click
the donate button. Give a little, give a lot. Go
(07:56):
to Alamerican Stories dot com and give and we continue
with our American Stories and with Roger McGrath as he
continues his storytelling in our Hollywood Goes to War series.
(08:17):
Now let's continue with Tim McCoy's story. Here again is McGrath.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
After several days breaking horses with Dollard, McCoy boards a
train with the horse Trader and begins to run to
Lander in west central Wyoming, just south of the Wind
River Reservation. The line to Lander was completed only two
years earlier, and the town gained the motto where the
Rails end and the Trails begin. The horse Trader takes
(08:47):
McCoy to an inexpensive boarding house and then leaves for
his own quarters, dropping his gear in his room. The
koy steps out of the boarding house and onto the
wooden sidewalks of Land Main Street, which appropriately is dirt.
Cowboys stroll into and out of saloons. Music comes from
(09:09):
a dance hall. Horses are tied to hitch racks. A
few Indians stand about the quoyous thrill. By his first
night in Lander, it's everything he dreamed the West to be.
He treats himself to a steak dinner with all the
trimmings and pie in ice cream for dessert. It costs
him fifty cents. He retires to his room and lies
(09:32):
on his bed, listening to the sounds of raucous cowboy laughter,
honky tonk piano, and the clump of high heeled boots
on the wooden sidewalks accented by jingling spurs. The next morning,
reality strikes. He's in the West, still somewhat the old West,
but he needs a job. Fortunately, the Double Diamond Ranch
(09:57):
fifty miles to the north needs a few men to work.
Hay fe McCoy won't be a cowboy, but it's a start.
For the next two months, he harvests and stacks hey
on the Double Diamond. The foreman likes McCoy's work, and
when the fall round up begins, he puts the eighteen
year old green Horn on a horse. McCoy is elated
(10:17):
and rushes down the lander to buy all the trappings
of a cowboy. Meanwhile, McCoy writes his father saying he
doesn't want to be a college man but instead a
cowboy and is now in Wyoming. Well Son replies his father,
it's your own grave you're digging. I just hope you
(10:38):
aren't going to be a horse's ass all your life.
During these years, he also comes to know the Indians well,
especially the Arapahoe, are romantic by nature. McCoy is fascinated
by the stories the older Indians tell of the days
before the reservation, when they followed buffalo herds and fought
(10:58):
their enemies, mostly other Indians and only occasionally white men.
McCoy learns Irapoi language as well as the sign language
common to the Indians of the high Plains. He becomes
friends with several Arapa, including some who had fought at
the Little Bighorn. Chief goes in Lodge makes him a
(11:21):
tribal brother. There are still cattle rustlers in Wyoming, and
ranchers still pay hired guns to track them down. The
most feared hired gun in McCoy's day is Sam Barry.
McCoy says Berry's arrival in any particular area usually puts
a stop to wrestling without Berry having to fire a shot.
(11:42):
Whenever he does kill a wrestler, Berry slices off one
of the wrestler's ears as evidence of a job completed.
When McCoy goes to town at south Thelander, east to Thermopolis,
or north to Cody, a town which features Buffalo Bill's
irma Hotel. The Old Showman can usually be found at
(12:04):
the thirty foot long, polished mahogany bar in the hotel's saloon.
Cody drinks prodigious quantities of whiskey and cap devates McCoy
and all others standing at Irma's bar with stories of
daring dew in the Old West. By nineteen fifteen, McCoy
files for a six hundred and forty acre homestead on
(12:27):
Owl Creek to the west of Thermopolis. He pays twenty
seven dollars and fifty cents for the property. During the
winter of nineteen seventeen, the talk of America's possible entry
into what is called the European War dominates many a conversation.
McCoy's interest is especially piqud by a Theodore Roosevelt newspaper
(12:51):
article tr proposes an American force that he would lead
that would feature a cavalry similar to the rough writers
of Spanish American War fame. Roosevelt theorizes the cavalry could
break through the German front and wreak havoc, operating as
raiders behind the enemy's lines. At the time I read
(13:15):
that article, said McCoy, I was twenty six years old,
bursting with energy, enjoying good health, and filled with that
roving spirit which is always constituted a substantial part of
my makeup. And like many young people, I have the
brashness or spunk that comes when you've passed most of
(13:37):
your time on life's hills rather than down in the valleys.
As soon as he finishes reading Roosevelt's article, McCoy begins
writing a letter to the former president. McCoy says he
will recruit a force of four hundred cowboys from Wyoming
and Montana for Roosevelt. McCoy addresses the envelope to the
(14:00):
Honorable Theodore Roosevelt, New York City, New York, reckoning the
Post Office will get the letter to t R. Two
weeks later, a writer dispatched from Thermopolis gallops up to
McCoy in handsome telegram. It's a reply from the former President,
(14:21):
bully for you, do proceed. Article on telegram in hand.
McCoy spends the next several weeks recruiting. In less than
two months, he has four hundred men signed up with
Wyoming Montana. Under a deep blanket of snow and little
to do, everyone is wharing to go anticipating a grand
(14:42):
adventure in Europe. No one is more excited than McCoy,
who sends word of his success to Roosevelt. In late March,
McCoy receives another telegram from Roosevelt. President Wilson will not
approve the plan. Wilson gives several excuses, but the real
reason is his fear that Roosevelt would once again be
(15:05):
catapulted into the presidency. A week after Wilson scuttles Roosevelt's plan,
Congress declares war. McCoy's immediately on a train for Cheyenne,
where he gets a letter recommendation from the governor, and
then on the Fort Logan near Denver. After several twists
(15:26):
of fate, he's sent to OCS at Fort Snelling near
Saint Paul, Minnesota. He excels an officer's school, and then
even more so in cavalry school, where is promoted to
captain upon graduation. The promotion is an unusual distinction, normally
(15:46):
bestowed only upon veteran lieutenants. Before he leaves for posting
at Fort Riley, Kansas, he marries his girlfriend from Wyoming,
Agnes Miller. Suddenly McCoy is a captain of cavalry in
the US Army and a married man at Fort Riley,
McCoy becomes part of the Officer Corps tasked with turning
(16:10):
recruits into cavalrymen. His life is made easier only when
he's allowed to make cowboys non coms to eat. In
the training morales high all are preparing for the day
when they will be making thunderous and glorious saber wielding
dashes on the backs of galloping steeds through enemy lines. Realists,
(16:36):
rather than romnics, win the day, though the use of
modern machine guns and artillery pieces on the front in
Europe is making it clear the days of cavalry charges
are over and where it comes to Fort Riley that
the bulk of the cavalry forces will be converted to
field artillery.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
And you're listening to Roger McGrath tell the story of
Tim McCoy and you can't make it up. Make you
imagine writing a former president known for putting forces together,
known for swashbuckling, and get a response, and then put
together four hundred folks to go ahead and fight a
foreign war. It sounds crazy, except it really happened, and
so many things like it happened back then, and my goodness,
(17:16):
look at his life. Michigan boy. His father's a police chief,
fought in the Civil War, and what does he decide
to do? Tell dad, I'm not a college boy anymore.
I met this guy named Buffalo Bill, and I've got
other ideas. And so with love, he said to his dad,
I disagree with the way you and I are going
to live our lives. And hopefully our fathers, well, they
(17:38):
don't just say, you know, well what his dad said,
which was wishing him actually not good things. When we
come back, we're going to cover more of this remarkable
American story, Tim McCoy's story here on our American Stories,
(18:08):
and we continue with our American stories and the story
of Tim McCoy. My goodness a part of the Hollywood
Walk of Fame and the Western Performers Hall of Fame,
both in the same year in nineteen seventy three. One
of the iconic actors in American life in his day
the cover of Wheaty's, which tells you everything that's more
(18:28):
than just an iconic actor. When you get to the
cover of Wheaty's, you're sort of an iconic brand. At
that point. Let's return to Roger McGrath to the rest
of Tim McCoy's story.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
McCoy is sent to West Point, Kentucky, where he leads
a funeral march of hundreds of cavalry troops, all wearing
black armbands with heads bowed while a band plays a dirge.
In the center of the procession is a caisson with
a black draped casket in the words United States Cavalry
(19:03):
died nineteen eighteen, rests in Peace. McCoy is now assigned
to Fort Sill, Oklahoma, for Officers Artillery School. Upon graduation,
he's put in command of an artillery battery. Now a
lieutenant colonel, McCoy is champion at the bit for deployment
(19:24):
to France, but the armises is declared and he musters
out of the army. He isn't home for long before
the new governor, Bob Carey, an old friend from McCoy's
first roundup, offers McCoy the job of Adjutant General of Wyoming.
McCoy accepts immediately and is now a brigadier general at
(19:46):
the age of twenty eight. McCoy's headquarters are in the
state Capitol building at Cheyenne. The Arapahoe are especially impressed
with their young friend, who is now a mighty chief
with a star on his shoulder. They decide he needs
a new name. In a ceremony conducted by the medicine
man Yellow Calf, McCoy is Christen Banny Natschaw, meaning Soldier Chief.
(20:14):
During the next several years, McCoy buys another fifteen hundred
acres of land and leases an additional twenty five hundred
from the federal government. His Owl Creek ranch now spreads
over five thousand acres. McCoy and his wife now have
three children, two boys and a girl. In the fall
of nineteen twenty two, into McCoy's office in the Capitol
(20:37):
Building comes a small, natalie dressed man with an alligator
skin briefcase. The man says, this Hollywood Motion Picture company
is making a Western. The covered wagon and five hundred
Indian extras are needed. The man says it's proving impossible
to get the Indians, and with the movie behind schedule
(21:00):
and over budget, financial disaster is near. The man is
Jesse Laski, one of the pioneer movie makers. He offers
McCoy big Bucks and McCoy can provide the needed Indians
and rescue the movie. McCoy signs a contract for nominally
providing the Indians, but also for serving as technical advisor
(21:22):
for the movie. McCoy also ensures contractually that the Indians
will be well paid. Within weeks, McCoy has five hundred
rappa host shoshone in Bannock and the necessary horses at
the filming location in Utah. In two months, the location
shoot is completed. McCoy is a hero and Laski now
(21:44):
wants him in Hollywood to stand on stage with some
of his Indian buddies to introduce the movie before each
of its showing at Gramman's Egyptian Theater. Laski offers to
pay the Indians and cover all their expenses, and contract
of one thousand dollars a week for McCoy. McCoy resigns
as Wyoming's Adjutant General and is off to Hollywood. After
(22:09):
a four month wildly successful run at Gramman's, it's off
to London for six more months of the same. In
the meantime, the Covered Wagon is released nationwide in the
US and the movie is a spectacular success. Back in Hollywood.
From London, McCoy goes to work as a technical advisor
(22:30):
on the second movie, The Thundering Herd. When his work
is finished, McCoy is hired to introduce John Ford's The
Iron Horse in the same manner he had introduced The
Covered Wagon. His Indian friends are making more money than
they had ever dreamed of, and so too is Tim McCoy.
(22:51):
The Indians are calling him by a new name, High Eagle,
because he seems so powerful and wise, soaring, high and observing.
McCoy now formerly names his al Creek Ranch Eagle's Nest.
Irving Thalberg of MGM thinks McCoy has the makings of
(23:11):
a cowboy star. McCoy is a six foot handsome, blue
eyed blonde who can ride and rope, shoot and fight,
and sign and track like an Indian studio, publicity agents
won't have to invent a matinee idol. In reality, McCoy
is a cowboy and a rap o blood brother, a rancher,
(23:35):
and a cavalry officer. From nineteen twenty six to nineteen
twenty nine, McCoy stars in sixteen MGM movies, mostly westerns.
He even writes the script for one movie. When Thalberg
grows upset with the staff writers, McCoy makes the studio
(23:56):
gobs of money and gobs for himself. McCoy is away
from home nearly all the time, and his marriage is suffering.
He tries to strike a new deal with MGM that
will give him more time off, but when Louis Mayer
stalls and equivocates, McCoy says goodbye. In nineteen thirty one,
(24:18):
McCoy signs with Columbia Pictures. Instead of slowing down, the
pace picks up, and over the next four years he
makes thirty two movies, and during this time that Hollywood
begins timing Western stars on their quick draws by counting
the number of frames on film from hand movement to
smoke from the gun barrel. McCoy is a frameer too
(24:40):
faster than anyone else. His success in Hollywood, though, destroys
his home life, and Agnes and E are divorced. McCoy
leaves Columbia and makes movies with production companies that allow
him to tour with the Ringling Brothers circus and with
his own Wild West show. In late nineteen thirties and
(25:01):
into the early nineteen forties, McCoy stars in twenty seven
more Westerns. Then comes the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor.
McCoy is fifty years old and he's a cowboy star,
but he turns his back on Hollywood and joins the
Army Air Corps as a lieutenant colonel. He's sent to Europe,
(25:24):
serving in intelligence and in operations, and occasionally is at
the front. In August nineteen forty four, is in parrass
for the liberation of the city. By the time the
war is over, McCoy has been promoted colonel. He returns
to Hollywood, but he's now in his mid fifties and
his career as a star of westerns is over. He
(25:48):
appears in only four more movies, and only in minor roles.
He does have a highly successful TV show, though, in
which he tells stories about the Old West, gives lessons
in Indian sign language, and interviews old timers about life
in the mining camps and on the cattle ranges. His
old Indian battles make frequent appearances. In nineteen fifty three,
(26:13):
McCoy's show is awarded an Emmy. In the meantime, McCoy
remarries and has two more children. He dies in nineteen
seventy eight at age eighty six. Tim McCoy lived one
of the fullest, most varied, most adventurous, and most accomplished
(26:33):
lives imaginable, including proudly serving his country in two World Wars.
He wasn't an invention of Hollywood. He was the real McCoy.
Speaker 1 (26:50):
Indeed, in great production work is always by Greg Angler,
and a special thanks to Roger McGrath as always for
telling these terrific stories about America's past, reminding us of
who we were and of course who we can always be.
Hollywood goes to war, and my goodness, here he is
at the peak of his powers, wealth beyond any measure,
and at fifty years old, fifty years old, volunteers to
(27:13):
give up his craft and go represent his country, and
of course leaves a full bird Colonel. The story of
Tim McCoy here on our American Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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