bjgreen
By Betsy J. Green
The “Flying A” supplied a bunch of the studio’s best riders for the July 4 rodeo in 1916. “When Chick Morrison, on the afternoon of the Fourth, leads the big herd of ‘Flying A’ cowpunchers and … outlaw horses … Santa Barbara, and the countryside at large, even as far distant as Los Angeles, will realize that something unusual in the way of a rodeo has been provided … Chick Morrison himself is going to ride and show his expertise at bulldogging, for which he is widely famed.”
Chick promised to bring “16 cowboys from the ‘Flying A’ who are anxiously waiting to show the public what they can do in the way of trick and fancy riding, bronco busting, bulldogging, and in pony racing.”
(I recently started doing some research on the Essanay film company that was here before the “Flying A,” and discovered that Morrison had worked with them in Santa Barbara in 1910 – two years before the “Flying A” moved here!)
