Journal Notes

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Daughters of Daring: Hollywood Cowgirl Stunt Women

Racing horses. Dangerous falls. No stunt doubles for the stuntwomen.

Long before modern stunt coordinators and safety rigs, fearless horsewomen helped create the action audiences loved in early Western films. One of those daring performers was Ione Reed.

Reed was among the talented cowgirls Hollywood relied on to double for actresses in demanding riding scenes and dangerous stunts. Racing across rugged terrain, executing precision riding maneuvers, and taking hard falls were all part of the job. These women brought authenticity and excitement to the screen at a time when few of them received on-screen credit for their work.

Like many stunt women of the era, Ione Reed possessed exceptional horsemanship and the grit required to perform under difficult conditions. Studios depended on cowgirls like her to make Western heroines appear fearless in the saddle—yet the women doing the real work behind the scenes were rarely photographed and almost never recognized.

Their stories are finally being told in Daughters of Daring: Hollywood Cowgirl Stunt Women, my book celebrating the brave and highly skilled women who helped shape the action and spectacle of early Hollywood Westerns.

These remarkable performers risked injury, and sometimes their lives, to make movie magic. It’s time their legacy rides into the spotlight.

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Please note the image used here is not an endorsement for cigarette use

Chris Enss Hits Arizona with

Daughters of Daring: Hollywood Cowgirl Stunt Women

Get ready, Arizona! Award-winning author Chris Enss is bringing her fascinating exploration of Hollywood’s fearless cowgirl stunt women to a series of stops across the state. Meet Chris, get your book signed, and hear the incredible stories of the women who risked it all to make movie magic happen.

Upcoming Tour Dates:

• Saturday, March 7 – Prescott

  • Book signing at Prescott Western Heritage Center: 10 a.m.–noon

  • Sharlot Hall Museum presentation and signing: 1–3 p.m.

• Friday, March 13 – Tombstone

  • Tombstone Book Festival: 9 a.m.–5 p.m.

• Saturday, March 14 – Tombstone & Sierra Vista

  • Book signing at JL Silver (Tombstone): 11 a.m.–2:30 p.m.

  • Book signing at Boot Hill Books (Sierra Vista): 3–4 p.m.

Praise for Daughters of Daring:
“My hats off to Enss, I will never watch a Western again without wondering what great ‘daughter of daring’ is making the action look so easy — and dangerous at the same time.”
— Stuart Rosebrook, True West Magazine

Enter now to win a copy of Daughters of Daring

Don’t miss this chance to celebrate the women who brought courage,

skill, and sparkle to the silver screen.

Enter now to win a copy of

Daughters of Daring: Hollywood Cowgirl Stunt Women

A well-used buckboard pulled by four sturdy horses rolled lazily along a rugged, dusty road, a blustery wind sweeping across the rocky mountains rising behind it. Seated beside the driver was cowgirl actress Dale Evans, dressed in a stylish mid-1940s business suit, while actor-musician Pat Brady handled the reins. In the back, members of Sons of the Pioneers laughed, talked, and played a fiddle, harmonica, and guitar, filling the air with music as the cameras prepared to roll.

Under the direction of accomplished filmmaker William Witney, the cast of Bells of San Angelo moved through the opening scenes introducing Dale’s character. The mood was peaceful—until a lone rider burst from behind a rock outcropping and spurred his horse toward the buckboard. Gunshots cracked through the mountain air, shattering the calm and sending the team lunging forward. It was the kind of high-octane action audiences expected—and the kind that required extraordinary riding skill behind the scenes.

That’s where talented horsewomen like Alice made their mark. The following year she competed in the Ventura County rodeo, winning the title of Champion Lady Trick Rider of California. Audiences were enthralled by her equestrian abilities, marveling as “the diminutive blonde drew all eyes with her daredevil stunts on the back of a racing horse.”

To learn more about Alice and the fearless women who helped shape Hollywood Westerns, read Daughters of Daring: Hollywood Cowgirl Stunt Women.

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I’m delighted to announce that West Went the Word: Women Evangelists on the Frontier will be published by TCU Press.

Early women evangelists served an essential and often overlooked role in America’s history. In a nation where business, politics, social reform, and religion were deeply intertwined, these women found their work expanding far beyond the pulpit. They furthered westward exploration and settlement through relentless soul-seeking efforts, while influencing politics, social legislation, Indian policy, and social welfare. They founded colleges and universities, established Indian missions and schools, and built orphanages—shaping communities in lasting ways.

West Went the Word tells the story of a dozen courageous women who braved the frontier to carry their message to the farthest reaches of the American West. Their lives reveal a powerful intersection of faith, reform, resilience, and nation-building at a time when women’s public roles were sharply constrained—yet boldly expanded by necessity.

Although West Went the Word is a work of nonfiction, it is especially meaningful to partner with TCU Press, recently named one of the Best Western Fiction Presses by True West Magazine, a leading voice in Western history and storytelling. For nearly eight decades, TCU Press has published books exploring the complexity, character, and cultural history of Texas and the American West. With a catalog of more than 750 titles—from literary Western fiction to deeply researched histories and narrative nonfiction—the press has long documented the people, landscapes, and defining moments of this region.

As Fort Worth stands at the center of renewed national interest in Western culture, TCU Press continues its commitment to publishing work that honors the depth, diversity, and evolving story of the West. I’m honored to partner with them on West Went the Word.

Scheduled for release in 2028, West Went the Word brings these remarkable frontier evangelists back into the historical conversation, restoring their voices to the story of how the American West was shaped.

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Daughters of Daring: Hollywood Cowgirl Stunt Women

“Miss Wiggins of late has been one of the most sought-after doubles in the movie colony of Hollywood. Sensational jumps from high cliffs, motorcycle spills, dives from ships at sea are all part of the day’s work for her while doubling for movie stars.” Auburn Journal, August 1, 1929

Mary Wiggins’s head bobbed beneath the icy, choppy waters of the Nooksack River near Mt. Baker in the state of Washington. Her legs struggled to bring her back toward the sun-speckled surface. When she broke through she quickly gulped at the winter air and then with barely a splash went under again. The camera crew, standing safely on the riverbank, watched in rapt silence as they filmed the stuntwoman’s realistic drowning scene.

Mary was one of the best stuntwomen in the business having perfected the art of portraying a distressed victim fighting the river’s strong current from taking her under. Until the former award-winning diver arrived in Hollywood in 1927, drowning scenes were played in a broad, melodramatic way. They were loud and splashy and the stunt double would yell and frantically wave their arms. They would dip below the waves screaming and come up in a dramatic fashion while those on the shore scrambled to rescue them.

Mary’s technique was much more subdued but none the less effective. The temperature of the water was fifteen below zero and she was adorned in thick wool trousers, a large coat, and heavy boots. She held herself under the water as long as she dared. Her hair rose upwards like seaweed, rippling in the current, then with superhuman effort she emerged completely out of the water. Director William Wellman shouted, “cut” and the technicians working on the 1935 film Call of the Wild hurried to help Mary out of the freezing river. Her part was so seamlessly woven into 20^th Century Picture’s adaptation of Jack London’s popular novel, audiences couldn’t tell her from Loretta Young, the star in which she was doubling.

Between 1930 and 1931, Mary appeared in a handful of Western films starring Ken Maynard. Maynard was a champion rodeo rider and a trick rider with the Buffalo Bill Wild West Show turned actor. Mary helped Maynard choregraph and executed stunts for the women in the pictures that included falling off galloping horses and runaway wagons, and leaping out a window to escape the villain.

Daughters of Daring

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To discover more about remarkable trailblazers like Mary Wiggins, read

Daughters of Daring: Hollywood Cowgirl Stunt Women

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Exciting news!

C-SPAN will be on hand to cover the official launch of Daughters of Daring: Hollywood Cowgirl Stunt Women at Book Soup (8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood) on Saturday, February 28 at 4 p.m. The event will spotlight the fearless women who rode hard, took the falls, and helped shape the Western film genre, often without credit, but never without courage.

Even more exciting, Daughters of Daring will be featured on Book TV throughout the entire month of March, bringing national attention to the untold stories of Hollywood’s original stuntwomen and cowgirl pioneers.

The momentum continues to build—the book is currently ranked #8 on Amazon in the category of Western Movies, a testament to readers’ enthusiasm for these remarkable women and their daring contributions to cinema history.

If you’re in the Los Angeles area, join us at 8818 Sunset Blvd. for this special afternoon celebrating grit, glamour, and groundbreaking women of the silver screen. And if you can’t attend in person, tune in to Book TV in March to catch the coverage.

Enter now to win a copy of Daughters of Daring: Hollywood Cowgirl Stunt Women. Don’t miss your chance to own this tribute to the brave women who made movie magic one wild ride at a time.

Enter now to win a copy of

Daughters of Daring: Hollywood Cowgirl Stunt Women

She could out-ride the cowboys, outshine the leading ladies, and leap into the Pacific before anyone yelled “Cut!” Meet Olive Fuller Golden Carey. She was thrilling audiences long before stunt doubles were a thing

When the five-reel western drama A Knight of the Range premiered in early 1916, critics praised silent film cowboy and cowgirl actors Harry D. Carey and Olive Fuller Golden performances. Audiences were dazzled by the equestrian tricks never-before seen in motion pictures. “Stunts that are inconceivable of execution are performed before the all-seeing eye of the camera,” a review of the film in a Hollywood magazine read. “Lovers of riding will miss the treat of their lifetime if they fail to see Western stars Carey and Golden work their magic on horseback. Golden is one of the prettiest and most popular of film favorites.

Olive Fuller Golden learned to ride in upstate New York where she was born on January 31, 1896. Before becoming an actress and stuntwoman, she was a rodeo performer specializing in trick riding and roping. At the age of sixteen, she traveled to Los Angeles where she became an original stock player for director D. W. Griffith – along with Mary Pickford, Lillian and Dorothy Gish, and future husband Harry Carey. She appeared in her first major film in 1914 entitled Tess of the Storm Country starring Mary Pickford.

Olive excelled in stunt work and was unafraid to try even the most outrageous feats. In the picture The Inner Conscience, she played the part of a runaway wife who had to escape her husband by jumping out of a boat sailing around Catalina Island. While rehearsing the scene of her character’s drowning, cast and crew members who didn’t know she was acting jumped in to save her.

Critics were consistently impressed with Olive’s riding skills and often pointed out her ability in their reviews noting that “her feats of horsemanship never fail to thrill us to the core, and we have nothing but admiration for the daring rider, who performs remarkable stunts on the backs of treacherous cow ponies.”

In 1916, she signed a contract with Universal and it was during this time she made the acquaintance of an up-and-coming director named John Ford. After the studio hired him to direct pictures, he cast Olive and Harry Carey in many of his films. The first picture she did with Ford was The Soul Herder in 1917.

Olive and Harry Carey were married on January 5, 1920, and shortly thereafter she decided to retire from motion pictures and helped manage her husband’s career and raise a family. After Harry’s death in 1947, she decided to come out of retirement. She appeared in a number of movies including Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, The Alamo, and Two Rode Together. The most memorable film in which Olive appeared was Ford’s The Searchers in which she played the mother of Vera Miles and her real-life son, Harry Carey, Jr.

Olive passed away in March 1988, after a brief illness at her ranch in Carpinteria, California. She was ninety-two.

To learn more about Olive Carey and other stunt women like her read

Daughters of Daring: Hollywood Cowgirl Stunt Women.

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Daughters of Daring: Hollywood Cowgirl Stunt Women

Silent-film heroine, real-life stuntwoman, future speakeasy queen.

Meet the woman who jumped fences, flattened outlaws, and later drank with them.

A young Indian woman wearing a buckskin dress and leggings rode her white horse fast into a thick forest. Branches slapped her, but the sound of the hoofbeats not far ahead kept her going. It was imperative she catch up to the rider she was chasing. She urged her horse to go faster and the animal complied. They broke through the other side of the trees, emerging behind a rickety set of fence posts. The woman leaned forward in the saddle as the horse made a spectacular jump over the barbed wire strung between the posts. Horse and rider gained on the bad guy they were pursuing. The leathery-faced villain dressed in rough cow-country garb dared to look back to see how much his lead had shrunk. The woman was bearing down on him now. She was close, determined.

Rising out of her saddle with her horse in full gallop, she placed the reins in her teeth, then placed one foot behind the pommel and the other in front of the cantle. Now standing, she leapt off the back of the horse onto the man she was after. The pair tumbled hard onto the ground. The man tried to get to his feet, but the woman got up first, hurried to him, and hit him over the head with the butt of a pistol. They wrestled a bit until finally the woman cracked him hard on the head with the gun again. Exhausted, she stared down at the unconscious outlaw contemplating her next move.

The actress and stuntwoman playing the part of the Indian maiden in the 1920 silent film directed by DW Griffith entitled White Squaw was Texas Guinan. Agile and daring, the vivacious talent insisted on performing her own stunts in numerous motion pictures made between 1917 and 1933.

To learn more about this amazing lady who went on to own a speakeasy and make a name for herself among some of the country’s most notorious gangsters read Daughters of Daring: Hollywood Cowgirl Stunt Women.

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Enter now to win a copy of

Daughters of Daring: Hollywood Cowgirl Stunt Women

Bertha “Betty” Danko was an accomplished stuntwoman. She doubled for many leading actress of the 1930s and 1940s, but is best known for having doubled for Margaret Hamilton as the Wicked Witch of the West in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz. During the filming of the skywriting scene, a pipe attached to the Witch’s broomstick exploded, landing Danko in the hospital with a serious leg wound.

Danko performed many stunts with animals. In one particular film she was working with a cougar when the stunt went wrong. The animal grabbed her leg with his front paws and sank its claws deep into her flesh. He then clamped down with his jaws and started to chew. “The pain was incredible,” Danko shared with the press. “Each bite was torture. I wanted to pass out, but I couldn’t.”

The cougar managed to bite her thirteen times before the animal’s trainer was able to pull him away from Danko. The bites were extremely deep, and doctors told her the scars would never disappear. “I have fallen into lakes, poles, over chairs and tables, down laundry chutes and stairs,” she said. “I have fallen over backwards from a height of 25 feet into 32 inches of water and into a pool fully clothed, though I can barely swim. I’ve been yanked around on wire, had pies and knives thrown at me, have lain amid flames and gasoline all for the sake of art and a paycheck.”

To learn more about the amazing and brave ladies who played an important role in motion pictures read

Daughters of Daring: Hollywood Cowgirl Stunt Women.