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Daughters of Daring: Hollywood Cowgirl Stunt Women
“Daughters of Daring: Hollywood Cowgirl Stunt Women is a powerful survey of the women who made names for themselves in Hollywood as career stunt women, performing dangerous acts. Most readers have heard of stand-in stunt-men, but few will have prior knowledge of these women, who were chosen both for their ability and because:
That scene and nearly every other thrill the audience witnessed in early motion pictures where a lovely girl was in danger was made by one of Hollywood’s forgotten, fearless stuntwomen doubling for movie stars. She didn’t double for the star because the star lacked courage. She did it because, if she were maimed or killed, it would make little difference to the cost of the picture. If the star tried to wreck a buckboard and suffered even a split lip, the cost of delayed production would have amounted to thousands of dollars. Using a cowgirl stuntwoman in Westerns was insurance for the studios. While beautiful movie stars were expensive, courageous lady equestrians were more common and well within the studio’s budget.
With this introductory surprise, readers are off on a wild ride through the biographical sketches of selected Hollywood stuntwomen whose lives and achievements have, until now, gone largely undocumented.
These portraits embrace how each women got into the stunt-riding act, creating connections between such seemingly disparate circumstances as Lucille Mulhall’s encounter with Will Rogers at the Mulhall’s Congress of Rough Riders and Ropers, which resulted in the teenager’s training and developing extraordinary abilities in roping and riding; or Oregon girl Lorena Trickey, whose early skills with horses and riding led her to work with early film pioneers Mix and Pickford.
Hollywood history, women’s lives, and extraordinary talents of the times meld in a series of stories that are vivid and engrossing, adding depth and dimension to each woman’s experiences.
Enss’s focus not only on what they did but how they became stunt women and often embraced even more achievements outside of Hollywood makes for a vivid collection of biographical sketches supplemented by equally eye-opening vintage photos of the women.
Libraries and readers seeking thoroughly engrossing Western and women’s history accounts will relish how both come to life in this intriguing, unusual survey.
The juxtaposition of U.S. history, western culture, and Hollywood interests assures that, as it deserves, Daughters of Daring will receive broad interest from a wide audience of history buffs, women’s history readers, and general-interest readers alike.”
Midwest Book Review
