Bob Nolan Rides

Bob Nolan: Riding in the Movies

Spoilers of the Range 1939

Jan Scott photo

Bob and Tim in Man from Music Mountain, 1943

Because Bob Nolan had worked during his school holidays on a ranch near Tucson, he knew as much but no more about riding as most boys of his time. He was not an experienced horseman when he began his film career; certainly not a stunt rider. With the easy grace of the natural athlete, he had quickly mastered the basics but riding in the movies was the antithesis of pleasure jaunting. The B-Westerns were action movies with plenty of breakneck riding over rough ground. Bob was to spend hours in the saddle.

Left: Fast dismount in Utah 1945

Right: Bob in San Fernando Valley 1942

During the chase scenes, horse and rider took more than ordinary risks. The horseman had to be constantly alert and he had to know how to assist his mount over the rough ground. Bob hired a stunt man to teach him how to survive this type of racing around without breaking his neck or injuring his horse. He became an excellent rider and his silhouette on the silver screen horizon, usually at the head of the Sons of the Pioneers, became familiar to movie goers. From this hired instructor he also learned to hold his reins differently from the other Pioneers and you could always identify Bob in the group by the position of his elbows.

Bob Nolan and the Sons of the Pioneers in Blazing Six Shooters 1940

The chase scenes look so easy and exciting to the viewer but countless horses and riders were injured in the production of these westerns. Most of the riding extras, or stuntmen, were ex-cowboys and experienced riders but filming an action western called for dangerous situations day after day, film after film. Even for the Sons of the Pioneers, who weren't called on to bulldog the heavy off his horse at top speed or jump onto a moving train / stagecoach / runaway team, the chase scenes held unexpected danger. There were rocks, holes, long slopes, rough ground and, most potentially dangerous to the Pioneers, fast riding in the tight group necessary to keep them all in camera focus.

Left: Bob Nolan and Charles Starrett in South of Arizona 1938

Right: Bob Nolan and the Sons of the Pioneers in Silver Spurs 1943

The Sons of the Pioneers were hired chiefly as singers but riding and minor stunts were scripted in their first films and they were young and fit. Bob did some of his own minor stunts in those early films and all of the riding. Karl Farr chuckled when he recalled that he had a hard time keeping his horse behind Starrett's. It would easily have outrun Raider.

Look at this next picture of Gene Autry's double bulldogging Bob's double (or was it Bob?) from his horse at top speed. This is not a minor stunt and it is unlikely Bob was involved at all but a close look at the man's face does make you wonder.

In the years he was in the saddle, from 1935 to 1948, Bob had only one near catastrophe. Many years later he tells how it came about:

We were hired as singers and songwriters but not stuntmen. No, that’s once where we drew the line. I don’t think there was a horseman in the bunch to begin with and we had to learn the hard way. And I even reached into the stuntmen’s roster to get a guy to teach me how to handle a horse and it took a long time. And those guys don’t come cheap, those stuntmen! I paid it out of my own pocket.

I had one fall and that was my own fault because I shouldn’t have attempted to do the thing that they wanted me to do [in South of Santa Fe]. The stunt was to rope Gabby Hayes’ tin lizzie which was stuck in a mud hole, see, take my dallies around and pull him out with my horse. My horse, when he turned to go away, stepped over that rope and that’s all she wrote, you know. He broke in two and I went up and down and right under his feet. Now, this horse is tethered to this rope and he can’t get away from it and it’s all over. But he never touched me once. And I could feel the air of his feet, his hooves, going past me. One of those, if it had caught me right in the head, I was through. That’s all. But that put the end of me trying to do any kind of a stunt. I called for a stuntman every time.

Most horseback scenes, however, involved the Sons of the Pioneers riding while singing. Because the music was pre-recorded, the singing was neither roughened by the gait of the horses nor lost in the open air. The riders mimed the songs, or sang along with their own recorded voices, as they rode.

In the Columbia pictures with Charles Starrett, Bob often rode a paint horse. In fact, he inherited Donald Grayson's paint when he took over his position as second lead. When that animal wasn't available, Bob chose another pinto whenever possible.

(from The Colorado Trail, courtesy of Karl E. Farr)

Occasionally the script called for Bob to ride the heroes' well-known horses, Roy Rogers' "Trigger" or Charles Starrett's "Raider".

Left: Utah 1945

Right: The Durango Kid 1940

He looked fine in the uniform of a ranger or RCMP.

Outpost of the Mounties 1939

Following are selected production stills and captures of Bob Nolan and the Sons of the Pioneers from familiar videos of their films, in no particular order.

Bob Nolan in the saddle from 1936 (The Old Corral) -1948 (Under California Stars)

[Old] Bronco Pal, the song embedded in this page, was sung by the Sons of the Pioneers in the Columbia picture, Rio Grande (1938), while a trained baritone was still dubbed in for Bob's unique voice.

Thanks to Fred Sopher, John Fullerton, Les Adams, Jan Scott and the late Ed Phillips for the images.