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STUDIO DIRECTORY
77
Biographical Sketch
A PHENOMENAL rise from range hand to motion picture star is the Alger-esque experience of Hoot Gibson, Universal's celebrated portrayer of Western roles. Born in the wide-open spaces of Nebraska, in Tekemah, Hoot was a ranch rider, rodeo and round-up expert. Also he was a messenger boy after wandering out to Portland, Ore., which is not far from Pendleton, where the championship round-up is held annually. Hoot entered the rodeo there just for fun in 1913, and he carried off the championship.
It was a short hop from the cowboy championship to the movies, and Hoot made it at once. He got work doing trick riding stunts for the more timorous stars, playing small parts and learning what the business was all about. He grew up with the Westerns, became a sort of a star, not particularly prominent, but ambitious, anxious to learn and willing to work hard.
The war took Gibson abroad as a member of the field artillery, but he returned to Hollywood shortly after its conclusion. It was not long after this that Carl Laemmle saw possibilities in this personable young man, and gave him a contract. Hoot Gibson has been a Universal star ever since.
With Universal, Gibson started out on program Westerns, small and inexpensive productions, but Gibson and Edward Sedgwick, at that time with Universal, conspired to do something bigger and better in a more popular brand of Western pictures. The result was that Hoot's pictures began to get into first-class theatres, houses that had never dreamed of running Westerns before. Better stories, casts and the best directors were obtained, and in a short time Hoot was a leading star.
Hoot Gibson releases are eagerly looked for now. He has made such successes as "The Flaming Frontier," "Chip of the Flying U," "The Calgary Stampede," "The Texas Streak," "The Phantom Bullet," "The Buckaroo Kid," "The Man in the Saddle," and scores of others.
Hoot enjoys his picture work. He works with his director on every story, and insists that each character he plays be not the usual swaggering type employed in most Westerns, but that it be human and natural and that the pictures be liberally sprinkled with comedy.
"Hoot" Gibson
STARRING UNDER THE UNIVERSAL BANNER