Watch Calgary Cowboy Stampede

This rare "Sports Parade" newsreel observes Calgary's Annual Cowboy Stampede, a major event whose participants hailed everywhere "from Alaska to the Rio Grande." Among the competitive heats are roping and milking undomesticated cows; wild steer riding for both teens and adults; calf roping; bareback bucking-wild-horse riding; and the Canadian-only Chuck Wagon race, a back-country equivalent to the chariot races of antiquity. Some of the more dangerous action is shown in slow motion for extra thrills. "Canada's own wild and woolly West show" even has room for one trick-rider who straddles two horses as they leap over a convertible. The only room for ladies here, however, is on the sidelines; observing a row of lovelies seated on a fence, the narrator says, "And the cowgirls are on hand to root for their favorites!" This is the first and the last that we see of them. Such is no longer the case in today's more female-friendly Calgary Stampede, which draws over a million visitors to Alberta each July. - Dennis Harvey