King's Corner: What’s Real
King's Corner column for June 20, 2025
When my dad, Robert ‘Mark’ King, was in his teens he rode the rodeo circuit. His friend Ken taught him how to be a hazer – someone who keeps the cow or bull close to the horse of the rider coming up on the other side to jump on the bull and grab his horns. “While I’m bulldogging, you ride another horse to keep the steer close to me so I can jump on him”. Mark also tried his hand at Saddle Bronc Riding, which Ken didn’t prefer, so they would pool their winnings from the two events, working from Texas to the Canadian border.
They soon discovered there was extra money to be made by appearing in the halftime shows, doing comedy or dangerous stunts to entertain the crowds. They even fixed up an old car and mounted bull horns on it, pretending it was an angry bull chasing one of them around the arena. But nothing got as large a response as when they dressed up in exaggerated cowboy outfits coated with costume jewelry, doing parody send-ups of the Rhinestone Cowboys who were often featured at the opening of each rodeo.
The term Rhinestone Cowboy came from a 1904 New York Times article where Frank Gannett described how President Theodore Roosevelt had been presented with a diamond-studded belt buckle during a visit to Cody, Wyoming. Gannett wrote that this event sparked a trend among wealthy cattlemen and ranchers who began adorning themselves with similar flashy accessories.
One wealthy man in particular, Charles Miller – also known as Tex McIver – outfitted himself head-to-toe in custom-made clothing decorated with diamonds, rubies, emeralds, sapphires, and other precious stones; even his horse’s bridle was encrusted with jewels. This type of flamboyant display of riches was often featured in the rodeo’s opening ceremony. But when Mark and Ken mocked them during halftime comedy, their act was loudly laughed with and well received.
People have always been skeptical of that which is fake – no matter how flashy – and far more interested in what’s real.
We’re seeing that now. People are suspicious of how much is fake. On TV and cable, the Cartoon Network now has more viewers than CNN. The top Podcasts – Joe Rogan, Danny Jones, Chris Williamson, Patrick Bet-David – are getting more viewers daily than the major TV networks put together. People are tired of simulations, things that are fabricated and false, heavily scripted to fit a certain narrative. People are instead craving authenticity.
They always have. Not only do we crave authenticity in others, God seeks it in us. The Psalmist wrote of God, “you desired faithfulness even in the womb… create in me a pure heart”. To be authentic – with ourselves, with God and with others – we need to be truthful and vulnerable. Instead of putting on a flashy outside, we need to rise to the challenge of being honest with ourselves and others. And you can’t do that by yourself; you need to lean on God, friends and family to become that person you really long to be.
Mark became friends with western people who put in genuine hard work and acquired significant skills to create persuasive illusions through stunt work. Enos Edward “Yakima” Canutt started rodeo riding professionally and gained a reputation as a bronc rider, bulldogger, and all-around cowboy. Though work was scarce during the Depression, he got by combining stunting and rodeo work. His most famous stunt was the drop from a stagecoach that he performed in John Ford's Stagecoach (1939).
His son Ed “Tap” Canutt (short for ‘Tapadero’, a Spanish word for a stirrup covering) was Mark’s age, and they became lifetime friends. Tap later did stunt work in Hollywood and did the big chariot sequence in Ben Hur. As Mark worked the rodeos alongside father and son he learned two things: they’d rather be simple than fancy, and they had a dedicated passion they worked hard to chase. They were Real.
Anytime you want to be good, even great, at something you try to learn from the best. What Mark quickly learned from them was that you have to be exceptionally, authentically good at what you do – in this case with horses – before you can even pretend to do anything else, like stunts. And that you never do it on your own; you need healthy, trusting relationships with others to have any hope of success.
John Wayne copied much of his on-screen persona from Yakama Canutt, who was a quiet influencer. The characterizations associated with Wayne – the drawling, hesitant speech and the hip-rolling walk – were pure Canutt. Said Wayne, "I spent weeks studying the way Yakima Canutt walked and talked. He was a real cowhand."
He was authentic. Yet often today we’re starving for something real. Not pre-packaged TV and sound bites, but something genuine. We want people in our lives who are authentic, whom we can trust ourselves to both as role models and in relationships. And we also want our walk with God to be real, so that we know, trust and follow his leading. We want people in our lives who’ve been willing to pay the cost, and develop the discipline, to be trustworthy. And, Lord knows, we want to become that ourselves.
Are you willing to be Real?
