(Courtesy of Les Adams) From left to right are Yakima Canutt, a bearded Frank McGlynn, Jr., John Wayne and Glenn Strange in a lobby card from LAWLESS RANGE (Republic, 1935), one of eight oaters that Wayne did during the first year of the newly fprmed Republic Pictures organization. McGlynn, Jr. was the brains heavy in this one. (From Old Corral collection) The above lobby card is from the 1959 re-release of ZORRO RIDES AGAIN (Republic, 1937) and contains one of the most published photos on serials and stuntwork (see below). This horse-to-truck transfer was done by Yakima Canutt and occurred in Chapter 11. And the answer is NO! - I didn't fool with the colors of this lobby card at all ... gads, were those trucks really pink? Take a look at the top of the truck trailer and you might see an area that's painted over. Underneath that paint are the letters P I E which stands for the Pacific Intermountain Express trucking company. (From Old Corral collection) (From Old Corral collection) Yak takes a tumble on top of a cayuse that is doubling for 'Silver Chief' in THE LONE RANGER (Republic, 1938) serial. (Courtesy of Donn & Nancy Moyer) Above - Yak dressed as Roy Rogers and doing one of his famous jumps onto the team of horses ... and below are Yak's notes on the back of the picture. (Courtesy of Donn & Nancy Moyer)

Around Christmas, 2001, I received an e-mail from Ray Nielsen, who's been involved with the Memphis Film Festival for many years. Ray writes:

"I first met Yakima Canutt at a festival in St. Louis. Believe it was in 1979. The following year I was on Naval Reserve duty in California and had a free weekend. I drove up to North Hollywood at Yak's invitation. I stayed at his home on Riverside Drive that night. I noticed a couple of things in his home that have always stuck with me. One was a photo of him with Teddy Roosevelt. Think it was taken about 1916. Yak had won some rodeo event up in Oregon and Roosevelt was there to present Yak with an award. The other thing was a small statue on Yak's mantle. It had a horses' head on a pedastal. There was an inscription below that read as follows: "To Yak, from Chuck. Thanks for turning a horses' ass into a half-assed horseman." Chuck was Charlton Heston. He gave Yak the trophy for teaching him how to handle a chariot during the filming of BEN HUR."

Among the many interviews which Les Adams has conducted and videotaped is a July, 1979 chat with Yakima Canutt:

Question: Yak, why don't you tell us how you got your name.

Yakima Canutt: Well Enos Edward is the name. Yakima is a nickname and it's an Indian name. A lot of people think I'm Indian but that's false. I'm actually Scotch, Irish, Dutch and German. But I got the name in rather a funny way. I ran around with a couple of fellows from Yakima in 1914 and we were at the Pendleton Roundup and they were trying out a bunch of bucking horses. And ... so, we had been drinking a little bit ... and one of the fellows said, "Bring me out a bronc and I'll show you how the Yakima men can ride." They brought out a horse, he saddled it up, got on ... and got bucked off. We all laughed and the other fellow said, "Bring me one and I'll show you what they (the Yakima men) can do." And he got bucked off. So, I'm with them --- I'm not from Yakima --- but I'm with them and wanted to build them up a little bit, so I said, "Bring me over one of your top broncs and I'll show you what the Yakima fellas can really do." So they brought out a little horse called "Miss Wiggs" as I remember. I saddled up, got on --- and I didn't realize I had been drinking so much --- and the horse started bucking and she hit a couple of "heads-down" in front of me ... and really going ... and the first thing I knew, I could see a couple of boots and the blue sky above ... and I hit the ground ... and the ride was over. So, everybody got a good laugh out of it and said these Yakima fellows are really great riders. So a fellow (newspaper photographer) that took a picture of it got a pretty good shot of me going off, so he just captioned it "Yakima Canutt leaving the deck of Miss Wiggs". Of course, they picked it up during the show then, and the announcer announced me as Yakima Canutt ... and the name stuck. It's mostly been cut down to Yak, but it's been a good show name.