Helen Gibson

Helen Gibson(bornRose August Wenger; August 27, 1892 – October 10, 1977) was an American film actress,vaudevilleperformer, radio performer,film producer,trick rider, androdeoperformer; and is considered to be the first American professionalstunt woman.
She was born Rose August Wenger inCleveland, Ohio, one of five girls to Swiss-German parents, Fred and Annie Wenger.Her father had wanted a son, and encouraged her to be a tomboy. Helen saw her first Wild West show in Cleveland in the summer of 1909 and answered aMiller Brothers 101 Ranchad for girl riders inBillboardmagazine. They taught her to ride, and she performed in her first 101 Ranch Real Wild West Show in St. Louis in April 1910.
She was quoted as saying: "(I) was already practicing picking up a handkerchief from the ground at full gallop. When veteran riders told me I could get kicked in the head, I paid no heed. Such things might happen to others, but could never happen to me, I believed. We barnstormed all over the US and the season ended all too soon. I was sorry when I had to go home, and could hardly wait to open in Boston in the spring of 1911."
When the Miller-Arlington Show suddenly closed in 1911, it left many performers stranded in Venice, California.Thomas H. Ince, who was producing for theNew York Motion Picture Company, hired the entire cast for the winter at $2,500 a week.  The performers were paid $8 a week and boarded in Venice, where the horses were stabled. They rode five miles each day to work inTopanga Canyon, where the films were being shot.  In 1912, she made $15 a week for her first billed role asRuth Roland's sister inRanch Girls on a Rampage.
Like many of the cowboy extras, Helen continued to perform in rodeos between pictures. At the Second Los Angeles Rodeo in 1913, she was featured in the Standing Woman Race, and so impressed one of the investors that he offered to finance a tour of rodeos for her, paying all expenses and splitting the winnings. At the investor's ranch outside ofPendleton, Oregon, Helen worked his horses every day, and learned new forms of trick riding. In Pendleton in June 1913, she metEdmund Richard "Hoot" Gibson(1892-1962). They began working together, and at a rodeo inSalt Lake City, they won everything – the relay race, the standing woman race, and trick riding, in addition to Hoot winning the pony express race, but the promoter of the rodeo skipped town and they did not get a cent of the prize money.
That summer, the couple performed in rodeos inWinnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, andBoise, Idaho, and arrived back in Pendleton a few days before thePendleton Round-Upwas due to begin. However, because rooms were almost impossible to obtain, they decided to "tie the knot" as married couples were given preference, and as a result the landlady gave them her own room.  They won enough money to return to Los Angeles, where Hoot worked as a cowboy extra and double forTom Mix, at theSelig Polyscope Companyin theEdendaledistrict of Los Angeles (now known asEcho Park). Helen also worked for Selig and for theKalem StudiosinGlendale.
In April 1915 while on theKalempayroll doubling forHelen HolmesinThe Hazards of Helenadventure filmseries,  Helen performed what is thought to be her most dangerous stunt: a leap from the roof of a station onto the top of a moving train in theA Girl's Gritepisode.  The distance between station roof and train top was accurately measured, and she practiced the jump with the train standing still. The train had to be moving on camera for about a quarter mile and its accelerating velocity was timed to the second. She leapt without hesitation and landed correctly, but the train's motion made her roll toward the end of the car.  She caught hold of an air vent and hung on, dangling over the edge to increase the effect on the screen. She suffered only a few bruises.
Considered the longest serial in history, the 119 episodes ofThe Hazards of Helenare stand-alone stories, instead of chapters.  The highly successful series had begun withHelen Holmesin the lead role for the first 49 episodes, but Helen Gibson was given her chance to replace  Holmes for two pictures when she took ill, and starred inA Test of CourageandA Mile a Minute, for $35 a week.  The Kalem New York office personnel were so impressed by her work, they instructed Glendale to keep her on when Helen Holmes and her husband,Hazards of Helendirector,  J. P. McGowan, left to form their own company.
Now rechristened 'Helen' by the studio, she proved to be a capable actress, and after making several more pictures she wrote a story for a one-reeler that was built around a risky stunt. To catch a runaway train, she would detach a team of horses, ride them "standing woman", and then catch a rope dangling from a bridge and use it to swing from the horses and onto the train as it came under the bridge. Kalem rewarded her by raising her salary to $50 a week.
Gibson performed inThe Hazards of Helenfor 69 episodes until the series ended in February 1917, after which Kalem tried producing another serialThe Daughter of Daring, with a starring role for her.One of her best stunts appeared in this serial: traveling at full speed on a motorcycle chasing after a runaway freight train, Gibson rode through a wooden gate, shattering it completely, up a station platform, and through the open doors of a boxcar on a siding, with her machine traveling through the air until it landed on a flatcar in a passing train. The trick was to undercrank the camera and execute it all with flawless timing.
By then Kalem, a producer of single-reel films, was in decline, and rather than risk financial failure producing feature films, ceased production in 1917 and was sold to Vitagraph.Universaloffered her a three-year contract at $125 a week for two-reel, and five-reel pictures until 1919; among these were two 1919John Fordfilms,RustlersandGun Law. Her Universal contract ended with the winter of 1919 and she signed with Capital Film Company for $300 a week, but Capital was already losing money and went out of business in May 1920.
Hoot Gibson, who had joined the Army tank corps, returned during Christmas 1918 and Universal gave him a contract to appear in two-reelWesterns.   Census records for 1920 indicate that the couple were living separately; Hoot Gibson listed himself as married, and Helen listed herself as widowed.
In 1920, Gibson createdHelen Gibson Productionsto produce her own starring vehicles.  The first was to beNo Man's Woman, a Western melodrama about a kind-hearted dance-hall hostess rescuing a rancher's child.  The money gave out before the picture was finished, and it bankrupted Gibson personally. A year later, the film was released by another studio with a new title,Nine Points of the Law.  In March 1921, the Spencer Production Company hired Gibson to star inThe Wolverine(1921). They were so pleased with her performance, they put her on the payroll at $450 a week. However, before shooting began on her second picture, herappendixruptured, putting her in the hospital battlingperitonitis. The studio replaced her.
After her recovery from surgery, Gibson's popularity as a lead had waned.  In September 1921, an independent company hired her for a five-reeler and folded without paying the cast or crew.  Riding in the picture put Gibson back in the hospital, forcing her to sell her furniture, jewelry, and car.  She made personal appearances in connection with bookings ofNo Man's WomanandThe Wolverinein theatres and at rodeos, including visiting her old friends at the 101 Ranch inPonca City, Oklahoma.
In the spring of 1924, Gibson got a jobtrick ridingwithRingling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus' Wild West show, along with other cowboy performers such asKen Maynard,and performed in their 'after show' for two-and-a-half years.In September 1926, Gibson joined aHopi Indianact and worked theKeith Vaudeville Circuitout of Boston.
She returned to Hollywood in 1927 and began doubling for stars such asLouise Fazenda,Irene Rich,Edna May Oliver,Marie Dressler,Marjorie Main,May Robson,Esther Dale, andEthel Barrymore. She worked constantly stunt doubling and in uncredited or bit parts.As she had in her heyday, Helen became a featured guest at benefit rodeos and events such as the Annual Santa Barbara Horse Show.
In 1935, Helen married Clifton Johnson,a studio electrician who had been a chief gunner in the Navy. In 1940, he asked for active duty, and while he was serving in World War II, she carried on working as an extra and became treasurer of the stunt girl's fraternal organization.
In Universal'sHollywood Story(1951), she was cast as a retired silent film actress alongsideFrancis X. Bushman,William Farnum, andBetty Blythe, and earned $55 for one scene.Tony Curtis, then unknown, was assigned to escort Gibson and Blythe to the premiere at the Academy Award Theater at theAcademy's then-headquarters on Melrose Avenue in Hollywood, where the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce gave each silent star a plaque "for your outstanding contribution to the art and science of motion pictures, for the pleasure you have brought to millions over the world, and for your help in making Hollywood the film capital of the world."
Gibson continued to take character parts and extra work until 1954, when the couple moved toLake Tahoefor health reasons.After trying unsuccessfully to sell real estate, they returned and bought a home inPanorama City, in theSan Fernando Valley.  Gibson suffered a slight stroke in 1957, but it did not prevent her working as an extra in film and television.
Her last role was in 1961,John Ford'sThe Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, for which she was paid $35; she was 69 years old. She retired in January 1962, on a Motion Picture Industry pension of $200 a month plus social security.
The couple moved toRoseburg, Oregon, where she spent her later years fishing and giving the occasional interview. Helen Gibson died of heart failure following a stroke in 1977 aged 85.