Pecos Bill (character)

Pecos Bill is the titular protagonist from the segment of the same name on Melody Time.
==Background==
===Personality===
Pecos Bill is a handsome, tough, rough, funny, valiant, brave, kind, fearless, dependable, adventurous, and heroic American cowboy of all the Old West in Texas. He likes to catch evil rustlers, yodel, and do some heroic deeds, but most likely of all, Slue-Foot Sue, a strange, yet beautiful cowgirl from in the middle of nowhere.
===Physical appearance===
He is a slender cowboy with fair skin, blond hair, thick black eyebrows, and blue eyes. He wears a black cowboy hat, a pink long-sleeved shirt, a gray vest, a lime green bandanna, blue jeans, gray chaps, black boots, and he also carries a pair of brown pistol hostlers. As a baby, he wore a red loincloth and as a young boy, he wore a furry dark brown loincloth and slippers.
==Appearances==
===Melody Time===
Pecos Bill is first seen as a toddler being thrown out of the chuck wagon and onto a muddy place where he plans to make mudpies. Along a prairie moon comes, he is found on a trio of coyote cubs by a mother coyote when she hurries into her den. When Bill looks up, he smiles, and the mother coyote kisses him as her heart is caved in. Starving to death, little Bill then moves one of the coyote cubs from their mother's teat so he can drink.
A few years later, Bill grows up and becomes a young boy with the coyote pack, chewing a large bone. Like a real coyote, he scratches his head with his foot and bites his buttocks, and the young coyotes try to chew the bone, but Bill roars so loud which causes them to roll to a nearby rock until several stones sprinkle almost on them. Then, Bill lays on a cactus, watching several animals trek by him, and shows them a few tricks, like out-loping an antelope, out-jumping a jackrabbit, and out-hissing a rattlesnake (if he roars at Bill) until when Bill roars at him, he grows giant, and the rattlesnake shrinks as small as an ant.
Then one day, a lonely colt name Widowmaker, thirsty, comes crossing the hot Pecos land until suddenly, vultures come circling him just before they land, but the young colt try to attack them. However, Bill leaps off a tall cliff and attack the vultures to save Widowmaker's life until they both meet at the same time with each of their eyes all bruised up. And forever, they stick together.
Several years later, Bill grows up to become an American cowboy of all Texas. They both holler happily, and Bill aims his pistol at the camera. While they race straight to the village, he shoots violently at a few objects, his own hat, then a small tornado. When suddenly there is a drought that spreads throughout Texas, Bill hits California to pick up some rain to save a few thirsty people's life, though the joke is rather corny. And they all go swimming and floating in the Gulf of Mexico, but something happens when Bill and Widowmaker wake up to a startling sight. There are several evil rustlers who steal Bill's herd of cattle, so Bill lassoes them and gives them a few punches in faces until their gold fillings fly off of their mouths, and that's why there is gold in every hill. The rustlers (now apparently reformed) say "Yippee-yi-yay" with Bill, Widowmaker, and the now-rescued cattle, who's also got gold teeth in their mouths. 90 miles across the desert, poor Bill and Widowmaker lose their ways while traveling on it. If they don't get any water, they know they've never reached the border. So, he's got a sign and digs the Rio Grande to make water reveal. Then, while a tribe of Indians playing with paints, Bill starts shooting up their little game. He gives them such a shake-up as they jump from their makeup, and that's the way the Painted Desert got its name. That night, while reclining on a cloud high over Texas with his pistol, Bill makes the stars evaporate. Then, he sees the stars declining, so he leaves a brightly shining star as the logo of Texas.
Following a few heroic days, it looks like nothing can ever come between Bill and Widowmaker. Then, when something happens, poor Bill happily kills some time in his extremely carefree way, invents a one-man rodeo, and butting heads with buffaloes. Suddenly, who shall appear, shockingly spotted by them, but a strange and unusual, yet beautiful Slue-Foot Sue, a cowgirl on her giant catfish, who comes out of nowhere. Bill is given a right peculiar feeling, and his senses are reeling. With a pounding sound inside his ears like a galloping hooves, and inside his chest is seeing and churning, his blood is boiling and his brain is burning with fire that can only be cooled in the depths of a couple of pools. Bill's lovesick behavior causes Widowmaker to be puzzled, then to start to cry.
At twilight, while Widowmaker is bawling over Sue, Bill is busy wooing Sue, western-style. He arranges for the moon to rise and flood the land with a silvery light. He orders the stars from the sky to form a non-stop love token. Then, across the sky, in fiery words, Bill tells Sue of his own heart's desire, "Sweet Sue, I love you." As they kiss, Bill's pistols come shooting to life out of his hostlers.
The next day, Bill and Sue's annual wedding day begins. Bill excitedly waiting for Sue in her beautiful yellow wedding gown to marry him, but he sees Widowmaker, fit to be tied, now jealous of Sue, throwing a temper tantrum. Later, after her wild ride just before Widowmaker furiously kicks Sue off of his back and sends her flying, then bouncing up and down up a storm, Bill, never known to miss, comes up with his trusty lasso. Calmly and confidently, he makes his loop with careless ease, then judges and tests the distance. Then, a whirl, a twirl, and a twist of the wrist, he tries to lasso poor Sue from bouncing so many times in a row, but he missed, and it is Widowmaker, whistling a brief triumphant tune, who stops Bill from getting the over-bouncing Sue out of there, and that's how it happens nobody can ever figure out.
When night comes, after Sue shoots into the moon in which she gets stuck, Bill and Widowmaker go back to the coyote pack and the greatest cowboy in the west was no more, but Bill always remembers Sue. And every night, when the moon rises high, he howls mournfully, bewailing Sue's fate. So painful is his grief to see, the coyotes join in from sympathy.
===House of Mouse===
Pecos Bill makes cameo appearances in several episodes of this series. In "Mickey's House of Villains", he is seen clapping at the end of "Lonesome Ghosts".
In Once Upon a Studio, Pecos Bill joins all of the characters in singing "When You Wish Upon a Star" as the group photo is successfully taken to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Disney.
==Disney Parks==
===Disneyland===
====Golden Horseshoe Saloon====
Pecos Bill, as portrayed by Wally Boag, was the star of the Golden Horseshoe Revue at Disneyland. The show would become the longest-running stage production in history, running from Disneyland's opening day on July 17, 1955, to October 12, 1986. The animated Bill also appears in art on the doors of the windows alongside Slue-Foot Sue, who served as the host of the show.
===Walt Disney World===
====Pecos Bill Tall Tale Inn & Cafe====
At the Magic Kingdom, Pecos Bill is the namesake of the Pecos Bill Tall Tale Inn & Cafe in Frontierland, with his likeness being featured in the logo for the cafe. Pecos' hat and lasso hanging by the fireplace and pair of gloves with the inscription "To Billy, All My Love, Slue Foot Sue" found within a glass display case.
The story and theming behind the location is that it is a saloon which of which Bill was the proprietor since 1878. The interior is decorated with memorabilia collected from acquaintances of Pecos Bill who themselves are legendary figures of American Western folklore and pop-culture. These include Paul Bunyan's axe, John Henry's hammer and iron nails, Casey Jones' train engineer equipment, a mask and silver-bullet from the Lone Ranger, Johnny Appleseed's pot, Davy Crockett's coonskin cap and rifle blueprints, 's knife and cards, a revolver and playing cards with bullet holes from , boots from Buffalo Bill, navigational equipment from Kit Carson, a satchel from George Russel, and some playing cards belonging to .
====Big Thunder Mountain Railroad====
Pecos Bill is references in the ride's queue via posters which advertise the Tall Tale Inn. They further reference Bill in the advert bringing up lassoing, eating like a coyote, and the, "Mile Long" bar, all of which are allusions to Bill's character. There is also a post from him on the bulletin-board where he says that he and Sue are going to celebrate their marriage in the Gold Dust Saloon of Tumbleweed.
===Tokyo Disneyland===
Besides having its own Pecos Bill Inn, Pecos Bill and Widowmaker can be seen as popcorn turner figures in one of Westernland's popcorn machines, with Bill turning the handle using his boot.
==Trivia==
*Scenes of Pecos Bill smoking cigarettes (including the entire tornado sequence) is cut when aired on television and on the US home video releases of Melody Time. They have since been restored when the film was released on Disney+.
*His physical features are primarily modeled after his animator Ward Kimball.
==Gallery==
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