Gary Cooper - Biography - IMDb Gary Cooper Biography Showing all 258 items Jump to: Overview (5) | Mini Bio (2) | Spouse (1) | Trade Mark (2) | Trivia (127) | Personal Quotes (46) | Salary (75) Overview (5) 6' 3" (1.91 m) Mini Bio (2) Born to Alice Cooper and Charles Cooper (not in film business). Gary attended school at Dunstable school England, Helena Montana and Iowa College, Grinnell, Iowa. His first stage experience was during high school and college. Afterwards, he worked as an extra for one year before getting a part in a two reeler by Hans Tissler (an independent producer). Eileen Sedgwick was his first leading lady. He then appeared in The Winning of Barbara Worth (1926) for United Artists before moving to Paramount. While there he appeared in a small part in Wings (1927), It (1927), and other films.

- IMDb Mini Biography By: Dave Curbow "Dad was a true Westerner, and I take after him", Gary Cooper told people who wanted to know more about his life before Hollywood. Dad was Charles Henry Cooper, who left his native England at 19, became a lawyer and later a Montana State Supreme Court justice. In 1906, when Gary was 5, his dad bought the Seven-Bar-Nine, a 600-acre ranch that had originally been a land grant to the builders of the railroad through that part of Montana. In 1910, Gary's mother, who had been ill, was advised to take a long sea voyage by her doctor. She went to England and stayed there until the United States entered World War I. Gary and his older brother Arthur stayed with their mother and went to school in England for seven years. Too young to go to war, Gary spent the war years working on his father's ranch.

"Getting up at 5 o'clock in the morning in the dead of winter to feed 450 head of cattle and shoveling manure at 40 below ain't romantic", said the man who would take the Western to the top of its genre in High Noon (1952). So well liked was Cooper that he aroused little envy when, in 1939, the U.S. Treasury Department said that he was the nation's top wage earner. That year he earned $482,819. This tall, silent hero was the American ideal for many people of his generation. Ernest Hemingway who lived his novels before he wrote them, was happy to have Gary Cooper play his protagonists in A Farewell to Arms (1932) and For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943).

- IMDb Mini Biography By: Dale O'Connor < daleoc@worldnet.att.net> Spouse (1) ( 15 December 1933 - 13 May 1961) (his death) (1 child) Trade Mark (2) Trivia (127) Hobbies: Fishing, hunting, riding, swimming, and taxidermy. In the early 1930s his doctor told him he had been working too hard. Cooper went to Europe and stayed a lot longer than planned. When he returned, he was told there was now a "new" Gary Cooper--an unknown actor needed a better name for films, so the studio had reversed Gary Cooper's initials and created a name that sounded similar: Cary Grant . Along with Mylène Demongeot , Cooper set in motion the first escalator to be installed in a cinema, at the Rex Theatre in Paris on June 7 1957. Worked as a Yellowstone Park guide for several seasons before becoming an actor. Father-in-law of pianist and composer Byron Janis . Inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in 1966.

Pictured on one of four 25¢ US commemorative postage stamps issued 23 March 1990 honoring classic films released in 1939. The stamp featured Cooper as the title character of Beau Geste (1939). The other films honored were Stagecoach (1939), The Wizard of Oz (1939), and Gone with the Wind (1939). Upon seeing him, a professor in the theater department at Grinnell College recorded "shows no promise." Father of Maria Cooper Janis . Despite his wholesome screen image, he was an infamous (and privately boastful) womanizer in reality, allegedly having had affairs with numerous and sometimes very famous leading ladies throughout his career. This was in spite of the fact that he had a faithful wife, Sandra, and that many of his lovers were also married. His Oscar-winning roles as Will Kane from High Noon (1952) and Sgt. Alvin York from Sergeant York (1941) were ranked #5 and #35 in the American Film Institute's Heroes list in their 100 years of The Greatest Screen Heroes and Villains.

He was voted the 18th Greatest Movie Star of all time by Entertainment Weekly. Is mentioned in the song "La Dernière Séance" by Eddy Mitchell . He is also mentioned in the song "Putting on the Ritz.". He was voted the 42nd Greatest Movie Star of all time by Premiere Magazine. He was fond of dogs, at various times he owned boxers, Dobermans and Great Danes. He and his wife also raised Sealyhams. He liked sports and kept in shape with hiking and riding, tennis and golf, archery and skiing, trout fishing and spear fishing, swimming and scuba diving and driving fast cars. He liked boxing. Appeared in 107 movies, 82 of which he starred in. Only 16 of those were filmed in color. And he starred in 14 silent movies. Has starred in a total number of 20 westerns, three of which were silent. His mother's favorite movie of his is The Pride of the Yankees (1942). His appetite was prodigious, but no matter how much he ate, he always remained thin.

During his early years in Hollywood, working odd jobs and living with his parents, he said, he said with some comic exaggeration, that his "starvation diet at the time ran to no less than a dozen eggs a day, a couple of loaves of bread, a platter of bacon, and just enough pork chops between meals to keep me going until I got home for supper." His specialty on hunting trips was gargantuan: wild duck covered with bacon strips, enhanced by four eggs and steak. He could eat a cherry pie and drink a quart of milk for lunch. He blew the harmonica and strummed the guitar; played backgammon and bridge; grew corn and avocados on the Encino ranch he bought in the early 1930s and loved to work with his tractor in the garden. Named the #11 Greatest Actor on The 50 Greatest Screen Legends list by the American Film Institute He starred in two movies that were based on novels by Ernest Hemingway : A Farewell to Arms (1932) and For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943).

He signed a six-year contract with Samuel Goldwyn Productions, to make six pictures at $150,000 per picture. At the time Paramount had legal rights to Cooper and threatened to sue. The two companies came to an understanding that Paramount would loan Cooper to Goldywn to make one picture a year from 1938-42. Appeared on the cover of Life magazine March 3, 1941. Has played six real-life characters on screen: Wild Bill Hickok, Marco Polo, Sgt. Alvin C. York , Lou Gehrig , Dr. Corydon M. Wassell and Gen. Billy Mitchell . In 1944 he formed his own production company, International Pictures, with Samuel Goldwyn . His partners were Leo Spitz , William Goetz (who'd recently been ousted from 20th Century-Fox) and Nunnally Johnson . They only produced nine movies, two of which starred Cooper, Casanova Brown (1944) and Along Came Jones (1945). Then in 1946 they sold International Pictures to Universal Pictures, which changed its name to Universal-International. He was a conservative Republican.

He voted for Calvin Coolidge in 1924, and for Herbert Hoover in 1928 and 1932. He actively campaigned for Wendell Willkie in 1940, strongly believing that Franklin D. Roosevelt should serve no more than two terms of office, and endorsed Thomas E. Dewey in 1944. By June 1955 he had made 80 films from which studios earned $250 million, but he only earned $6 million in salary and percentages. By 1942 he left Samuel Goldwyn and Paramount, then formed his own production company. On October 22, 1947, he signed with Warner Brothers to make films at $295,000 per picture. His father Charles Cooper died of pneumonia on September 18, 1946, three months after Gary completed Cloak and Dagger (1946) and three days after his father's 81st birthday. Appeared in eight movies with Walter Brennan .

These were Watch Your Wife (1926), The Wedding Night (1935), The Cowboy and the Lady (1938), The Westerner (1940), Meet John Doe (1941), Sergeant York (1941), The Pride of the Yankees (1942) and Task Force (1949). In 1951, after 25 years in show business, his professional reputation declined and he was dropped from the Motion Picture Herald's list of the top 10 Box Office performers. The following year he made a big comeback at the age of 51 with High Noon (1952). Took an acting class from Michael Chekhov He turned down both Stagecoach (1939) and Gone with the Wind (1939). He wasn't present to receive his Academy Award in February 1953, for his portrayal of Marshal Will Kane in High Noon (1952). He asked John Wayne to accept it on his behalf. He left America and Hollywood and didn't return for 18 months.

During that time he was in Hawaii, Mexico and France and shot four films: Return to Paradise (1953), Blowing Wild (1953), Garden of Evil (1954) and Vera Cruz (1954). He formed his own production company, Baroda Productions, in 1958. In 1959 the company made three of his more unusual films: The Hanging Tree (1959), They Came to Cordura (1959) and The Wreck of the Mary Deare (1959). Was close friends with Ernest Hemingway for 20 years. Hemingway shot himself a month after Cooper's death. He declined roles in The Big Trail (1930), Stagecoach (1939) and Red River (1948). All of these were subsequently played by John Wayne . Both of his parents were immigrants to America from England. On 16 April 1958 he entered the Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital for a full face-lift and other cosmetic surgery by Dr John Converse, one of the leading plastic surgeons in America.

Newspaper articles commenting on the effects of the operation said his face now looked quite different and the procedure had not been successful. His shot from High Noon (1952) was used as a Solidarity candidates trademark of the first independent elections in Poland in June 1989 ("There's a new sheriff in town") In the spring of 1960 he had two operations, one for prostate cancer and another to remove a cancerous part of his colon. The doctors were sure that they had gotten all of it. His body strengthened and he made The Naked Edge (1961) in England, but during production he had a lot of pain in his neck and shoulders. When he returned home from England he went back to the doctor in February 1961 and it was then that he had to be told the cancer had metastasized to his lungs and bones. As he did in The Pride of the Yankees (1942) he took it in stride and said, "If it is God's will, that's all right, too." He opted not to take very much treatment. His reputation as an unthinking conservative seems largely undeserved.

Though he appeared as a "friendly witness" before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in 1947, he carefully avoided naming any people he suspected of having Communist sympathies within the Hollywood community. He later starred in High Noon (1952), a western that was an allegory for blacklisting in Hollywood, and strongly defended blacklisted screenwriter Carl Foreman from attacks by the right-wing Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals. Foreman later credited Cooper as the only major star in Hollywood who tried to help him. His mistress Patricia Neal , who did consider herself a liberal, said Gary was "conservative" but "you couldn't call him right-wing". Cooper showed a sense of humor by asking John Wayne to collect his Oscar for him in 1953, after Wayne had criticized High Noon (1952) as "anti-American". The pallbearers at the funeral were Cooper's close friends - James Stewart , Henry Hathaway , Jack Benny , William Goetz , Jerry Wald , and Charles Feldman .

Rocky and Maria walked behind the casket, alongside Cooper's 87-year-old mother Alice and his brother Arthur, as it was borne through the church to the hearse out on Santa Monica Boulevard. Among the top names of Hollywood attending the services were Norma Shearer , Dean Martin , Walter Pidgeon , Mary Pickford and Buddy Rogers , Marlene Dietrich , Randolph Scott , Joel McCrea , Frank Sinatra , Burt Lancaster , Jimmy Durante , Martha Hyer , John Wayne , Rosalind Russell , Robert Stack , Myrna Loy , Fay Wray , Joan Crawford , Maureen O'Sullivan , George Burns and Gracie Allen , Fred Astaire , Judy Garland , Bob Hope , Dinah Shore , and Karl Malden . Not one fan broke the lines to ask for an autograph. Along with Sidney Poitier , he is the most represented actor on the American Film Institute's 100 Most Inspiring Movies of All Time, with five of his films on the list. They are: Mr.

Deeds Goes to Town (1936) at #83, Sergeant York (1941) at #57, Meet John Doe (1941) at #49, High Noon (1952) at #27 and The Pride of the Yankees (1942) at #22. At the time of his terminal cancer being diagnosed towards the end of 1960, Cooper had signed to star in The Sundowners (1960) and Ride the High Country (1962). It was a testament to his durability that Charlton Heston , already a major star following The Ten Commandments (1956), was prepared to play a supporting role in The Wreck of the Mary Deare (1959). Heston was impressed that the veteran actor, 58 years old and in declining health, was still able to perform his own stunts, including being submerged underwater for long periods of time. In his book "The Actor's Life", Heston recalled he sensed early on it would be Cooper's picture but he didn't mind, because of all Cooper himself had meant to Heston, even as a child.

He underwent four hernia operations between 1951 and 1953. In the late 1950s, his voracious eating habits finally caught up with him. After decades of incomparable thinness, Cooper put on 15 lbs, pushing his weight up to 190 lbs, which on his 6'3" frame was still slender. Often cited James Stewart as his closest friend. During the 1944 presidential election the phrase, "I've been for Roosevelt before . . . but not this time!" was personally attributed to Cooper, forming the basis of full-page advertisements in major newspapers, paid for by the Republican National Committee. Cooper was extremely active on behalf of the Republican candidate, New York's governor Thomas E. Dewey . He gave speeches, did entertaining for fund raisers, met with Dewey in Los Angeles and did some personal campaigning in the film community. Whether Cooper had ever been "for Roosevelt before" is questionable. Possibly he voted for him in 1936 during the second-term landslide. If so, it was not publicly disclosed. Cooper's activities were as unpopular as Democrat Humphrey Bogart 's endorsement of Franklin D.

Roosevelt that year. The studio called in both stars and told them to stop antagonizing fans who did not share their political beliefs. In 1943 Cooper was one of the founding members of the right-wing Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals, called merely "the Alliance" in the film community. Its other early leaders included Robert Taylor , Adolphe Menjou , Sam Wood , Norman Taurog , Clarence Brown , and Walt Disney . Clark Gable , thought of as one whose apolitical inclination was even more pronounced than Cooper's, was also a member. The Alliance's cheerleader was Lela E. Rogers , mother of Ginger Rogers . In 1940, Cooper actively campaigned for Wendell Willkie as the Republican challenger to President Franklin D. Roosevelt 's quest for a third term of office. Cooper believed Roosevelt was already too powerful, and would become more so. He told Cecelia Ager though that he advocated most of the New Deal reforms and believed the GOP made a mistake by not emphasizing their intention of retaining most of them.

He said, "There's no going back to the ways of the Old Guard." Willkie, a well known womanizer, became firm friends with the actor. At first Cooper didn't want to make Friendly Persuasion (1956), not just because he felt the audience wouldn't accept him as a devout Quaker, but also because he did not want to play a father figure. This was despite the fact that he was now 55. On the set he arranged for his daughter Maria Cooper Janis to date Anthony Perkins , not seeming to realize that the young actor was gay. His lovers included Clara Bow , Evelyn Brent , Carole Lombard , Lupe Velez , Ingrid Bergman , Grace Kelly , Marlene Dietrich and Patricia Neal . Sir Cecil Beaton also claimed to have had an affair with him. He was very popular with audiences over a long period of time, his popularity exceeding that of "The King" Clark Gable himself at the box office. Named the #1 Box Office Star of 1953 in the Top 10 Poll of Money-Making Stars, as ranked by Quigley Publications' annual survey of movie exhibitors.

He made the list 18 times from 1936 to 1957, which was a record when he died in 1961. Of his contemporaries, John Wayne (who accepted Cooper's 1952 Best Actor Oscar for High Noon (1952)) established the still-standing record of Box Office success with 25 appearances in the Top 10 between 1949 and 1974. There has been much speculation over the years over whether Cooper's close friend Ernest Hemingway may have had latent homosexual tendencies. There is an easy agreement among Hemingway scholars that Papa, as he insisted Cooper should call him, was never actively homosexual, but the fact that he protested his masculinity so much in his novels and in real life has aroused suspicion. Hemingway's tendency to beautify in Cooper the qualities he found beastly in others is provocative. One Hemingway scholar maintained Papa was profoundly impressed that Cooper was such a stud. He said, "I believe that in his mind he loved Gary sexually, but I believe furthermore that Gary Cooper never once suspected it.

If I am correct, that proves the beauty of Gary's naiveté, which Papa always found so charming." In 1938 Cooper took his wife on a junket to England and the Continent, and was the last American movie star to visit Nazi Germany prior to the outbreak of World War II. Until that point he had been basically apolitical and isolationist, opposed to President Woodrow Wilson 's League of Nations. When the fateful Munich Conference immediately followed Cooper's return to America, he became increasingly active in the film community's pastime of playing national partisan politics. His allegiance to the right wing would be fairly consistent, though never a sure thing. He said he believed the US should become more involved diplomatically in world affairs but felt it was no business of Hollywood's. He said pointedly that MGM's cautiously anti-Nazi Three Comrades (1938) with its F. Scott Fitzgerald screenplay should not have been made, and that henceforth he would give more thoughtful attention to some of the film projects he was offered. In 1958 Cooper had a private audience with Pope Pius XII at the Vatican, and in the following year became a convert to Roman Catholicism.

Although Cooper dismissed the new school of actors in the 1950s as "a bunch of goof balls" and could be caustic about "the Method" advanced by the Actors Studio in New York, Lee Strasberg told everyone that Cooper was a natural Method actor, he just didn't know it. Cooper did at least admire Marlon Brando 's work, and became a producing partner with his father, Marlon Brando Sr. . On October 23, 1947, he appeared before the House Un-American Activities Committee in Washington, not under subpoena but responding to an invitation to give testimony on the alleged infiltration of Hollywood by communists. Other friendly witnesses appearing on the same day as Cooper were Robert Taylor , Robert Montgomery , George Murphy , Ronald Reagan and the aging Adolphe Menjou . Montgomery had long been active in Republican politics as a committeeman and later would serve as White House adviser during the Eisenhower administration. Murphy would serve as a Republican senator from California, with a very reactionary voting record. Reagan would become Governor of California and the national champion of extreme conservatism.

Taylor, Menjou and Cooper would all retreat gradually from the political fracas, but only Cooper would make a show of repudiating what he had done. Although he never recanted his testimony or said he regretted having been a friendly witness, he became conciliatory during the subsequent period of the blacklist. As an independent producer, he hired blacklisted actors and technicians. He did say he had never wanted to see anyone lose the right to work, regardless of what he had done. After the release of High Noon (1952), an allegory for blacklisting, he stood by its screenwriter Carl Foreman despite pressure from rabidly right-wing gossip columnist Hedda Hopper . Immediately after the HUAC appearance, the films of Cooper, Taylor, Montgomery, Murphy, Reagan and Menjou were banned first in Hungary, then in Czechoslovakia and eventually in most of the Iron Curtain countries. So were those of Ginger Rogers and, curiously, tenor Allan Jones , seen usually in minor features and certainly no militant.

On the witness stand Cooper had made light of the communists, the thrust of his testimony being that sure, they were in Hollywood just like everywhere else, but they were only a small faction giving the large patriotic body of the film community a bad name it didn't deserve. After his testimony Cooper received a standing ovation and vigorous applause. He later told Robert Taylor , "I got a much bigger hand than you did." Liberals, who never forgave the other friendly witnesses, generally made an exception for Cooper. Separated from his wife Rocky in May 1951, mainly over his affair with Patricia Neal . They did not live together again until July 1954. On January 8, 1961, he was given a testimonial dinner in Hollywood at the Friar's Club (it had nothing to do with his terminal cancer, which at the time his doctors didn't know he had). The aged Carl Sandburg was there, calling Cooper "a tradition while he's living, something of a clean sport, the lack of a phony." Audrey Hepburn read a poem called "What is a Gary Cooper?". Cooper didn't look well that night, but most observers thought he looked marvelous anyway.

His estate was valued at $9 million at the time of his death in 1961. In 1951 he organized his own production company once more, calling it Baroda, and buying the film rights to Alfred Hayes ' best-selling novel "The Girl on the Via Flaminia". He paid $40,000 for the rights and $10,000 to Hayes for a screenplay. He wanted to star in it with the young Montgomery Clift , the most popular young actor in Hollywood and also one of the best. Cooper could not arrange financing but broke even on his investment by selling the property to Leland Hayward and Anatole Litvak with the stipulation that Clift would have to star in it. The film was never made. Litvak, however, eventually made a film of The Chase (1966) much later, with Marlon Brando in the sheriff role that was being talked about in 1950 as Cooper's likely stage debut. John Hodiak took the role in Horton Foote 's play when Cooper was unable to clear time with Warner Brothers--if indeed he tried.

Although he had said previously that he would make no more biopics, he signed for The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell (1955). It was a poor Otto Preminger film and even Billy Mitchell 's widow expressed disappointment with Cooper's performance. Possibly the story had appealed to Cooper on political grounds and Mitchell may have been a hero of his--the general who accused the government of neglecting military needs. Cooper went on Ed Sullivan 's TV show to promote the film and home viewers were quite disappointed--critic David Shipman referred to Cooper's "effeminate mannerisms in his TV interviews". Ten North Frederick (1958) was originally intended as a Spencer Tracy vehicle, but Tracy withdrew due to poor health. An uncomfortable aspect of They Came to Cordura (1959) was that, besides looking far too old for his character, Cooper was looking quite ill and was actually filming against medical advice. Towards the end of the movie he was dragged 100 yards along the ground by a railroad handcar, something Stanley Kauffmann complained about in the "New Republic". In 1960, for the first time since his arrival in Hollywood, there were no new Gary Cooper pictures.

In the spring of that year he underwent several operations for prostate cancer, but in the autumn managed to film one final movie in England, The Naked Edge (1961). He was a close friend and admirer of Pablo Picasso . Turned down Foreign Correspondent (1940) and Saboteur (1942). With the critical and commercial disaster You're in the Navy Now (1951), the word got out that Cooper was finished. He couldn't even sell a good picture that was a sure-fire formula to begin with--or once had been. He had disappeared completely from the Motion Picture Herald's annual survey of the top ten box office stars. He had been on the list for nine successive years, moving up and down but always there, proof that he was still a guarantee if only as a commodity star. Now he had lost even that. As the host of It's a Big Country: An American Anthology (1951), Cooper got fabulous press coverage during filming but after a few engagements it was withdrawn out of embarrassment. It wasted a warehouse of first-rate talent: Fredric March , William Powell , Gene Kelly , Ethel Barrymore , Janet Leigh , Van Johnson , Keenan Wynn and others.

Cooper made another routine western, Distant Drums (1951), and then made the picture that would prove to be an enormous comeback vehicle for him: High Noon (1952). He was a close friend of Bing Crosby , who named his eldest son after Cooper. Turned down James Mason 's role as an aging movie star falling on hard times in A Star Is Born (1954). Was considered for Robert Mitchum 's role in The Night of the Hunter (1955). Lived with Anderson Lawler , a contract player at Paramount, in 1929. In 1968 a "Variety" magazine poll of popular television personalities still included Cooper and his one-time rival Clark Gable , even though both actors had died nearly a decade earlier. In 1925 he befriended another young, struggling, would-be actor named Walter Brennan . At one point they were even appearing as a team at casting offices, and although Cooper emerged in major and leading roles first, they would work together in the good years, too.

Most memorably they starred in The Westerner (1940) together, where the general critical consensus was that Brennan's underplayed performance as Judge Roy Bean had stolen the film from Cooper. In 1932 he was named as a supporter and benefactor of a right-wing organization known as the Hollywood Light Horse, which described itself as "a military organization formed to promote Americanism and combat Communism and radicalism subversive to Constitutional government", and which numbered English actor Victor McLaglen as one of its members. The assertion that Cooper was an active supporter was quickly withdrawn following protests by his representatives. After talking with Carl Foreman on the set of High Noon (1952), Cooper realized there had not been an attempt by Communists to infiltrate Hollywood, and later regretted his part in founding the right-wing Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals. Was considered for the role of Richard Sherman in The Seven Year Itch (1955). Writer Ayn Rand worked as an extra in Hollywood when she came to the U.S. from Russia, and she promptly became a fan of Cooper. When her novel "The Fountainhead" was made into a film, Rand was thrilled that Cooper was starring.

Cooper's speech in a courtroom is one that Rand worked on for a very long time. When filming was over, Cooper admitted to her that he hadn't understood it. Turned down Joel McCrea 's role in the Cecil B. DeMille epic Union Pacific (1939). He won an Oscar for playing Alvin C. York in Sergeant York (1941), making him one of 17 actors to win the Award for playing a real person who was still alive at the evening of the Award ceremony (as of 2015).

The other sixteen actors and their respective performances are: Spencer Tracy for playing Father Edward Flanagan in Boys Town (1938), Patty Duke for playing Helen Keller in The Miracle Worker (1962), Jason Robards for playing Ben Bradlee in All the President's Men (1976), Robert De Niro for playing Jake La Motta in Raging Bull (1980), Sissy Spacek for playing Loretta Lynn in Coal Miner's Daughter (1980)_, Jeremy Irons for playing Claus Von Bullow in Reversal of Fortune (1990), Susan Sarandon for playing Sister Helen Prejean in Dead Man Walking (1995), Geoffrey Rush for playing David Helfgott in Shine (1996), Julia Roberts for playing Erin Brockovich in Erin Brockovich (2000), Jim Broadbent for playing John Bayley in Iris (2001), Helen Mirren for playing Queen Elizabeth II in The Queen (2006), Sandra Bullock for playing Leigh Anne Tuohy in The Blind Side (2009), Melissa Leo for playing Alice Eklund-Ward in The Fighter (2010), Christian Bale for

 playing Dickie Eklund in The Fighter (2010), Meryl Streep for playing Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady (2011) and most recently Eddie Redmayne for playing Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything (2014).

He was originally supposed to play the leading role in Frank Capra 's Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), but Harry Cohn refused to loan Cooper out so James Stewart was cast instead. Met Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev at a luncheon organized by Charles Feldman at Twentieth Century-Fox on September 19, 1959. Khruschev personally invited Cooper and his wife and daughter on a six-day, United States Information Agency-sponsored trip to Moscow and Leningrad. After Cooper entertained some Soviet dignitaries at his house in Hollywood, ultra-conservative gossip columnist Hedda Hopper publicly denounced him as "soft on Commies". His mother Alice Cooper died in a Palm Desert convalescent home on 6 October 1967, at the age of 94. His brother Arthur Cooper died in May 1982, at the age of 87. In May 1974 his body was removed from Holy Cross Cemetery in Los Angeles and reburied, under a three-ton boulder from a Montauk (NY) quarry, in Sacred Heart Cemetery in Southampton, New York, near his family.

His wife explained, "Gary loved Southampton. This is what he would want". High Time (1960) was originally planned to be a vehicle for Cooper. He considered himself to be miscast in Peter Ibbetson (1935), The Adventures of Marco Polo (1938), Saratoga Trunk (1945) and Ten North Frederick (1958). In May 1931, after finishing I Take This Woman (1931), the combination of exhaustion, physical illness and the conflict between his possessive mother and jealous mistress led to a nervous breakdown. He had been working 14 to 16 hours a day, sometimes 23, making one film by day and another by night. He suffered from anemia and jaundice, and his weight dropped 30 pounds to a dangerously low 148 lbs. Was the original visual basis for pulp hero Doc Savage. Marlene Dietrich said about him: "Gary Cooper was neither intelligent nor cultured. Just like the other actors, he was chosen for his physique, which, after all, was more important than an active brain.".

Before his cancer was found to be terminal, he had intended to play James Stewart 's role in How the West Was Won (1962). His daughter, Maria Veronica Balfe Cooper, was born on September 15, 1937. She now goes by her married name, Maria Cooper Janis. He was in a car accident as a teenager that caused him to walk with a limp the rest of his life. Three years after his death, his wife married Dr. John Converse. He is the step-uncle of Brooke Shields . Her grandfather is Cooper's wife's step-father, Paul Shields. The revised 1946 lyric to Irving Berlin 's song "Puttin' On the Ritz ("Dressed up like a million-dollar trooper/Trying hard to look like Gary Cooper/Super-duper")refers to Cooper in his early sound and pre-cowboy days when he was considered the height of tall, natural American elegance.

This persona is best seen in Ernst Lubitsch 's version of Noël Coward 's play "Design for Living" ( Design for Living (1933))where he is playing a character said to be inspired by Howard Hughes , whom Cooper very much resembled. Although he was in failing health, his friend, director Henry Hathaway , had arranged to use him in his segments of How the West Was Won (1962). Upon his death, James Stewart , his best friend, accepted the role. His father, an English immigrant to Montana who became a wealthy lawyer and rancher, was a judge on the Montana Supreme Court. Born Frank Cooper, he changed his first name to Gary at the suggestion of his agent, Nan Collins, whose hometown was Gary, Indiana. Pictured on a 44¢ USA commemorative postage stamp in the Legends of Hollywood series, issued 10 September 2009. Often played the love interest of a significantly younger woman. A notable example is High Noon (1952) in which he and Grace Kelly played newlyweds. He was 51 and she was 22.

In November 1955 Cooper was announced to star under the direction of Gerd Oswald in The Proud Ones (1956). Eventually the film was directed by Robert D. Webb with Robert Ryan in the leading role. In 1974, Cooper's body was removed from Holy Cross Cemetary and reburied under a three ton boulder at Sacred Heart Cemetery in Southampton, Long Island. His wife explained, " Gary loved Southapton. This is what he would want.". According to James Garner 's autobiography Cooper developed the habit of paying for everything by check, knowing that people would keep it for his signature and never cash it (it was a trick also used by Pablo Picasso , who once said he had seldom paid for anything--from lunches to cars to houses--because of it. He played several military characters from the World War I era. Ironically, this ranged from the real-life Alvin C. York , the most decorated U.S. soldier from the Great War, in Sergeant York (1941) to the fictional Maj. Thomas Thorne, a cavalry officer accused of cowardice under fire in They Came to Cordura (1959). Was an acting mentor to Kirk Douglas .

The word "obey" was removed from the traditional marriage vow taken by he and wife Veronica in 1933. They reportedly had an "open marriage". He was a lifelong heavy smoker. He got the name 'Gary' from his agent Nan Collins who knew that there were other actors named Frank Cooper and got the name from her hometown of Gary, Indiana. During the filming of 'Morocco (1930)', he was treated dismissively by director Josef von Sternberg. Tensions came to a head after von Sternberg yelled directions at Cooper in German. The 6"3-inch actor approached the 5"4 director, physically picked him up by the collar and said, "If you expect to work in this country you'd better get on to the language we use here. Spent two years at the Dunstable Grammar School in Bedfordshire, England. He was originally a painter and artist and had sought to pursue that as a career. His drawings and watercolors were exhibited throughout the dormitory in college, and he was named art editor for the college yearbook. In fact, he started work as an extra with the intention of making money to attend an art course.

He never intended to become an actor and only began after meeting two friends from Montana when he first came to Los Angeles and, after working a series of odd jobs, was set up with a casting director who gave him work as an extra for five dollars a day and a rider for twice that amount. His intention was to save up enough for an Art course. Personal Quotes (46) Until I came along all the leading men were handsome, but luckily they wrote a lot of stories about the fellow next door. If you hit the mark with two out of every five movies you'll keep the wheels of the cycle turning. To get folks to like you, I figured you had to sort of be their ideal. I don't mean a handsome knight riding a white horse, but a fellow who answered the description of a right guy. People ask me how come you've been around so long. Well, it's through playing the part of Mr Average Joe American. [in 1931] I haven't read a half a dozen books in my life. [February, 1942, accepting his Academy Award for Sergeant York (1941) from James Stewart ] It was Sergeant Alvin York [ Alvin C.

York ] who won this award. Because to the best of my ability, I tried to be Sergeant York. Shucks, I've been in the business 16 years and sometimes dreamed I might get one of these things. That's all I can say . . . Funny, when I was dreaming I always made a good speech. [on banning the Communist party in the US] I think it would be a good idea, although I have never read Karl Marx and I don't know the basis of Communism, beyond what I have picked up from hearsay. From what I hear, I don't like it because it isn't on the level. [in April 1961] Please make sure everyone knows how much their messages mean to me. They have added greatly to my peace of mind. I only wish some of the writers would take a more positive approach to the menace of cancer. I've got it, sure; but I'm not afraid to use the word. Some of them act like it's a dirty word. That's the wrong attitude. We should all bring it out in the open, recognize that it exists - and fight it! Cancer is everybody's enemy.

We can't "think" an enemy out of existence by ignoring it. [1956] A man like Arthur Miller , he's got a gripe against certain phases of American life. I think he's done a lot of bad. Ours is a pretty good country and I don't think we ought to run it down. Sure there are fellows like Willy Loman, but you don't have to write plays about them. My whole career has been one of extreme good fortune. I think I'm an average actor . . . In acting you can do something and maybe . . . some people think it's fine, but you know inside of you that it can be done better . . . You don't feel that you really attained a goal in the acting business; you always feel that you're still learning. Nan Collins, my manager, came from Gary, Indiana, and suggested I adopt that name. She felt it was more exciting than Frank. I figured I'd give it a try. Good thing she didn't come from Poughkeepsie. The only achievement I am really proud of is the friends I have made in this community. I don't like to see exaggerated airs and exploding egos in people who are already established.

No player ever rises to prominence solely on talent. They're molded by forces other than themselves. They should remember this - and at least twice a week drop to their knees and thank Providence for elevating them from cow ranches, dime store ribbon counters and bookkeeping desks. I suppose one of the most important things about real beauty is intelligence, and real womanliness - it's a combination of intelligence and all the instincts of womanhood, motherhood, and the beauty of girlhood. These things all sort of go in together, and they are in so many people who are not reputed beauties. [on his fellow actors] I've been with some good ones, but maybe the best was Franchot Tone . I made two pictures with him and he stole both of them. Something went wrong with how he was handled; or who knows, maybe it was Joan Crawford . But he had everything - great at comedy and also at serious stuff if given the chance. Now The Lives of a Bengal Lancer (1935) is one hell of a picture, but you could take me right out of it and it would still be one. But it couldn't be much without Tone.

[on Sergeant York (1941)] I liked the role because I was portraying a good, sound American character. You've got to have a fire under you, and when you're beginning, you've got one all the time. After you get established, you have to create your own fire, and it's never easy. All this business about me never saying anything is a piece of crap. [asked if he ever wanted to act on the stage] Not since I was at Grinnell. When I gave them the story that I was trying to do a Broadway play, I must have been desperate for publicity. I figured it didn't matter what I said. I learned very early that nothing you ever say gets quoted verbatim by the press. So for many years I may have clammed up, but I guess I've reached an age where I don't particularly care. Anyway, I talk. I put in a call to Clark Gable to tell him about some deer I'd heard were running loose up in the Canadian Rockies. I was told he was on location . . . in Hong Kong. I called Robert Taylor . He was on location, too, in Italy, unless he had finished there and gone to England.

James Stewart was in Africa. In the old days a company that went as far away as Texas was thought to be forsaking civilization for good. Today these countries are just part of the Hollywood scene and it's as [ William Shakespeare said, "All the world's a stage". Naturalness is hard to talk about, but I guess it boils down to this: You find out what people expect of your type of character and then you give them what they want. That way an actor never seems unnatural or affected no matter what role he plays. [in 1960] People hang on after they should quit, because the urge to act stays with you. Sometimes in the middle of a scene I find myself saying a piece of dialog from 15 years ago. I've thought of retiring lots of times, but then I think I would just go nuts, and probably spend all my time searching for a really great Western script. [on Cary Grant ] I say he's a crack comedian, and isn't competition for me at all. [after visiting Nazi Germany in 1938] There's no question in my mind that those people want to have a war.

They're determined to be a world power and seem to feel that's the only way to become one. Those storm troopers are awesome. The atmosphere in Berlin - well, I've never sensed such tension. I've had lines on my face since I was twenty. Wind and sun put them there. In my whole life I've never had a woman so much in love with me as Ingrid Bergman was. The day after the picture [ For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943) ended, I couldn't get her on the phone. [after Clark Gable ended up with the role of Rhett Butler in Gone with the Wind (1939)] "Gone with the Wind" is going to be the biggest flop in history. [October 1947] I have turned down quite a few scripts because I thought they were tinged with Communistic ideas. [1960] Nothing I've done lately, the past eight years or so, has been especially worthwhile. I've been coasting along. Some of the pictures I've made recently I'm genuinely sorry about. Either I did a sloppy job in them, or the story wasn't right.

[1952] I like and admire Carl Foreman and am delighted to be in business with him. [in 1958, on "Method" actors] It is hard to dig them because they move like hermit crabs - they have to have a shell to crawl into and they don't want anyone to get to know them . . . They are offbeat and strange and always thinking about themselves. They are always asking themselves, "Where do I fit in; what's in it for me?" These youngsters are doing it the hard way. They make a thorough study of being natural and being unnatural. The girls go around looking like they're made up for a death scene in a hospital room. I don't know why if a girl goes out in public she wants to make herself look ugly instead of a little bit attractive. Naturally, the nearer the character you play comes to the character you are, the more authenticity you give it. You are not acting so much as being. The result is realism. Movie acting is a pretty silly business for a man because it takes less training, less ability and less brains to be successful in it than any other business I can think of.

Having to work hard never had any real appeal for me, and that may have some connection with me being in the movies. [on Hollywood] This is a terrible place to spend your life in. Nobody in Hollywood is normal. Absolutely nobody. And they have such a vicious attitude toward one another . . . They say much worse things about each other than outsiders say about them, and nobody has any real friends. [October 1947] I feel very strongly that actors haven't any business at all to shoot their faces off about things I know we know very little about. [following a 1943 USO tour to New Guinea] There's no coin in Hollywood, rich as it is, that can pay a fellow the way I've been paid for my little effort on behalf of the G.I.s out there. It was the greatest emotional experience of my life. [to Robert Taylor after both had appeared before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1947] I got a much bigger hand than you did. (at a Friars Club testimonial dinner in 1961) If you asked me if I'm the luckiest guy in the world, all I can say is, "Yup".

[on Rio Bravo (1959)] It's so phony, nobody believes in it. [on Josef von Sternberg ] It was apparent that von Sternberg and Marlene Dietrich had a very close professional relationship. But it was only, in my experience, professional, without any love element. I got along with von Sternberg reasonably well, as all his direction and his instructions were given to Marlene, and the rest of us were left more or less to do as well as we could. I cannot remember that he ever told me how to play a scene. [on Grace Kelly ] She was very serious about her work, had her eyes and ears open. She was trying to learn, you could see that. You can tell if a person really wants to be an actress. She was one of those people you could get that feeling about, and she was very pretty. It didn't surprise me when she was a big success. [on turning down the role of Rhett Butler in Gone with the Wind (1939)] Rhett Butler was one of the best roles ever offered in Hollywood and my screen character saw himself emerging from the film as a dashing-type fellow. But I said no.

I didn't see myself as quite that dashing, and later, when I saw Clark Gable play the role to perfection, I knew I was right. [23 October 1947] Several years ago, when communism was more of a social chit-chatter in parties for offices, and so on when communism didn't have the implications that it has now, discussion of communism was more open and I remember hearing statements from some folks to the effect that the communistic system had a great many features that were desirable. It offered the actors and artists - in other words, the creative people - a special place in government where we would be somewhat immune from the ordinary leveling of income. And as I remember, some actor's name was mentioned to me who had a house in Moscow which was very large - he had three cars, and stuff, with his house being quite a bit larger than my house in Beverly Hills at the time - and it looked to me like a pretty phony come-on to us in the picture business. From that time on, I could never take any of this pinko mouthing very seriously, because I didn't feel it was on the level. Once in a while I like a good western.

Gives me a chance to shoot off guns. For me the really satisfying things I do are offered me, free, for nothing. Ever go out in the fall and do a little hunting? See the frost on the grass and the leaves turning? Spend a day in the hills alone, or with good companions? Watch a sunset and a moon rise? Notice a bird in the wind? A stream in the woods, a storm at sea, cross the country by train, and catch a glimpse of something beautiful in the desert, or the farmlands? Free to everybody. Salary (75) Meet the Cooper — Past & Present Podcasts : Colonial Williamsburg Official Site Transcript Harmony Hunter: Hi, welcome to the podcast. I'm Harmony Hunter. Colonial Williamsburg's Historic Area is alive with working tradesmen and women who practice 18th-century trades every day. Among them is Ramona Vogel, who is a cooper. A barrel might seem like a simple enough object, but she's worked for years to master the trade. Ramona, thank you for being here. Ramona Vogel: Thank you for having me. Harmony: You're a cooper in Colonial Williamsburg today.

Tell me a little bit about the cooper's trade. Ramona: The cooper's trade is such an important trade in our past and history that's really pretty much been forgotten unless you're in anything still dealing with spirits, wine and that industry. But it was so much a part of everyday life as well as the economy, mercantile system overall. Because a cooper is the one who's going to be making all the barrels for shipping all of your different goods. Not just beer and wine and spirits like we tend to think of it today, but all of your food products. So here in Virginia in the 18th century, of course all of the grains that we're producing here and shipping back to England, some of that wheat being ground into flour, of course tobacco, we all talk about tobacco here quite a bit. All those are being put into casks that are made by a cooper and shipped back. Then all the stuff we're importing: china, shoes and hats and glassware. All of that stuff would be coming in different sized barrels. Harmony: You mentioned a whole lot of things that are shipped in barrels, from wet to dry. Why barrels? Why not crates or glass bottles for some of the liquids?

What is it about a barrel that really makes it the first choice? Ramona: Well a barrel, and of course, we don't know who first invented it and whether it was a graduation of people that really refined it, but it is even today still considered the strongest wooden structure made by man. They've even tested it, there's been television shows on it where they've had them falling off buildings, and every time they would loosen up the hoops to see where finally that breaking point is. So it is really such a strong structure, much stronger than a box. You have that continual compound arch and the pressure so you kind of think of each individual piece is a keystone. If you're familiar with architectural language at all and how strong that structure is. And of course, the conveniences of rolling it. You don't think about it with a box, because everything we think of today, when we're going to have to move a bunch of stuff, you pack up your house, you put it in a box, and then it goes now into a big truck or a forklift because we have forklifts today. But back then, you don't, so you were rolling these barrels.

You're going to be unloading the ship at high tide, using gravity. Loading a ship at low tide, using pulleys, as they've been around for a long time. But you've still got to get the item on to the pulley mechanism. So rolling it and being able to steer it because of that belly and being able to push on one side to another. So very versatile moveable container. Harmony: Let's talk about some of these, I guess they're properly called "casks." Ramona: "Casks" is a very general term. "Barrel" is not. We tend to think about that a lot today as people come in to the shop and say, "Look at all the barrels here." And it's pretty rare that we actually have a barrel in the shop. We have a variety of different casks. What we tend to look at today in a modern viewpoint is when we look at a container, we think of a barrel as anything that has that widest area being a belly, tapering to either end. A barrel is a size. It's not a shape. A cask is a general term, cooperage would be a general term for all these goods.

But a barrel is a size, and that barrel will change. You get into, we'll say just beer size measurements. You have four standard beer measures in the 18th century, and it does vary as we move along through time. But the smallest common shipping size would be a firkin. That would ship nine gallons of beer. A kilderkin would ship 18 gallons. So it doubles. Then a beer barrel would ship 36 gallons, and a beer hogshead would ship 72 gallons. So you do see a change where a hogshead of beer would ship 54 gallons, but it's a set size. So you can see how you can't call a firkin a barrel, because it's a total different size measure. So it would really mess with economic systems and what you're getting as a consumer or as the actual merchant. Harmony: Let's talk about how you make a cask. Where does it start? Ramona: The apprenticeship still is an average of six to seven years here at Colonial Williamsburg to learn the trade similar to how it was back then.

The big thing you're going to learn in that apprenticeship is learning to see all those correct shapes and angles, tapers, all of that by eye. And that's a really hard concept for us to think of, because everything's so mechanized for us in the modern era. You plug in a few numbers, and it calculates it for you. So we don't really think about doing things visually anymore. It's very hard for people to understand and justify that that's really what we're doing. But the convenience of it, if you can do that, and accomplish that skill, it's so much faster to make that container. Because I'll ask you. How long do you think it would take a skilled cooper to make a bucket? Harmony: A bucket . . . a week? Ramona: One hour. I mean, that's how much more efficient it is. The week is a very common answer we'll get from people. That's not surprising to me at all.

But the convenience of being able to learn how to cut all those pieces, not continually having to put a different jig on a particular tool, sharpening that tool, to fit that jig and changing all of that, getting rid of all of that time and just being able to maneuver your hand and visualize what you need to cut that particular piece of wood to fit into that particular diameter of hoop. Being able to visualize that cuts down that time dramatically. A big thing that's important is you don't cut a bunch of staves for 50 buckets. You make one bucket complete, then you make another one. So you're not having those pieces sitting there on the chance that those shapes that you just cut are going to change and you'll have to go back and re-cut them. So that's one thing. And even then that was the process. You make one complete, then you work on another one. So you're getting it to that tight fit. As a cooper it is visual, as I've mentioned. You're going to see those correct shapes, but it's also tactile: feeling how the wood's cutting with that blade. I think that's a big difference between hand tools and machinery. You're not going to feel that same process.

You're still going to feel and hear if a machine if it's not working, but it is different. You also, when you're working with a piece and you're hammering those hoops on, a big trick of it is getting the ability of hearing the correct sound or pitch that it should be making if everything is fitting as it should and there is not an area that is not snug. You actually hear a different sound to it. So if, by chance, there was something you missed visually, then you should still be able to hear it. Harmony: Beyond the tools of your eyes and your hands and your ears, what are the other tools that you reach for every day? Ramona: We have a number of tools that are very specialized to our trade. There are about two dozen tools that we'll use in the process. There are definitely ones that we use more often than others. I would say the most common tools that we're going to be using are going to be the drawknives. There are three different drawknives that we use. We use a drawknife called a backing knife, and that's used for shaping the back of the stave, cutting that arc shape into it.

You have a hollowing knife which is going to cut the concave shape on the interior of the stave. You're also going to use a jointed plane which is going to cut the angle and taper on either side. That is a stationary plane. As far as I know we're the only trade that used a stationary plane in this period of time. It wasn't until later that electric joiners come about, which, a cooper's joiner is kind of the grandfather of. They stay stationary; we move the piece of wood across it. So we're different in that aspect. The other drawknife I hadn't mentioned is a heading knife that's used for cutting when we're making what we call the heads. But nobody understands that so I'll change that terminology. When you're making the bottoms, or tops, or lids. That is another drawknife that's used. So there is the three. A cooper's hammer is a little different than a blacksmith hammer. A cooper's hammer is typically going to be a little heavier because the work that we do and the metalwork that we do is cold work. It is not heated. Then it's just also the weight of the hammer we're using for hammering the hoops on so tight.

So it is a versatile tool throughout the process. It has a straight peen on it as well, so it's a little different than a blacksmith's hammer. Then we have something called a driver that actually, the lip of the driver actually rests on the hoop and that's the driver that you actually hammer onto with your cooper's hammer. Then you have, there's a number of tools. Another tool a lot of people hear about is a tool called a croze, and that's c-r-o-z-e. That's used for cutting the groove in the bottom. That's how the bottom fits into place. That's how that's fitting into that groove. So that's a tool very specific to our trade. A cooper's broadaxe is different than a hewing axe or other broadaxes in other trades. It's off-center and it's at a taper. We'll rough out those staves before we take them to the joiner plane. So there's a number of tools that I've touched on, but those are the ones that we use quite frequently and have to be used through each process. Harmony: One of my favorite things about historic trades is how it's an economy unto itself.

You see George Washington wearing the shoes that were made by the shoemaker, you see Patrick Henry wearing the wig that was made from the wigmakers. Where throughout the town will you see the evidence of the cooper's trade? Ramona: You will see evidence of the cooper's trade everywhere. Every shop you go into. Sometimes you may not see it, because you're not looking for it, but it's there. You go into the shoemakers, they have tubs that they are putting the leather in to soften when they are making soles and working with all of this and working it to a certain shape. You go into the kitchens, they've got to wash dishes, they've got slop buckets, they have salt tubs when they are salting meats. You go into the gunpowder magazine, they've got all the gunpowder would have been in barrels. So you've got cooperage all throughout the gunpowder magazine. You go to any of these buildings in the Historic Area, you go into the cellars of the Governor's Palace, you're going to see barrels that we've made.

You go over to Great Hopes, that rural farm site, and you're going to see tobacco hogsheads that we've made, grain barrels that are actually filled with grain over there. So there's a number of areas, because for these trades to function, accurately to the 18th century which is what we're all about, they need to have cooperage to do it accurately. So we're kind of a neat trade that everybody needs our items to utilize to function accurately to the time period. It's nice to have a sterling silver coffeepot, but not everybody needs it. It's beautiful and it's stunning, but not everyone needs it. Where everyone needs our stuff to function. Harmony: We hope all of our listeners will make it by the coopers shop to see you and your fellow coopers making all kinds of casks. Ramona, thank you so much for being our guest today. Ramona: Thank you. Barrel making Search billions of records on Ancestry.com Cooper or Barrel maker On early census records an occupation listed was "Cooper." I thought it might be fun to let you see what your ancestor did for a living if he was thus employed.

Having read many pages on the subject, I set forth, here a synopis of the vocation, trusting that you will folow links for more reading. If anyone would like to add to this, please feel free to write the Baker Block Museum. You will find many of the tools for this trade at the museum. Enjoy! Cooper - n. - a person whose work is making or repairing barrels and casks (Webster" New World Dictionary). Cooperage, from same source indicates it is the workshop of or work done by a Cooper. For a first-rate look at the process go to: In the 1800s in Europe as well as in our fledgling country a man skilled at making barrels was an important person. Many goods were shipped and stored in barrels (also called casks, tuns, kegs or hogsheads depending on the area of the world and the size of the container). We often think in terms of wine or whiskey when we think of the things likely to be contained in a barrel. But, all sorts of foods were stored in barrels. Sauerkraut was fermented and stored in them. Fish, meats and some vegetables were dried and salted then stored and transported in them.

Most any item that could be stored for a length of time would be stored in a barrel to keep out vermin. Fragile items such as eggs would be packed in them among layers of straw to keep them cooler as well as to keep them from breaking. Barrels were great -- they could be rolled down ship gangplanks; have wheels and handles attached to them so a man could cart them about; be strapped onto a pack animal; be strapped together to float behind a raft down a river. One could bury them in a stream or cool earth as refrigerating units. They have been cut in half to feed or water stock, make a cradle for a child, or act as a large mixing bowl for any number of reasons. They were made of any tree that could be worked. Oak was the preferred wood for wine and whiskey casks as the grain is fine and the containers could more easily be made waterproof. Modified, they become butter churns, buckets and wash tubs. One of the biggest uses for barrels in Northwest Florida in the nineteenth century was in the Turpentine Industry. Differing sized barrels were necessary for the storage and shipping of the products (called Naval Stores), pitch, tar, turpentine and such.

Most of the larger camps had their own Cooper, often trained by his father or grandfather. Many were Scots while some were blacks who had been taught by the barrel maker on the plantation where they lived. These men were skilled technicians, fashioning barrels from raw wood through many processes. Often they had to fell a tree, cut it into boards, fashion the correctly sized and shaped staves for a particular type of barrel and dry the wood before they could even start building a barrel. A keen eye was needed to assure there were no knots or weak grain in the wood used. Each stave must be strong and well made. Selecting the right tree for the job was quite a knack and took a lot of experience. Staves had to be planned for smoothness on the outside and slightly cupped inside. The Bevel on their edges must be precise or they would neither fit together nor hold water. Also the tapering of each stave is critical to its fit. Hoops were made by the local blacksmith. (Earlier barrels were made with wooden hoops.) Staves were soaked so they could be curved properly. Some barrels were burned inside while others might be sealed with glue or pitch.

Any that were to be used for food storage, needed to be relatively airtight (tight cooperage) so sealing material would not contaminate foodstuffs. "Slack cooperage" refers to containers that were not tight but would be fine for flour, grains and other non-liquids. There is a very interesting book called "The 'Possum Hunter and the Tar Heels" -- historical novel of post Civil War days. The author, James S. Willoughby experienced many of the things he writes about and fills in with research on things which he does not know about. "Mr. Willoughby has earned his living largely as a self employed turpentine operator . . . running a sawmill and pulpwood operation . . ." Willoughby tells about the turpentine industry's use of barrels and a cooper's trick to keep the staves from falling apart before the hoops were secured on each end of the barrel. The cooper made a "barrel" that was shorter and a bit smaller in diameter than the one he would be making. He then used this form to prop up the staves, placing them all around the form and then drawing a hoop down over the ends.

He then turned the staves up the other way over the form and drew another hoop over that end. To understand the process, you might try taking a bunch of sticks and placing them next to one another in a circle, trying to keep them from falling until you can gather them together with a hoop. It is not easy! Barrel parts are: Stave - the specially shaped board which with 24 to 36 of its kind makes the body Hoop - circle of iron; several are used to hold the barrel together. Each is driven onto the barrel with the Hoop Driver and a hammer. Head - top or bottom of barrel generally made of several staves cut to size Croze - groove about an inch and a half below the rim in which the head sits or the tool (below) for making this groove

Question: What would you expect a cooper to make?
Answer: Barrels