Doggin' It

Norman went on to make six feature films in total. He then stayed in the business, buying and distributing race films (including Micheaux's work) and other black-oriented fare (such as reels of Joe Louis and Henry Armstrong fights). Pickett continued to tour and work until his death, at age 62, in 1932. By the time of his death he was said to have "dogged" more than 6,000 animals; he died at the ranch after an altercation with a bucking horse.

Pickett was all but forgotten after his death, though he has slowly received his props as biographers have begun to unearth his story. In 1971, he was inducted into the Rodeo Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City, the first African-American so honored. In 1993, the U.S. Postal Service decided to pay tribute by producing a stamp of Pickett for their "Legends of the West" series. It was a nice idea - except that the picture they selected was of Bill's younger brother, Ben. Thankfully, the poster from The Bull-Dogger - with Pickett, his hat tilted back, looking full of piss and vinegar - has survived.

Today, Pickett's legend endures mainly through the Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo. Lu Vason, a Denver-based music promoter, founded the all-black tour in 1984 after noticing how few black cowboys compete for the Professional Rodeo Cowboy Association, the big-time rodeo circuit. The Bill Pickett makes 10 stops annually and includes events for both men and women. (The invitational will be at the Los Angeles Equestrian Center in Burbank this weekend.)

Like Pickett himself, the show is about busting stereotypes. "The Bill Pickett Invitational is about exposing and eliminating the myth that there were no blacks involved in the development of the West," says Vason. "In the West, there were blacks involved, and yet they're left out of the folklore of America. Jesse James had two blacks riding with him, but nobody knows about that."

And, after years of excluding African-American cowboys in the movies, Hollywood now seems to be interested in filming the Bill Pickett story. Harry Cannon, an independent producer and the president of Sherman Oaks-based Ryanmac Productions, has readied a script about Pickett's life (he says he'd like Delroy Lindo to play the cowboy). All Cannon is waiting for is the money. "Bill Pickett's life was so incredible. The trouble," says Cannon, "is how do you squeeze it down to two hours?"