Helen Gibson

Helen Gibson
Gibson circa 1920
Born	Rose August Wenger (1892-08-27)August 27, 1892 Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.
Died	October 10, 1977(1977-10-10) (aged 85) Roseburg, Oregon, U.S.
Occupation	actress, stuntwoman, trick rider, film producer
Spouse(s)	Hoot Gibson (1913–1920) Clifton Johnson (1935–1977)

Helen Gibson (August 27, 1892 – October 10, 1977) was an American film actress, vaudeville performer, radio performer, film producer, trick rider and rodeo performer; and is considered to be the first American professional stunt woman.

Born Rose August Wenger in Cleveland, Ohio; one of five girls to Swiss-German parents, Fred and Annie Wegner. 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 a Miller Brothers 101 Ranch ad for girl riders in Billboard magazine. They taught her to ride, and she performed in her first 101 Ranch Real Wild West Show in St. Louis in April 1910. Said Helen: "( I ) was already practicing picking up a hand-kerchief 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, CA. Thomas H. Ince, who was producing for the New 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 in Topanga Canyon, where the films were being shot. In 1912 she made $15 a week for her first billed role as Ruth Roland's sister in Ranch 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 his ranch outside of Pendleton, Oregon, Helen worked his horses every day, and learned new forms of trick riding. It was in Pendleton in June 1913 that she met Edmund Richard "Hoot" Gibson (1892-1962). They began working together, and at a rodeo in Salt Lake City they won everything – the relay race, the standing woman race, trick riding, and Hoot won the pony express race; but the promoter of the rodeo skipped town and they didn’t get a cent of the prize money.