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A little Cajun boy from deep in
Louisiana
decided early in his young life to pursue the road of
a cowboy and became a noted rodeo clown and
bullfighter of all time.
Known as Kajun Kidd he was one of the premier
cowboy-savers in the rodeo arena and one of the most
honored since his retirement, which is a measurement
of his expertise and professionalism.
His real name is Dudley J. Gaudin. His
story is unusual because during a long, thirty year
career in the arena facing eight to fifteen fierce,
‘ready to kill something’ attitude bulls a
performance he incurred relatively few injuries while
protecting bull riders.
Born in
Baton Rouge
,
Louisiana
,
October 28, 1929
, Dudley J. Gaudin’s mother died when he was only
thirteen months old.
Being the sixth child of that union, it was not
unusual for his father to remarry and another seven
children were born to this second union.
As a youngster in the midst of twelve siblings
Dudley found the stockyards in
Baton Rouge
as an entertaining place to go.
He often skipped Catholic mass on Sunday
to go break a few horses and mules instead.
It was not uncommon for his step-mother to quiz
him about the priest, just to see if he had attended
mass as he had said – “Was he wearing glasses?
What color was his robe?”
When
Dudley
couldn’t answer correctly he
found himself in trouble most every Sunday.
At
fifteen he and friend, Ted Fries, joined the Texas J.
Davis Wild West Show and traveled through
Mississippi
,
Alabama
,
Florida
and
Georgia
. They did
whatever they were told to do – they rode broncs,
helped ‘set up’ at each town, helped others ready
their acts. The
show finally ended up in
Wharton
,
Texas
, and Kajun said, “We got tired of eating corn
flakes and water so we left.”
He then started riding bulls and going from
rodeo to rodeo. He
joined the Rodeo Cowboys Association in 1948 for $10.
At
a rodeo in
Dayton
,
Texas
, the rodeo clown did not show up and Dudley, who was
always full of energy and quite a cut-up was asked to
fill in. He
enjoyed the task of rodeo clown and bullfighter and
realized, “Hey, I can get paid for this.”
He began working amateur rodeos as a rodeo
clown/bullfighter, as
well as rodeos through the Southwest Association.
Eventually he quit competing and concentrated
solely on his rodeo clowning chores.
Bobby Estes, well-known rodeo producer, saw him
work and offered him all his Estes rodeos
for $100 a performance, which was very good money at
that time. Kajun
worked for Estes for about two years, until at
San Saba
,
Texas
, Everett Colborn, the premier rodeo producer, was
there with his daughter, Carolyn, who was performing
her horse act. “Stay
and watch this kid clown,” said one of the cowboys
to Colborn, but he said he had to leave.
The following year Kajun received a telephone
call from Colborn offering him
Madison
Square
Garden
and Boston Gardens Rodeos, two of the top in the
nation at that time.
The Kajun Kidd and Buck LeGrand, the barrelman,
went to
New York
. They
thought they were in ‘high cotton’, riding the
‘rodeo train’ from Dublin, Texas; having cowboy
Bugs Yale tend to their mules as they traveled;
stopping in Fort Madison, Iowa, and resting the stock
and having a rodeo while there; staying
in the Belvedere Hotel, across the street from Madison
Square Garden when they arrived in New York City.
When they got to the dressing room at
Madison
Square
Garden
there was a note tacked on the door – “Clowns, report
to Frank Moore, General Manager”. Kajun
and Buck began to sweat, what did he want?
They hadn’t done anything yet.
They high-tailed it over to his office and
knocked on the door.
When they went in
Moore
was sitting behind a big desk, smoking a huge cigar,
he looked like bad business, thought these funnymen.
Everett Colborn was sitting next to him.
Moore
said, “So you’re the clowns? (Long
pause – total silence).
You don’t look very damn funny to
me?” Kajun
said, “Well, we don’t have our make-up on yet.”
And
Moore
continued by glaring at them and saying, “I’ll
tell you boys one thing.
I hired you ‘sight unseen’.
If you ain’t no good -------“ (he took his
thumb, held it up and motioned it toward the door)
---“Out you go!”
Kajun and Buck were stunned, speechless.
Colborn responded by saying, “Now Mr. Moore,
if you don’t like them, I’ll pay their contract.
Just give them a chance.
Everything
was going well as far as Kajun and Buck could tell.
They were a big hit in the parade and at each
performance they worked with the bulls well and were
getting plenty of laughs.
Five or six performances in to the thirty-five
performance
Madison
Square
Garden
rodeo, which was truly a ‘major production, and the
premier rodeo of the country, another
note appeared on the rodeo clown dressing room door.
“Clowns, report to Frank Moore’s
office.” Kajun
and Buck looked at one another and thought “Oh, oh,
what have we done now.
Guess we are going to get to go home.”
When they arrived at
Moore
’s office, there he was, sitting behind that big
desk, with that ever-present cigar in his mouth.
When they got inside
Moore
said, “You boys are going to get killed.
You aren’t going to last thirty-five
performances!” They
assured him they were all right, in good health and
would last through all the performances.
They ended up working the illustrious
New York
rodeo from 1954 through the last one held at
Madison
Square
Garden
in 1959, just prior to the first National Finals
Rodeo.
Kajun
worked the
Houston
rodeo for twenty-five years.
He worked
San Antonio
for twenty-four years.
Those early years were primarily with Colborn
and his World Championship Rodeo, however, he filled
other open dates with jobs for Harry Knight, Billy
Minick, Mike Cervi, Beutler Brothers, Cotton Rosser
and worked for Tommy Steiner for many years.
He worked
with practically all the other rodeo clowns of his
day, such as; John Lindsey, Slim Pickens, Wilbur
Plaugher, Joaquin Sanchez, Quail Dobbs, Shorty
Meadows, Ken Boen, Bunky Boger, John Routh, Mac Barry,
Billy Keen, Pete Peterson, Wick Peth, Jimmy
Schumacher, George Doak – just to name a few.
When
asked if he ever had any animals for his acts, he
listed a string of ‘critters’ like his poodle dog,
and his mule, of course.
But the one he remembers most fondly was Ronny,
his eighteen month old chimpanzee.
Kajun did not realize how attached Ronny would
become to him, and it didn’t take long to realize
that the chimp did not like being left alone.
Kajun said, “Once we got through working we
would have to go to the motel room and watch TV.
Ronny would lay on the bed with me and was
perfectly content.
But if I wanted to go someplace and leave him
there he didn’t like it one bit.”
Kajun remembered that it was always such a
treat to be at home and take Ronny and his three boys
to the park to play with the neighborhood children.
Everyone including Ronny would be sliding down
the slide, swinging, doing all the things children
like to do, and Ronny was right in the middle.
One time Kajun had to go to a rodeo and
left Ronny home with his wife.
They had eighty chickens and his wife gathered
eggs every day, and put them in a basket on top of the
refrigerator. One
day, just after the eggs had been gathered Ronny got a
stool, climbed up on it so he could reach the eggs and
dropped each one to the floor from the top of the
refrigerator. “We
both got in to trouble over that,” laughed the
retired funnyman.
When
reviewing the tough bulls and ‘near scrapes’ Kajun
remembered, “Mr. Colborn, was a smart man, he told
me in my early days ‘Kajun ‘let the bull win’,
in order to
sell the bullfighting.
And sometimes they really did win!”
Kajun had his foot broken, a few ribs broken,
he says his arm is still crooked, and he has had both
knees operated on, but he feels lucky he didn’t have
anything worse. He
also remembered the first time he ever met George
Mills, well known rodeo clown that was nearing
retirement when Kajun started out.
“When I told George I wanted to be a rodeo
clown he said, ‘Take a long, slow run at it, kid.
A lot of guys get crippled along the way’.”
Dudley
Gaudin lost his wife of forty-two years, and mother of
his boys, but
was fortunate enough to meet Ruth Schumacher and they
eventually married.
They now live in Spring Branch,
Texas
, just a little north of
San Antonio
, and are truly enjoying their combined families.
The children and grandchildren, now numbering
19, are all fairly close and they visit a lot.
When recounting his rodeo career the Kajun Kidd
said, “I’ve had a good life, and a good family.
I was successful in what I did, made lots of
friends including lots of cowboys and movie stars.
I wanted to be the best.”
The
Kajun Kidd was inducted in to the ProRodeo Hall of
Fame, the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Hall
of Fame, the Texas Rodeo Cowboy Hall of Fame at
Belton, the Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame at Fort Worth,
was also honored at the Cow Palace in San Francisco
with a plaque claiming him to be ‘the best
bullfighter in the business’, and
has had special honors bestowed on him recently at the
Houston, the San Antonio, and the Fort Worth rodeos.
I would say there are many people who believe
he is one of the best!
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