Nevada lieutenant governor and former actor Rex Bell (holding trophy) presents Bill Hill, representing Dimitri Tiomkin and Columbia Records, with a Western Heritage Award trophy for Outstanding Western Musical Composition of 1960. The Alamo soundtrack by Dimitri Tiomkin took top honors at the banquet held in Oklahoma City on January 30, 1961. The trophy is a replica of the “Horse Wrangler,” a bronze by Charles Russell.

Composer Dimitri Tiomkin’s long association with the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum began with the organization’s first awards ceremony in 1961.

The National Cowboy Hall of Fame and Western Heritage Center’s first awards ceremony sought to honor “motion picture people, writers and television folks who have most accurately portrayed the true spirit of the early west.” Colorado governor Stephen L. R. McNichols, chairman of the awards committee, commented on the judges feeling that Dimitri Tiomkin’s music for The Alamo captured the feeling of Americana well.

McNichols intended to present the awards as listed in the program; however, that evening Rex Bell did the honors. Bell, a former silent film cowboy actor turned politician, was married to actress Clara Bow, the “It” girl. Former Oklahoma governor Roy. J. Turner stood in for governor J. Howard Edmondson to deliver the welcoming address. (Turner and other politicians were active in the organization from day one. Turner, serving as chairman of the chamber of commerce in 1955, escorted a visiting committee of the National Cowboy Hall of Fame Corp. seeking a site for a “Cowboy Hall of Fame.” Oklahoma City was selected over nine other candidates. In time, the Governors of the seventeen Western states were made Ex Officio Trustees of the Heritage Center.)

The 1960 awards were announced only a week prior to the ceremony, so Bill Hill accepted on behalf of Tiomkin. Hill served as a sales manager for the local distributor of Columbia records at the Miller-Jackson Company, a wholesale distributor, dealing in hardware, housewares, farm supplies, and general merchandise in Oklahoma City. (Selling LPs at a hardware store in the middle of Oklahoma? What better proof is there of the far reach of film music during Hollywood’s Golden Age?)

From the beginning the Awards drew people from Hollywood. John Wayne’s son, Patrick, picked up the award for outstanding Western motion picture for The Alamo, actor Sheb Wooley was on hand for Rawhide, and producer-director Nat Perrin for Death Valley Days. Oklahoma-born movie and television star Dale Robertson gave the opening remarks and served as master of ceremonies.

At the time of the awards ceremony in the Persian Room at the Skirvin Tower Hotel, the National Cowboy Hall of Fame and Western Heritage Center was under construction on Persimmon Hill on the northeast side of the city.

Artists rendering of the National Cowboy Hall of Fame and Western Heritage Center in “The Western Heritage Center,” undated fundraising brochure

Hall of Fame was later dropped from the Museum name; however, the tradition continues with the Hall of Great Western Performers and Hall of Great Westerners. The museum now holds a world-class collection of Americana, including Western and Native American art works and artifacts, from barbed wire to saddlery.

The Western Heritage Awards continue to honor significant contributions to Western heritage through creative works in literature, music, television and film that share the great stories of the American West. The black-tie fundraising event draws celebrities and in October the Awards will celebrate their sixtieth anniversary, if COVID-19 protocols allow.

The 2019 Western Heritage Awards

Early during the COVID-19 shutdown in March, the Museum turned their social media Twitter account over to Tim Tiller, a security guard. The endearing tweets from #HashtagTheCowboy drew fans and resulted in press stories from CNN to NPR.

Following his award in 1961, Tiomkin went on to serve as a judge in the musical composition category for the second Western Heritage Awards.

Skipping ahead some years, in 1974 the Museum honored Tiomkin with a Western Heritage Wrangler Trustee award for Outstanding contribution to Western motion pictures.

A crowd of around 700 gathered for the 14th Annual Western Heritage Awards on May 4, 1974, to celebrate new honorees with actors Barbara Stanwyck, Tim McCoy, and Joel McCrea, president of the Board of Directors. After an invocation, the program opened with a musical salute to Dimitri Tiomkin by the Western Heritage Awards Orchestra conducted by Dr. Ray E. Luke. Following brief introductions by Joel McCrea and Oklahoma City radio and television announcer and artist Gene Dillehay, Luke (1928-2010), a Texas-born composer and conductor and a fixture in Oklahoma music circles, led the orchestra in a suite of music from High Noon and The Alamo.

Tiomkin, living in London at the time, was not able to attend.

Sources

Correspondence, clippings, and programs courtesy Olivia Tiomkin.

“City Goes Cowboy Tuesday,” Daily Oklahoman, March 13, 1955.

“The Columbia Records Distributing Organization” [advertisement], Billboard, August 4, 1956.

“Western Heritage Award Winners Named,” Daily Oklahoman, January 22, 1961.

“Cowboy Hall of Fame Honored With Addition of New Awards,” Wewoka Daily Times, February 1, 1961. “Rex Bell, former western movie star who is Nevada’s lieutenant governor, stood in for Colorado Gov. Stephen L. R. McNichols to present the trophies.”

“Here ‘n’ There with Bill Hare,” Oklahoma Live Stock News, February 2, 1961.

Photo caption, “South Dakota Stockmen and Movie Makers,” Rapid City Journal, February 5, 1961. “Making the presentations was Lt. Gov. Rex Bell of Nevada.”

“Tiomkin Feted for Music in Westerns,” Los Angeles Times, May 4, 1974.

“Awards Ceremony Best Yet,” by Jon Denton, Daily Oklahoman, May 5, 1974.

“The Best Posts From the Museum Guard Who’s Taken Over Social Media,” by Helen Holmes, Observer, March 31, 2020.

(Eleventh in an occasional and ongoing series featuring rare or unusual photographs.)