Germany -- Willy Jones back at Pullman City for Christmas Season

 Willie Jones performing at Pullman City, 2003. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

The American banjo player and country singer Willie Jones will be at Pullman City in Bavaria, Germany's biggest wild west theme park, for the coming month, performing each weekend at the German-American Chrsitmas Market (Deutsch-Amerikanischer Weihnachtsmarkt).

A large man with a full beard, Willie was one of the first people I met in the European country and western music scene, and he has provided me with a lot of anecdote and insight. I actually met him at Pullman City, on my first visit there - I think it was in 2003. Willie had remained in Germany after getting out of the service and took up a career as a country singer, in various bands, most notably one called Shady Mix, which started out in America, moved to Germany and then moved back to the U.S.

When I met him, Willie had a job as the "singing cowboy" of Pullman City -- he gave set performances in the theme park's saloon, but he also roamed around the area, playing and singing.

We hit it off from the start. That weekend, Willie had some Slovak musician friends -- a bluegrass band -- playing at Pullman. I was working on a story for the New York Times about wild west theme parks in Europe, and I had intended to go directly from Pullman City to the Silkluv Mlyn theme park in the Czech Republic.

Willie convinced me, though, to go with him and the Slovak band (some of whose members now form the group Grasscountry)  to a country road house somewhere in southern Bohemia  for a country western party. Of course I said yes, and we drove there in a sort of convoy -- Willie in one car, the Slovak guys in their car, and me trailing in mine.

As I posted in this blog earlier:

The road house was in a village too small to appear on my map. From the outside it looked like an anonymous village restaurant, but inside it was decorated with Wild West paraphernalia including horseshoes, sepia photographs of Native Americans and Billy the Kid, and a framed arrangement of pistols and playing cards.

The occasion for the party was the 50th birthday of Franz Zetihammel, a figure well known on the Czech and German western show circuit for his portrayals “Fuzzy,” an “old coot” persona harking back to characters played by comic western actors such as Gabby Hayes or Walter Brennan. Fuzzy has long straggly grey hair and beard and never appears in public without his cowboy hat, cowboy boots and turquoise bolo tie and other jewelry.

A Czech country duo got the guests up and dancing with locally written Czech country songs and Czech covers of American hits such as John Denver’s “Country Roads” and even “I’m and Okie from Muskokee.”

One of the party guests, a man in his forties, was dressed head to toe in full cowboy attire, including sheriff’s star and a six-shooter – which Fuzzy at one point pulled from its holster, brandished at the dancers and then fired at the ceiling – fortunately, it was loaded with blanks....

(I haven't been back to that place -- I'm sure I could never find it again. But I ran into Fuzzy last year [that is, 2007]; he was working as the blacksmith at the Halter Valley private wild west town near Pilsen in CZ.)

"Fuzzy" at Halter Valley, 2007. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

I'm hoping to be able to get to Pullman City while Willie is there, as I haven't seen him  for several years.

He moved to Texas in 2005, and the last time I saw him was in May of that year -- I visited him where he was living near Templin, north of Berlin, and he took me to explore an abandoned former Soviet army base nearby. Willie and his wife had moved there to work for a new Wild West theme park, Silver Lake City, which -- at that point -- had gone bust.  So they picked up and moved to the real west. The park has since reopened as Eldorado. I have yet to see it in action... Willie took me on a tour of Silver Lake City out of season in the winter of 2005, but almost everything was shut.

Thailand -- More on Cowboys There

I've written on this blog about cowboy theme parks and how the Imaginary Wild West is alive and well in Thailand -- but it turns out that there is much more there than I had known about (or imagined)!

There was even an article last year in The Atlantic by Joshua Kurlantzick-- called (what else) "Thai Noon"....

It’s 7:30 on a humid April evening, and the line dancing has begun. Women in cowgirl dresses sway to the music, mouthing the words as they step backward and forward in unison on the stage. After a while they sit down, and I hear whinnying in the distance. A group of horsemen in chaps and buckskin coats thunders up atop black-and-white steeds. Surrounded by guests in bolo ties, I watch, transfixed. It’s my first evening at the Pensuk Great Western Resort—a 40-acre spread in the heart of Southeast Asia. The “cowgirls” are graceful Thai women, the “cowboys” slight, lithe Thai men.

Read full article

This article reads remarkably like the piece I wrote for the New York Times some years ago about Wild West theme parks in Germany and the Czech Republic, called "Deep in the Heart of Bavaria":

IT'S nowhere near high noon, but a tough-looking hombre in a black leather vest, black stovepipe pants and a black cowboy hat is sauntering down the dusty length of a frontier Main Street, a gun belt slung low on his hips. He strolls past the sheriff's office, the Palace Hotel and a saddled horse hitched loosely to a wooden railing, then pauses for a moment at the broad covered porch of the Black Bison Saloon. Entering, he strides up to the bar and places his order. ''Ein bier, bitte.''

This is Pullman City, a theme park in southern Germany where more than a million visitors a year step out of 21st-century Europe into an American Wild West fantasyland of stagecoaches, gunfighters, mountain men and Indians.

Read full story

I've just been contacted by Erik Cohen, an emeritus professor of anthropology (and expert on tourism studies) at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, who lives in Thailand and has included a lengthy -- and fascinating -- description and analysis of "Thai Cowboys" in his book Explorations in Thai Tourism, published in 2008 by Emerald, Bingley.

Italian Cowboys

I had hoped to be able to report today on the Rodeo held this weekend at the Cowboyland-Cowboys' Guest Ranch, a Wild West theme park in northern Italy, outside the town of Voghera.



Unfortunately, I was not able to make it to the weekend extravaganza due to other commitments (and also the fact that I did not feel like driving for four hours in bad weather).

I am eager to visit the Ranch, though, and am hoping to set up a visit in advance so that I meet with the management and get a feel for the place -- I have already spent time at Wild West theme parks in Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic. They all are very similar -- but quite different at the same time. And in Italy, I wonder, will there be any mention at all of Winnetou and Old Shatterhand -- the western heroes created by the German writer Karl May that are universally known in Germany and other central European countries?

There are several other Rodeos scheduled for this summer and fall at Cowboyland, plus other events.

For Italian readers, here's what the park's homepage has to say:

Welcome to Cowboyland, l’unico parco a tema western in Italia. Siete pronti per scoprire il vecchio selvaggio west ?
Cowboyland è un luogo ideale per la famiglia dove trascorrere un intero giorno tra le divertenti attività dedicate soprattutto ai più piccoli.

Cowboys e Indiani saranno in vostra compagnia per una serena gita all’aria aperta a contatto con la natura.Una straordinaria occasione per conoscere da vicino anche molti animali che popolano le praterie e i ranch degli Stati Uniti d’America.

Il parco si sviluppa su un’area di 30.000 mq., ma orientarsi non è mai un problema. Strutturato in modo semplice per agevolare i piccoli ospiti, comprende una sola strada principale di collegamento fra tutte le attrazioni e costruzioni realizzate con materiali naturali. Numerose le zone picnic dove poter consumare uno spuntino o più semplicemente riposarsi all’ombra.
“Cowboyland” ha studiato e sviluppato una serie di attrazioni nel più caratteristico “stile western” pensando al divertimento dei bambini senza, ovviamente, trascurare tutta la sicurezza necessaria.

Molti dei bambini che ospitiamo non hanno mai visto una mucca, un asinello o un tacchino ! A “Cowboyland” potranno finalmente vedere da vicino moltissimi animali, comprese diverse specie che vivono oltre oceano e contemporaneamente imparare come e dove vivono. Inoltre, assistiti dallo staff e con l’aiuto di una serie di cartelli descrittivi, scopriranno vita e tradizioni degli indiani ed i cowboys unitamente alle leggende del vecchio, selvaggio west.

Tutti in sella…inizia l’avventura !

Oh no! A Wild West Theme Park in Thailand, Too!

The Thongsomboon Club in Thailand enables you to "Be a Cowboy or Red Indian Chief".

On his tourismthailand blog, Eugene Tang reports -- with great pictures:

I was there two months ago and it was hard to tell that you are in Thailand. A memorable cowboy-themed party organised by TAT to welcome travel agents and media who went on the Northeastern route during the Mega Fam trip. A night filled with good BBQ food, drink, games and a spectacular performance by the staffs of Thongsomboon and Chok Chai. If you are planning for a special event venue for BTMICE, you may consider Thongsomboon club.

It is also a popular film location for cowboy-themed movie and a battlefield for periodic drama and Pakchong is fast becoming the City of Cowboys and Indians and a Pakchong Cowboy Festival is held annually in Thongsomboon club.

I've read recent articles about other wild west theme parks and events (and country music) in Asia -- Japan and China. (Saw a Chinese country video a few years ago, too.)

And then there is the Indian-born country singer Rajah Khan -- sometimes referred to as the "Turban Cowboy" -- I have his album "Texan by Choice"....

New or Newish Italian Wild West Themepark

Saw a big advertisement for a new wild west theme park in Italy. Or at least I think it's new. I may have heard about it earlier this year. It seems to be open into the fall, on weekends, so I'll try to get there -- the northern city of Voghera -- and report. Meanwhile we can all visit the website -- www.cowboys.it (am having trouble posting the link....).