OKC museum wants visitors to be 'Playing Cowboy' with massive exhibit of Western toys, games and comics

A shrill whinny cuts through the canned clopping of hooves and the happy yells of a child on a spring afternoon at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.

"Hi-yah! Good girl, you plastic horse," shouts my 6-year-old daughter, Kyla, as she bobs on the back of Champion, a coin-operated steed from the 1990s that still works.

It's playtime all the time since the Oklahoma City museum opened the lid on a toy box near the size of Texas for its blockbuster exhibition, "Playing Cowboy."

"It's been a smash. ... Our members preview, it was the biggest opening we've ever had, and the people just kept streaming in. It was astonishing. Little kids were standing in a line to get on Champion," said Michael Grauer, the museum's McCasland Chair of Cowboy Culture and Curator of Cowboy Collections and Western Art.

"'Playing Cowboy' continues today. I don't do social media ... but there's all these little films of 'Watching the first season of "Yellowstone"' and then the second season of 'Yellowstone,' and the wardrobe starts to change. So, those people are playing cowboy, too."

From action figures and video games to comics and Champion the coin-operated horse, the National Cowboy Museum is showcasing "The Ways We Play Western" through May 7. Here's what you need to know:

1. 'Playing Cowboy' features hundreds of items from one couple's massive collection

It's not hard to let your imagination run as wild as a cattle-drive stampede inside "Playing Cowboy:" Dozens of board game boxes and enlarged comic book covers line the walls, and a veritable orchestra of child-size guitars, a feast of vintage metal lunch boxes and a herd of small plastic figures are all on view.

The exhibition is drawn entirely from the massive collection of Johnie and Bob Terry, of Springtown, Texas. They loaned more than 800 items from their collection for the show.

"I went on a scouting run down to their home ... and was flat blown away, because you hear the expression, 'floor to ceiling.' Well, they built their own cabin, and it's literally floor to ceiling joist, all the way to the peak of the roof: Western stuff is everywhere,” Grauer said.

"They currently have a business called Wild West Toys ... and they have acquired actual molds to create diecast cap guns, which they do through their business, and also plastic injection toys. ... So, they've actually preserved American history."

2. 'Toy Story' plays a big role in the exhibit

From towels and toys to puppets and pajamas, "Playing Cowboy" includes a blockbuster section of merchandise that ties into Disney/Pixar's Oscar-winning "Toy Story" films.

Bob Terry appeared as Sheriff Woody in promotions for the series, especially on "Radio Disney." His costume is one of the many items in the "Toy Story" section.

"We wanted to remind everybody that 'Toy Story' was in everything. We even have Happy Meal bags, Dixie Cups. (It was) not just toys," Grauer said.

"It was its own phenomenon when 'Toy Story' came out in '95 and up 'til today, because I know they're making the fifth one.”

3. Today's TV and movie tie-in toys are nothing new

Although the Mouse House is an undisputed champ in spinning off toys to go with its films and television shows, "Playing Cowboy" makes it clear that the concept didn't start with Disney.

"Kids will make toys out of anything — y'all know that. Of course, kids in the American West, they played with whatever they could ... and that eventually segues by the 1870s with Wild West shows. Buffalo Bill, Pawnee Bill, 101 Ranch, they had toys to go along with their performances," Grauer said during a recent media tour.

"Those are what we call today endorsement toys … so that's already around by the latter part of the 19th century."

Through the decades, the tie-in toys evolved with the media people consumed, from dime novels to comics and comic books to film and television to video games.

"'Playing cowboy' was a phenomenon for about four decades in the U.S. — probably longer, but especially with the frontline popular culture due to the expression of media," he said.

Westerns dominated television in the 1950s and '60s: Even with only three networks, 47 Westerns were broadcast in primetime each week in 1959. Westerns even had their own Emmy Award category back in the day, and that popularity is traced in the exhibit through Gene Autry toy guitars, a "Zorro" play set and a "Maverick" toy pistol featuring the likeness of native Oklahoma actor James Garner.

"Board games were huge from the '30s through the '60s and '70s. What we selected as examples, nearly every one of these is from a television show," Grauer said.

4. The way people play cowboy has changed with the times

One section of "Playing Cowboy" features rows and cases of toy guns, from vintage cap pistols and holster sets to an official Red Ryder BB gun like the one sought after in the 1983 film "A Christmas Story." There's even a 1940s pair of toy pistols made of pressed and painted sawdust due to World War II rationing.

Although all the firearms in the exhibit are toys, museum staffers acknowledged that such a display might be triggering to some visitors in a time when deadly school shootings are so much a part of the American experience.

“This exhibition is a look at the history of Western toys, and each toy included is representative of what 'playing cowboy' looked like during the time period in which it was created," said Seth Spillman, the museum's marketing director.

“Play certainly looks different in many ways today, and showing those differences, and that evolution, is part of what makes the exhibition so interesting.”

The exhibit signage also acknowledges that "playing cowboy" was often referred to in the past as “playing cowboys and Indians," even though actual conflicts between the cowboys driving cattle across the West and Native Americans were rare. During the cattle-drive era of 1866 to 1897, most of the fighting occurred between the tribes and the U.S. Army, not cowboys.

The stereotypical way Native Americans were often depicted during the mid-20th century heyday of Western movies and TV is considered unacceptable nowadays.

"We specifically avoided challenging depictions of Native Americans, so we cut out quite a few of those. But in unpacking the show, I pulled out of the box this 'Straight Arrow' game," Grauer said, standing next to a case displaying the 1950 board game.

"'Straight Arrow' was a radio show, which eventually spawned a comic book, which eventually spawned toys. Straight Arrow was Comanche, raised by white ranchers, but he had a superhero alter ego where he re-personified his Comanche warrior self and fought crime — literally fought crime — as Straight Arrow. ... Most of these characters generally were white men, and to find another cultural figure is really important — and this is so early."

5. Two smaller exhibits also are exploring 'The Ways We Play Western'

The sprawling "Playing Cowboy" isn't the only exhibit at the museum exploring "The Ways We Play Western:" Two smaller shows also delve into playful aspects of Western history and culture.

As the title indicates, "'You Have Died of Dysentery': The Ways We Play Western," on view through May 7 in the hallway leading into "Playing Cowboy," is inspired by the classic 1971 computer game "The Oregon Trail."

The exhibit explores themes like community, scarcity and conflict through Western video games, role-playing games, young adult novels, comic books and cartoons made after 1970. It includes arcade-style machines where visitors can play "The Oregon Trail" and "Never Alone," an acclaimed 2014 video game that tells a traditional Iñupiaq tale, with about 40 Alaska Native elders, storytellers and community members contributing to its development.

On view through July 26 in an alcove off "Playing Cowboy," "ARToons" draws on Western cartoons and comics created by well-known artists like Dave Powell, Duane Bryers and Jolly Bill Steinke.

6. The museum has been turned into a giant board game for the show

In honor of "Playing Cowboy,” staffers have turned swaths of the National Cowboy Museum into a giant board game where visitors can choose a character and take on different tasks, from searching for specific artifacts to trying their hand at a quick-draw challenge. Those who finish the game can even get a small prize at the end.

"Playing Cowboy: The Game" isn't the only interactive piece of the exhibit: Visitors can draw their own comics, play Western board games and choose their own adventure with a giant set of plastic figures ranging from cows, horses and ranch hands to characters from "Encanto," "Peppa Pig" and the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Plus, visitors who measure 44 inches or shorter can take a ride on the coin-operated Champion — the museum’s even supplying the quarters.

"Coin-operated novelty horses used to stand outside of every grocery store and every department store when I was a kid. ...  I don't know how many hundreds of kids have ridden it here," Grauer said.

Although grown-ups and bigger kids are forbidden from riding Champion, he said the popularity of streaming shows like "Yellowstone" and its spin-offs prove that cowboys are still rounding up people's imaginations.

"They've been trying to put the last shovelful (of dirt) on the cowboy for decades," Grauer said. "But we had that phenomenon for four or five decades in the last century. We had the 'Toy Story' stampede, and we're having a full-on avalanche yet again."

'PLAYING COWBOY'

• When: Through May 7.

• Where: National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, 1700 NE 63.

• Information: https://nationalcowboymuseum.org.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OKC museum 'Playing Cowboy' with massive exhibit of Western toys