Famed rodeo clown Lecile Harris reflects on a great career
If you frequently attend the Ralph Morgan rodeo, you expect to see certain things happen.
Bull riding and calf roping are staples of the rodeo held semi-annually in Lauderdale, but something else also has been a constant – a clown by the name of Lecile Harris.
This is Harris' 60th year as a rodeo clown, not only for the Ralph Morgan rodeo but also several events across the United States. His earliest days in rodeo actually began on the back of a bull.
“I started out riding bulls and it didn't take very long for me to figure out in order for me to make a living, I was going to have to do something else," Harris said. "I wasn't a very good bull rider. I was really only riding for the crowd because all I did was get run over.”
Soon into his bull riding career, Harris learned he could provide something else to rodeo enthusiasts.
“I was told that we don't just need bull fighters, we need some comedy as well,' he said. "I didn't know anything about rodeo comedy since I had never seen another rodeo clown. So, I had to come up with my own style, which made it pretty unorthodoxed from anyone else.”
In the '50s, when he wasn't involved with rodeos – typically wintertime – Harris engaged in another form of entertainment: music.
“I played during the winter, since there wasn't a whole of rodeos going on; and I actually got into the recording end of things,” he said.
His first gig was with a band called The Echoes, in which Harris played drums and recorded in the legendary Sun Studio – which is touted as the birthplace of rock and roll and home of the "Million Dollar Quartet," a recording of an impromptu jam session involving Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash. Harris also played for Hi Studio and RCA in Nashville at different points in his music career, until rodeo work became full-time.
“My music and rodeo career starting growing pretty large to a point where I had to make up my mind as to what I wanted to do. I knew I didn't want to spend the rest of my life playing in night clubs,” he said.
Even though his music career came to a close, Harris' rodeo life opened new doors into alternative forms of entertainment.
“It's about being at the right place, at the right time,” he said. “Sam Lovullo, who was the producer of 'Hee Haw,' was trying to get Loretta Lynn to be on the show as a guest. Loretta Lynn has a rodeo company that's known all over, and Loretta's husband – who we called Doolittle – invited Sam to the rodeo so that he could talk to Loretta. Sam watched the rodeo, and I was doing my comedy and when it was over with, Sam asked Doolittle if he knew the clown. Sam came to the dressing room after it was over; we talked for a minute, and Sam asked if I would consider being on 'Hee Haw.'”
Within a month, Harris was asked to write 26 comedy bits for the famed TV variety show.
“I was there for five years and then this company from California – Hollywood-type people – bought the show and made all these changes; changed the comedy, really everything," Harris said. "They started writing stuff for us. I stayed an extra season, and after that I didn't want anymore of it, so I left.”
Always looking for a new challenge in life, Harris also leant his talents to the silver screen, sharing the screen with Elvis Presly, Johnny Cash and Kris Kristofferson to name a few.
“One of the girls that worked in the office for 'Hee-Haw' told me there was a movie in development in Nashville, and that there was a part that she thought might suit me. The film was 'W.W. and The Dixie Dancekings' starring Burt Reynolds,” Harris said. “I didn't even have to read for the part; they just said they knew I could handle it.”
The transition from television from film was a big move for Harris, and he says he learned a lot from the experience.
“Television is fast; you shoot and you're out. Movies, you shoot, and you wait around, film a little more, and then you wait again. To me, it could be boring at times having to sit,” he said.
Through the experience, Harris says that he and Burt Reynold got to be close friends.
“I played football and he did, too, in Florida, and he was also interested in rodeo. When he found out I was a rodeo clown, that developed a tie there. I learned a lot about acting from Burt,” he said.
Harris also has some fond memories on another set for another film.
“I was in 'The Last Days of Frank & Jessie James' with Johnny Cash and Kris Kristofferson. It's funny, Kris and I had met prior to that movie when I was in a rodeo out in California. I was in the arena and anytime I would walk around, this guy would just start talking to me; and I was trying to clown, but he would just keep talking.
"We all left the arena and went to this really nice restaurant, and this guy sat down beside me. I didn't know him or where he came from. So, I ask who he was, and I was told it was Kris Kristofferson; I didn't know Kris Kristofferson from anyone else. I went home and I was telling my wife, Ethel, about this character. I had forgotten his name by that point and for some reason I got him and Burt Bacharach mixed up. About two months later, my wife and I were sitting watching television and Kris Kristofferson is on and I tell Ethel, 'There's that Burt Bacharach guy,' and my wife explained to me that it was not Burt Bacharach, it was Kris Kristofferson,” Harris siad.
While filming the movie with Kristofferson, Harris shared the funny story.
“Kris laughed, and said that was funny because for a long time he used to tell people that he spent the weekend with a rodeo clown named Lucille. I told him we were even then, and for the rest of the shoot he called me Lucille, and I called him Burt,” he said.
Harris received plenty of movie offers over the years, but says he has turned down quite a few.
“I would never do films that had anything to do with drugs, and I had to turn down roles that had naked women in them,” he said.
Of his 60 years as a rodeo clown, Harris had nothing but warm words for Ralph Morgan and the rodeo.
“Ralph and I go way back; I was bull fighting while he was contesting,” Harris said. “When he began his rodeo, he asked me to come work for him. I worked pretty much every year – with the exception of a few when my schedule didn't line up – but I basically work around that now so that I can make them all.
"What he's done with that rodeo is remarkable. He's taken something from the backside of nowhere and really made something of it. Most everyone knows about the Ralph Morgan rodeo in Lauderdale – even way up in Canada. It's rodeo in its own element. It's rodeo where rodeo is supposed to be. The crowd is kept out of the weather, everyone is able to walk up to the fence within feet of the action. To be that close and not be 65 to 100 yards away trying to see what's going on ... it's just simply rodeo the way rodeo is supposed to be. It's also the one rodeo that I don't have to get a bite to eat before I go to it, because the food there is great. But really, the reason I love going back every time is because it feels like home to me,” Harris said.
*See Lecile
If you would like to see Lecile as he enters his 60th year as a rodeo clown, he will be at the 78th Semi-Annual Ralph Morgan Rodeo April 17-18. Admission is $10 for adults, $6 for kids. The rodeo is located at Highway 45 North in Lauderdale.*
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