Description: Edward H. Bohlin almost single-handedly developed the style of equipment -- gun belts, spurs, saddles, and buckles -- that helped to dress and thus visually identify such noted film heroes and horses as Hopalong Cassidy and Topper, the Lone Ranger and Silver, Roy Rogers and Trigger, and the Cisco Kid and Diablo. Many of the grand silver-and-leather outfits that he created are still used to adorn both horses and riders in Pasadena's famed Tournament of Roses Parade. More than 160 beautiful color plates bring the saddles, bridles, breastcollars, spurs, belts, and firearms brilliantly to Life.

Saddlemaker to the Stars is the first substantive study of this gifted artist. The culmination of ten years of research and writing, it celebrates the life and work of the man who made an indelible mark on the West of imagination and reality. Author James H. Nottage examines Edward Bohlin's personal voyage from his departure from Sweden as a cabin boy aboard a freighter, to his apprenticeship as a cowboy in Montana, to the opening of his first saddle shop in Cody, Wyoming, to the growth of his shops in Hollywood. In the process, he situates Bohlin in his own time, and in the history of the American West.

"As a youngster in Sweden, he dreamed of the Wild West of Buffalo Bill Cody. As an adult, he associated with the likes of artists Charles Russell and Ed Borem, author and Pinkerton detective Charlie Siringo, and with Hollywood heroes ranging from Tom Mix and Will Rogers to Clark Gable and Roy Rogers. Just as each of these individuals created images of the West, Edward H. Bohlin contributed significantly to what we imagine about the region through the design and creation of saddles, clothing,buckles, and all other kinds of cowboy gear". -- James H. Nottage

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