By Jess Hallas-Kilcoyne

Ordinarily, when you’re talking about a family business passed down through the generations, with the parents eventually handing the reins over to their children, the “reins” are figurative. But then, the Bishop family business – consisting of daring feats on horseback, fancy roping tricks, and knife throwing – is anything but ordinary.

For three generations, the Bishops have made a living as Wild West performers, with the second and third generations represented by Tom Bishop Sr. and wife Jan, and their offspring, Sarah, Sally, and Tom Jr. 2013 marked the 100th anniversary of the Tom Bishop Wild West Show, making it the oldest family-run show of its kind in the world.

The source of the Bishop family’s passion for the Old West is one that can be traced back to a single event in the childhood of Tom Sr.’s father, Thomas W. Bishop.

THE FIRST GENERATION

In 1889, six-year-old Thomas W. Bishop stood on a street corner in Newcastle, England, holding his father’s hand and watching the street parade before him with great enjoyment. As the procession continued down the street, the boy heard gunshots. The gunfire grew louder and louder until he saw the source of the noise.

Buffalo Bill’s Wild West portrayed a romanticized version of the American West that became the prototype for later shows of the Wild West genre.

At the centre of the parade rode a tall man mounted on a white horse, cutting a striking figure in his fringed jacket, tall leather boots, and large cowboy hat. Walking about 30 feet in front of him was a man who was throwing glass balls up into the air for the rider to explode with well-aimed bullets from his gun. 

The man on the white horse was William Frederick Cody, better known as “Buffalo Bill” and the man responsible for founding one of the first (and easily the most famous) travelling Wild West shows – Buffalo Bill’s Wild West – in 1883.

The success of the show, both in the U.S. and on its European tours, was such that Buffalo Bill swiftly achieved international fame as “the most romantic figure in American history – the idol of every man and boy.”

FIRST GENERATION (above): Thomas W. Bishop performs a liberty stand (without the benefit of a trick saddle).

SECOND GENERATION (above): Tom Bishop Sr. demonstrates a crupper stand.

THIRD GENERATION (aboe): Sally Bishop shows off with a one foot stand.

Photos courtesy of Tom Bishop’s 4B Ranch Productions

Thomas W. Bishop was no exception. The sight of Buffalo Bill and his shooting demonstration made a profound impression on the young boy, leaving him forever enchanted by the “Wild West.”

Just a few years later, the untimely death of his father and his mother’s ill health saw Thomas and his younger brother, Robert, end up in an orphanage. There, before they had even reached their teenage years, the boys were given the opportunity to immigrate to their choice of several British territories at the time, including Australia, South Africa, and Canada.

“Canada,” Thomas said to himself when he heard the list read out. “That’s where the cowboys are!”
And so, with his younger brother Robert in tow, Thomas made the transatlantic journey to Canada, where the boys spent the first few years working for a farmer in southern Ontario. After heading west for a brief stint in Alberta, the brothers returned to Ontario and settled in the Niagara region.

Thomas found work as a farmhand. Having always enjoyed working with horses, he also began to take on horse training gigs, quickly making a name for himself in local circles as a gifted trainer of troubled horses.

“With my Dad’s abiding love of horses and interest in them, he started training runaway horses, bad buggy horses, biting horses, horses that would kick buggies apart and hurt people,” says Thomas’s son, Tom Bishop (Tom Sr.). “One of his worst, most vicious ‘students’ he kept and made into an outstanding performance horse. Saladin was his name, but my Dad called him Sandy.”

Thomas began to play around with teaching Sandy to perform some tricks, which the horse picked up easily and with enthusiasm. Man and horse both developed their skills and before long were performing at local fairs. The pair’s reputation steadily grew until, in 1914, Thomas was invited to perform a trained horse exhibition and Wild West display to help raise money for World War I troops.

Thomas W. Bishop’s Wild West Show included a skit of a stagecoach ambush and shootout (top), as well as the dramatic “Dragging the Outlaw” act (bottom). Photos courtesy of Tom Bishop’s 4B Ranch Productions

The show was a huge success and Thomas soon found himself regularly producing Wild West shows much like Buffalo Bill, with skits depicting scenes and themes from the legendary Old West, such as the traditional “Cowboys and Indians,” settlers and outlaws, hold-ups and horse thieves, and train robberies and stagecoach ambushes.

As a performer in his older brother’s Wild West production, Robert Bishop’s litheness and agility saw him cast almost exclusively in the role of horse thief or similar scoundrel who is dragged, hung, shot, or otherwise brought to justice.

“One of the skits was catching and hanging a horse thief,” says Thomas’s son, Tom Bishop (Tom Sr.). “The horse thief was always Dad’s younger brother. They put a birch pole along the track in front of the grandstands and they would haul him up from a rope on the horse and then shoot him.”

The performance was so authentic that it was not uncommon for women in the grandstand to faint.

“It might be hard to believe, but you have to think back in time,” says Tom Sr. “Today it’s nothing, we see it all the time in television. But in those days, before television and movie pictures, the gentle folks didn’t see that.”

The most popular act in Thomas W. Bishop’s Wild West Show was undoubtedly “Saladin Shoots the Kaiser,” which debuted during the First World War. Photo courtesy of Tom Bishop’s 4B Ranch Productions

But the undisputed highlight of the show (and testament to Thomas’s skill as a horse trainer) was the “Saladin Shoots the Kaiser” act that Thomas developed during the First World War.

“Sandy, without any bridle or bit or harness on him, would go at my Dad’s command up the stairs to the stage and put his front feet up on a pedestal where Dad had a double barrel shotgun mounted with a bobbin attached to the trigger,” explains Tom Sr. “Sandy would put his teeth on the bobbin and pull to fire both barrels at an effigy of the Kaiser (Wilhelm II) that was hanging up on a yardarm. During the First World War, the Kaiser was the kind of villain that Hitler is today, so it was immensely popular.”

Over the following years, as his Wild West Show continued to grow and expand, Thomas was eventually able to purchase some farming land near Ridgeville, Ontario. By this time a husband and father, Thomas with his wife Eva, and children Lorna and Thomas Lyell (Tom Sr.), moved to Ridgeville to live on the farm, which they named the 4-B Corral.

Already a horse lover and rider before she met Tom Bishop Sr., Jan Bishop was enthusiastic to learn trick riding and became an accomplished performer. Photo courtesy of Tom Bishop’s 4B Ranch Productions

THE SECOND GENERATION

Thomas introduced his children to the ins and outs of the family business early on. His son, Tom Sr., learned how to trick ride and trick rope as a young boy, and he and his sister Lorna performed together all over southern Ontario during their childhood years. 

“I was sort of born into it,” says Tom Sr. “I was always around it. It was just something we always did.”

Tom Sr. never outgrew his interest in trick riding and performing, although as a young adult he spent several years working as a radio announcer. During this time he was asked to judge a local beauty contest, where he ended up meeting his future wife. As you might expect, contestant Jan Whitty was a very attractive young woman, but Tom’s attention was really captured when she described her interests and hobbies as including a deep love of horses and riding.

In addition to trick riding and stunt work, Sally Bishop also performs Roman riding demonstrations at events throughout Canada and the U.S. Photo courtesy of Tom Bishop’s 4B Ranch Productions

Tom Sr. introduced Jan to trick riding, which she picked up very quickly. After they married in 1965, the newlyweds travelled to England to join a Wild West show, only to learn on arrival that the show had gone under. So the couple returned to Canada and the following year launched their own Wild West show, which they continue to perform to this day, with a little help from their offspring.

THE THIRD GENERATION

Like their father, the third generation of the Bishop clan learned the ropes of the family business at a young age.

“We all started riding when we were very young,” says Sally Bishop. “I learned to trick ride when I was around seven years old.”

She obviously took to it like a duck to water because Sally grew up to become a professional trick rider and rodeo performer whose resume includes a year touring with Cavalia and performances at events and locations throughout Canada and the U.S., including the Calgary Stampede and the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas.

This photo, taken on the set of CBC’s drama television show Murdoch Mysteries, features a carriage and two-horse team from 4B Ranch Productions, with Tom Bishop Jr. at the reins and the star of the series, Yannick Bisson, a seated passenger. Photo courtesy of Tom Bishop’s 4B Ranch Productions

Also a professional stuntwoman, Sally owns and operates her own company, Sure Shot Productions, in Calgary, Alberta, where she lives with husband Grady Galvin. Her stunt work has been featured in many films and television shows, including CBC’s Heartland, Flicka 2, and Once Upon a Time.

Sally’s older sister, Sarah, likewise grew up performing trick riding and Roman riding in the family shows, but chose to pursue a career in news broadcasting which required relocating to Nashville, Tennessee. After living for many years in the U.S., Sarah returned to Ontario to pursue a new career as a teacher, although she helps out with the Bishop Wild West Show on a part-time basis with a whip act performed with assistance from her husband, Mark Schneider.

That leaves Tom Jr. as the third-generation Bishop most involved in the family Wild West show.

“Tom takes a big hand in managing the shows,” says Tom Sr. “He is known for his Roman riding, and is a trick roper and one of the few knife throwers in North America.”

“Angie has no trouble standing on the spinning wheel and having knives thrown at her,” says Tom Sr. about his daughter-in-law’s remarkable willingness to be the assistant in her husband Tom Jr.’s knife throwing act. Now that’s a marriage with trust! Photo courtesy of Tom Bishop’s 4B Ranch Productions

Tom Jr. also coordinates and performs stunts for film and television, which the Bishop family enterprise branched out to include in the 1970s.

Just last month, the Bishop family welcomed the most recent addition to their family – Tom Jr.’s new wife, Angie, who also performs in the Bishop Wild West Show as a trick rider and in her husband’s knife throwing act.

“Angie is a horse gal too, through and through,” says Tom Sr. “We’ve taught her trick riding. She has no trouble standing on the spinning wheel and having knives thrown at her. My wife still can’t watch it to this day.”

Angie may be the newest member of the Bishop family, but the youngest member is Sarah’s two-year-old son. Naturally, he has already been for his first rides on horseback, but only time will tell if he represents the fourth-generation future of the Bishop family business.

This article was originally published in January 2013. Some of the information may be outdated.

Main Photo: In the Bishop Wild West Show, Tom Jr. frequently performs trick roping while Roman riding.