PARDEE, Cecil Wilmarth (C. W. - Doc)

Arizona Republic, Phoenix, Arizona Sunday, July 20, 1975 'Doc' Pardee, 90, Dies; Rodeo And Movie Figure GLENDALE - C. W. (Doc) Pardee, 90, who had been bronco rider, movie maker, rodeo announcer and trainer and breeder of thoroughbred horses, died at his home here Thursday. Mr. Pardee was named to the Arizona Horseman's Hall of Fame in 1965 by the Arizona State Horsemen's Association. He was known for his rodeo announcing at Prescott Frontier days and for his management of the Arizona Biltmore Stables. Born in Belleville, Kansas, Mr. Pardee and his family were driven by drought to new farmland when Oklahoma Territory opened. As a boy of 5, he chopped holes in the baked earth with an ax to plant kafir corn the family brought with them. "I rode my first race when I was eight and got fired for it," Mr. Pardee recalled. "I was working for a country doctor and raced the horses on their day of rest. I got 35 cents for the race but lost my board and clothes job". He left home at 10 to work a 12-hour night shift in a cotton gin. He thought he'd struck it rich-the pay was $1.05 per shift. "I went into business for myself at 14," he recalled, "when I bought a small livery stable with horses for $400 on the time payment plan in Wellston, Okla." He bought, sold and raced horses for years. "Anyone can make money if they work," said Mr. Pardee, who picked up the nickname Doc from his veterinary school days. "I never had trouble making money, but I was not very astute at saving." By 1907, he was buying horses in Nebraska and shipping them to Texas and Oklahoma. He started his own Wild West shows. Movie star Tom Mix was in the audience when Mr. Pardee won the world's championship in broncobusting in Dewy, Okla. A friendship developed, and when Mr. Pardee ended up broke in Prescott in 1913. He worked with Mix at the Selig Polescope Co. The Frontier Days in Prescott about folded when Mix left, Mr. Pardee said. "I helped reorganize the rodeo, bringing in the first bucking horses from Cowboy's Park in Juarez. He was rodeo announcer many years in Prescott and owned a livery stable there. In 1923, he moved to the Phoenix area to begin a long career buying and selling horses and working at the Biltmore. He played a bit part in a Gary Cooper movie and opened the door to films to horsemen on the West Coast. "I was making $75 a week working with the stock," Mr. Pardee said "and when I got a bit part my pay moved up to $150 a month. I knew I was really making money then." He played bit parts with Jack Holt in "Wild Horse Mesa" and with Richard Dix in "The Vanishing American." Mr. Pardee, who died last April, did not care for Hollywood life and the couple returned to Arizona. At the Biltmore, Mr. Pardee met Sam Riddle, owner of the horse Man O'War. "I had the thrill to be the only man other than the exercisers and jockeys to ride the famous horse," Mr. Pardee remembered. "Man O' War stepped around like he was on springs." In 1942, he acquired acreage at 6234 N. 51st Avenue in Glendale, where he maintained a horse breeding farm and perfected an exercise and hot walker for race tracks and breeding farms. In 1968, he was named honorary chairman of Prescott Frontier Days. Memorial services will be 11 a.m. Monday at Grimshaw Bethany Chapel, 710 W. Bethany Home Road. Visitation will be from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday. Burial will be in Glendale Memorial Park. He is survived by a nephew, George Pardee of Benson, and another nephew out of state.