Gene Autry Museum Salutes the Women of the Wild West

With typical myopia borne of chauvinism, they talk about the Old West as the idyllic era when “Men Were Men.” Starting this weekend, the Gene Autry Western Heritage Museum will take a giant step toward correcting the impression, in a wide-open tribute to “Daring Women of the Wild West.”

The two-month salute will draw overdue attention to the role of women in Western rodeos and shows from the 1800s to the present. Focus of the show will be an exhibit lent by the Buffalo Bill Cody Center of Cody, Wyo. (Cody’s shows featured a variety of feisty and courageous female performers), an exhibit enhanced by Autry’s own collection of show material from the 1880s through the “Golden Age of Rodeos” in the 1920s up to the barrel racers and other distaff daredevils of today.

Special entertainment and pertinent films will include a pair of one-man shows by actor Eric Sorg, next Tuesday through April 16. Matinee performances, titled “Annie Oakley and the Wild West,” will trace “Li’l Missy’s” career as seen through the eyes of Cody, her mentor. Evening shows are “Cody! An Evening With Buffalo Bill,” not entirely pertinent to the theme but a fascinating attempt to separate the reality from the myth of Cody.

A series of musical performances will kick off today at 2 p.m. with Patsy Montana--first female Western singer to sell a million copies of her records--and an all-women Western band playing twice each afternoon on April 29 and May 29. Other entries in a rich and varied program will be cowgirl roping, Hollywood stuntwomen and films (Barbara Stanwyck ‘s “Annie Oakley” and Gail David’s TV series of the same name).

General admission to the museum, at 4700 Zoo Drive in Griffith Park (adjacent to the zoo), is $4.75, students and seniors $3.50, children 2-12 years $2. Theater admission is $3 for the general public and $1 for museum members and paid visitors. Call (213) 667-2000.