Barnstormin’ Norman a Born Star : Yearling Calf Is Milking His Celebrity Status From ‘City Slickers’ for All It’s Worth

So many dairy cows are born into the world each year and so precious few attain movie stardom. Norman the Jersey calf was just another pretty face in the herd at a Tulare auction last year when livestock man Jack Lilley purchased the rights to him for a paltry $200. Within a month, Norman had his first picture deal, a co-starring role with Billy Crystal in “City Slickers.”

Cut to the chase: The movie is a summer success and Norman, who has matured from calf actor to 500-pound yearling, a real heavyweight in the business, is busy on the appearance circuit. This month he’ll begin an eight-week engagement at Disney World in Orlando, Fla. After that comes a series of state fairs.

Everyone wants a piece of Norman. He’s milking this role for all it’s worth.

“I would order someone now to start the ‘Norman’ dolls coming,” Crystal told The Times in January when he predicted that his co-star would steal the picture.

“City Slickers” is a tale of three New York yuppies who go on an “adventure vacation,” a cattle drive from New Mexico to Colorado. Almost as soon as the drive begins, the trail boss dies and the urban cowboys are left to guide a 350-head herd by themselves.

On the trail, Crystal helps a cow birth Norman. A paternal attachment forms and he later plunges into a roaring river to save the calf.

Shortly before filming, Lilley was hired to supply the herd and, most importantly, to present a dozen or so calves from among which Crystal and director Ron Underwood could choose the one for the co-starring role. A cattle call, as it were.

Norman was the least likely choice, according to Lilley, whose Canyon Country business supplies both animals and stuntmen for television and film. After all, this film was about herding beef cattle and Norman, being a Jersey, was of the pasteurized persuasion.

“We don’t know from calves,” Crystal said, recalling the audition, “and then you meet them and they’re kinda ugly. Big pink eyes and that face . They’re, well, cows. But off in the corner was this little fawn-like creature and he’s, he’s different. Like Bambi, very different and very vulnerable.”

“Being he was so small,” Lilley said, “we could pass him as a longhorn calf. Babies are babies.”

Norman had only three weeks to get camera-ready, so Lilley brought in Carol Sonheim. She trained the calf to come to buzzers, where he was rewarded with a milk bottle. She taught him to climb stacked bales of hay. He was a relatively quick study for a bovine, she said, being that “all cows are pretty stupid.”

Educated in the basics of bovine drama, Norman was transported to Colorado, accompanied by an entourage of 17 stunt doubles. These stand-ins were of similar size and shape, though some had entirely different coloring and marking.

“We painted them,” Sonheim said.

Two mama cows were brought to provide milk.

The shooting took three months, during which time Norman fell ill on several occasions. Sonheim--who has 300 animals at her Canyon Country ranch, everything from pigs to deer to llamas--kept him in her condominium at night when they were filming in snowy Santa Fe.

Under such inclement conditions, Norman and his doubles faced various acting challenges. In the birthing scene, one of the calves was covered with glycerine-type goo and pulled out of a artificial mother cow. In the river rescue, the water was so cold that an animal rights representative on the set advised filmmakers not to keep any calf in the water for more than five minutes a day. The scene was shot over several days, using 11 calves.

They wore a custom life preserver that fit under their legs and was painted to match their coloring. Crystal and the calves were attached to safety lines as they were being swept downstream. Sonheim said she knew that Norman was going to be a star when she saw the close-up shot of him licking Crystal’s face amid raging waters. Cinema history is made of such moments.

“Norman is an exceptional calf,” Lilley said. “It was just phenomenal how he adapted to making a movie.”

More films undoubtedly lay in Norman’s future, though his roles will probably be smaller. At 1 year old, he has, like so many aging child actors, lost much of that Bambi appeal.

“He might be in the background,” Sonheim said. “We’ll teach him to pull a cart, things like that.”

For now, he has been purchased by Sonheim and is living with fellow thespians on her ranch. Despite his girth, Norman still has that face, those eyes. And this new resident is basking in the glory of a recent mention of People magazine and an interview, which has yet to air, on HBO.

“Everybody around the world wants to know about that doggone calf,” Lilley said.