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Lucille Mulhall
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Will Starkey Mexican Joe Borrero
Pennsylvania Women Recalls Days of 101 Wild West Show and Husband's Cossack Act
Ponca City News May 3, 1992
Miller signed the troupe and brought them to the United States and the 101 Ranch on a one-year French work visa.
According to Julia Tauson of Wexford, PA, widow of Tauson, who was in Ponca City recently tracing the history of her late husband, Peter was a student in the Royal Naval Academy in Imperial Russia during the final years of the Revolution. He was one of the last to retreat from the Crimea. With others, Peter was taken to Tunisia and interned for five years under the French government.
When the French recognized the Russian Soviet Union, they turned everyone loose and Peter and the other young people were "just out in the world", according to Mrs. Tauson. She said they feared if they returned to their mother country they would be shot.
Most of the young Russians went to a large population of Russian émigrés in France. A group of the Russians formed a troupe of riding Cossacks. They did a Cossack trick -riding show and Peter was one of the band members that played with the show.
Miller hired the Cossacks to travel with his circus and made arrangements with the French government, since the Russians were under bond to the French, to spend a year in the United States on artist visas.
The Cossacks came to the United States and traveled through the March to December season of 1926. Peter was a clarinet player and after they released from the 101 show, some of the Russians formed a vaudeville group.
A letter of recommendation for Peter on the official Miller Brothers stationery is still treasured by Mrs. Tauson.
The letter says: "This is to certify that Mr. Peter Tauson, the bearer of this letter, has been in the employment of the Miller Brothers 101 Ranch Real Wild West and Great Far East Show, as a member of the performing personnel of the show, from the 15th day of March 1926 until this date, and that his services have been satisfactory in every respect during the entire period of his connection with the show."
The letter is signed by J.C. Miller, president The 101 Ranch Show Company. In the first third of the century the 101 Real Wild West Show was known almost around the world.
Among the legendary performers were bill Pickett, the black cowboy who is credited with inventing bulldogging, and cowboys of the early motion pictures, including Tom Mix, Buck Jones, Hoot Gibson and the Indian Chieftain Geronimo, participated in the Miller Brothers' spectacular shows.
While not on tour the troupe wintered at the 101 Ranch, which was started in 1879 by Col. George W. Miller, father of the Miller brothers Zack, Joe and George L.
Visitors to the 101 Ranch included such illuminaries as Pawnee Bill Lillie, Theodore Roosevelt, John D. Rockefeller, John Phillip Sousa, William F. Cody and Will Rogers.
In 1905 the 101 Ranch entertained the National Editorial Association, treating them to a great ranch show.
The 1905 wild west demonstration before the editors met with such great success that the Millers decided to take the show on the road and "Miller Brothers 101 Ranch Wild West Show" was born.
Not wishing to go back to France, the Russian troupe avoided the authorities and toured, presenting vaudeville shows featuring the Cossack dancers and the band. This didn't last long as they had a number of mishaps, according to Mrs. Tauson.
Mrs. Tauson said that an Army recruiter got hold of the group and told them if they enlisted in the U.S. Army and served, they would automatically become citizens. Peter enlisted only to find out this wasn't true. The young Russians were assigned to Ft. Sill and played in the First Field Artillery Band.
Afterwards the immigration authorities caught up with them and an effort was made to deport members of the Cossacks. However, there wasn't any country they could legally be deported to except Russia and it was certain they would be shot there. So the U.S. allowed them to stay.
Later, the legislation that permitted Jews from Germany to become naturalized citizens covered the Russians and they too became naturalized citizens, according to Mrs. Tauson.
Peter got a job at the Oklahoma Fire Department and worked the night shift for five years. He enrolled at O.U. even though he could speak little English. Tauson failed his entrance exam, but was determined to go.
The fire chief tried to persuade him to wait a year and learn the language. But Peter was determined. He had learned some words from the radio and from the newspapers and movies.
Peter told the dean of engineering at O.U., "Oh, it's alright, I'm already enrolled-I'm here." Somehow or other, Peter stayed in the university and took extra courses in English. He graduated with an aeronautical engineering degree. When he graduated with his master's degree, he made the highest grade record ever made there, Mrs. Tauson proudly recalls.
Julia, who was a school teacher with some musical talent, met Peter while he was playing with the band and they were married when he was a freshman in college.
She taught at Chickasha and was interested in the Russians and fortunate enough to be invited to sing with the band members one afternoon. She invited the group to her family's home and they had a jamming session as most of the members of her family played musical instruments.
Mrs. Tauson recalls she didn't notice Peter the first day in the band, but when she met him personally, she said "Where were you yesterday?" He answered "I was right here looking at you." They were engaged in almost no time at all, according to Julia.
Tauson worked for a time with Natural Supply Company in the oil fields. Later he would become a part of a team working for Bell Aircraft in Buffalo, NY which built the first jet, known commonly as the "shooting star".
Afterwards he went back to National Supply and became director of research at the Pittsburg office. After it sold to Armco, he went to the Nuclear Laboratory at Westinghouse.
The couple has three sons. Tauson died in 1980 at the age of 85.