The Fourth First Annual Hell Hath No Fury Like a Woman Scorned Chili Cookoff (1974)

Duration: 0:40

Year Published: 1970s

Format: 16mm

Sound: silent

Description: This silent footage captures scenes of the fourth First Annual Hell Hath No Fury Like a Woman Scorned Chili Cookoff, also named the First Annual Women's Lib Chili Cookoff, in Luckenbach in 1974. The women's chili cookoff was founded in 1970 in response to the rule of Texas chili cookoffs that only men could enter the contest as chefs. The first and second place winners qualified to compete in the World Championship Chili Cookoff in Terlingua, also previously open only to men. In these scenes, founder of the women's chili cookoff and self-proclaimed Mayor of Luckenbach, Hondo Crouch, sits in the back of his truck with a coffin that he kept on hand so he'd "be ready when the time came." Images are also included of Crouch with Allegani Jani Schofield, an artist and wife of A.W. "Tex" Schofield. Allegani Jani placed second in the cookoff, qualifying her for the National Championship Cookoff, which she went on to win that year -- the first woman to win the Terlingua championship. In addition to scenes of people enjoying Lone Star Beer (some enjoying it a little too much!), are scenes of a band playing, The McCullough Saw Company of Stonewall, Texas, and Joe Bowman, a Houston bootmaker and marksman, dressed in his western attire, performing his "Straight Shooter" act. Bowman performed his western gun show nationally, drawing the attention of Hollywood Western stars such as Roy Rogers and John Wayne, eventually landing him the job of training Robert Duval for his role in the screen adaptation of Larry McMurty's Lonesome Dove.