Nick Pahys: The Buckaroo Kid
Williamsfield, Ohio
An odd feature in The Presidential Museum, Williamsfield, Ohio, is a display of yellowed clippings from a newspaper called The Shopping News. They describe a young Nick Pahys when he performed in Cleveland theaters as "The Buckaroo Kid." He would call people up on stage and invite them to blink their eyes. "Before you blink your eyes I can put a bullet between your eyes," he explained to us in the unsettling present tense. (This is curiously reminiscent of the late King of Toilet Seat Art's assertion that he could throw seven punches in less than a second.)
Nick remembered that actor Hugh O'Brian offered $1,500 to anyone who could outdraw him. Nick took the challenge, Hugh outdrew Nick ("He was an ex-marine too," Nick explained) and this got Nick so mad he paid a visit to Hugh backstage.
"I said, 'This is between you and me,' pushed my coat back, and my gun was there," Nick remembered. "Hugh O'Brian put his bodyguard in front of me. He got me out of his dressing room."
