Pecos Bill: the True Story, Vol. 1

Storyteller Brad Collins makes a spirited effort at telling the "true" tall tale of the world's most famous cowboy, Pecos Bill, in this mostly one-man, no-frills, show. Sitting in a chair in his western duds and bushy moustache, Collins tells his friend, Charlie Hayman, the story of how Bill fell out the back of his family's buckboard wagon, was adopted by Grandy Coyote (where he learned "critter ways" and such exotic languages as "rabbit" and "porcupine"), was later reunited with his own kind, and how he eventually redesigned the cattle driving business. The story comes to an abrupt end, and libraries would have to be prepared to invest in the remaining two (and, presently unproduced) volumes. Overall, however, the presentation lacks a good sense of comic timing, and the fact that Collins looks at the off-camera Hayman rather than the viewer tends to distance the audience. Finally, although much shorter, the presently definitive rendition of the story is the Robin Williams-narrated iconographic Rabbit Ears production Pecos Bill (VL-9/88). For ages 6 and up. Not a necessary purchase. (R. Pitman)