Nudie’s Rodeo Tailors

The son of Russian immigrant parents, Nudie Cohn, born in Kiev, Russia in 1902, learned tailoring in New York and opened his first business in Mankato, Minnesota where he met and married the gorgeous Bobbie and moved West to the booming San Fernando Valley in 1939. Nudie liked hanging around country-western clubs where he noticed a conspicuous lack of style in the dress of the performers. He met Tex Williams who was interested in some flashy duds for himself and his band, the Western Caravan, but was short on cash. Tex did, however, have some surplus horses and tack that he sold to finance the cost of making the outfits for the band and it didn’t take long before every singer and actor around was knocking on Nudie’s door. Over the next several decades Nudie’s name became synonymous with the glitz and glamour that epitomized the Hollywood cowboys of the 1940s and 50s and recording stars of the 60s and 70s. He made John Wayne’s boots, Elvis Presley’s $10,000 gold lame suit, Robert Redford’s costume in the Electric Horseman, Roy Rogers’ rhinestone western suit and Nudie’s personal, outrageous and highly photographed Cadillac El Dorado which he gutted and redesigned with thousands of silver dollars, 18 different guns plus several sets of longhorns. Nudie died in 1984 at the age of 81, and Bobbie closed the legendary store ending an enchanting era when the Hollywood cowboys were kings!

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