35th Anniversary of Lane Frost's Death at CFD Honored

CHEYENNE, WY., July 18, 2024 — It’s been 35 years since then 25-year-old bull rider Lane Frost was killed in the Cheyenne Frontier Days rodeo arena. The Cheyenne Frontier Days Old West Museum is honoring the anniversary with a special Lane Frost exhibit and a screening of LANE: Life | Legend | Legacy.

The film is produced by Tough Draw, a Fort Worth-based production company. Brad Hughes, co-founder, was raised in Texas and majored in film production and sports management at the University of Texas. After an externship in L.A., he returned to Texas to work on a sports drama script about bull riding. When he and James Trawick founded Tough Draw, their vision was clearly focused on Western culture. Since then, the two have established and signed 20 rodeo athletes to their sports representation service.

When COVID interrupted plans, they launched the Tough Draw Podcast, even hosting episodes from the National Finals Rodeo the year it was hosted in Arlington. When the opportunity arose to work with the Frost family to produce LANE, he said it was a passion project and a journey.

“It was a journey for sure,” Hughes said. ‘My background is mostly in narrative filmmaking and storytelling and writing so doing a documentary presented some challenges but to do a subject like Lane meant the world to both me and James.”

The screenings all led to the event in Cheyenne in the shadow of the CFD arena and the museum that is also home to a bronze statue of Frost by Chris Navarro.

Hughes said the Frosts, Frost’s widow Kellie Macy, and Tuff Hedeman were integral to the success of the film because they were willing to “rip Band-Aids” and “rub salt in wounds” offering frank interviews and details that hadn’t been brought to light previously.

Lonnie Reese, Development Manager for the museum said visitors from all over the world come to the museum to pay tribute to Frost. The bronze, she said, is the most popular item but as they mark 35 years since Frost’s death, the museum is curating a collection that hasn’t been seen before. Items loaned from other museums, including the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame, will be on display.

“They’ll be able to see the tools of his trade and pictures that haven’t been in our gallery ever,” Reese said. “The memorabilia includes the shirt he wore the day he died, the hat with his trademark feather, his glove, his boots, his spurs, and intimate objects of his that he owned.”

Reese said the museum serve as the custodians of his legacy and that legacy not only changed rodeo as a business, but because Frost was a gentleman.

“He was a legend in life and obviously, a legend in death,” Reese said. “It was his persona, his classiness, the beautiful colors the bull riders wear today started with Lane. He added flash and class, it used to be a little rougher group, and he brought some class to the game and he was a strong Christian and brought that to the game and he always, always had time for the kids.”

She said multiple rodeo stars contributed to the film, including JB Mauney, who she said always refers back to his standard being Lane Frost.

After filming at the PRCA Hall of Fame, the crew made the trip to Cheyenne with the intention of filming B Roll, including the bronze statue of Frost and the CFD arena while empty. One of the crew commented that it would be incredible to have the chance to speak to someone who was there that day.

“It just so happened that a volunteer at the museum that day was a charge nurse at the hospital when they brought Lane in,” he said. “She was there that day, and her husband and son were actually at the event when Lane was killed.”

It was, he said, proof of God’s hands on the project. The nurse and volunteer, Linda Farner, led the crew to Dr. Skip Ross, the attending arena physician at CFD since 1986, who also contributed to the film in a major way.

“We were just blessed to be part of the journey,” he said.

He said the footage of the empty arena, which Reese calls hallowed ground, appears in a pivotal moment in the film.

“When you film an arena that big that empty, you have a vision of what you want to do with it,” he said. “When you get into postproduction and start mixing in sound, it really makes it. As a director, I always look for that moment waiting to hear the crowd’s reaction to that moment. It’s always a great moment and very strong. When you see it brought to life, it’s awesome.”

Hughes said Elsie Frost welcomed the crew into her home with iced tea at the ready, calling her a sweet lady and a “pistol.” Clyde, too, he said was welcoming and hospitable.

Kellie Macy, Frost’s widow, is a kind and Godly woman. One of the unsung heroes of the film, he said, was her husband Mike Macy, who gave her the room to relive painful memories during interviews and at the end of each day, brought to crew to their home for dinner.

“I can’t imagine how hard that must be as a husband to know that your wife is having to go back to those memories,” he said.

Both Macy and Hedeman offered multiple days of open and honest interviews and trusted Hughes and Trawick with the stories and memories.

“She talked to us about everything,” he said. “She talked to us about their struggles, their victories, she talked to us about how young they were, just a lot of things that were eye opening that a lot of people don’t realize when they watched Eight Seconds.”

He said Navarro’s bronze of Frost that is installed at the Old West Museum just a stone’s throw from the CFD arena was among the most iconic things at the museum. When it was commissioned, a number of smaller bronzes were cast for Frost’s parents, Macy, Hedeman, and others.

No matter what other accolades his career may produce in the future, Hughes said a gift Macy presented to him and Trawick is the highest honor imaginable. At the premiere in Fort Worth, Macy presented her bronze to the duo.

“I lost it when she gave it to us,” he said. “That was extremely special.”

Hughes said the film was shown as an official selection at the Dallas International Film Festival and film industry insiders were complimentary of the film and its rightful place in mainstream entertainment. One insider told him he understood marketing the film initially to rodeo fans, but encouraged it to be aimed at a larger audience.

“He said because of all the subject matter it touches – because of the faith, because of the loss, because of the tragedy, because of the infidelity, best friends – this is a film for everybody,” Hughes said. “We know that, but you got to start with the culture that understands it first, and then hopefully people outside the culture and our community will see it and they feel the same way.”

He said there are many elements in the film even Lane Frost didn’t know prior to LANE.

“I would hope, whether you’re a bull riding fan or know who Lane Frost was or not, that it’ll appeal to a mass amount of people. One of the coolest things about Lane’s story is the hope that it embodies that you can go about life, fall at times, and get up whether that’s Lane or Tuff or Lane and Kellie’s story. There are a lot of life lessons that can be drawn from it and they’re all inspirational.”

Proceeds from the screening benefit the museum and this one will be the last screening before it is hopefully sold to a major motion picture studio. Tickets are available on the museum’s website at oldwestmuseum.org.

Source: Rachel Gabel, The Fence Post Magazine and Western Ag Network