Woody Strode played an expert archer in The Professionals. Off camera, he once took aim at a Las Vegas landmark.
Richard Brooks directed the 1966 Western, starring Lee Marvin and Burt Lancaster. It was shot in Death Valley, at Lake Mead and in Nevada’s Valley of Fire, per TCM.
The film earned three Oscar nominations, including best director for Brooks. Brooks later said he was “surprised by the success of The Professionals.”
In December 1965, the cast and crew headed into Las Vegas and stayed at The Mint. Strode’s target that night was Vegas Vic, the Pioneer Club’s neon cowboy.
How Woody Strode Took Aim at Vegas Vic
A late-night party unfolded in Strode’s suite at The Mint, according to Vintage Las Vegas.
Around 3:00 a.m., stuntman Tony Ebbs complained about the “Howdy Podner” recording booming from the Pioneer Club.
That voice wasn’t actually part of the neon sign, though it was rigged to sound like Vic.
Strode recounted what came next in his 1990 memoir, Goal Dust. He climbed onto a ledge 16 stories up with a five-foot bow, as Ebbs held his belt.
“It was a five-foot bow, and I had to crawl out the window to get the angle,” Strode recalled.
“The Mint Hotel had ledges and I was sixteen stories up standing on one … Tony reached and grabbed me by the belt at the back of my pants. I found the angle, set, let loose an arrow and hit Howdy Podner right in the mouth. The whole statue started crackling. Sparks were flying everywhere. Then Howdy Podner blacked out and came to a stop.”
Strode and Ebbs stashed the bow in Lee Marvin’s room. Marvin, meanwhile, fired a shotgun out his window at no apparent target, according to Strode. The gunfire brought hotel security, who found the bow, Strode recalled.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal covered the party but named no one. The paper reported that a few Mint employees who attended were fired.
YESCO manager Vaughan Cannon, who maintained the sign, later recalled only broken neon tubing.
The “Howdy Podner” recording kept playing until early 1968, when city officials had it switched off.
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