The Kilgore College Rangerettes were started in 1940 by Miss Gussie Nell Davis. The president of the college at the time wanted to create something during half-time that would keep people from going under the stands and drinking. So during a football game in 1940, at half-time the lights in the stadium dropped down and 49 girls in white cowboy hats, red shirts, white leather belts, blue skirts and white cowboy boots with white gauntlets, went out on the field and lined up. Then all of a sudden the lights came on and fireworks flashed.  Before they even moved a muscle, the audience jumped to their feet and started applauding. And they did what they would consider in our day a very modest little kick routine.

When I was a Rangerette, we did a tour of Singapore, we did Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade, we performed at the President’s Inauguration Gala. They are the epitome of what you think of when you imagine the iconic all American girl or the Texas girl with the cowboy boots. The only thing that has changed about the uniform since 1940 is the length of the skirt, which is now just under your business.

When we were filming Bitch Slap there were some really difficult days with lots of wind and sand. But I would think back to those days when I had a pulled hamstring and was having to do the high kick routine at the Cotton Bowl, and there was ice on the field, and I was just trying to make sure that I got through the routine and didn’t slip and fall.  I was in more pain than I could imagine but I kept a smile on my face the whole time because I was a Rangerette and that meant that I had to have pride in what I did and it didn’t matter how much pain I was in.

For the rest of my life there is no one that can take that away from me. People may say, “Oh yeah, Erin Cummings, she’s a has-been. She did that movie Bitch Slap and Spartacus and then nothing else.” But I will always be a Rangerette.

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