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1. Production notes and biographies from the movie Even Cowgirls Get the Blues

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Production Notes from the Movie
1. Production Notes from the Movie
Even Cowgirls Get the Blues

Click on the topic you'd like to read:

1.1. About Even Cowgirls Get the Blues

1.2. Production Notes

1.3. Cast Biographies

1.4. Filmmakers Biographies

1.5. Cast

1.6. Filmmakers


About Even Cowgirls Get the Blues
1.1. About Even Cowgirls Get the Blues

"Even Cowgirls Get The Blues" is a new-age road movie exploring sexual identity and social discovery.  Adapted from Tom Robbins' magical and much-loved novel by acclaimed filmmaker Gus Van Sant, the film is the psychedelic journey of a "born freak" on a quest for a place in the world.

"Even Cowgirls Get The Blues"  tracks the adventures of an unconventional heroine, Sissy Hankshaw (UMA THURMAN), a little girl born into the repressive 1950s with abnormally large thumbs. Sissy transcends what would surely have been a huge handicap to most people into a strength by becoming the world's greatest hitchhiker.  But though the lure of the wild and free open road is great, Sissy comes to yearn for the security of a settled life and true love.

 A sometime model for the flamboyant Countess (JOHN HURT) and his feminine hygiene products, Sissy's life changes forever when she is one day sent to Oregon to film a commercial at the Countess' Rubber Rose Ranch, a state-of-the-art health spa. There she meets a renegade band of cowgirls determined to take over the ranch.  She also encounters a reclusive, cave-dweller called the Chink (NORIYUKI "PAT" MORITA), who teaches her the philosophy of "Ha Ha... Hoo Hoo... Hee Hee."

Upon her arrival, Sissy finds herself falling for Bonanza Jellybean, the head cowgirl, (newcomer RAIN PHOENIX), but just at the moment Sissy begins to feel she has finally found a place where she can belong, all hell breaks loose on the ranch.  Sissy's search is not over yet...

A Fine Line Features release produced by Laurie Parker, "Even Cowgirls Get The Blues" also features Lorraine Bracco, Angie Dickinson, Keanu Reeves, Roseanne Arnold, Grace Zabriskie, Buck Henry, Heather Graham, Victoria Williams, Ed Begley Jr., Carol Kane, Sean Young, Crispin Glover, Udo Kier and Ken Kesey, among others.  The many talents behind the camera include singer/songwriter k.d. lang, who composed and performs the original soundtrack with Ben Mink, and such longtime Van Sant collaborators as cinematographers John Campbell and Eric Alan Edwards, editor Curtiss Clayton, costume designer Beatrix Aruna Pasztor and production designer Missy Stewart.


Production Notes
1.2. Production Notes

Tom Robbins' second novel,  Even Cowgirls Get The Blues, became a cultural phenomenon soon after its publication in 1976.   A widely praised and much-discussed book, it was nearly as much about the author's fascinating and unlikely digressions as it was about its counterculture heroine, Sissy Hankshaw, the world's greatest hitchhiker, and the rebel band of cowgirls she befriends at the Rubber Rose Ranch.  The tale of Sissy and her larger-than-life thumbs struck a nerve with people everywhere, especially the many women (and men) experiencing the sexual revolution first-hand.

Even Cowgirls Get The Blues was originally conceived by author Tom Robbins as a low-budget film, albeit one with a completely different story than the one that has now reached the screen nearly twenty years later.  "It began with me taking a girlfriend to a western clothing store in Washington state," Robbins recalls.  "The clerk who waited on us was a very statuesque woman in her late 30s who was decked out in all the Dale Evans clothes.  She wasn't a working cowgirl, more an urban or suburban cowgirl, but she looked great and she loved her role and she was flamboyant and I thought I'd like to make a little two-character 16mm movie with her and an interesting looking bartender in my town who weighed about 340 pounds.  Because there was a kind of an underlying sadness about her despite her flamboyance I thought I'd call it 'Even Cowgirls Get The Blues.'  So it actually started as a movie instead of a book, but I knew zip about making movies and that idea soon passed.  I liked the title so much, though, I didn't want it to go to waste, so I decided to write a novel - I literally began with the title.

"The idea of Sissy came from an entirely unrelated episode," Robbins continues.  "I had just finished reading The Naked Ape by the anthropologist Desmond Morris.  He expounded the theory that human beings did not invent tools, tools invented human beings.  In other words, we became what we are because we use tools.  And then I thought, we could use sticks and stones as weapons or tools only because we had opposable thumbs.  So really what separates us from the other animals are our thumbs - the thumb is not just a cornerstone of civilization, it really is the impetus for humanity.  It's the cornerstone of the evolution of our species.  Pushing this idea into the metaphoric realm and out of the naturalistic realm,  I thought, 'if the thumb is this important, what would a human being be like who had an over-developed thumb?'  That's the way my brain works, for better or for worse.

"The book actually began, as a number of my books do, with a dovetailing of two different ideas.  There was the idea of the magnified thumb, and the idea of the cowgirl.  So then I had to somehow take the thumb idea, and the cowgirl idea, and bring them together, which is a way I often work.  It helps to have an active imagination, which I have always had, it helps to be a little bit crazy, and it helps to make connections between unlikely things.  It's fun and it's a little bit terrifying, but the fact that I don't know what I'm doing allows me to go to my desk everyday with some degree of anticipation."

One of the first counterculture novels to penetrate the popular consciousness, Cowgirls was greeted with praise from many quarters.  Writing in the Nation, Ann Cameron called Cowgirls "a magical gift...a tall tale and a parable of essential humanness, it is a work of extraordinary playfulness, style and wit."  "A first rate novel by a writer of extravagant skills," raved the San Francisco Chronicle. " Cowgirls is at once graceful, intelligent and wacky."   Thomas Le Clair in a memorable piece in The New York Times Book Review described the novel as "a whole-earth narrative...a barbershop quartet of Vonnegut, Brautigan, Pynchon and Ishmael Reed doing a hymn to the White Goddess.  A meditation on the rule of thumb, a manifesto for magic...something of a hippie classic.  Tom Robbins is one of our best practitioners of high foolishness."

"When I first read Even Cowgirls Get The Blues in the 1970s I really liked it, and it was something I've wanted to film ever since then, though until recently I had no way to really do it," recalls Gus Van Sant.  "It was the first real hippie novel, and that whole movement wasn't something frivolous to me; it was something serious, it meant a lot to me.  As an art student at the time, I thought it was really appealing that this book was breaking forms sort of at every turn.  It was probably one of the only modern, hip novels that had a female protagonist as a lead character."

Van Sant actually told Robbins he wanted to film Cowgirls at a book signing several years ago, but it wasn't until the Portland, Oregon-based filmmaker had established himself in the independent film world with the highly regarded "Mala Noche" and "Drugstore Cowboy" that the prospect of filming Robbins' book became a reality.

When Gus met Robbins a second time, the author was already a fan of Van Sant's films.  "I was absolutely delighted because I had seen 'Drugstore Cowboy' and realized that this man is a real artist," says Robbins.  "When it looked like it was going to happen, I said to him 'this is your baby, the book was my baby.  If you ever want to ask me anything, I will be happy to give you any kind of help that I can, but don't feel that it's necessary, I trust you explicitly.'  Gus, being the kind of person that he is, sent me each draft of the script and I commented on each draft.   I gave him some suggestions, and some he took and some he didn't, which is completely fair.  It's really a compliment to the book and a compliment to Gus' talent that he can make artistic changes that work."

"By the time I was writing the script, it was a way of just editing the novel down, taking out all the stuff that's just word play, and what was left was a shorter novel, and even then it had to be pared down," Van Sant says of the process he used to adapt Robbins' narrative.  "The script changed a lot - it was a lot longer in the beginning, it had a lot more of the esoteric, whimsical scenes from the book."  The roles of many of the characters from the book were shortened or cut, and the filmmakers made the decision to focus on Sissy's relationship with Jellybean.

Several years ago, around the time he was beginning to think seriously about adapting Cowgirls, Van Sant met with Uma Thurman (they shared an agent) to discuss the possibility of working together on something and Robbins' book was high on both of their lists.  "Uma and I were both interested in Cowgirls and she said she would really like to play Sissy Hankshaw," Van Sant says.  "I thought she would be great as the character.  She's an excellent actress and beautiful, and she was also a model, so I thought she was a good choice.  She really represents a lot of things that Sissy represents - Sissy was always a free thinker and I think Uma is too." Producer Laurie Parker was asked to come on board during post-production of  "My Own Private Idaho" for Van Sant.  She had read Cowgirls back when it first appeared in the 1970s and considered it a modern classic.  "The generation that was a little older than me when the book came out really connected with Sissy," explains Parker.  "There were women whose entire lives were changed after reading Cowgirls, and I think that indicates that she was incredibly meaningful to a lot of people.

"I think it was a seminal novel for Gus," Parker says.  "It's a very cinematic book.  It allows your imagination to move in any direction, and I think that that's really what good films do, too.  They're not about what can happen on a stage, they're about things that can happen anywhere, anytime, anyplace, and I think that's what Gus is really good at.  After reading the book and seeing Gus' adaptation, you can see why he likes Tom Robbins so much - a lot of the themes in Robbins' book are ones that Gus shares.  The idea of a person being a misfit, but also being special.  Like Mike in 'My Own Private Idaho,' - he can almost time travel because he's narcoleptic.  That takes away any need for any sort of explained narrative progression, because the device of his narcolepsy allowed people to accept those shifts from one place to another with no further explanation.    In 'Cowgirls,' Sissy has her thumbs and they transport her magically in ways that defy time and space.   It's interesting how those two protagonists have this concrete, yet ephemeral device that allows them to move, and allows the narrative to move in an unusual way.  It's like Gus is creating a new kind of road movie that isn't bound by the road - or by the car."

Parker recalls that the first draft she read had a lot more of the unusual elements of the novel in it.  Actors read that screenplay and loved it, but the studio executives who read it were a little baffled, so they requested a more linear  narrative treatment which Van Sant produced - a very linear, straight-forward narrative.  People were surprised at how completely concise and comprehensible the book could be made, but missed some of the more esoteric material that made Robbins' book so special.

"In the third draft Gus, I think, really succeeded in keeping the linear narrative sensible so that an audience can follow it," says Parker, "but he also managed to incorporate the more fanciful aspects of the book.  So it was really a good blend, and since then he's refined it, primarily with the input of actors."

Originally planned as Van Sant's first major studio release, Fine Line ultimately bought the  picture in turnaround in the late spring of 1992, and pre-production began almost immediately.  Behind the camera, long-time collaborators John Campbell and Eric Alan Edwards were hired as cinematographers, Beatrix Aruna Pasztor set to work on the costumes, Curtiss Clayton, the editor of both "Drugstore Cowboy" and "My Own Private Idaho" agreed to cut the film, and Missy Stewart, formerly a set decorator on Van Sant's previous films, was promoted to production designer.

Pre-production began with about a month of creative meetings with all the principal collaborators in an effort to try to weave together the diverse worlds of the story into one film.  "There are so many historical and cultural threads in this story," says Van Sant.  "Streamlining all of them into one, consistent visual piece was a major task."

Prior to getting the greenlight, Van Sant had already begun location scouting in Texas, New Mexico, North and South Dakota and Arizona trying to find the perfect place to create the Siwash Ridge and Rubber Rose Ranch described in Robbins' novel.  The Rubber Rose and the Ridge were both in the Dakota Badlands in the book, but the actual site was deemed unsuitable for filming. With the film now in active pre-production, Van Sant began scouting California, Oregon and Wyoming ranches for a landscape that captured the stark beauty of the book's Badlands locale, but one in which they felt they could also find (or build) the ranch exteriors. The filmmakers found the perfect spot for their chief location in Oregon, not too far from Van Sant's adopted hometown - Portland.

"The weirdest thing is that we found what we were looking for about three hours south of Portland in a place called Smith Rocks National Park," relates Parker.  "It's a butte of craggy, red rock like the Grand Canyon, and it has a lush river running through it.  There are caves nearby and many ponds.  At the foot of the rocks in Terrabonne, there was already a spectacular cement hacienda that was so perfect for this film that we could hardly believe it.  It looked like a cross between the Bel Air Hotel and a Taco Bell, sort of grossly ostentatious but with a breathtakingly beautiful setting."

The interiors for the spa, which still had to be created, were built at a different location, in  nearby Sun River, and the production offices were located in Redmond.  The production itself was largely based in and around the triangle formed by Bend, Redmond and Sun River, Oregon.

While scouting various ranches, Van Sant and his crew came across such interesting women that they decided to cast most of the Rubber Rose crew with actual cowgirls.  "We met a whole bunch of women, and they were pretty amazing characters," explains Van Sant.  "We decided to put ads in the local papers in Oregon, and cast real rodeo riders and cattle drivers, and horse breakers.  So we have a pretty eclectic group of mostly-real cowgirls."  The nearly all-Cowgirl crew was filled out with "Drugstore Cowboy" co-star Heather Graham and singer/songwriter Victoria Williams (who sings "Happy Trails" near the end of the film).

By this time Uma Thurman, the co-star of "Dangerous Liaisons" and "Henry and June," was already cast as Sissy Hankshaw.   Of his lead actress, Van Sant says,  "there's something about her that really captures youth and curiosity and a desire for freedom and all the other things that Sissy needs to be."

The filmmakers now began the search for an actress to play Bonanza Jellybean, the leader of the cowgirls and Sissy's eventual love interest.  They chose Rain Phoenix, who makes her feature film debut in "Cowgirls."  "I first met Rain when she was on the set of 'My Own Private Idaho' visiting [her brother] River," remembers Van Sant.  "She stuck in my mind when I thought about casting Bonanza Jellybean because she's very tough and what you see is what you get but she's also really beautiful and tender - that's a difficult combination to find."

John Hurt, the talented British star of such films as "Alien" and "The Elephant Man" was cast as the Countess.  "The owner of a feminine hygiene products company and Sissy's boss, the Countess is a flamboyant character, sort of a fantasy character," says Van Sant.  " He calls himself the Countess because he somehow believes himself to be a Russian countess, though he was born in Mississippi.  John Hurt's done so much stuff that he'd be right for a lot of different parts.  He's such a great actor that we couldn't wait to see what he'd do with the role."

Noriyuki "Pat" Morita, perhaps best known to audiences as the philosophic sensei of the "Karate Kid" films and as Arnold on "Happy Days," was cast as the mysterious Chink, a cave-dwelling hermit who is actually Japanese.  Morita's own story strangely paralleled that of Robbins' fictional creation.  "Like the character, Pat did grow up in San Francisco and did spend his childhood at an internment camp," relates Van Sant.  "I was impressed by his background, too.  He's sort of a San Francisco beatnik comedian gone TV and Hollywood actor."

Lorraine Bracco ("Goodfellas") was cast in the role of Delores Del Ruby, the rough-talking leader of the cowgirl rebellion.  "Delores Del Ruby is this kind of butch, new-age soul sister.  A little bit New York , a little bit Zen," remarks Van Sant,  "I couldn't even imagine how she would turn out on screen, but Lorraine carried it off perfectly. "

"Cowgirls" boasts a supporting cast filled with a number of interesting performers playing outrageous roles.  Angie Dickinson plays Miss Adrian, the Rubber Rose's old-fashionedly feminine spa director; Keanu Reeves plays the Mohawk Indian Julian, Sissy's Manhattan love interest; Roseanne Arnold plays a fortune teller who predicts a strange fate for Sissy; Buck Henry plays Sissy's childhood doctor who is later enlisted to maker her thumbs "normal"; Van Sant regular Grace Zabriskie plays Sissy's mother; Ed Begley Jr., Carol Kane, Crispin Glover and Sean Young play a quartet of sexually adventurous New Yorkers who accompany Sissy on her date with Julian; Udo Kier (the friendly German who employed both street hustlers in "My Own Private Idaho") plays the director filming Sissy's commercial at the Rubber Rose; counter-culture author Ken Kesey makes his film debut playing Sissy's father; and author Tom Robbins himself narrates the film.

July and August of 1992 were used for pre-production.  In addition to the aforementioned creative meetings and location scouting, Gus Van Sant rehearsed for a couple of weeks, chiefly with Uma Thurman and Rain Phoenix.  While nearly everyone else arrived on the set with little or no rehearsal, Parker singles out Angie Dickinson and John Hurt as actors who nailed their characters from the first day of production.  "Angie walked in and she was it," remembers Parker.  "She created her own character and you couldn't have imagined it being played any other way.  She really captured the dark side of pre-feminism."

Principal photography began in early September and continued for the following ten weeks, both in Oregon and the New York City area.  The production started up north with four weeks of filming in and around Portland.  Several interiors were shot there, and many of the exteriors as well.  In fact, parts of Portland look so much like Richmond, Virginia did in the 1950s, that the filmmakers were able to double the city for  all of the sequences dealing with Sissy's childhood.    The production then spent five weeks filming the Rubber Rose exteriors and some of the road sequences in and around Bend, Oregon, and the Ranch interiors were created at an  enormous turn-of-the-century lodge the filmmakers found in nearby Sun River.

The film's many hitchhiking sequences were filmed partly in Portland, partly on Sauvie Island (about 30 miles north of Portland), in various parts of central Oregon, and in and around New York City, where the filming crew spent a week shooting the sequences detailing Sissy's urban experiences.  The film wrapped ahead of schedule, right before Thanksgiving.

Road sequences have become something of a Gus Van Sant specialty at this point, and this film is no exception.  "They are the easiest things for me to shoot," Van Sant explains.  "The things that I know about the road are usually what we're relying on when we're shooting those pieces.   I guess the road is a natural for filmmaking and storytelling because it usually has a beginning, a middle and an end.  And time sort of goes by on the road similarly to time going by in a film.  I mean, travel itself I think, is film-like."

"The finished film is different from the script in the same way that the film of 'My Own Private Idaho' was different from the script," explains Parker.  "The amazing thing in Gus' work is that even though there's a lot of improvisation and reacting to things that come up in the moment - in the end you realize how close Gus stays to the original concept .  He's very loose - he meets all sorts of different people and points of view along the way, but in the end, it's still his machine and the ideas are still what he envisioned initially."

One way in which this film certainly differed from Van Sant's previous films is in the number of women of all ages involved on every level of the production.  If "My Own Private Idaho" was a film full of men, "Cowgirls" is very much a film full of women.   "It's very rare in films that you have a set full of women," says Uma Thurman.  "Most of the female characters written in films are always relating to men, so it brings out a particular aspect over and over again.  Films are not often introspective; they're not about the woman's journey in a way.  "Cowgirls" was different, and all of us felt very excited about that."

"You never see women being themselves in film these days," agrees Van Sant.  "They are either saintly crusaders for feminism or they are being objectified by men.  This is a film about women living their lives, the good and the bad, as women do."  Parker adds,  "these are not noble, flag-carrying women; they fight amongst themselves.  We wanted the film to have women leading characters dealing with women's issues:  women deciding whether or not the fight for rights and freedom should be a violent fight or should be a pacifist fight; whether their role is to destroy and in a forceful way take over, or whether their role is to, in a supportive way, individually start a grass roots revolution based on traditionally feminine principles.  'Even Cowgirls Get The Blues' is about the triumph of the feminine perspective."

The triumph continued into post-production when Van Sant made the decision to delay the release of the film to allow for the musical contributions of acclaimed former cowgirl k.d. lang, the internationally famous vocalist,  and her longtime collaborator Ben Mink, who co-wrote the soundtrack, a mixture of musical score and specially composed songs.

"When I met k.d.lang, I knew she'd be right for the soundtrack.  She's got that tough, free quality that the film has but with a soft side that draws you in emotionally," Van Sant comments.    Says lang of their partnership, "I am always looking for new ways to expand my work and challenge myself; this was the perfect opportunity not only because Gus is a friend, but I also really admire his work."

The musical collaboration bloomed into a full-fledged album for lang, and it turned out that Van Sant was pressed for time to finish the film for the Venice and Toronto Festivals last Fall.  After screening the film at those festivals, Van Sant asked Fine Line for more time to finish the film, which Fine Line gave him in spite of the inherent risks of yanking a film from its release date.  Fine Line president Ira Deutchman says, "Independent film makers are always far too rushed due to the structure of low budget deals.  They are never afforded the same chance that Hollywood film makers get - to step back and get some distance from their work, and then to make adjustments.  When Gus asked for that time, we felt we had to give it to him, even though we knew the film would be superficially branded by it.

One of the challenges of this film was to keep the spirit of the book intact while shifting the emphasis to include both the celebration of sexual freedom that seemed central in the 1970s and a broader sense of a woman discovering her ability to find personal fulfillment.

"Cowgirls was a wild, psychedelic, feminist treatise based on the ideas of the times: that free love and women enjoying sex, all of that, was new and positive," offers Parker.  "Now, everyone takes it for granted that women have libido.  In the 1970s, women having sex and talking about it - regular women - was kind of a revolutionary thing coming out of the repressive 1950s.  Now, women wouldn't define themselves on how sexually free and open they are, so it is a less relevant aspect of the book to us in the 1990s than it was back then."

"The updated challenge, I think, is to find some personal space where you can feel comfortable with yourself and your life," Van Sant reflects.  "Freedom of sexuality may not be quite as big an issue these days, but freedom of lifestyle still is.  "Cowgirls" is as much about that as it is about anything else."

"Everything I experienced my mother's generation didn't experience in the same way," says Thurman, echoing Parker's comments about the subtly different ways in which later readers have encountered Robbins' seminal novel.  "My generation has been encouraged to work and to be independent and self-reliant and almost anti-romantic.  One of the things that drew me to the character in the story when I was younger was that Sissy was basically a completely independent person, seeking freedom further and further, and knowledge and so on.  She has a birth defect of abnormally large thumbs, but instead of crawling into a closet, she becomes a professional hitchhiker with them.  Sissy is a true adventurer, and, you could say, fearless."

When asked about his adaptation of Even Cowgirls Get The Blues, Van Sant describes it as a faithful rendering of Robbins novel, but it is clear that thematically, at least, a lot of Gus Van Sant has found its way into the film as well. "Sissy is a beautiful, nice girl who is born with oversized thumbs - which is probably why she's such a good hitchhiker," says Van Sant.

"Being an outcast, she is presented with a whole series of different types of outcasts, different levels and incarnations, different sexes and ages.  It's an odyssey of outcasts."

"It's about Sissy's journey, which is somewhat random," Van Sant says in conclusion. "And I think one of the messages of the movie is the randomness of life itself.


Cast Biographies
1.3. Cast Biographies

UMA THURMAN
(Sissy Hankshaw)

Uma Thurman stars as Sissy Hankshaw, the large-thumbed but otherwise perfectly beautiful young woman who is quite possibly the country's greatest hitchhiker.  A versatile actress, she has starred in such diverse films as "Dangerous Liaisons," "Henry & June," "Jennifer 8" and "Mad Dog and Glory."

The daughter of a psychologist and a college professor, Thurman was raised in Amherst, Massachusetts and Woodstock, New York.  She attended a preparatory school in New England, then later transferred to the Professional Children's School in New York City in order to pursue an acting career.  After travelling abroad and working as a model for a bit, Thurman made her film debut in "Johnny Be Good" opposite Anthony Michael Hall.  It was her splashy entrance as Venus, Goddess of Love, though, in Terry Gilliam's 1988 fantasy "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen" which first brought her international attention.

Thurman was widely praised for her portrayal of a virginal 18th century convent girl seduced by John Malkovich in her next film, "Dangerous Liaisons" (1988), directed by Stephen Frears.  The following year she starred opposite Fred Ward in "Henry & June," Philip Kaufman's frank look at the life and loves of novelist Henry Miller and his wife.  She then played one of a trio of Dabney Coleman's spoiled children in "Where the Heart Is."

In 1991, Thurman starred opposite Richard Gere and Kim Basinger in Phil Joanou's thriller "Final Analysis" and played Maid Marian in the telefilm "Robin Hood."  More recently, she reunited with John Malkovich as a blind girl in "Jennifer 8," which co-starred Andy Garcia, and played a young woman who becomes a "gift" from mobster Bill Murray to "mad dog" policeman Robert De Niro in "Mad Dog and Glory."

JOHN HURT
(The Countess)

Playing The Countess, the founder of Yoni-Yum feminine hygiene products and owner of the Rubber Rose Ranch, is veteran actor John Hurt.  One of only a few British actors who are as successful in Hollywood films as they are on the London stage, Hurt has been acclaimed in a wide range of roles in films as different as "Midnight Express," "The Elephant Man" and "Scandal."

Born in Derbyshire, England,the son of an Anglican vicar, Hurt knew he wanted to be an actor from about age nine.  He ultimately won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and began working in the theater immediately upon graduation. Soon after, he won Britain's Theatre Critics' Award for Most Promising Actor  of 1963 for his work in "The Dwarfs," one of his first professional roles, and he has never stopped winning acclaim in the thirty years since.

American audiences probably got their first glimpse of Hurt's talents in Fred Zinnemann's much-lauded "A Man for All Seasons" (1966).  He won a Golden Globe Award, a British Academy Award and an Oscar nomination for Alan Parker's "Midnight Express," and was nominated for another Academy Award for his haunting portrayal of John Merrick, the sensitive outcast at the center of David Lynch's "The Elephant Man" (1980).  Hurt has worked with many other world-class film directors over the years, including Sam Peckinpah, John Huston, Nicholas Roeg and Ridley Scott.  His many other film credits include "Alien," "Heaven's Gate," "The Shout," "1984," "The Hit," "White Mischief," "Scandal" and "King Ralph."

Moving easily between screen and stage, Hurt has acted in both the classics of Shakespeare, Chekov and Shaw and the work of such talented modern playwrights as Tom Stoppard and Harold Pinter.  His distinctive voice has earned him the distinction of being Britain's most in-demand "voiceover," and his vocal talents were showcased in the role of Hazel in the animated feature of "Watership Down."

Among Hurt's many television credits are his acclaimed portrayal of Quentin Crisp in "The Naked Civil Servant" and his memorably over-the-top performance as the crazed Roman emperor Caligula in the BBC mini-series "I, Claudius."  More recently, he was featured in the title role of Jim Henson's wonderful fairy-tale series "The Storyteller."

RAIN PHOENIX
(Bonanza Jellybean)

Making her feature film debut as Bonanza Jellybean, the cutest and wisest of the Rubber Rose Ranch's cowgirls, is Rain Phoenix.  The younger sister of the late actor River Phoenix, Rain spent her early childhood travelling the northwest with her parents, who worked as itinerant fruit pickers.  They eventually took the family as far as South America to work, before moving to California.

Once in Los Angeles, Rain and her brother did audience warm-up for the television program "Real Kids."  Several years later, she and River formed the band Aleka's Attic.  They made their recording debut on the compilation album "Tame Yourself," which also features such established musicians as the B-52's, Indigo Girls and Michael Stipe of R.E.M.

NORIYUKI "PAT" MORITA
(The Chink)

Noriyuki "Pat" Morita plays The Chink, the mysterious cave-dweller who watches over the goings-on at the Rubber Rose Ranch and who possesses the secret "ha ha hee hee ho ho."  Born in Berkeley, California, the son of Japanese emigrants, Morita worked at an aerospace firm and as a nightclub comic before turning to acting in the late 1960s.

Though Morita first gained widespread recognition playing Arnold on the popular series "Happy Days" for several seasons, he had worked steadily on television throughout the 1970s, guest-starring on such series as "Love American Style," "Green Acres," "M*A*S*H," and "The Odd Couple."  He later played the title role in ABC's "Ohara" series and starred in the telefilm "Farewell to Manzanar," an acclaimed work which echoed many of his own experiences as a Japanese American interned in a detention camp during World War II.

Morita received an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actor for his befriends Ralph Macchio in "The Karate Kid" (1987).   In addition to reprising that role in two subsequent sequels, Morita has been seen in  many other films including "Thoroughly Modern Millie," "Slapstick" and  "Midway."  More recently, he was featured as the cab driver in the hit comedy "Honeymoon in Vegas."

KEANU REEVES
(Julian Gitche)

Keanu Reeves plays the asthmatic artist Julian, a Mohawk in Manhattan who is one of the catalysts for Sissy's sexual awakening.  A Toronto native, Reeves has amassed an impressive list of credits since relocating to Los Angeles in 1986.  He first gained notice later that year with his widely-praised performance in Tim Hunter's "River's Edge," and he has gone on to star in both "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure" and "Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey," Marisa Silver's "Permanent Record," Stephen Frears' "Dangerous Liaisons" (opposite "Cowgirls" co-star Uma Thurman), Ron Howard's "Parenthood," Lawrence Kasdan's "I Love You to Death," Jon Amiel's "Tune in Tomorrow" and Kathryn Bigelow's "Point Break."

Reeves starred as Scott Favor, the mayor's son-turned-street-hustler in Gus Van Sant's last film, "My Own Private Idaho."  He has gone on to co-star in both "Bram Stoker's Dracula" for director Francis Ford Coppola and Kenneth Branagh's highly-praised film adaptation of Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing."  He will next be seen with more dark make-up on in Bernardo Bertolucci's "Little Buddha."

LORRAINE BRACCO
(Delores Del Ruby)

Lorraine Bracco plays Delores Del Ruby, the whip-wielding, Brooklynese speaking cowgirl who undergoes the greatest transformation of all the women at the Rubber Rose Ranch.  Born in Brooklyn and raised in Westbury, New York, Bracco spent ten years in Paris as an international fashion model and actress before returning to the United States to pursue an acting career.  She studied with Stella Adler, later making her network television debut in an episode of "Crime Story" and her New York stage debut  in David Rabe's "Goose and Tom Tom" opposite Harvey Keitel, Sean Penn and Madonna.

Widely praised for her American film debut, Ridley Scott's "Someone to Watch Over Me" (1987), Bracco went on to featured roles in "The Dream Team" and "Sing."  As a woman dealing with life as a mobster's wife in her next film, Martin Scorsese's "Goodfellas," she won the praise of critics and audience alike.  Starring alongside Ray Liotta and Robert De Niro, she received  Oscar and Golden Globe nominations, as well as Best Supporting Actress Awards from both the Los Angeles and Chicago Film Critics Associations.

Bracco's recent films include Blake Edwards' "Switch," John McTiernan's "Medicine Man" opposite Sean Connery, Richard Donner's "Radio Flyer, "Traces of Red," co-starring James Belushi and Showtime's "Scam," with Christopher Walken.

ANGIE DICKINSON
(Miss Adrian)

Angie Dickinson, who plays the campy chic Rubber Rose Ranch manager, Miss Adrian, was born in North Dakota.  Perhaps best remembered for her starring role in the long-running series "Police Woman," Dickinson has also starred in many features over the years and was also a one-time mayor of Universal City, California.

Dickinson got her big break when Howard Hawks spotted her and starred her in his 1959 film "Rio Bravo" opposite John Wayne.  Among her many feature credits in the ensuing years are "Ocean's Eleven," "Captain Newman, M.D.," with Gregory Peck and Tony Curtis, John Boorman's "Point Blank," Roger Vadim's "Pretty Maids All in a Row," "Big Bad Mama" and Brian De Palma's "Dressed to Kill."  On television, Dickinson has starred in several projects in addition to her work on "Police Woman," including the mini-series "Hollywood Wives" and the telefilm "Police Story: The Freeway Killings."  Most recently, she starred as the evil matriarch in Oliver Stone's mini-series "Wild Palms."


Filmmakers Biographies
1.4. Filmmakers Biographies

GUS VAN SANT
(Director, Screenplay)

Gus Van Sant has been winning over critics and audiences alike since bursting on the scene in 1987 with his debut feature, "Mala Noche."  He has gone on to direct the much-acclaimed features "Drugstore Cowboy" (1989) and "My Own Private Idaho" (1991).

Born in Louisville, Van Sant moved around the country a lot as a child.  After earning a B.A. in Film at Rhode Island School of Design, before going to Hollywood where he began working with Ken Shapiro, the maker of the cult classic "The Groove Tube."  While living in Los Angeles he made "Alice in Hollywood," a tongue-in-cheek featurette detailing the perils of "making it" from the point of view of a naive young actress.

Van Sant then relocated to Manhattan, where he spent the next two years making commercials for a Madison Avenue advertising firm.  After saving enough money to move again, he crossed the continent and settled in Portland, Oregon where he has lived and worked ever since.  While continuing to write and direct films, including many semi-autobiographical shorts, Van Sant also worked as a commercial and music video director, taught film production for a brief period at the Oregon Art Institute and continued to pursue another of his talents - painting.

Since the early 1980s, Gus Van Sant's short films have been winning awards in film festivals around the world.  "The Discipline of D.E.," a deadpan adaptation of his literary hero William S. Burrough's short story, debuted at the New York Film Festival.  Other acclaimed shorts include the darkly personal meditation "Five Ways to Kill Yourself" and "Thanksgiving Prayer," a re-teaming with Burroughs which was exhibited with Derek Jarman's "Edward II" last year.

Van Sant's debut feature, "Mala Noche," the chronicle of a doomed romance between a Mexican migrant worker and a liquor store clerk on Portland's skid row, was made for just $20,000.  It won the Los Angeles Film Critics Award for Best Independent / Experimental Feature of 1987.

"Drugstore Cowboy," directed and co-written by Van Sant, starred Matt Dillon and Kelly Lynch as two dope addicts stealing to stay high in 1970s Portland.  It won the 1989 National Society of Film Critics Awards for both Best Picture and Best Director.

His next feature, "My Own Private Idaho," was a  more personal work and the fulfillment of a decade of determination.  A lyrical and darkly comic film starring River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves, it brought together two stories that Van Sant had worked on for many years -  one about a modern day Prince Hal (the character in Shakespeare's "Henry IV" plays who transforms from hooligan to responsible heir apparent), and one about a narcoleptic street hustler.  Once again set primarily in Portland, the eclectic film was, among other things, a mixture of Shakespearean street story and an existential road movie.    "My Own Private Idaho" was honored with prizes for Best Screenplay, Best Actor, and Best Music at the Indie Spirit Awards as well as the Critic's Prize for Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival.

A longtime musician, Van Sant has also directed music videos for such artists as David Bowie, Elton John, Tracy Chapman, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, including the Peppers' award-winning video "Under the Bridge."  A photographer as well, he recently published his first book of photography, 108 Portraits.

Van Sant was named recipient of the ACLU Foundation of Oregon's 1992 Freedom of Expression Award, given to those who demonstrate "beliefs and vision upholding artistic and intellectual freedom" through their work.

Van Sant's next project will be an adaptation of Joyce Maynard's novel To Die For.  Loosely based on the Pamela Smart case - the teacher in New Hampshire who had her student kill her husband -  the film is scripted by Buck Henry and is slated to begin production early 1994.

LAURIE PARKER
(Producer)

Laurie Parker began her career in 1985 at Island Alive where she worked in advertising and publicity before being promoted to vice president of marketing after the company became Island Pictures.  While at Island, she was involved in the domestic marketing of such films as "Kiss of the Spider Woman," "She's Gotta Have It," "Down by Law," "The Trip to Bountiful" and "Mona Lisa."  Promoted to vice president of production by late 1986, Parker supervised filming of "Crusoe" in Africa and European post-production on such acquisitions as "Dark Eyes" and "Chronicle of a Death Foretold."

The following year, Parker left Island for Avenue Entertainment, where she worked as vice president of production and acquisition and was the executive in charge of production on Gus Van Sant's "Drugstore Cowboy."  In April of 1989, she left Avenue to become an independent producer, and subsequently served as executive producer of "The Rapture" starring Mimi Rogers and "Afraid of the Dark," written and directed by Mark Peploe.  Parker then served as producer on Van Sant's "My Own Private Idaho" starring Keanu Reeves and River Phoenix.

Her future film projects include "The Man Who Loved Children" with Jocelyn Moorhouse,  "Bessie Coleman" with Euzhan Palcy starring Angela Bassett, and Jane Campion's adaptation of Christopher Isherwood's My Guru and His Disciple.

TOM ROBBINS
(Author, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues)

Tom Robbins is the author of five off-beat but enduring novels, of which Even Cowgirls Get the Blues  (1976) is the second.  The others are, Another Roadside Attraction, Stillife with Woodpecker, Jitterbug Perfume and Skinny Legs and All.  They have sold millions of copies and are published in thirteen languages by Bantam Books.

Articles, stories and Poems by Tom Robbins have appeared in such publications as Esquire, Life, Playboy, Rolling Stone, GQ, Fiction International, The New York Times and High Times.

Robbins claims that he lives in a French movie with Japanese subtitles, but he is often seen in the Seattle area, where he is reported to have a house in the woods on an Indian reservation and a "beatnik pad" in an old hotel in Chinatown.

He also claims that all records of his past were destroyed by agents affiliated with the Dullard Conspiracy, but it is known that he was born in North Carolina in 1936 and was educated in the prep schools and universities of Virginia.  In the Sixties he operated a black market ring in South Korea, and later worked as an art critic and newspaper copy editor, moonlighting as a "psychedelic revolutionary."  Currently between wives, he has a college-age son, an old Jaguar, lots of volleyball trophies and a sweet tooth.  He is finishing another novel.

k.d. lang
(Music)

From  avant-garde country crooner to sultry blues singer (and nearly everything in-between), k.d. lang's career has evolved in exciting and unexpected ways.  She co-wrote her last two hugely popular Sire releases with longtime collaborator Ben Mink, and together they have now continued their composing careers with the soundtrack to "Even Cowgirls Get the Blues," already in record stores, also on the Sire label.

Born and raised in Alberta, Canada, Kathy Dawn Lang began playing guitar at age ten and, within three years, was writing and performing her own original works.  In the early 1980s, k.d. formed her band, the reclines, and quickly drew enthusiastic responses for her expressive and emotionally charged stage performances.  They released their first major label album, "Angel with a Lariat" in 1986 to broad critical acclaim, following it the next year with "Shadowland," an album which earned k.d. the Rolling Stone Critics' Pick for Best Female Singer.

Much-lauded for her vocal talents, she won a Best Vocal Collaboration Grammy for her duet with Roy Orbison on the remake of his classic "Crying," a song which has now become a k.d. lang trademark, and won another Grammy in 1989 as Best Female Country Vocalist for her album "Absolute Torch and Twang."  Her most recent album, "Ingenue," her most successful to date, saw k.d. lang moving even further from her country roots and won her a third Grammy Award, this time as Best Female Vocalist, Pop.

In addition to her widely-praised recording and concert work, k.d. lang has made numerous television appearances, and she made her acting and soundtrack debut in Percy Adlon's feature "Salmonberries."  Her video collection, "Harvest of Seven Years (Cropped and Chronicled), released in 1992, was also a best-seller.

JOHN CAMPBELL
(Director of Photography)

Director of Photography John Campbell spent his early years in a movie repertory theatre in Berkeley watching the films of Ingmar Bergman.   He moved to Portland, Oregon, in 1975, where he studied anthropology and ethnographic film and began shooting television news and documentaries.  He met Gus Van Sant in 1984 and shortly thereafter shot the director's feature debut, "Mala Noche," followed by Van Sant's "My Own Private Idaho" in 1991.

Campbell has also shot several documentaries, including the award-winning "And Woman Wove it in a Basket," about a Yakima Indian artist; and "Moving Mountains," a portrait of a community of Laotian refugees in Portland.  Also in collaboration with Gus Van Sant, he has shot music videos for Elton John, Dee Lite and "Cowgirls" featured actress Victoria Williams.

Most recently, he was director of photography of Michael Tolkin's "The New Age," which stars Judy Davis and Peter Weller.

ERIC ALAN EDWARDS
(Director of Photography)

Cinematographer Eric Alan Edwards and filmmaker Gus Van Sant began their collaboration in high school, where the two friends shared a talent in photography.  He attended the Rhode Island School of Design, and upon graduation he returned to his hometown of Portland, Oregon, where he shot his first two features, "Property" and "Paydirt," both directed by Penny Allen.  These were followed by "Last Night at the Alamo," directed by Texas filmmaker Eagle Pennell.

Widely praised, the film was chosen for several festivals, and New York Times film critic Vincent Canby compared Edwards' black and white photography with the works of the great James Wong Howe.

Edwards has continued his collaboration with Van Sant on features, shorts, commercials and music videos.  He shot sections of "Mala Noche" and "Drugstore Cowboy," and served as director of photography (with John Campbell) on "My Own Private Idaho."

Michael Jackson, Peter Gabriel, Paul Simon, Tears for Fears and Jane's Addiction are just a few of the musicians for whom he has shot music videos.

CURTISS CLAYTON
(Editor)

Curtiss Clayton has been an editor of feature films and documentaries since 1982.  Best known for his work with Gus Van Sant on "Drugstore Cowboy" and "My Own Private Idaho," his recent editing credits include "A Rage in Harlem" and Jonathan Kaplan's "Unlawful Entry."

Clayton attended the University of Oklahoma as a drama major before moving to California to study filmmaking at the University of Southern California School of Cinema, from which he graduated in 1980.  Among his many other editing credits are such films as Tim Hunter's "Paint it Black,"  "On the Line," "The Unheard Music," "Made in USA" and "Halloween 4."  Clayton worked with documentary filmmaker Philip Haas on "A Day on the Grand Canal with the Emperor of China," which featured artist David Hockney, and he has also edited music videos for such musicians as John Cougar Mellencamp, the Cowboy Junkies and Guns 'N' Roses.

BEATRIX ARUNA PASZTOR
(Costume Designer)

Beatrix Aruna Pasztor was born in Budapest, Hungary, where she worked in a shoe factory before entering the Academy of Applied Arts to study theatre design.  While finishing her diploma, she constructed Bauhaus costumes for Carlos Godzi's 15th century play "The Deer King," and these costumes became part of the first Hungarian theatre exhibition to travel throughout Eastern Europe.

She emigrated to New York in 1984, where she dressed store windows and designed hats before launching her film career as a costume designer on Howard Brookner's low-budget film "The Bloodhounds of Broadway."

Pasztor met Gus Van Sant in 1988, and first collaborated with the director on "Drugstore Cowboy."  The success of that film led to other projects such as Terry Gilliam's "The Fisher King," Martin Bell's "American Heart" and Adrian Lyne's "Indecent Proposal."  She has gone on to work as Van Sant's costume designer on both "My Own Private Idaho" and "Cowgirls."

MISSY STEWART
(Production Designer)

Production Designer Missy Stewart graduated from Bennington College with a degree in painting.  She worked as a painter for a time before her interests began to shift from the world of fine art to cinema.  Stewart moved to Portland, Oregon in 1978 where she began working in earnest with a group of independent filmmakers, one of whom was Gus Van Sant.  She has collaborated on each of the director's previous features, and "Even Cowgirls Get the Blues" marks her feature debut as production designer.


Cast
1.5. Cast

Sissy Hankshaw:	UMA THURMAN
The Countess:	JOHN HURT
Bonanza Jellybean:	RAIN PHOENIX
The Chink:	NORIYUKI "PAT" MORITA
Julian Gitche:	KEANU REEVES
Delores Del Ruby:	LORRAINE BRACCO
Miss Adrian:	ANGIE DICKINSON
Marie Barth:	SEAN YOUNG
Howard Barth:	CRISPIN GLOVER
Rupert:	ED BEGLEY, JR.
Carla:	CAROL KANE
Cowgirl Debbie:	VICTORIA WILLIAMS
Cowgirl Kym:	DEE FOWLER
Cowgirl Big Red:	ARLENE WEWA
Cowgirl Gloria:	JUDY ROBINSON
Cowgirl Heather:	HEATHER GRAHAM
Cowgirl Mary:	ELIZABETH ROTH
Cowgirl Donna:	HEATHER HERSHEY
Madame Zoe:	ROSEANNE ARNOLD
Dr. Dreyfus:	BUCK HENRY
Maid:	LIN SHAYE
Lionel (Man in Lincoln Continental):	ALAN ARNOLD
Sissy's Daddy:	KEN KESEY
Sissy's Uncle:	KEN BABBS
Mrs. Hankshaw:	GRACE ZABRISKIE
Pilgrim Driver:	MICHAEL PARKER
Pilgrim Woman:	SUE SOLGOT
Pilgrim Man:	SCOTT  PATRICK GREEN
Film Director:	UDO KIER
Man on Crew:	TOM PETERSON
Cameraman:	WADE EVANS
Sheriff:	OLIVER KIRK
Undersecretary:	ERIC HULL
FBI Agent:	GREG McMICKLE
Narrator:	TOM ROBBINS


Filmmakers
1.6. Filmmakers

Writer / Director:	GUS VAN SANT
Producer:	LAURIE PARKER
Based on the novel by:	TOM ROBBINS
Directors of Photography:	JOHN CAMPBELL & ERIC ALAN EDWARDS
Music by:	k.d. lang & BEN MINK
Editors:	GUS VAN SANT & CURTISS CLAYTON
Production Designer:	MISSY STEWART
Art Director:	DAN SELF
Costume Designer:	BEATRIX ARUNA PASZTOR
Associate Producer:	MARY ANN MARINO

Read the Bantam book.
Soundtrack available on Sire Records.


How to Obtain the Complete Jigsaw Puzzle Program
3. How to Obtain the Complete Jigsaw Puzzle Program

Cowgirls is a demonstration version of the program Jigsaw 2 for Windows, a jigsaw puzzle simulation.  The complete program has the additional challenge of pieces which are rotated as well as scrambled.  You have to turn the pieces right-way 'round in order to connect them.

As in Cowgirls, you solve the puzzle by dragging and dropping the puzzle pieces with a mouse.  The puzzle pieces have the traditional interlocking shapes, and the pieces lock together when properly arranged.  A color picture is formed when the puzzle is fully assembled.

The computer takes care of the mundane tasks, like finding all the edge pieces and sorting pieces by color.  You can save your work in progress and return to it later, so this jigsaw puzzle won't tie up your kitchen table.  And unlike traditional jigsaw puzzles, there's never a missing piece!

Several jigsaw puzzles are included, and there is a facility for generating new puzzles from Windows Bitmap files (.BMP), so your favorite images of loved ones or whatever can be made into jigsaw puzzles.

System requirements for running JIGSAW:  IBM-compatible computer (80286 or higher) with a Microsoft-compatible mouse, VGA (or higher) display, and Windows 3.1.

To obtain a copy of Jigsaw for Windows, please send a check or money order for $14.00 to:

Walter A. Kuhn
4225 Halfmoon Circle
Liverpool, NY  13090

Please specify that you wish to obtain JIGSAW 2 for Windows and specifiy disk size (3.5 or 5.25 inch, high density only).  Outside the USA and Canada, please add $10.00 to cover the bank transfer fee.

Demonstration version of Jigsaw
Jigsaw for Windows can be customized for use as a promotional item for your company.  This is a unique way to distribute your images and sounds.  For further information, contact Walter A. Kuhn at (315) 652-9042.


How to Play this Game
2. How to Play This Game

2.1. System Requirements for Running Cowgirls

To run Cowgirls, your computer must have the following:

- 80286 or higher CPU
- Windows 3.1
- 256-color video display
- Mouse

Cowgirls will run on a 16-color display, however the color reproduction will be poor quality.

2.2. How to Start a New Puzzle Session

When Cowgirls starts up, you have the option to choose which puzzle to solve and the level of difficulty.  Select the puzzle and difficulty level by clicking on the radio buttons, then choose OK.

The difficulty level determines the number of pieces in the puzzle.  The harder, the more pieces to fit together.

To change to a different puzzle or difficulty level, select "New Puzzle..." from the "Puzzle" menu, or press the file-open button on the toolbar.  The New Puzzle dialog box will reappear.

2.3. How to Move and Connect Pieces

You work the jigsaw puzzle using a mouse to drag and drop the pieces into place.

To move a piece, first point to it with the mouse cursor.  Then press and hold the left mouse button and drag the mouse.  The puzzle piece follows the mouse motion.  Release the mouse button when the piece is in the desired position.

To connect two pieces together, drag one next to the other so they are approximately aligned.  If the pieces fit, they will lock together.  If your system has sound, you'll get audio feedback indicating success or failure.

To move a group of pieces which are connected together, just move one of the pieces.  The rest will follow.

2.4. How to View Puzzle Solution

The puzzle solution is automatically displayed in a window when you start a puzzle.

You can dismiss the solution view by double-clicking the window control button in its upper left corner.  To get it back, select "New Window" from the "Window" menu.

2.5. How to Turn Sound On or Off

Cowgirls will use sound to indicate success or failure when you try to connect pieces together.

Use the "Sound" menu to turn all sounds on or off, or use the speaker buttons on the toolbar.  You can also enable or disable any one of the four individual sounds using the menu.

If you don't have a Windows sound driver, then Cowgirls will use a standard Beep to indicate a successful connection.  No sound indicates that the pieces did not fit.

2.6. How to Turn Piece Outlines On or Off

You can remove the black outline around the outside of each piece by selecting "Toggle Outlines" from the "Puzzle" menu, or by pressing the Piece Outline button on the toolbar.  Repeating this menu selection turns the outlines back on.

2.7. How to Quit

To exit from Cowgirls, select "Exit" from the "Puzzle" menu.

2.8. How to Cheat

Puzzled?  Can't "get it together?"  Can't find that one piece and it's driving you crazy?  Then it's time to cheat.

Point to a piece and, while holding down the Control key, click on the piece with the left mouse button near one of the four sides.  The computer searches for the piece which belongs there and moves it into position.

2.9. If You Experience Problems

If you have technical problems, here are some solutions:

NO SOUND.  If you don't get sound with Cowgirls, its probably because (a) you don't have a Windows compatible audio driver, or (b) Cowgirls can't find the files "STRARTUP.WAV", "LOCK.WAV", "NOGO.WAV", and "DONE.WAV" in the default path.  Use the "Sounds" program in the Control Panel to test for a sound driver, and put the specified files in the Cowgirls directory.

BAD COLOR.  Cowgirls uses images containing 256 colors.  If you attempt to use a 256 color puzzle with a 16-color display, the image will show only 3 or 4 colors.  Use Windows setup to select a 256-color display driver.

ERROR STARTING PUZZLES.  If you have trouble starting the game and you are using a 32K- or 64K-color display driver, try switching to a 256-color display driver using Windows setup.

PIECES ARE OUTLINES WITH NO PICTURE INSIDE.  This problem is due to an incompatibility in certain display drivers.  Try selecting a different video driver with Windows Setup.