CALL OF THE COWBOY LURES FESTIVAL CROWDS.

Byline: JUDY O'ROURKE Staff Writer

NEWHALL - Ignore the throngs milling about the Cowboy Festival in jeans and T-shirts and focus on "them" and you are transported warp-speed to the 1880s.

Dressed and coiffed elaborately in period garb, a freeform parade of re-enactors did not perform, but they did soak up the Old West atmosphere at the Melody Ranch Motion Picture Studio and add to it.

Some portray real people, others create fictional roles, but they share a camaraderie that travels well.

"We go to a lot of different venues to further the public's interest in history, in keeping that alive," said Kid Lobo, who has visited the festival five times. When not using the alias and inhabiting the role of a shady gunfighter, the Kid is known as Rick Mendez, of Ontario, and works as a warehouseman.

For 13 years the festival has invited people who sit in front of TV and movie screens to meander where stars of "The Lone Ranger," "Gunsmoke," the "Cisco Kid" and more recently HBO's "Deadwood," have taken their paces. Five days of Western-themed events culminate in the weekend festival, which features music, poetry readings, storytelling, tours and refreshments.

Mendez's buddy Tom Troutman, alias Snake Dancer, lives in Banning and performs skits with the Mojave Muleskinners, Gunfighters for Hire and Lawdogs and Ladies. A big "Gunsmoke" fan, he has visited the festival twice.

Dressing the part and reliving a time they never knew for skits, parades or fund-raisers gives them a taste of yesteryear.

"When cowboys used to rendezvous, meeting old friends, making new friends," said lithographer Charlie Briseno, alias Charlie Gant.

Briseno's wife, Lana Darling-Briseno, alias Lizzie Williams, was decked out in finery costing thousands of dollars.

Some was visible - like the parasol, carpetbag, net gloves and reticule. Some was not - like the corset, bustle and underpinnings.

Williams was apparently known by the moniker "Cattle Queen of Texas," in part for driving a cattle herd up the Chisolm Trail - which is not to say the men have all the fun.

"The ladies get the best action," the Orange County resident said. "We fire shotguns, we're involved in shootouts."

But not at the festival, where no guns, not even props, are allowed.

Despite the influx of gunslingers, Reserve Los Angeles Deputy Sheriff Joe Powell, dressed in lesser period duds and acting as captain of the 25-person posse, five of whom ride horseback patrols, had no trouble keeping the peace.

judy.orourke(at)dailynews.com

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6 photos

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(1) Actors dressed as cowboys roamed the studio, along with musicians, storytellers and blacksmiths.

(2 -- 3 -- ran in Valley edition only) Above, junior gunslinger Johnny Orme, 3, takes a minute to read a pamphlet alongside his father and mother, Mitzi and Mark Orme, at the Cowboy Festival at Melody Ranch Motion Picture Studio in Newhall on Saturday. This cowboy thing seems old hat to Caleb Jackson, 4, at left, as he hangs out on the set in Newhall on Saturday afternoon.

(4 -- color -- ran in SAC edition only) Audrey Messick, 8, shares a corn on the cob with her brother Carson, 4, while their cousin Jackie Roueche, 4, watches at the Cowboy Festival at Melody Ranch Motion Picture Studio in Newhall Saturday.

(5 -- 6 -- ran in SAC edition only) Above left, visitors watch as a blacksmith applies the final touches to a horseshoe. At right, 11-month-old Hannah Mae Campbell of Santa Paula has her hair stroked by cowboy John Hustread after she pet his horse Mac.

Alex Collins/Special to the Daily News