"Big Tex," a 52-foot-tall, metal-and-fabric talking cowboy who welcomed visitors to the Texas State Fair for 60 years, photographed in 2012, approximately one month before he was destroyed in a fire following an apparent electrical short-circuit in the mechanism that enabled the icon's mouth to move. Dallas, Texas

Title, date, subject note, and keywords based on information provided by the photographer.
Tex's voice was created by a live human, observing from a nearby trailer. Big Tex began as a Santa Claus the world's tallest at the time in little Kerens, Texas. But when the novelty wore off in 1951, the town sold the components to the Texas State Fair for $750. The fair hired Dallas artist Jack Bridges to create a giant cowboy out of the material.
Credit line: Photographs in the Carol M. Highsmith Archive, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.
Gift; Carol M. Highsmith; 2013; (DLC/PP-2002:038-10).
Forms part of the Carol M. Highsmith Archive.