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Cowboy Cutout. Still, it is likely that at least 10 million people will persist in remembering him as the Mingo who threw the Johnny Carson Tonight show into an uproar in 1965. Ames, a deadeye natural athlete who can hit a bull's-eye from 20 paces with a bowie knife, went on the Carson program as a guest. According to the script, he was to fling a tomahawk at an eight-foot-high cardboard cutout of a cowboy; during rehearsal, he hit the target in the heart 19 times straight. On the air, old Mingo took aim, let fly and ripped the cutout right in the crotch. Carson, his crew and the audience broke into a hysterical orgy of laughter that ran 3 min. 45 sec. on the tape—probably the longest sidesplitter in television history.