The Last Kind Words Saloon

Larry McMurtry mentions in his brief introduction to The Last Kind Words Saloon, “I had the great director John Ford in mind when I wrote this book; he famously said that when you had to choose between history and legend, print the legend. And so I’ve done.” But the reader will quickly realize that McMurtry’s version of the legend is unlike any other that has been printed over the last 130 plus years.

In the first two pages of The Last Kind Words Saloon, Wyatt Earp, customarily regarded with nerves of steel, turns pale when Doc Holliday says being a dentist is easy: “All you need is a pair of pliers and maybe a chisel for difficult cases.” McMurtry adds that Wyatt “Had always been squeamish.”

The rest of my article can be found at Macmillan's Criminal Element.

All My Earps

I'm at Criminal Element with All My Earps: The Many Film Faces of Wyatt Earp.

Wyatt Earp Meets Doc Holliday

Wyatt Earp Gun

Wyatt Earp Gun Sells for $225,000 at Auction. (hat tip: Jason K)

Hour of the Gun (1967)

I'm working on an article about the many Wyatt Earp films and I watched Hour of the Gun (1967) for the first time. I liked James Garner's hardboiled performance as Wyatt and found the overall film quite entertaining. Though for a movie that opens with "This Picture Is Based On Fact. This Is The Way It Happened," goofs in a very big way by portraying the legendary marshal catching up with Ike Clanton (the superb Robert Ryan) in Mexico. And there are many other inaccuracies but as a Western it's quite well done. I recommend Hour of the Gun to anyone who may have missed this John Sturges classic.

Foy, Chaplin, and Earp

I was doing some research on 19th century actor Eddie Foy when I ran across a tidbit about Foy, Charlie Chaplin, and Wyatt Earp in Wikipedia. This was new to me:

In later years, Foy told of an altercation over a girl with fellow actor Charles Chaplin, who was drunkenly taking pot-shots at Foy. The gunfire awakened Wyatt Earp, who disarmed the actor and sent both the players home to sleep it off. Foy is also rumored to have been in Tombstone, Arizona in October 1881 appearing at the local theatre when the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral occurred on the 26th of that month.

Amusing and I'm thinking this would make a fun short story--the annoyed lawman, the drunken Tramp, and the outcome.

Doc

'Doc': Mary Doria Russell's intoxicating novel of Doc Holliday, Wyatt Earp and Dodge City.

State Gun Packs a Bang-Up History

The Arizona Republic has an interesting article on colts, Wyatt Earp, Ned Buntline, and that mythical weapon.