a question for the historians

[Julian Winston]

At 8:37 AM +0200 3/30/04, Gaby Rottler wrote:
And... the American West of the movies (a la John Wayne and TV
westerns) bore little resemblance to the reality of it. I recall a
movie reviewer criticizing "Tombstone" because the sheriff was
wearing "non western clothes" i.e., a vest and a derby. The poor
reviewer was confusing reality with TV. Those WERE the clothes the
well-dressed law-officer wore at that time (1881).
By the way (**homeopathic content here**) if you want to see two
GREAT portrayals of end-stage tuberculosis, just view the Doc
Holliday character in both "Tombstone" and in "Wyatt Earp." Very
different takes on the same character. Val Kilmer did the first and
Dennis Quaid (who went on a starvation diet to play the tubercular
Holliday) did the second.
There is also a magnificent little scene in "Tombstone" where
Holliday and Bill Brocius have a go at each other in Latin-- back
when you learned that language when you went to school!
Wow. That's about 8.5 miles. One day's journey for Sam, about 5
minutes now by car!
This is great stuff, Gaby!
Again, short distances over bad roads.
I look forward to your results. Wish we could just channel the old
man and ask him, but I'm not that good at it!

Best!

JW