Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
That doesn't explain why it existed long before Hollywood. Hollywood just made hay out of what existed. It the same reason Twain's stories were so popular of his gold days in the west.Why Teddy Roosevelt himself was such a person.
One of the first type of movies that were ever made were westerns, though. My grandfather worked on them, pre studio days. They chose westerns since the appeal was so strong. One of the early landmark movies is The Great Train Robbery. It was a mythology which everyone wanted to see.
Bill Cody's Wild West Show and prior to him the pulp novels.
When Cody's shows toured Europe they were sold out; so people had read the stories long before arrival. Its the sense of adventure ;IMO which is same reason man loves the outdoors wilderness areas. Kids are naturally attracted to it.
Hollywood. You could find a western movie set just outside of LA, and the town scenes could be shot on the lot.
No they are shot at Old Tucson Arizona, which is where so many western movies were made. John Wayne in Rio Bravo, went through this river. It is one side of Old Tuscon. About 100 yards long, with the water pumped from one end to the other so the water flows. A lot of movie scenes have been made at this man made river.
My grandfather was born in the 1860s, and at 16 he was given a saddle bag of gold coins, and took a group of hard men to Mexico to buy cattle, and drive the herd back to Montana. Men were all very good with their guns, as they were there to protect my grandfather with the gold, and the cattle. My grandfather was in charge, because he was a better gun fighter than the others. He was in the Montana Cattle Wars, as a gunfighter. He met my grandmother who was an army nurse who had came from sweden at a fort in Montana, and she would only marry him if he gave up the guns, and moved to Northern California. He hung up his guns for her, they married and moved. He was greased lightning as they say with a gun, pistol or rifle. He taught me to shoot. He used to buy me a carton (500 shells) of .22 amo a week to practice with when I was 12. I could shoot well with rifle or 6 shooter. He insisted I learn to shoot from the hip, with both types of weapons as well as a rifle at the shoulder.
Our small ranch adjoined 100,000 acres that we leased to run cattle on, and I can tell you from personal experienced being a cowboy may look glamorous on the big screen, but it is not in real life. It is hard work, and dangerous work even if you don't need guns to do it. My weekends and summers, were spent largely in a saddle moving and checking cattle. I can tell you it is no fun. I left the ranch at 18 never to return to being a cowboy. I much more enjoyed sales, and from 1972 till I finally retired, I was a commercial/investment real estate broker. I sold a few ranches and farms over the years. My childhood experience paid off when selling that type of property.
I am telling you this, as I want you to understand that the wild west for the cowboy was not glamorous, but darn hard work. I always carried guns when out and about the ranch on horse, to put down an animal that was in bad shape, or some type of big animal bothering the cattle such as a cougar or bear that liked the taste of cattle and was killing some. I had dogs with me to help move the cattle, or to locate the problem preditor.
The "Wild West" of popular imagination occupied a very short window. Perhaps 1840s-1870s, so three to four decades? The railroads changed the West forever and turned it into settled country rapidly.
Why the west captured people's imagination probably had much to do with the romanticized notion of a free, open land ripe for the taking and full of opportunities if you were willing to take it. It was free from the social and economic restrictions of the settled areas, it was a place where your family didn't mean anything, where a lack of education didn't hinder you and laws were loosely enforced (where it existed). You were "free" from any restraints.
Of course the reality was quite different. But even today the great open spaces of the west continues to exercise a powerful lure on many people's imaginations.
Even though those eras of the West are the most powerful in the myth, even as the west became settled it was still huge, wild and wooly for another 50 years. Things didn't change much, and in some parts, still haven't.
That is also one of the reasons why the West remains so enduring as a national myth. Once off a railroad car, the western towns of 1919 were a lot like they were in 1889 in most places, except that the first townships, usually built of wood, and burned down at least once by then, and the business buildings of a town's main street were replaced with those made of brick and stone.
Horses and wagons still were the most common means of transportation, and the fashions that came and went were largely ignored in most of the smaller towns. Even when automobiles became common, there were a lot of places where they couldn't go until the late 1920's. The challenges still remained similar, as did the wildness of most of the countryside.
I've always found it interesting to note that when the 'West' is discussed in US history it is usually described as incorporating a 'mythic' grandeur. Mythology hovers many things that have happened say in 'settling' it. Perhaps that setup of myths helps us to guide and orient our reflections on that history and era which if we think about it was as damn ruthless as can be? I mean if we say just looked at the plain old facts we'd be having a tough time to explain ourselves.
What is about the Old West?
Wide open spaces. Untrammeled movement. Danger. Living off the land. Roughing it,etc. What we were meant for. At least ages 16-25 or so. After that a nice snug cabin, hot latte, maybe some quiche.
Sounds a bit westrosexual...chaps without pants go along with that?
I think what is so appealing about the old West is the tough can do attitude of the people. They had a gun in one hand a whiskey bottle in the other and freedom in their hearts. Hunting, fishing, trapping, living off the land, amazing.
I'm a railroad fan and the transcontinental was an incredible achievement.
Yes the old west has been glorified in movies and TV but there is something appealing and simply Ameican about it.
How about John Wayne for President?
The old West was amazing just don't get sick.
"As the American frontier passed into history, the myths of the West in fiction and film took firm hold in the imagination of Americans and foreigners alike. America is exceptional in choosing its iconic self-image. David Murdoch has said: "No other nation has taken a time and place from its past and produced a construct of the imagination equal to America's creation of the West."
IMHO, the fellow's comment wasn't well thought out. There are a LOT of other nation's who have historical icons and constructs, most of which are probably just as fanciful. ...snipped....
Mexico with the Incas,...snipped....
I don't think any of those icons you mentioned grabbed the imagination like the cowboy did.....JMO...and I am a history buff.....<s> The Aztecs were in Mexico, the Incas in Peru and the Mayans in central America.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Felix C
What is about the Old West?
Wide open spaces. Untrammeled movement. Danger. Living off the land. Roughing it,etc. What we were meant for. At least ages 16-25 or so. After that a nice snug cabin, hot latte, maybe some quiche.
Good post, lol.
Quote:
Originally Posted by oldtrader
No they are shot at Old Tucson Arizona, which is where so many western movies were made. John Wayne in Rio Bravo, went through this river. It is one side of Old Tuscon. ...snipped...
A lot of westerns were made on the back lots of the studios or just out of town. This was in the very earliest days of movies which is what the poster was saying. i have read a lot of early movie making history
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cape Cod Todd
I think what is so appealing about the old West is the tough can do attitude of the people. They had a gun in one hand a whiskey bottle in the other and freedom in their hearts. Hunting, fishing, trapping, living off the land, amazing.
I'm a railroad fan and the transcontinental was an incredible achievement.
Yes the old west has been glorified in movies and TV but there is something appealing and simply Ameican about it.
How about John Wayne for President?
The old West was amazing just don't get sick.
In another forum someone made a similar thread only it was trying to disprove the mythos of the wild west. One of the more appealing aspects is the danger of it, and most famously is the bank robbers or train robbers, or stage coach robbing gangs, and the lawmen like Wyatt Earp who put these people in their place.
This someone though went on to say that after checking out the personal history of the various banks, the robberies that the Wild West is famous for did not actually occur all too often. He states that the records, and histories that retail banks keep of themselves is the most accurate source of info because these banks have been around for just that long or even longer.
So I wonder how dangerous was the Wild West really.
Sounds a bit westrosexual...chaps without pants go along with that?
If I could find the video clip of Bob Hope and Trigger in bed together from Son of Paleface. "A four legged friend, a four legged friend,.."
Last edited by Felix C; 12-08-2014 at 04:21 AM..
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
