October 26th 1881

[DB Books]

Man it would've been great to see & hear how Wyatt actually spoke! Did he gesticulate while speaking? Or did he just tell it like it was in a few, carefully chosen words? We may never know?...

[Coal Creek Griff]

Here we are again, folks. Been a little bit going on since last year, huh?

Griff

[LongWalker]

Been watching the date and contemplating doing some reading on Earp's life.  Any recommendations on a reasonably-objective biography?

Jim

[Coal Creek Griff]

I consider Casey Tefertiller's biography to be the standard against which all others are judged. There has been some more recent research and discoveries, but he gives a great overview in my opinion. There are certainly other options out there, but this is a great place to start.

https://www.amazon.com/Wyatt-Earp-Life-Behind-Legend/dp/0471283622

[LongWalker]

Thanks!  got it added to the Amazon cart for my next order.  There are a lot of individuals and events I'm curious about; I'm trying satisfy my curiousity without getting "too far" into the questions.  (Too busy puzzling my way through questions I already got too far into!)

Jim

[Coal Creek Griff]

I think that I posted this before, but this kind of hokey docu-drama presents an actually pretty accurate story regarding the famous gunfight near the OK Corral. I think that it's worth watching, although it's unintentionally funny sometimes...

[Abilene]

Thanks Griff, I jumped forward to the shootout part.  Very un-hollywood-like! 

[Coal Creek Griff]

Thanks Griff, I jumped forward to the shootout part.  Very un-hollywood-like!

I like the way that they show it in real time, then they break it down to give the details.

[The original bad bob]

The true cause of the gunfight at the OK Corral wasn't about cattle rustling , a dirty deal between Ike and Wyatt or enforcing gun control laws.... The genesis of the fight and hostility between the Earps and the cowboys was because you had a large percentage of the people who lived in Tombstone at that time that were civil war southern confederate sympathizers and saw everything through this prism....Allegiance, loyalty and tribalism resulted from the scars of the civil war and the more I learn and read about this period from the people who actually lived there and wrote about it.. I get the strong impression that many of the men who  moved to that frontier community did so to get away from what they perceived as northern federal government tyranny and perhaps establish a community that reflected their southern values and morals... They very much resented and even despised the Earps for their northern, union allegiance.

This part of the story of Tombstone of course probably wouldn't sell many Hollywood movie tickets.

As far as movies telling the real story.. The David L Wolper documentary narrated by Lorne Greene was pretty good and has an early 70's charm to it... It was actually filmed at the OK Corral in Tombstone as well as the Crystal Palace saloon and the film producer paid to take down the Fremont st OK corral wall to film the gun fight , the actor that portrayed Wyatt Earp carried what looked like a antique Merwin and Hulbert pistol witch I thought was very cool.,The BBC actually did a very good job with a one hour film documentary they made.. If you can ignore the thinly camouflaged British accents of some of the actors.. it was pretty historically accurate.. Right down to the costumes, holsters and black powder framed Colt saa replicas they used in filling.. Someone involved in that production knew his or her stuff.

[RRio]

Although I liked both movies, I feel the love interest and some of the dialog in Tombstone was rather sophomoric.  This portrayal was in my opinion, is the most definitive account, that I've seen yet. Most enjoyable.