Arizona Chronicle No 5
Some people reported that they enjoyed the first four Chronicles and bade me
continue, so, belatedly, I will.
I arrived in Tombstone in mid-October, just in time for Helldorado, and I had a
good opportunity to watch the reenactments, of course, but more importantly, a
representative sample of the 850,000 folks who visited Tombstone in 2007.
I studied them, as they watched the cowboys and the black-suited lawmen.
Gnarly care-worn faces beamed with joyful smiles as they relived
"those thrilling days of yesteryear" just as I did. Tombstone
was taking them back to a better time, when there were "good guys" and
"bad guys"; when a man was a man and a woman was damn glad of it; when
you could settle a serious argument with a good right cross or a Colt
Peacemaker.
Back in my younger days, people would grimace at my silly moments and ask me
what I wanted to be when I grew up. "A cowboy…" I
would say -- in jest, but only halfway so. You know.. My
Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys…
…so….I'm a fairly typical representative of all those folks who come out
here to visit.
This interest in the West turns out to be a "phenom" – as the
showbiz folks would say. Some evidence:
+ They are still making (and remaking) western movies. Recent
examples include:
- 3:10 to Yuma
- No Country for Old Men
- The Assassination of Jessie James by the Coward Robert Ford
- Deadwood (TV Series)
- Appaloosa.
+ Western Shooting. The Single Action Shooting Society (SASS)
and Western Action Shootists Society in the US, and similar clubs in
<surprise> Sweden, Denmark, Great Britain and Germany!!!
+ Western Guns. Why not buy a modern
automatic? Because your western hero used a six-shooter!!.
You have
to run the transaction thru a local licensed dealer, but you can shop and buy
here:
… an Ebay for guns!!
+ Western Towns. Dozens of western towns now exploit their
history with a festival, including Deadwood, Coffeeville, Ks., Northfield, Minne.,
Scottsdale, AZ, etc. They have BUILT western towns in
Germany.
This world-wide phenom is explored in depth here. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_(genre)
and I won't try to expand on that nice treatment. Instead,
I'll talk more about recent developments in Tombstone.
Stephen Keith is the actor who plays Doc Holiday in a reenactment twice a day at
the modern OK Corral in Tombstone. He has a company called
"Huckleberry Productions" which produces one of the reenactments. and
a website here.
I asked Steve "What's your favorite movie about Tombstone and the
Gunfight?"
"Oh!" he replied. "No question about it. THE
movie."
I said "You mean Tombstone?"
"Sure! It defines the event and the town."
And of course, it does. Billboards all over Arizona show
those four black-garbed heroes and proclaim TOMBSTONE with directions on how to
get here. See this:
The main event has become controversial because a portion of it took place on
Allen Street. Although the street was blocked off and covered
over so that it looked like 1880 (It doesn't really, but wot the heck) the local
government invoked a 1973 law requiring a permit for public assembly and gave
tickets to several players who were doing a "walk-down" from the Bird
Cage Theatre to the OK Corral. That controversy now occupies
the local court and significant space in the local weekly newspapers.
(There are two of those, plus the monthly Tombstone Epitaph which
is now a project for the Journalism Dept. at the U. of A.)
Not too much local news, but we'll create some, eh?
Will Rogers once said "Be glad we don't get all the government we pay
for." Tombstone probably has more law than it needs. e.g. recently the new
regime posted a bunch of "Parallel Parking" signs and started giving
parking tickets to dismayed tourists. The parking offense is
punishable by ”no more than $300 or not more than six months in jail."
I would hope that the local marshals would be more "peacekeepers" than
law enforcers, but you can't have everything in Paradise, eh? The
daytime temperature yesterday hit 90, altho it is still down in the 40's at
night.
I am fascinated by the Phenom, and delighted to be living in the middle of what
most folks think of as "The Real West." Every
morning sunrise and every beautiful sunset reminds me of why I've always thought
of myself as a Desert Rat. So, I am working on a new website
that will be up soon. It's RixWest.com, and it will feature
everything "Western" – towns, movies, music, shooting – lots of
hyperlinks, of course, and remarks by the old Rickster. I'll
let you know when it comes up.
COUNTRY MUSIC:
In the 70's, Colorado Springs had 20 bars with LIVE country music. In
this decade, that has dwindled to one or two; one reason why I left COS.
C&W is still alive and well in Arizona, though, and "Rick Jolley
and the Paradise Prospectors" are jamming every Tuesday at the Four Deuces
Saloon in Tombstone. See their website here:
The jam has been enormously successful. We just played our
eleventh jam, always have at least 12 players playing to a wildly enthusiastic
SRO crowd at the bar. I bought a nifty little video camera
(when HD came out, the prices on the old ones dropped drastically) and we'll be
on YouTube soon.
We're playing a benefit for the local Food Bank Saturday, using a format kind of
like a musical review.
We are hoping to start playing paying gigs for the local RV parks which abound
in this beautiful desert. Why not come down and check it out?
All roads lead to Tombstone, especially if you have an RV.
Rick
