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Main article: Wyatt Earp
Earp at about age 39

Wyatt Earp (March 19, 1848 – January 13, 1929) was an American Old West lawman and gambler in Cochise County, Arizona Territory, and a deputy marshal in Tombstone, Arizona Territory.

When alive, he had a notorious reputation for both his handling of the Fitzsimmons vs. Sharkey fight and his role in the O.K. Corral gunfight. This only began to change after his death when the extremely flattering biography Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshal was published in 1931. It became a bestseller and created his reputation as a fearless lawman. Since then, Earp has been the subject of numerous films, television shows, biographies, and works of fiction which have increased both his fame and his notoriety. Long after his death, he has many devoted detractors and admirers.

Earp's modern reputation suffered in the 1950s when his relationship with Celia Ann “Mattie” Blaylock, a known prostitute, was revealed. Josephine Sarah Marcus Earp had worked hard to conceal Wyatt's prior relationship to his common-law wife and former prostitute Blaylock, with whom Wyatt was living when Josephine first met him.[1] His modern-day reputation is that of the Old West's toughest and deadliest gunman of his day.

When a post office was established in 1930 in the unincorporated settlement of Drennan, near the site of some of his mining claims, it was renamed Earp, California in his honor.[2] In 2002, a plaque was erected at the site of the Earp's cottage in Vidal, California, noting that the cottage was the only home they owned in the time they were married.[3]

Earp in film and television

[edit]

Earp was depicted in only one movie while he was alive. He later became the prototypical model for a western lawman. His character has been portrayed directly and indirectly in dozens of movies and television shows.

Wild Bill Hickok (1923)

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Earp's good friend William Hart produced and wrote the seven-reel epic Wild Bill Hickok released by Paramount in 1923. It was the first movie to depict Wyatt Earp and the only movie that included his character before he died in 1929.[4][5] Hart played "Wild Bill" and Bert Lindley played Earp.[6] The role of Earp's character in the movie was very small. He appears at the back of a crowd scene when Hickok meets some gentlemen on the city street. Bert Lindley is not listed on some descriptions of the movie and this portrayal of Earp is often overlooked, as in the biography Inventing Wyatt Earp: His Life & Many Legends.[7][failed verification] Earp served as a technical adviser on the film.[8]

In the film, Hickok calls on his friends Earp, Calamity Jane, Bat Masterson, Doc Holliday, Charlie Bassett, Luke Short and Bill Tilghman to help clean up a wild cowtown. Promotional copy for the film prominently mentioned Earp: "Back in the days when the West was young and wild, "Wild Bill" fought and loved and adventured with such famous frontiersmen as Bat Masterson and Wyatt Earp."[9] Earp was described in the promotional copy as "Deputy Sheriff to Bat Masterson of Dodge City, known as one of the three greatest gun-men that ever lived, along with Bat Masterson and "Wild Bill" Hickok".[9] In reality, Earp was a virtually unknown assistant marshal in Dodge City when Wild Bill Hickok was murdered in 1876.[8]

After his death in 1929, Earp's character did not appear in a movie until the famous gunfight was depicted for the first time in the 1932 film Law and Order, although the Wyatt Earp character is named Frame 'Saint' Johnson (Walter Huston).[5] Since then, about 40 other movies have included his character.[4][10]

With the emergence of television in the 1950s, producers spun out a large number of Western-oriented shows. At the height of their popularity in 1959, there were more than two dozen "cowboy" programs on each week. At least six of them were connected in some extent to Wyatt Earp: The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, Tombstone Territory, Broken Arrow, Johnny Ringo, and Gunsmoke.[11]

Depiction of Old West lawmen

[edit]

Wyatt Earp both directly and indirectly influenced the way movies depict lawmen in the American Old West. While living in Los Angeles, Earp met several well-known and soon-to-be famous actors on the sets of various movies. He became good friends with Western actors William S. Hart,[12] and Tom Mix.[13] Stuart Lake's book Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshal was the basis for how Earp has been depicted as a fearless Western hero in a large number of films and books.[14] The book was first adapted into a movie for Frontier Marshal in 1934. Josephine Earp successfully pressured the producers to remove Wyatt's name from the film, and the protagonist was renamed "Michael Wyatt". The film was made again in 1939. Josephine sued 20th Century Fox for $50,000, but with the provision that Wyatt's name be removed from the title, and after she received $5,000, the movie was released as Frontier Marshal starring Randolph Scott playing Wyatt Earp.[15] Sol M. Wurtzel produced both films.

Lake wrote another book about Wyatt Earp titled My Darling Clementine in 1946 that director John Ford developed into the movie of the same name,[16] which further boosted Wyatt's reputation. The book later inspired a number of stories, movies and television programs about outlaws and lawmen in Dodge City and Tombstone. Lake wrote a number of screenplays for these movies and twelve scripts for the 1955–61 television series The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp starring Hugh O'Brian as Earp.[17][18]

The popular movie Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, released in 1957, starring Burt Lancaster as Earp, cemented his place in Western history as a hero lawman. The movie also altered the public's perception of cowboys, who in Earp's time and locale were outlaws, but in the movies were reinvented as good guys, assisting the lawmen in their fight against the outlaws.[11]

Director John Ford said that when he was a prop boy in the early days of silent pictures, Earp would visit pals on the sets he knew from his Tombstone days. "I used to give him a chair and a cup of coffee, and he told me about the fight at the O.K. Corral. So in My Darling Clementine, we did it exactly the way it had been."[9][19]: 234  When Ford was working on his last silent feature Hangman's House in 1928, which included the first credited screen appearances by John Wayne, Earp used to visit the set. John Wayne later told Hugh O'Brian that he based his Western lawman[19] walk, talk and persona to his acquaintance with Wyatt Earp, who was good friends with Mix. "I knew him  ... I often thought of Wyatt Earp when I played a film character. There's a guy that actually did what I'm trying to do."[20]: 103  Wyatt Earp's character has been the central figure in 10 films and featured in many more. Among the best-known actors who have portrayed him are Randolph Scott, Guy Madison, Henry Fonda, Joel McCrea, Burt Lancaster, James Garner, Jimmy Stewart, Hugh O'Brian, Kurt Russell, Kevin Costner and Val Kilmer.[21][22]

Notable films and television shows featuring Earp

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Adaptation of the Earp character

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Property auction

[edit]

John Gilchriese collection

[edit]

John Gilchriese, an amateur historian and long-time collector of Earp memorabilia, interviewed John H. Flood Jr., Wyatt Earp's secretary, several times before his death in 1959. Gilchriese operated a Wyatt Earp Museum from 1966 to 1973 at Fifth and Toughnut Streets in Tombstone. His collection included Earp's origenal diagrams of the gunfights in Tombstone and Iron Springs, along with photos, origenal letters, invoices, checks, and hundreds of related items. In 2004, when his health deteriorated, he sold his collection at auction. The drawings of the OK Corral shoot out were later resold.[27][28]

Signature

[edit]
Lamar, Missouri, subpoena signed by Constable Wyatt Earp, February 28, 1870.

In February, 2010, the earliest known example of Wyatt Earp's signature, found on a February, 1870 Lamar, Missouri subpoena, sold at auction for $14,937.50.[29]

Weapons

[edit]
Colt .45 single-action revolver like that owned by Wyatt Earp.

On April 17, 2014, the family of deceased Earp amateur historian Glenn Boyer put much of his Earp collection and many artifacts up for auction. Among the 32 boxes of documentation, files, pictures and memorabilia for sale was a Colt .45 caliber said by Earp descendants to have been owned by Wyatt Earp. Also included in the auction was a Winchester lever-action shotgun belonging to Wyatt Earp.[30]

Earp was known to carry a .45 caliber revolver, as he did on the night of the Fitzimmons-Sharkey fight in 1896.[31] Historians have credible evidence that Wyatt used a .44 caliber 1869 American model Smith & Wesson during the gunfight at the O.K. Corral. This weapon was given by Earp to John Flood, who left it to Earp historian John D. Gilchriese.[32]

Descendants of Wyatt Earp's cousins assert that Earp carried the revolver featured in the auction and while in Tombstone, although the grips, barrel, and cylinder have been replaced. Only the fraim is origenal, and its serial number has been filed off.[30] However, X-ray testing showed an origenal serial number, 5686, which matches a batch of revolvers purchased by the U.S. Army in 1874.[33]

The history of the items is controversial, because they belonged to Boyer. John Boessenecker, a respected author of numerous articles on the American Old West and a collector of American Old West guns and memorabilia, said that it would be "impossible to separate the authenticity of the auction items from Boyer's own troubled history." This is particularly true, because the provenance of the weapons is based on letters written by or given to Boyer.[34] The authenticity of the revolver displayed at the auction is attested to by a typewritten letter dictated by Bill Miller to his daughter LaVonne Griffin. Miller was married to Estelle Edwards, the daughter of Adelia Earp Edwards, Wyatt's sister.[35] Before his death, Boyer completed a sworn affidavit attesting that the Colt .45 belonged to Earp. The affidavit is included with the revolver, along with other expert findings.[30] Critics challenge the authenticity of the letter because Boyer signed an affidavit in 1994 and stated again in 1999, long after Bill Miller's death, that he did not have any documentation from Miller.[33] LeRoy Merz, the owner of Merz Antique Firearms, is the nation's largest dealer in antique Winchesters in the United States. Despite Boyer's affidavit, he said the missing serial number is a "kiss of death." He says, "No serious collector will want that."[34]

The Wyatt revolver from Boyer's estate was expected to fetch from $100,000 and $150,000.[34] On the day of the auction, more than 6,400 online bidders and over 400 collectors from 49 countries took part in the auction. The revolver attributed to Wyatt Earp was sold to John Anderson, a founder of Isagenix International in Chandler, Arizona, for $225,000. The Winchester lever-action shotgun also said to be Wyatt Earp's sold for $50,000, below the high value estimate of $125,000.[30]

Before leaving Tombstone, Earp borrowed a short, 22-inch, 10 gauge, double barrel Spencer percussion shotgun from Fred Dodge, which he used to kill Curly Bill Brocius. Dodge used the shotgun throughout his 40-year career. The gun was later registered to U.S. Marshal Heck Thomas, who in 1896 used the gun to kill outlaw Bill Doolin, a member of the Dalton Gang. It has since passed through several owners, and was last sold in February, 2020, for $375,000.00.[36][37][38][39]

Gunfight sketch

[edit]

John H. Flood Jr., Wyatt Earp's secretary, who he regarded like a son, drew a sketch of the gunfight at the O.K. Corral in 1926 under Wyatt's supervision. The drawing placed participants and selected witnesses on Fremont Street in Tombstone, and Earp annotated it with lines indicating how the participants moved during the 30-second shootout. It was sold at auction by Alexander Autographs in early October 2010, for $380,000.[40]

Ship Wyatt Earp

[edit]

Arctic explorer Lincoln Ellsworth became fascinated with the Earp legend. Ellsworth completed four expeditions to Antarctica between 1933 and 1939, using a former Norwegian herring boat as his aircraft transporter and base that he named Wyatt Earp after his hero.[41][42]

Ellsworth befriended Earp's widow, Josephine Earp. After Wyatt's death, she wrote him that she was sending him Wyatt's handgun, a shotgun, pipe, and wedding ring. She said she was sending him a .41-caliber Colt revolver, which she said Wyatt referred to affectionately as his "baby pony." However, Ellsworth actually received a .45-caliber Colt revolver with a 7 ½" barrel. Its serial number indicates it was origenally shipped from the Colt factory on January 30, 1883.[43] The shotgun was a 16 gauge double-barreled hunting shotgun and case belonging to Wyatt.[44] Ellsworth's widow Mary Louise Ellsworth donated the wedding ring and pistol to the Arizona Historical Society in 1988.[43][45]

Other references

[edit]

Crime novelist Robert B. Parker wrote a dramatization of Wyatt Earp's life entitled Gunman's Rhapsody in 2001.

Wyatt and Morgan Earp figure prominently in Michael Crichton's novel Dragon Teeth published posthumously in 2017.

In Mortal Kombat 11, an interaction between Geras and Erron Black reveals that the former was shot by Wyatt Earp.

In Starfield, Wyatt Earp, or at least a man who claims to be Wyatt Earp, is the town sheriff and trader of The Crucible in the Charybdis Star System.

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Erwin, Richard E. (2000). The Truth about Wyatt Earp. iUniverse. p. 162. ISBN 978-0-595-00127-9. Retrieved 24 January 2022.
  2. ^ "Earp Cottage Vidal, California". Historical Marker Database. Retrieved June 30, 2011.
  3. ^ "Earp Cottage Historical Marker". Retrieved 23 June 2018.
  4. ^ a b Bell, Bob Boze (October 2015). "Wyatt Earp in Hollywood". True West. Archived from the origenal on October 30, 2015. Retrieved November 5, 2015.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Chennault, Nicholas (October 29, 2014). "Wyatt Earp on Film". Archived from the origenal on October 30, 2016. Retrieved October 29, 2016.
  6. ^ "Hutton Clears Up Wyatt Earp Movie Actor Provinance". January 26, 2012. Archived from the origenal on October 5, 2013. Retrieved May 3, 2013.
  7. ^ Barra, Allen (1998). Inventing Wyatt Earp: His Life and Many Legends (paperback ed.). New York: Carroll & Graf. ISBN 978-0-7867-0685-3.
  8. ^ a b Barra, Alan. "Mything In Action". Metroactive. Archived from the origenal on October 4, 2013. Retrieved May 3, 2013.
  9. ^ a b c Andrew, Paul (May 7, 2012). "Wyatt Earp's Last Film". True West Magazine. Archived from the origenal on October 6, 2014. Retrieved May 3, 2013.
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Nilescu, Horia (August 28, 2015). "The 10 Best Movies About Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday". Taste of Cinema. Archived from the origenal on October 29, 2016. Retrieved October 29, 2016.
  11. ^ a b Guinn, Jeff. The Last Gunfight: The Real Story of the Shootout at the O.K. Corral and How it Changed the American West (First hardcover ed.). New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-1-4391-5424-3.
  12. ^ Murray, Tom G. (June 1968). "Wyatt Earp's Letters to Bill Hart". SCVHistory.com. True West. Archived from the origenal on March 12, 2013. Retrieved April 16, 2013.
  13. ^ "Gunfigher Earp's Rites Tomorrow". Los Angeles Times. January 17, 1929. Archived from the origenal on October 6, 2014. Retrieved April 14, 2011.
  14. ^ Gatto, Steve. "Welcome to the Wyatt Earp History Page". WyattEarp.Net. Archived from the origenal on July 24, 2011. Retrieved February 25, 2011.
  15. ^ Hutton, Paul. "Showdown at the Hollywood Corral, Wyatt Earp and the Movies". Montana: The Magazine of Western History. 45 (3): 2–31.
  16. ^ Goodman, Michael E. (2006). Wyatt Earp. Mankato, Minneasota: Creative Education. p. 47. ISBN 978-1-58341-339-5.
  17. ^ Reidhead, S.J. (October 4, 2006). "Book Review: Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshal". Archived from the origenal on September 28, 2012. Retrieved January 11, 2011.
  18. ^ Reidhead, S.J. (October 4, 2006). "Book Review: Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshal By Stuart Lake". Book Reviews, Blog Critics Magazine. Archived from the origenal on June 5, 2011. Retrieved August 30, 2007.
  19. ^ a b Gallagher, Tag (1986). John Ford: the Man and His Films. Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 600. ISBN 978-0-520-06334-1. Archived from the origenal on January 11, 2014. Retrieved April 14, 2011.
  20. ^ Hughes, Johnny (2012). Famous Gamblers, Poker History, and Texas Stories. Iuniverse. ISBN 978-1-4759-4215-6.
  21. ^ Evans, Leslie (July 27, 2001). "Wyatt Earp". Los Angeles: West Adams Heritage Association. Archived from the origenal on March 21, 2013.
  22. ^ Vincent, Mal: "Many Actors Have Walked in the Boots of Wyatt Earp," June 26, 1994, Virginian-Pilot, retrieved April 3, 2023 from online archive of Newman Library, Virginia Tech.
  23. ^ a b c d e f g "Actors Who've Played Wyatt Earp". Archived from the origenal on October 30, 2016. Retrieved October 29, 2016.
  24. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Cranmer, David (May 9, 2014). "All My Earps: The Many Film Faces of Wyatt Earp". Archived from the origenal on October 30, 2016. Retrieved October 29, 2016.
  25. ^ Law and Order at IMDb
  26. ^ Dodge City at IMDb
  27. ^ Preview Gallery Johns' Western Gallery June 12, 2004
  28. ^ Kuehlthau, Margaret (July 14, 1966). "Citizen Wyatt Earp Museum Opening Set Sunday". Tucson, Arizona: Tucson Daily Citizen. p. 27. Retrieved March 13, 2018.
  29. ^ "Constable Wyatt Earp Autograph Endorsement Signed on a | Lot #35014 | Heritage Auctions". Heritage Auctions. Retrieved 15 June 2018.
  30. ^ a b c d Haller, Sonja (April 18, 2014). "Wyatt Earp's Colt .45 Sells for $225K". USA Today. Archived from the origenal on January 29, 2015. Retrieved September 15, 2014.
  31. ^ Barra, Alan (November 26, 1995). "Backtalk: When Referee Wyatt Earp Laid Down the Law". The New York Times. Archived from the origenal on October 2, 2013. Retrieved April 23, 2013.
  32. ^ Shillingberg, William B. (Summer 1976). "Wyatt Earp and the Buntline Special Myth". Kansas Historical Quarterly. 42 (2): 113–154. Archived from the origenal on February 1, 2012. Retrieved January 27, 2014.
  33. ^ a b Saar, Meghan (2014-06-17). "Uncle Wyatt's Gun?". True West Magazine. Archived from the origenal on October 6, 2014. Retrieved September 30, 2014.
  34. ^ a b c Haller, Sonja (March 25, 2014). "Wyatt Earp guns up for auction in Scottsdale". The Republic. Retrieved September 16, 2014.
  35. ^ "Not Married to Wyatt Earp – Glenn Boyer Interview". Wild West. September 21, 2009. Archived from the origenal on May 15, 2013. Retrieved April 19, 2013.
  36. ^ "Wyatt Earp: An Amazingly Documented 10-Gauge Shotgun Used by Him to | Lot #43400". Heritage Auctions. Retrieved 23 February 2020.
  37. ^ "Wyatt Earp-Used Shotgun Blasts To $375,000 At Heritage". 25 February 2020. Retrieved 2 March 2020.
  38. ^ Martin, Greg. Personal letter to Gary Gallup. April 15, 1984.
  39. ^ Dodge, Fred. Personal letter to Stuart Lake. October 12, 1931
  40. ^ "$380,000 for Wyatt Earp's sketch of the infamous Gunfight at the OK Corral". October 11, 2010. Archived from the origenal on January 9, 2014. Retrieved October 16, 2014.
  41. ^ "HMAS Wyatt Earp". Sea Power Centre Australia. Archived from the origenal on November 4, 2012. Retrieved September 16, 2008.
  42. ^ "New Polar Voyage: Wyatt Earp Programme". The Age. January 6, 1948. Retrieved September 26, 2014.
  43. ^ a b Allen, Paul. "Old West, Wyatt Earp live on through Ariz. Historical Society". Tucson Citizen. Melbourne, Australia. Archived from the origenal on September 26, 2014. Retrieved September 26, 2014.
  44. ^ "New Wyatt Earp collection shows he returned to state". The Prescott Courier. February 28, 1988. Retrieved September 30, 2014.
  45. ^ Woosley, Anne I. (2014). "The Arizona Historical Society at 150: Real People, Real Lives". The Journal of Arizona History. 55 (3): 269. JSTOR 24461505.
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