Ike and Billy Clanton were two of three brothers from a small ranching family.  Ike, the elder, wasn’t the brightest light in the candelabra.  Known as a loudmouth who liked to drink and gamble, he was also a hard worker.  Younger brother Billy was still in his teens.

Tom and Frank McLaury, also small ranchers, were known to be honest and respectable.  They’d made good money selling cattle to the army, but were planning to move away because of the growing Apache problems.  Their only fault, it appears, was being good friends with the Clantons.

A complicated trail of events led up to the gunfight. It started when some stolen government mules were found on the McLaury ranch. Tom and Frank were away at the time and it was later proven that a friend had left them there.  Tom and Frank were never charged but the Earps publicly branded them as thieves.  Other incidents and accusations followed, fueling the bad blood. 

On the night of October 25, Tom McLaury and Ike Clanton rode into Tombstone.  Ike planned to buy supplies for his ranch and find a card game.  Tom was there to settle his accounts prior to moving away.  In the saloon, Ike ran into Doc Holliday, drunk and spoiling for a fight.  Doc began baiting Ike and challenged him to a gunfight.  He was soon joined by Wyatt Earp (photo) and his two brothers.  The slow-witted Ike fought back with the only weapon he had, his mouth.  He shouted that he and his friends would come looking for the Earps and Holliday, and they would have to fight.

Fade to the next day.  After more blustering and baiting, Frank McLaury and young Billy Clanton rode into town, unaware of what had happened.  When Frank was told, he tried to calm things down and get Ike and his brother out of town, but it was too late.  Like a giant clock, fate moved the players toward the final confrontation.  Here’s how the two sides stacked up.

Carrying guns was patently illegal in town.  But Morgan and Virgil Earp were both peace officers.  They’d deputized Wyatt and Doc Holliday, so all were legally armed.  All of them had pistols, and Doc also carried a deadly sawed-off shotgun.

Billy Clanton had a pistol and had been told he could keep it because he and Ike were leaving town.  Frank McLaury also had a pistol, which he was about to turn over to Sheriff John Behan.  Ike Clanton and Tom McLaury were unarmed.

The Earps and Doc walked onto the scene with their guns drawn.  Ike put up his hands and Tom opened his vest, both declaring they weren’t armed.  But the Earps and Doc opened fire.  Frank and Billy fired back in self defense.

When the shooting ended thirty seconds later, Frank McLaury was dead.  Tom and Billy were mortally wounded.  Virgil Earp had been shot in the leg; Morgan had a bad shoulder wound, and Doc was winged.  Ironically, the only member of the “Clanton Gang” to escape unscathed was Ike, who knocked Wyatt Earp off balance and fled.

There’s a lot more to this story.  I’ve cut some wide corners for the sake of brevity.  If you have any corrections or anything to add, I’d welcome your comments.  Did Wyatt Earp deserve all his “fame and glory?”  What do you think?

Staff Reporter 

Howdy Partners

I thought it might be fun to run an occasional (once a year or so) blog that highlights western movies, TV, music and any other cowboy news of interest.   So here it is, folks.  All the western news that’s fit to print and maybe even some that ain’t.  Let me know what you think.

Mother Nature Will Make or Break Three Montana Ranching Families in this New Series-

A new documentary series The Last American Cowboy profiles three Montana cattle-ranching families.  Freak storms, deadly diseases, forest fires and hungry predators are just some of the challenges these families will battle in the weeks ahead. Who knew that ranch life could be this tough?  Love the show but not so much the name. The last cowboy?   It airs Mondays at 10 p.m. on Animal Planet.

Look who just landed in the Cowboy Hall of Fame!

Tom Selleck was recently inducted into the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma for his body of work—and what a body it is.   His work ain’t bad either.   He’s starred in such favorites as the The Sackets, Quigley Down Under, The Shadow Riders and Last Stand at Saber River.  

Known for his witty charm, craggy face and sparkling eyes he looked great in his Hawaiian duds, but he’s a natural in cowboy boots and hat.   On or off the screen, Tom is the real McCoy Not only did he do many of his own stunts, he enjoys puttering around his 63 acre ranch (although now that I’ve seen The Last Cowboy holding down the fort is more like it).  His many acting awards include an Emmy and Golden Globe, but he claims none meant more than this one.  “I don’t think for an actor who works in westerns there is a bigger thrill,” says Tom.  That’s our boy.

 The Old West has Gone Virtual

If you’re a fan of video games (and even if you’re not) you might want check out this trailer for “Red Dead Redemption.”    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEMxSUGZ6TU.  Okay, so it’s not how we played cowboys and Indians, and John Wayne is nowhere in sight, but the old west is looking pretty good—even if it’s only virtual.  (Warning this game is R rated)

Mark your Calendars:

Hee-Haw!  July 24^th is the National Day of the Cowboy and we fillies plan to celebrate big time. 

That’s all Folks!

Romance Writers of America RITA Finalist 

A Lady Like Sarah (A Rocky Creek Romance)

An outlaw calls a man out for tampering with his horse – only to find out there’s nary a pistol in town.  You can’t have a showdown with an unarmed man!  This north of the border Wild West tale had me in stitches!

I love Paul Gross.  Love him.  I loved him in Due South and I was so impressed with Passchendaele (despite the Oscar ending rather than the Hollywood ending, and yes, I’m still bitter about that).  So when I heard that he was in a new movie – and that he played an outlaw – I knew that I had to see it.  So one afternoon my writer friend Julianne MacLean and I headed to the theatre to sneak in a matinee.

Gross plays The Montana Kid, who after a failed attempt at being hanged (never hang a man from a dead tree branch) ends up in Barclay’s Brush.  He doesn’t realize he’s crossed the border into Canada, and his mere presence puts the town’s residents (all dozen or so of them) in a state of excitement.  Within minutes he’s challenged the town smithy to a shootout – except Mr. Montana Kid has the only pistol in town.  Well, almost.  You see, the widow Jane has a pistol.  It’s broken, but wouldn’t you know it’s the blacksmith that sets out to fix it.  In the meantime, Jane exchanges the pistol for some hard labour on the farm.  The Montana Kid is dirty.  I mean really dirty.  And he’s rough around the edges.  And of course, there’s a bounty on him.   

It has all the making of a gritty western, but it’s not.  It’s firmly tongue in cheek.  If there’s one thing we seem to be able to do in Canada, it’s not take ourselves too seriously.  So when the Kid gets cleaned up, it’s hard not to snicker when he reappears from the Chinese laundry wearing this:

It takes a special kind of man to get away with that particular shade of purple.  And silk. Especially with the long hair. 

Come to find out his real name is Sean, and this hardened outlaw is no match for Jane, played by Sienna Guillory.  Add in the town doctor, who is very adept at removing bullets from posteriors, an unflappable Indian (played by the always wonderful Graham Greene) and a host of Mounties (including one particularly fresh-faced man in red serge who is quite sweet on Jane as well) and there are some true gems.  We have horses and donkeys, a sweet school marm and a pair of bumbling “boys” quite awestruck at having a real live outlaw in their midst.

And yes – we must get back to the baddie.  I was thrilled to see that Callum Keith Rennie was playing Ben Cutler.  I like Callum a lot – most recently as Leoben in Battlestar Galactica and as Lew Ashby in Californication. 

It goes without saying that two things needed to happen in this movie – there has to be a shootout, and the guy has to get the girl.

Check out the trailer if you don’t believe me. I guarantee you’ll have a giggle!

The chance meeting launched a career spanning six decades that included 640 records with over 100 million copies sold.  And that’s just the start of it. Gene Autry starred in 95 movies, had a long running radio program, and produced and starred in his own television show.  When he retired from Hollywood, he went on to own the California Angels and KTLA, a Los Angeles television station. He’s also the only entertainer to have five stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for every category established by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce.  No wonder he’s on a postage stamp honoring Hollywood cowboys!

His success was quite a leap for the young man born Sept. 29, 1907 in Tioga, Texas. At the age of five, Gene’s preacher-grandfather taught him to sing. His mother encouraged her son’s interest in music with hymns and folks songs. Gene was 12 when he bought his first guitar for $8 out of the Sears Catalog. After graduating from high school, he took the telegraphy job that led to his chance meeting with Will Rogers.

Rogers advised him to purse a career in show business, and a year later Gene went to New York to audition for RCA Victor. He didn’t win immediate favor. An executive told him to come back when he’d gotten more experience, and Gene did just that. He returned in six months and made his first recording, “My Dreaming of You” with a flipside of “My Alabama Home.”

In 1929 he signed with Columbia Records and went on to star in “National Barn Dance,” a popular show on a Chicago radio station. By the 1930s, he was one of the most beloved country singers in America, and his sales proved it. Gene Autry earned the first Gold Record ever awarded. No wonder he’s known as “America’s Favorite Singing Cowboy.”

Movies came next for Gene. He first appeared on the screen in 1934, but the film that made him a star was “Tumbling Tumbleweeds” in 1935. It led to several more “singing cowboy” movies, produced by Republic Pictures at a rate of a movie every six weeks. By 1937, Gene was rated a top box office attraction in the class of Clark Gable, Mickey Rooney and Spencer Tracy.

In addition to the  movies, Gene had a radio presence. His “Melody Ranch” show aired from 1940 to 1956.  Just about everyone knew the words to Back in the Saddle Again.  When television became the main source of family entertainment, Gene was the first major movie star to make the shift. He produced and starred in the Gene Autry Show for six years.

The stats for Gene Autry go on and on, but there are two things he’s known for that don’t have a number attached. One of those things is “Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer.” Gene recorded this Christmas song  in 1949, and it’s a true American Classic.

The second is even more fitting for Petticoats & Pistols, a blog dedicated to western romance.  Gene Autry is credited with “The Cowboy Code.” Here is it:

 1. A cowboy never takes unfair advantage – even of an enemy.

 2. A cowboy never betrays a trust. He never goes back on his word.

 3. A cowboy always tells the truth.

 4. A cowboy is kind and gentle to small children, old folks, and animals.

 5. A cowboy is free from racial and religious intolerances.

 6. A cowboy is always helpful when someone is in trouble.

 7. A cowboy is always a good worker.

 8. A cowboy respects womanhood, his parents and his nation’s laws.

 9. A cowboy is clean about his person in thought, word, and deed.

10.A cowboy is a Patriot.

If that doesn’t sum up what it means to be a western hero, I don’t know what does. 

 The Singing Cowboy stamps go on sale Saturday, April 17th.  It’s fitting the official unveiling will be at the Autry National Center in the Museum of the American West in Los Angeles. 

William S. Hart was one of the first great stars of the silent screen motion picture western. (read oh, so carefully to find a chance to win my May 1st release Wildflower Bride-I just got my author’s copies and I’M SUPER EXCITED AND IN THE MOOD TO SHARE!)

Westerns with their classic situations – the fight in the saloon, the faithful horse, the dude who goes west, the sheriff who cleans up the town, the showdown, the trip west in a covered wagon — what are now considered film clichés were first introduced to film audiences in 1914 with the arrival of William Surrey Hart.

Hart was a stage actor until the age of 49. At that age, after a long career of playing Shakespearean theater in the United States and England, he headed for Hollywood and silent films. And—get this—he made 65 films in the next eleven years. How’s that for productive, huh?

When he got to Hollywood, Hart was disgusted by the “pretty boy” Westerns that were currently being produced. He began directing and acting in his own productions. His films reflected his rugged vision of the West. Hart often used real Indians, gamblers, prostitutes, and saloon entertainers in films.

The themes of his films generally relied upon a “transformation,” where the love of a good woman, a “Sunbonnet Sue” tamed the wild man and transformed him into the man of virtue we knew him to be all along. And now, aren’t we all still in love with that formula in romance novels, huh?

Sometimes the roles were switched: Hart as the noble cowboy who tames the bad girl. Often the bad-woman-turned-good redeemed herself by dying for her man, stepping in front of him to take the bullet. How come the man gets to be transformed but the woman has to die? Huh? Ask yourself that?

But by the late ‘teens, Hart, now sixty saw his career wane in popularity. Hart’s age and unwillingness to tamper with the formula was supplanted by Tom Mix, with his “action and excitement spiced with a boyish sense of fun.” Westerns began catering to an increasingly younger audience, and Hart faded from view.

Disheartened, Hart retired from the screen, only to try one last comeback in 1925 with, Tumbleweeds. The film was only a minor success. Hart retired from films, making one last public appearance in 1940 with a sound prologue to a re-issued Tumbleweeds. Just listen for a few minutes to William S. Hart in the clip below. He has a fantastic voice. You can easily believe he was trained in Shakespearean theater.

William S. Hart, the Western matinee idol of the silent screen died June 23, 1946 in Los Angeles. On April 17, 2010, the United States Postal Service will release a series of four stamps, Cowboys of the Silver Screen. Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, and Tom Mix, and William S. Hart

And now here’s your chance to get your name in the drawing for a signed copy of Book #3 in the Montana Marriages series, Wildflower Bride. Have you ever seen a silent movie? I’ve seen clips. Usually a charging train, belching smoke, scary piano music in the background. Simple question, yes or no. If it’s yes, tell me about it.