DeGolyer Library

Amy Clampitt (June, 1920-September, 1994) grew up in the Quaker community of New Providence, Iowa. She wrote Shakespearean sonnets as a young girl, but by the time she attended Grinnell College she had decided that being a poet was untenable. After graduating with honors, she pursued graduate studies at Columbia University briefly and then turned to publishing. She worked at Oxford University Press for five years; gave herself five months of travel abroad; and then returned to New York City to work as a reference librarian, freelance editor, and writer. Her first collection, privately printed, appeared in 1973. The New Yorker published a poem in 1979. Only with The Kingfisher in 1983 did Clampitt’s work receive regular trade publication. Critics deemed it a brilliant debut. Edmund White accorded The Kingfisher four pages of praise in The New York Review of Books . Helen Vendler placed in her the company of Emily Dickinson, Elizabeth Bishop, Robert Lowell and Anne Sexton. She confessed in an interview the avalanche of attention intimidated her, but she plunged into the business of being a poet with brio. In the short decade left to her, three more collections followed, as did a collection of critical essays, a translation of two cantos of Dante’s Inferno, and interviews and appearances in numerous journals. She edited, offered praise to other poets' titles, and appeared at poetry readings and celebrations. She taught at the College of William and Mary, Smith, and Amherst Colleges. Clampitt accumulated the following honors: A Guggenheim Fellowship, and membership in the American Academy of Arts and Letters and in the American Academy of Poets. A MacArthur Fellowship enabled her to buy her first home in Lenox, Massachusetts. In June 1994 she and her longtime companion Harold Korn married. In September of 1994 she succumbed to cancer.

George Armstrong Custer (1839-1876) was a cavalry officer during the American Civil War and the Indian Wars. Appointed to the rank of lieutenant-colonel in 1866, Custer led the 7th U.S. Cavalry in an attack on Chief Black Kettle’s Cheyenne camp on the banks of the Washita River in Kansas in 1868. He also led an expedition into the Black Hills in Dakota Territory in 1874, shortly before the Black Hills Gold Rush that triggered the federal government’s aggressive efforts to force the region’s tribes off of newly valuable land into smaller reservations. In the ensuing conflict known as the Indian Wars, Custer’s unit was scheduled to take part in the military campaign to defeat Native American tribes under the leadership of the Lakota chief Crazy Horse and the Hunkpapa medicine man Sitting Bull. However, in one of the greatest debacles of the U.S. Army, Custer’s entire unit was wiped out at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876 by a coalition of Lakota, Cheyenne and Arapaho warriors.

Ironically, propaganda and popular imagination quickly turned the military fiasco into a heroic legend. Custer’s widow, Elizabeth Bacon Custer, effectively suppressed any criticism of her deceased husband’s actions, while the idea of a cavalry officer’s valiant stand against overwhelming savage force captured the imagination of journalists and artists alike. So, despite historical evidence of Custer’s vainglorious attitude and his major strategic errors leading up to the crushing defeat, the image of "Custer’s Last Stand"as a heroic effort was popularized in countless paintings, dime novels, and motion pictures. Many motion pictures portraying Custer or the events at the Little Bighorn thus opted to forego historical accuracy for spectacle by idealizing Custer as a fallen hero. Others, however, pointed out Custer’s pompous personality, contempt for Indian military power, and flawed leadership as the culprits for his unit’s demise. Overall, more than forty motion pictures addressed the subject of Custer and the Little Bighorn in one way or another, testifying to the lasting impact of this controversial western legend.

The western has been one of the most prolific genres in American filmmaking, despite repeated shifts in popularity and content. It has been debated, buried, resurrected, redefined, and spoofed at various junctures, yet it never disappeared. So whether as nostalgic longing for a romanticized past or a critical reevaluation thereof, westerns continue to offer a characteristic blend of myth and history through which this quintessential American genre has influenced filmmakers worldwide.

Westerns are typically set in the transmississippi West during the second half of the nineteenth century, but might reach as far back as the colonial era or forward into the twentieth century, and geographically into Mexico, Canada, or Alaska. Most plotlines revolve around such staple characters of the "Wild West" as cowboys, Indians, settlers, outlaws, sheriffs, and the cavalry.

A great number of Hollywood stars (e.g. Gary Cooper, Errol Flynn, James Stewart) appeared in westerns during their career, but no actor was as closely identified with the genre as John Wayne, whose career spanned five decades and nearly ninety westerns. Wayne was the biggest male box office star in the United States between 1950 and 1965, working with such influential directors as John Ford and Howard Hawks on many classic westerns. Also among directors with important contributions to shaping or redefining the western since the 1940s are Anthony Mann, Sam Peckinpah, Sergio Leone, and Clint Eastwood.

This collection of western film pressbooks begins with works from the 1930s, the height of the "singing cowboy" movies, which emerged with the advent of sound film. It was also the era of B westerns, which operated with formulaic plotlines and sound-stage sets in order to offer low-budget entertainment. The 1940s were a transitional period characterized by darker, more sinister plotlines – reminiscent of film noir – as well as the rise of director John Ford, whose increasingly critical look at the American West was set against the magnificent backdrop of Monument Valley. The context of the Cold War added a political tone to many 1950s westerns, which also surfaced during the later stages of the Vietnam War, while revisionist westerns beginning in the 1950s set out to address the violence and racial prejudice at the core of the westward expansion of the United States. The revisionist trend carried on into the 1960s and 1970s with director Sam Peckinpah’s ruminations about violence and changing times, as well as Italian director Sergio Leone’s cynical spaghetti westerns, which introduced the figure of the anti-hero. Other developments in the 1970s were the western spoof, the sci-fi western, and even some crossovers into the realm of porn. With the spectacular failure of Michael Cimino’s high-budget Heaven’s Gate (1980), many declared the western dead, but the genre yet again proved its resilience in the 1990s – though that most recent run of westerns is beyond the scope of this collection.

The western has been one of the most prolific genres in American filmmaking, despite repeated shifts in popularity and content. Whether as nostalgic longing for a romanticized past or a critical reevaluation thereof, westerns continue to offer a characteristic blend of myth and history through which this quintessential American genre has influenced filmmakers worldwide.

Westerns are typically set in the transmississippi West during the second half of the nineteenth century, but might reach as far back as the colonial era or forward into the twentieth century, and geographically into Mexico, Canada, or Alaska. Most plotlines revolve around such staple characters of the "Wild West" as cowboys, Indians, settlers, outlaws, sheriffs, and the cavalry.

A great number of Hollywood stars (e.g. Gary Cooper, Errol Flynn, James Stewart) appeared in westerns during their career, but no actor was as closely identified with the genre as John Wayne, whose career spanned five decades and nearly ninety westerns. Wayne was the biggest male box office star in the United States between 1950 and 1965, working with such influential directors as John Ford and Howard Hawks on many classic westerns. Anthony Mann, Raoul Walsh, and Delmer Daves also directed several well-regarded westerns prior to the 1960s. Influential directors since the 1960s include Sam Peckinpah, Sergio Leone, and Clint Eastwood.

Inexpensive, formulaic "B" westerns, also known as series westerns, were produced in large numbers during the 1930s and 1940s. Even in the 1950s, however, when western films with a revisionist or political agenda began to emerge at the same time as television production heightened, action-packed but formulaic plotlines continued to dominate low-budget features.

Revisionist westerns set out to address the violence and racial prejudice at the core of the westward expansion of the United States, a trend that carried on into the 1960s and 1970s with director Sam Peckinpah’s ruminations about violence and changing times, or Italian director Sergio Leone’s cynical spaghetti westerns. After the spectacular failure of Michael Cimino’s high-budget Heaven’s Gate (1980), many declared the western dead, but the genre yet again proved its resilience in the 1990s – though that most recent run of westerns is beyond the scope of this collection.

American novelist and screenwriter Larry McMurtry (b. 1936), a native of North Texas, received degrees from North Texas State University (B.A., 1958) and Rice University (M.A., 1960). In 1960, while he was a Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University alongside author Ken Kesey, McMurtry developed a reputation as a rare book scout, and later opened used bookstores in Houston and in the neighborhood of Georgetown in Washington, D.C. He also owns the Booked Up bookstore in Archer City, TX, one of the largest used bookstores in the country, which he opened in 1988. It nearly closed down in 2005 until the outpouring of public support convinced him otherwise.

McMurtry won the 1986 Pulitzer Prize for Lonesome Dove (1985) and has written several acclaimed novels, yet his name is best known to the general public through film and television adaptations of his work. The 1963 motion picture Hud, starring Paul Newman, was the first of such adaptations, based on McMurtry’s Horseman, Pass By (1961). Then Peter Bogdanovich directed The Last Picture Show (1971), a coming-of-age story set in 1950s small-town Texas based on McMurtry’s eponymous 1966 novel. Leaving Cheyenne (1963) became the motion picture Lovin’ Molly in 1974, and James L. Brooks’ screen adaptation of the 1975 Terms of Endearment won five Academy Awards (including Best Picture) in 1984. And in 1989, CBS turned Lonesome Dove into an enormously popular television miniseries starring Robert Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones.

Most recently, McMurtry garnered an Academy Award in 2006 with Diana Ossana for the screenplay of Brokeback Mountain, adapted from a short story by E. Annie Proulx. In addition to novels and screenplays, McMurtry has also published various essays and a memoir. The majority of his works are set in his native Texas, whether in "old West" times or in the twentieth century.

The Dallas Morning News developed from the Galveston News, which was founded in 1842 by Samuel Bangs. By 1879 Alfred H. Belo, who had acquired control of the business, was investigating the possibility of establishing a sister paper in rapidly developing North Texas. When efforts to purchase the old Dallas Herald failed, Belo sent George Bannerman Dealey to launch a new paper, the Dallas Morning News, which began publication on October 1, 1885.

Linked across 315 miles by telegraph, and sharing a network of correspondents across the state, the Dallas Morning News and the Galveston News were the first two newspapers in the country to publish simultaneous editions. From the outset the Dallas paper enjoyed the double advantage of strong financial support and an accumulation of journalistic experience. From its parent paper, the Dallas News inherited the concept of being a state paper and of refraining from becoming the organ of any political party.

Beginning with a circulation of 5,000, the Dallas News soon absorbed its major competitor, the Herald (not to be confused with the Dallas Times Herald). It immediately leased a special train on the Texas and Pacific Railway to carry papers to Fort Worth, and in 1887 it engaged a special train on the Houston and Texas Central to deliver papers to McKinney, Sherman, and Denison on the morning they were printed. This expediency enabled the paper to meet the threat of the St. Louis newspapers, which in 1885 had a larger circulation in North Texas than did any state paper. By 1888 the News was printing an eight to twelve page edition daily and sixteen pages on Sunday. Its circulation reached 17,000 by 1895. In 1914 the News launched an evening paper, the Dallas Journal, which was sold in 1938. It also published the Semi-Weekly Farm News from 1885 until 1940.

Source:

Garrett, Judith M. and Michael V. Hazel. Dallas Morning News , Handbook of Texas Online

Afternoon reruns of theatrical "B" westerns were the first television appearances of the genre until NBC’s Hopalong Cassidy, adapted from countless Hollywood productions and a radio program, became a children’s favorite in 1949. The first westerns made expressly for television were singing cowboy shows that recycled "B" western stars (e.g. The Gene Autry Show ), and formulaic juvenile westerns carried over from successful radio programs (e.g. The Lone Ranger ), a trend that continued into the 1950s.

Then in 1955, CBS released the first adult western series, Gunsmoke, adapted from its own groundbreaking radio show whose moral ambiguity and psychologically complex characters broke with the juvenile tradition to address a more mature audience. James Arness was cast in what was to become an iconic leading role as the morose U.S. Marshal Matt Dillon. John Wayne himself introduced the first episode, which proved to be a good marketing strategy, as Gunsmoke stayed in production until 1975, becoming not only the most enduring western series on television, but also the longest running primetime drama.

The success of Gunsmoke prompted the introduction of adult western series on all three networks, resulting in such programs as Cheyenne, Have Gun Will Travel, Maverick, and Rawhide . Television western production peaked in the 1959-60 season with thirty primetime series, but only a handful remained by the 1970s, with Gunsmoke finally going off the air in 1975. Gunsmoke left an enduring legacy, however, with a defining impact on television westerns and a record of twenty years on the air that is still unbroken.

Gene Autry (1907-1998) was the most successful of the so-called "singing cowboys," and the only entertainer to have all five stars – radio, recording, motion picture, television, and live performance (including rodeo) – on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In a career that spanned over 70 years, Autry appeared in 93 movies and 91 television productions (always as himself), and recorded hundreds of songs. From 1934 to 1953, Autry popularized the musical western in motion pictures, taking a break in 1942 to join the Army Air Corps – where he flew hazardous supply missions in the Asian theater of war as Sgt. Gene Autry – and resuming his movie career in 1946.

For more than sixty feature-length westerns in the 1930s and the early 1950s, comedy actor Smiley Burnette accompanied Autry as his lovable comic-relief sidekick Frog Millhouse. Autry’s main partner and sidekick, however, was his horse Champion, also known as the "World’s Wonder Horse." The name Champion in fact referred to a variety of trick horses over the years, all sorrel-colored geldings with a blaze and white stockings. The original Champion performed with Autry in the 1930s and died when Autry was in the service.

Besides movies, Autry also ventured into radio and television production: his weekly radio show, Gene Autry’s Melody Ranch, aired on CBS radio from 1940 to 1956, while half-hour episodes of The Gene Autry Show appeared on CBS Television between 1950 and 1955. In all of his shows and performances, Autry offered a combination of singing, comedy, and action-filled adventures suitable for young audiences.

Agustín de Iturbide briefly reigned as the emperor of Mexico from 1822 to 1823 following a ten-year period of warfare and instability that culminated in Mexico gaining independence from Spain. Iturbide, representing a conservative outlook that embraced monarchy and strong ties to the Catholic Church, was successful in unifying diverse groups favoring independence, but was forced to abdicate in March 1823 as a result of treachery by his former supporters and in the face of growing opposition to monarchism. He left for Europe with his family, but was executed in 1824 after returning to Mexico in answer to requests from his supporters and to free the country from Spanish forces remaining in Veracruz and a possible reinvasion.

Iturbide was born on September 27, 1783 in the city of Valladolid (present-day Morelia) to Spanish parents of Basque origin. His entire life was spent in the military. He received the rank of colonel in 1813 when the Viceroy of Mexico, Félix María Calleja, appointed him to command a regiment of troops based in the town of Celaya. The initial struggle for Mexican independence had broken out in 1810, and Iturbide later became supreme military commander for the intendancy of Guanajuato in central Mexico.

Although Iturbide was successful in achieving Mexican independence several years later, he remained thoroughly conservative in his outlook. Viewing the rebellion not as an independence struggle but rather as a radical effort "to exterminate the Europeans, to destroy property, to commit excesses, to flout the laws of war and humane customs, and even to disregard religious practices," Iturbide stayed loyal to the Spanish. In 1814 he helped command royalist troops in a battle that resulted in the defeat of José Maria Morelos’s forces. Morelos was executed in 1815; the same year, Iturbide became commander of the Army of the North.

The rebellion against Spain diminished after the death of José María Morelos. Guerilla warfare conducted by small independence groups scattered across the country was more common than larger, organized battles. Fighting, however, settled into something of a stalemate: Spain regained control of its colony, but its forces were never able to completely wipe out all of the independence movements acting autonomously. But the rebel forces were themselves unable to defeat the royalist army or capture major cities. Events in Spain at the end of the decade provided the final impetus for Mexican independence. Spain, long past its golden age of imperial glory, found its empire in the Americas disintegrating amidst domestic political turmoil. Spanish liberals had instituted a new structure of power through the Constitution of 1812. The document rejected absolutism, set up a constitutional monarchy, declared the people to be sovereign, and curtailed the power of the Roman Catholic Church.

Iturbide and other conservatives in Mexico saw Spain’s new government as a threat. Ten years of unrest rendered Spain increasingly unable to maintain effective control of New Spain; conservatives within the colony now advocated independence. Iturbide joined forces with insurgent leader Vicente Guerrero-whom Iturbide, still in the service of the Crown, had just been sent to fight against by the viceroy-to issue an outline for an independent Mexican empire. The Plan de Iguala of February 24, 1821 called for Mexican independence, a constitutional monarchy, Catholicism as the official religion, maintenance of property rights, and union of all Mexicans. Iturbide, more than Guerrero, was the architect of the Plan, which came to be known by its three major provisions, or "Three Guarantees:" Religion, Independence, and Union. A new army was set up to defend the plan’s provisions, and all officers and soldiers from the Spanish royalist army were welcome to join the new independence movement. Iturbide’s Plan proved crucial to uniting enough conservative and liberal Mexicans to make independence possible.

Military successes came quickly, as several major cities were overtaken by independence forces. The Spanish viceroy, Juan Ruíz de Apodaca, resigned. The newly-appointed commander, Juan de O’Donojú, on his arrival in New Spain, met with Iturbide in the town of Córdoba to sign a treaty recognizing Mexican independence. Iturbide entered Mexico City on September 27, 1821, his 37th birthday. A new governing junta was established, which nominated Iturbide as council president. Executive authority was vested in a five-member regency until a permanent head of state could be installed. Iturbide was also designated as one of the five regents. In recognition of his services in securing independence, Iturbide was given the titles of generalissimo and admiral.

By the spring of 1822, Congress had failed to draft a governing document for the new nation, and had not figured out a way to increase government revenue. Congress did move to cut the size of the military, and prohibited members of the regency from also holding any military title or office. Following the rejection of the treaty of Córdoba by Ferdinand VII, Iturbide’s supporters organized demonstrations on his behalf in May calling for Iturbide to be elected emperor. Congress designated Iturbide as the first constitutional emperor of Mexico. He was crowned on July 21, 1822; Congress declared the throne to be hereditary, and an imperial Mexican court made up of his supporters and relatives relatives was established.

Iturbide is credited with creating the tricolor Mexican flag consisting of green, white, and red, representing independence, religion (Catholicism), and union, respectively. The Aztec symbol of the eagle perched on a cactus was placed in the center of the flag to reflect the status of the new nation as an empire, the eagle bore a crown.

The nation which he now governed as emperor faced a long list of problems after a decade of war. National debt reached 75 million pesos during that time. Mines, farms, and industries were destroyed, and unemployment was high. The central government was effectively bankrupt and relied mainly on loans, although imperial gold and silver currency maintained the same metallic purity and weight as that issued by Spain. These problems were probably too great for any individual to resolve, but Iturbide also alienated many of his new subjects. With Iturbide’s failure to keep the military pacified, the jailing of several prominent critics of the regime, and accusations that the government was restricting freedom of the press (clearly absurd), opposition steadily built. The emperor dissolved the existing Congress on October 31, 1822, and replaced it with a new body, but former allies, in their quest for personal power, denounced Iturbide as a dictator.

General Antonio López de Santa Anna proclaimed a republic on December 1, 1822 and was subsequently joined in his revolt against Iturbide by Vicente Guerrero, Guadalupe Victoria and José Antonio Echáverri. Iturbide informed Congress of his decision to abdicate in March 1823. Having reigned less than a year as emperor Iturbide and his family left Mexico for exile in Europe. Congress sentenced him to perpetual banishment.

Events surrounding Iturbide’s decision to return to Mexico the following year are unclear, but upon hearing rumors that Spain might attempt a re-conquest of its former colony, as well as reports that he still enjoyed considerable support in Mexico and might be able to retake power, Iturbide declared his intention of returning. The Mexican Congress, meanwhile, issued a sentence of death if the former emperor came back. Iturbide, unaware of the death decree, arrived in Mexico on July 14, 1824. Under orders of his former friend and general, Filipe de la Garza, Iturbide was arrested several days later in the town of Padilla and executed by firing squad on July 19, 1824. His final words that day were, "Mexicans! I die with honor, and not as a traitor! That ignominy I shall not leave to my children nor to their posterity. No, I am not a traitor, no!" Agustín de Iturbide’s remains were buried at the church in Padilla, and later reinterred at the metropolitan cathedral in Mexico City.

Sources:

Anna, Timothy E. The Mexican Empire of Iturbide . Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1990.

Bamford, Henry. A History of Mexico . Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1970.

Foster, Lynn V. A Brief History of Mexico . New York: Checkmark Books, 2004.

Hamnett, Brian R. A Concise History of Mexico . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.

Meyer, Michael C., William L. Sherman, and Susan M. Deeds. The Course of Mexican History . Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.

Robertson, William Spence. Iturbide of Mexico . Durham: Duke University Press, 1952.

The western has been one of the most prolific genres in American filmmaking, despite repeated shifts in popularity and content. It has been debated, buried, resurrected, redefined, and spoofed at various junctures, yet it never disappeared. So whether as nostalgic longing for a romanticized past or a critical reevaluation thereof, westerns continue to offer a characteristic blend of myth and history through which this quintessential American genre has influenced filmmakers worldwide.

Westerns are typically set in the transmississippi West during the second half of the nineteenth century, but might reach as far back as the colonial era or forward into the twentieth century, and geographically into Mexico, Canada, or Alaska. Most plotlines revolve around such staple characters of the "Wild West" as cowboys, Indians, settlers, outlaws, sheriffs, and the cavalry.

Inexpensive, formulaic "B" westerns, also known as series westerns, were produced in large numbers during the 1930s and 1940s. Even in the 1950s, however, when western films with a revisionist or political agenda began to emerge at the same time as television production heightened, action-packed but formulaic plotlines continued to dominate low-budget features.

A great number of Hollywood stars (e.g. Gary Cooper, Errol Flynn, James Stewart) appeared in westerns during their career, but no actor was as closely identified with the genre as John Wayne, whose career spanned five decades and nearly ninety westerns. Wayne was the biggest male box office star in the United States between 1950 and 1965, working with such influential directors as John Ford and Howard Hawks on many classic westerns. Anthony Mann, Raoul Walsh, and Delmer Daves also directed several well-regarded westerns prior to the 1960s. Influential directors since the 1960s, which is beyond the scope of this collection, include Sam Peckinpah, Sergio Leone, and Clint Eastwood.