Bill Crider wrote:
> Thanks, miker. .44 is a really good one, a '40s noir
tale set in the old
> west with all the modern elements.
************************* I thought of something else you
mentioned in your article, your comment about if people are
just tired of Westerns there isn't much you can do to
convince them to read them.
I can't hardly name all the Western shows I remember from
childhood. There was The Rifleman, Bonanza, The Rebel, Have
Gun Will Travel, and Gunsmoke to name a few. Oh! I've got a
story to tell! When I was still in grade school the guy down
the road from us had a bird show to put on for a kid's show
and I got to go along and hand him birds. Any- way, when we
were at the studio I saw Nick Adams, who played Johnny Yuma,
the Rebel, walk by me in the hallway fully dressed for the
show. My jaw about dropped to the floor. Absolutely no one
I've talked to in the last 20 years remembers that show. Man,
I could even sing a few lines of the theme song before I had
to start humming. I think he died a sleeping pill and alcohol
death just a few years later.
Anyway, my theory is that Westerns have just slipped out of
fashion, and because they were so very much in fashion a ways
back, the slip has been a hard fall. I think the same thing
has happened to the private detective, except I don't think
the private detective ever captured the American imagination
like the cowboy did. As you mentioned, there's a strong
argument that the detective is a derivative of the
cowboy.
Leslie Fiedler has some rather shocking theories about the
origins and nature of American literature. I've been reading
his LOVE AND DEATH. Sure puts a new twist on HUCKLEBERRY
FINN.
miker
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