Mystery Writers Forum

General Discussion and News => Chat => Topic started by: ella on October 26, 2006, 10:00:47 AM

Title: Town Too Tough to Die
Post by: ella on October 26, 2006, 10:00:47 AM

Today is the 125th anniversary of the Gunfight at the OK Corral in tombstone, Arizona.
I believe it was Virgil Earp that got killed.


Go to Tucson Channel 13 KOLD.com at 2:15 Pacific Standard time to see a streaming video of the Official re-enactment of the fight.
There is a link up now that you might be interested is seeing
KOLD is doing coverage throughout the day, so there may be more info /interviews on the net, too.

Ella
Title: Re: Town Too Tough to Die
Post by: JIM DOHERTY on October 26, 2006, 01:19:59 PM
Ella,

Neither Virgil nor Morgan died during the Gunfight.  They were both seriously wounded, and Doc Holliday received a minor wound.  Tom and Frank McLaury, and Billy Clanton were the ones who died.  Ike Clanton, who probably did more than anyone to precipitate the incident, turned and ran when the shooting started.  Wyatt was the only participant to escape totally unscathed.

In two separate ambush shootings that took place months later, Morgan was killed and Virgil crippled for life.

Wyatt then accepted a deputy US marshal's commission and took off after the remaining members of the gang, using his badge as a warrant to exact legal vengeance.  No one he confronted was taken alive.  A local posse, in the pay of the Clanton faction, took off after Wyatt's federal posse, which is one reason it's a bit hard to tell the good guys from the bad guys.

This incident has probably been fictionalized more than any other in the history of the frontier.  My all-time favorite western movie, My Darling Clementine, is one of the best, though also one of the least historically accurate, dramatizations of this incident.  (Imagine the robust Victor Mature as a gunfighter dying of TB).  Other great films based on it include The Gunfight at OK CorralHour of the Gun, Tombstone - The Town Too Tough to Die, just plain Tombstone, and Wyatt Earp.  The last five episodes of the old Hugh O'Brien TV series, The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp, was a serialized depiction of the incident.

The incident has also been depicted in many novels.  Western writers like Matt Braun, Nelson Nye, Richard Wheeler, et al, have all put their own spin on the story.  But it's also had a great appeal to writers in our genre.  It's easy to see why.  Flawed but dedicated lawmen.  Organized criminals.  Political graft.  It's a gangster story set on the frontier.  Appropriately, the original gangster novelist, W.R. Burnett, was the first to novelize the incident in a great book called Saint Johnson.  He changed the names, but in a foreword, admitted that the novel was based on the OK Corral incident.  Other mystery writers who've tried their hand include Loren Estleman and Robert B. Parker.
Title: Re: Town Too Tough to Die
Post by: Bob Mueller on October 26, 2006, 01:49:25 PM
Now watch me tie this in to Star Trek:

In the 1957 Gunfight At The O.K. Corral, DeForest Kelly played Morgan Earp. Just 9 years later, in 1966, he (as Dr. Leonard McCoy of the USS Enterprise), he ended up acting the part of Tom McCloury, when the Enterprise command crew is forced to reenact the shootout. Their reenactment is found to be a hallucination when Chekov, as William Clayborn, shot dead - before the gunfight at the corral, which William Clayborn survived.

Completely off topic, but interesting to see how actors move around.
Title: Re: Town Too Tough to Die
Post by: ella on October 26, 2006, 05:45:30 PM
The newscaster said Virgil died a half hour after getting shot there.
Hmmm!
So much for ch 13 news--or, in this case, "olds!" lol!
Ella
Title: Re: Town Too Tough to Die
Post by: Carrie on October 27, 2006, 08:09:26 PM
The story has always stood out for me and I can watch the movies over and over again and still love them.  I think it's the family ties that does it for me.  It's such a great story.  Carrie
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