Westerns – Books and Movies – I love them!

Are there any lovers of western books and movies left out there in the real world? Or is that something that went out of favor in the sixties like so many other things?

I'm sitting here at my computer with my attention divided between a western movie and catching up on reading articles and making comments.  The movie is losing and  isn't very good. It is called Johnny Guitar, and stars Joan Crawford. I never liked her or Bette Davis either. The supporting cast has at least seven names that became well known later in their careers. I'm looking at: Sterling Haywood, Ward Bond,  Merceces, McCambridge, and Ernest Borgnine.  Crawford is supposed to be a bad woman who owns or runs a saloon. She has perfectly coifed short hair, is wearing tight black pants and shirt, and has makeup that would have taken her two hours to apply if she could even find such make-up in those days. (I'm judging by my beautiful granddaughter who can take hours applying her make-up.) I have seen enough old pictures of real western women of the days of the Wild West, and none ever looked like that or wore clothes as tight as that.

Hollywood always used to forfeit historical realities in favor of crowd pleasing, especially when it came to dressing the heroine of the story. They sewed a lot of actresses into their dresses.

Men's haircuts in western movies are another thing not the way they really must have been. Most of the men in period westerns look as if they had recent haircuts in a style that came into fashion after WWI when soldier's hair was cut very short to disappoint the lice in the trenches. From pictures it is obvious that most men actually had longer hair and whiskers.

You know, this movie is so bad, dialogue and all, I'm going to turn it off and tell you about the current books I'm reading. I just started a western called The Hangings by Bill Pronzini. I have liked others by that author. I just finished Condor Canyon by L.J. Martin and found it quite well written about injustices done to the Californios right after California became the Bear State and part of Yankee territory. The setting is the Los Angeles area from Lebec to Santa Clara and Ventura and into the San Fernando Valley. I have camped in some of the places the author describes, and he wrote about them accurately.

There are quite a few newer western writers who are, in my estimation, better than Zane Grey, and the old time western writers. They are just as good as, or better than, Louis Lamour. The ones I like best are those who base their stories on history and pay attention to the vernacular and culture of the times they write about.

I have a list of books I read for about 20 years before 2006 and among the western authors who fill my requirements are: Lucia St. Clair Hobson, Loren Estelman, Richard Wheeler, and Jane Wyckoff, who wrote John Slaughter's Daughter. Other of my favorite authors who write westerns are Larry McMurtry, Wayne Overholser, F.M. Parker, Barbara Reefe, and Alfred Silver. I count mountain men stories as westerns. According to my list I have read almost everything they ever wrote. A writer of western family stories that might be classified as romances is Dorothy Garlock. I love her series of books.

While looking at my list I notice one non-western book I described as very, very, funny. It is called Cry Me a River by T. R. Pearson. I don't remember it. I must have liked it a lot and I think I'll read it again. That is one positive thing about getting old and senile, you forget the plots of stories.

I've rambled on long enough. A new movie has come on - "Five People You Meet in Heaven". Guess I will leave you for a while and watch it while having a snack. I need to gain weight and it's a lot more fun than dieting.