October 26th this year was the 141st anniversary of the famous gunfight at the O.K. Corral between Wyatt Earp, his brothers, Doc Holliday, and the Clantons and McLaurys. I would have written about this on that date had my computer been up and running, but such was not the case.
I’ve probably seen eight or ten movies about this event over the years and none of them got it right from what I can tell. Just about every movie you see about this fight makes it as big an event as Pershing’s invasion of Mexico in 1916. Actually, if the truth were known, the entire gunfight lasted between 90 seconds and two minutes. If you believe the movies, and many do, it looks like it lasted about 20 minutes to a half hour and expended as much ammunition as the Battle of Gettysburg!
Director John Ford made a movie of this event called My Darling Clementine starring leftist Henry Fonda back in 1946. Ford said he actually talked to Wyatt Earp about this fight and he put in the movie what Wyatt Earp had told him about it. I hate to say it, but whatever Wyatt Earp told John Ford about the gunfight is no guarantee of accuracy. Wyatt Earp had a penchant for spinning events in a way that made him look good.
When it came to getting his biography published, he chose Stuart Lake to write it because Lake portrayed him as a valiant, dedicated frontier lawman. I read Lake’s biography many years back. It was like a hagiography of Earp’s life as a lawman. Great fun for reading, as long as you don’t take it seriously. Wyatt Earp and his brothers had one intent in life and that was making enough money to be comfortable and seem respectable. Wyatt Earp’s dedication to the law was based on it being a vehicle to help him out financially. He and his brothers had enough shady business interests over the years that they were never going to be really “respectable.” In everything, the desire to make money came first.
One Western author who wrote about the Earp brothers said that the gunfight at the O.K. Corral was like “two street gangs fighting over who was going to control the local turf” or something to that effect. When the Earps were in Tombstone, those that were “married” all had common-law wives, which they never bothered to officially marry. Interestingly, some of these women lived into the 1940s during my childhood. Wyatt Earp lived until 1929.
When you see these movies about the O.K. Corral gunfight, you inevitably see the Earps dressed in those long, thin, linen dusters. One author I read took exception to this and I think he was right. He noted that the gunfight took place on October 26th and that Tombstone was 6,000 feet above sea level. At that altitude, Tombstone would have been a cold place in late October, and he claimed the combatants all would have been wearing mackinaws, not thin linen dusters. I think he is correct.
Wyatt Earp’s story is interesting as long as you take it in perspective and don’t put him on a pedestal he doesn’t deserve to be on. The real history doesn’t support the tale of Wyatt Earp, the dedicated crime fighter. Matt Braun, a historian and Western author, has a really low opinion of the Earp brothers. He feels they were little better than legalized thieves. I don’t know if he is totally accurate or not, but I don’t think he’s that far off either. Movies about Wyatt and his brothers are fun to watch as long as you don’t take them seriously. It’s like everything else: if you want the truth, you have to do the homework.
-By Al Benson Jr.
O I’m a good old rebel, now that’s just what I am. For this “fair land of freedom” I do not care at all. I’m glad I fit against it, I only wish we’d won, And I don’t want no pardon for anything I done.
I agree with your comments, but I still loved the movie. Val Kilmer’s Doc Holliday was an epic portrayal … even if it wasn’t true to fact.
I just watched Tombstone with Kurt Russel and Val Kilmer last week. The gunfight is quick in that one, and only about maybe 3 to 5 guys on the non-Earp side. They interpret it that Holliday caused it to go violent by winking at the other side.
Thank you for the article, Mr. Benson. If it was the purpose of Hollywood to portray the Earps (and Doc Holiday) in a favorable light, they hit the ball out of the park with the cast members they selected to play the principals in Tombstone. For some of us, however, it’s nevertheless hard to think very tenderly of them – the real men, not the actors – when considering the illicit business they apparently muscled their way into in that lawless little Arizona town. As Wyatt et al had a penchant for making money without doing an honest day’s work, I have my own penchant lying on the opposite end of the spectrum against illicit business ventures such as gambling and saloon keeping and all that comes with it. And I think we both came by our penchants honest. Here is a relevant item from the April, 1905 edition of the fledgling little newspaper of my hometown in southern Oklahoma then called The Orphan’s Home Journal:
“South McAlester” was, and is, the location of the infamous Oklahoma State Penitentiary. “Gambling-Saloon-Keeping-Thief” is a pretty accurate descriptive of what I personally think of the Earps.
By the way, I looked at the elevation of Tombstone online, and it shows to be roughly 4,500 ft asl, not 6,000. I thought your elevation (or, the other fellow’s, I guess) was too high, but I couldn’t remember for sure. In any case, the average daytime high in Tombstone in the month of October is actually a balmy 80 degrees, while the nighttime low is around 55 degrees, give or take. So, not cold, especially considering the dry climate (when I lived in Alaska in the early-90s, we would literally walk around in 20 degree weather in short sleeves. Whereas, if I did that in Oklahoma, even in 40 degree weather, I’d freeze my you-know-what off.) The elevation of Tombstone certainly cools the climate a bit there, but only by maybe four or five degrees on average. Tombstone’s latitude has a lot more to do with its climate than its elevation.
Anyway, good article! I liked it a lot.
I believe there is a neglected element. Although Holliday was from Georgia the Earps were corrupt Union supporters and their opponents were Southern.
I read a book called, “And Die in The West”. It covers this event and surrounding details. It gives a detached factual account.
Interesting history, and enjoyable article.