Oh yeah. That actually hasn't ever quit. It's just the budget. We have seen hundreds of low budget or independant films in the past 30 years that went straight to video.
I just wish that people would stop coming up to me asking if I have seen Yellowstone. I have nothing against the show, but ever since it came out, people either ask if I seen it or they call me John Dutton. It's kinda funny but kinda annoying at the same time. At least people are not saying" Save a Horse Ride a Cowboy" anymore 😅
Howdy Santee! Such a great topic! An interesting point was that in the opening narration of Tombstone, they implied the amount of prosperity there by "... the latest Paris fashions are sold from the backs of wagons." It also was quite fortuitous that the California gold rush had petered out and that Ed Schieffelin made a fortune there. When you add in the preserved cargo of the Steamship Arabia, the many (reproductions) of mail order catalogs, one can really start piecing together some of the reality of how the old west towns would have really been. (Just don't put Mr. Eastwood in charge of painting the town or it'll wind up red!) Thanks again for another wonderful start of the weekend!
Thank you Santee. Another great one. Here is an email bag for you if you have not all ready done this one: How about saloon girls for birth control and having children. Just curious on this subject. Thanks again Santee.
Hey, Santee ! Another great vid, I've always wondered about the fact in movies there would quite often be new buildings under construction alongside old run down places but rarely a nice, clean, well kept area which there surely would be? Or is it a case of the "Action " only happens on the rough side of town? Greetings from sunny WALES!🤠
THANK YOU!!! So many times I’ve wondered why are all the old west towns in movies in ruins and run down. Ghost towns around that still exist are run down but they’re NOT MAINTAINED as they would have been back in the 1800’s/1900’s. Great work on this channel!!
Right in the beginning you touched on how hot in was in Arizona in some of these towns, I thought about that when visting Tombstone and it was brutally hot. Like I wonder how the heck they stayed cool, especially when everyone was in long pants. Great editing and solid video brother, see you around. Never occurred to me that Tombstone was kinda new when the shootout happened.
I experienced first hand, the issues you discussed today, Santee. The second half of my growing up was spent in & around an old turn of the century mining town which was flourishing again due to a large manufacturing plant that had located there. Next door were a couple of less prosperous remnants that looked like they hadn't changed since the 1890's. They would have been good Hollywood locations for some sort of dystopian, Alien invasion movie :) Amazing how kids & teenagers gravitate to those places to hang out & get up to all sorts of mischief .......
Great episode Santee! Wow, that's a long "walk down" between the Paramount lot and Old Tucson!! The crews of Bonanza and the High Chaparral must have been in each others way while filming, that's a small area! Gotta love the paper mache mountain in "Virginia City" Word is that birds had to be chased off of it during filming at times!
Hey Santee. How about an episode on my hometown of Ogallala, NE? It was the end of one of three cattle drives from Texas to the Union Pacific Rail Road and was wilder than Dodge city and Abilene put together. Our Boot Hill extended far beyond what the city planners thought. In the mid '70's 16 skeletons were unearthed north of the Hill while a new housing development was being built. (Last bit was to pique your interest). Thanks, Harmagiddo.
In Hollywood, looks usually come before everything else. Little wonder there are numerous anachronisms in almost all "historical" movies. Which I think is rather a shame. Stories that have survived from the Old West era would be perfectly fascinating and riveting without a bunch of inaccurate set dressing or changes to characters or events.
Santee, What a great subject!👍 I think the town is it's own character in every western movie. I have toyed with the idea of building a partial western town on my place to film YT videos. So far, the furthest I've got is a 1/4 scale saloon that I used effectively in forced perspective shots. When I designed the building I researched the quintessential western saloon (from cinema) and I was surprised how hard it was to come up with such a thing we all picture in our minds. There was so much variation. PS: I agree the argument over authenticity in old west cinema is overblown.
Thanks for the information, Santee. Can you do an episode about Rio Lobo? I believe it was filmed at Old Tucson. One of my favorite movies. Got me interested in CW.
Great stuff Santee, thanks for sharing that overhead picture of the Bonanza set, haven't seen that perspective of the studio lot before...seemed bigger on TV !🌵🌵
Obligatory wood hand truck and wooden nail keg outside the hardware store as well. As I've personally observed, set decorating is being done by too many clueless twenty somethings.
Santee I personally think he is the best Wild West channel, like uploading a video once a week! its funny! it has good Info and is just interesting to watch
I was usually so engrossed in what was happening in the movie , I just kind of thought old western towns were old the Hollywood way. But thank you for clearing that up this was a great video thank you so much 🤠
GREAT VIDEO SIR,AS A KID OF THE 50S. I GREW UP WATCHING THE OLD WESTERN SHOWS AND MOVIES.I PREFER THE OLD WEST TOWNS OF THE MOVIES BECAUSE TO A KID REALITY SUCKED. TAKE CARE AND GOD BLESS
I was asked if I was going to make my Shooting Saloon look like it was 150 years old when I was building it. No, I want it to look brand new, and it was in the 1870s. I do have some old rusty tin on the porch roof, but the price was right! Very cool video Santee!
Another excellent video, Santee! Old town myths are a good topic. My ancestor wrote what towns were like, generally clean, presentable, and welcoming. White wash was used a lot. Towns needed to grow post Civil War to advertise to new people who wanted to live there or even tourists who wanted to experience what it was like. My ancestor had to answer every question asked of him, with strict manners and respect. Towns were described as having a day life and nightlife, pre-dawn life with the cleaning. Anyways, excellent video, Santee!
Great Episode, I always thought that unless it was a tent city, that the towns were well maintained. It is just human nature to take pride in your home or business. I once helped a friend restore a Victorian Painted Lady, sanding carefully we found several colors were used including purple in the original paint. I didn't see why houses out West would not be done similar, They might be less fancy in color scheme, due to the cost of ordering the paint but they would have taken the same pride, in the their buildings.
This was so interesting, attention grabbing, and informative from beginning to end, Santee, AS ALWAYS... I had no idea there were that many Western - themed movies and/or shows due to come out! 🎉👏🤠☀️👏
I am amazed at the number of western movies due for release myself. Either I don't pay enough attention enough or I've been living under a rock. I was thinking there might be 1 or 2, possibly 3 within... 5 or 10 years? Hopefully some of these show promise. I know I've mentioned it before, but since the success of the True Grit remake, The number of western films has gone up. Odds are though most were to ride the coat tails of the remake of True Grit and the quality of those... vary.
I guess because there are tropes that have been ingrained in our culture about how the town or setting should look. A dusty street. A desert setting Sun dried and cracked paint Rough looking people. But the true to life situation is more complex and nuanced. A boomtown might start off as a patch of tents, then evolve into some rough buildings made from rough lumber and scraps. Then if the money comes in or the town burns down a few times bricks and heavy iron doors. Hell, i would like to see a 'western' set in the Pacific North West in the 1800s or up in Alaska in Skagway or Dyea. A nice change of scenery.
Have you ever watched the channel below the plains. The man Tom Askjem digs up very old privy pits that would have been at properties 100 plus years ago. He finds tons of old medicine bottles and whisky and beer bottles from 1870s to 1910. Just interesting and of course these privys were behind the buildings for obvious reasons. Love all your videos been subscribed for a long time. Cheers from Surprise Arizona 🍻🌵😎👍
Love the content of this episode. I ask folks don't you replace something worn out or broken in your home? So did they back then. I also run into this alot when folks ask me why my reproduction materials look new like dip pens, paper, inkwells, etc., when I am writing.
So true ruffian Santee,again great video. I like authenticity best we can for movies. There are actual pics out there just for props poor towns or well established towns like you showed.
Thanks, Santee very enjoyable and informative, Something I learned a long time ago is that what you see on the screen, be it film of TV and what happened in reality was rarely the same.
Do you ever see how in many classic westerns cowboys are really good at fistfights/streetfights you figure there wouldn't be much martial arts in the old west but i see lots of blocking,dodging and kicking and punching and even knife and gun disarms
@@ArizonaGhostriders yeah some techniches look similar to karate judo and boxing and I've seen Indian fighting styles in the fess Parker movies and also in shalako and I've even seen fighting moves kinda unique to Westerns and there even done in silent films before any Americans knew of much martial arts atol
In Gunfighter Nation Richard Slotkin talked about a trope in Westerns of Movement. That everybody needed to keep moving (presumably westward) So fictional towns were shown as temporary places made from raw, unpainted wood, with no attempt at decorations or yards, flowers etc. though in reality almost every town was competing for settlers and businesses so they were very ambitious about laying out streets and building in brick and stone.
Being from Oklahoma and with ties to ponca city it was cool to see it have a mention. Oklahoma has a very rich western history. If familiar with the area you can still see parts of the 101 ranch. Go a little further north and east you can get into the area where tom mix was a bar tender. Go south around Claremore you get will Rogers. Keep going south and you get gene autry. So much to see and do
Interesting topic! That brings up the question- what did town people do with trash? I had always thought they didn’t have much and either repurposed it or just burned it, but you mentioned a town dump. Could you do a video on trash disposal in old west towns? Thanks for all your hard work and great content!
Aside from, say, San Francisco, you never see Westerns set (only in part, obviously) in cities which were fairly large towns then and are big now. Los Angeles is the most glaring example, but Denver, Seattle, Spokane etc all had interesting early years histories.
While watching a Family Feud compilation, one of the survey question was "what's your fantasy job if you lived in the old West" and it made me wonder if the "Wild West" as portrayed in the media (filled with gabling saloons full of violent drunken cowboys ready for a duel at any moment, among other clichés) was anything like the actual West in the 1800s. It prompted me to do a "myth of the wild west" Google search, and it's how I found this video.
Glad you found it. Thanks for watching! By the way, saloons were filled with cowboys, gamblers, soldiers, con men and the alcohol flowed. Just like today, violence brought on by too much testosterone and booze was very evident. There are dozens of newspaper clippings that show gun and knife violence in and around saloons in the Old West. So, those clichés are based on factual instances.
Saloons were often cast off circus tents bar a plank spread across empty kegs. Bat Masterson told Damon Runyon there was often so much dung on the streets it looked like mud even during a drought.
I knew since I was little that Hollywood doesn't often get the Old West quite right. For instance, the old TV show, "Wyatt Earp" showed Earp clean-shaven and with a modern, short hair cut. In fact, back in the 1950's-1960's, all the "good guys" were clean-shaven and with modern short hair cuts. I've been noticing lots of scenery were reused from TV show to TV show and from movie to movie. Monument Valley was re-used in different scenes in the 1930's John Wayne film, Stagecoach, no matter how far the characters were travelling.
I have come to realize that people who ask me about historical West stuff , only because I am from the S.W. Desert, that they prefer a combination of truth and myth. I am actually from Apache Junction and I cannot tell anyone that there is no Lost Dutchman Gold Mine , they just refuse to believe it. So being a for real Prospector, people want to hear the around the campfire stories. Embellishments with horrific untrue details. How bad is it finding Gold?. I only say there is no Lost mine because there really is one(closer to 100 lost mines). So Yes, there really is a Lost Dutchman Gold Mine. Hope to see you all next season, bring your 4 wheel drive, that's called a Burro. And remember Water is worth more than Gold there. Opulent wealth was expressed in the old towns. Chandeliers and things of rare value were imported. Contrary to popular belief Prospectors really like food and we tend to eat gourmet. Pit roasted honey pineapple glazed ham for sandwiches. With Cactus Cooler that runs about $18.00 a glass and is drank for it's health benefits. It makes you resistant. I Love My Desert!. Everyone else can just stay in town.
Funny how everything Western has to look old. It reminds me of the "aged" finish that's available on some repro Single-Actions. A gunfighter picking up a brand-new Colt SAA in 1879 would've had one that looked basically identical to one you can buy today... not one all covered in patina.
You did see a few old movies where boom towns were depicted somewhat accurately with bars in tents and the main street looking like a freshly plowed field. Sometimes you'd even see people working on building a house or store in the background. But films had a lot tighter budgets and shooting schedules back in the day so we have to allow them certain shortcuts as they tell their story. Sort of like having wagons filled with "heavy crates" but being hauled by two horses instead of four or six, just because finding teams and drivers trained for that kind of rig would have cost too much time and money to organize.
I have thought similar things about the movies portrayal. Another peeve is when they show the streets as impossibly busy with dozens of people walking around.
It is that Hollywood paradox of presenting an old west setting in a rustic manner to convey the perceived difference compared to a current time; don't want a gun looking 150yrs old in a 150yr old setting. Virginia City had to have some wear, but couldn't look like a worn out border town.
Old Bill's ghost is pretty handy at twirling his shootin' iron. But you should see the film of Sammy Davis (the singer) with two. He made it look easy, but IDK if he could hit the broadside of a barn.
Would be nice if actors actually took the time to learn to ride more often.... Most actors are very lucky to be sitting on a pug of a horse ad their seated position on them is utterly atrocious... Sorry, its my nit pick. In accuracy bugs me, but that is down right infuriating... It dont matter how often i see it either... Patrick Stewart and Bill Shatner in Star Trek Generations is a good example. Bill has owned and ridden horses fir many years, my dad has a mare sired by one of his studs. Very accomplished horseman.... Patrick Stewart sits best in a chair, yet his character is supposed to be a very accomplished rider. Claims to ride an English saddle...the way he sits in that saddle though...omg! Ive had very well mannered horses that'd have him outta that saddle in 20 seconds and the horse would be shocked as to what happened. Sittin proper in a saddle aint hard. 90% of it is good posture... Back straight.... Feet forward... Should beable to see your toe when you look over your knee cap. With English style leathers, you want to see a bit of the bridge of your foot. Beyond that at least try to fake it. Ride the horse like a bike... Lean into the turns a bit, more important at speed so the animal can keep its balance. Always drives me nuts...
Tom Sawyer having to whitewash the fence was a reality that nobody seems to recall. Such things would have occurred on other structures as well. Even today, putting some paint on is preferable to replacing the wood. Wood was at a premium and much harder to transport than paint.
You videos are always so awesome to me. I love seeing them because I get to learn stuff I have never heard of. HAHAHA. HAve a great weekend Santee. 👍👍👍
Any good westerns come out in the last few years? The last good one I’ve seen advertised was Magnificent Seven. Also anyone know any good western sci-fi/fantasy? I really like the Golgatha book series but most of the time when I search for it they’ll only have one character who fits the western bill.
Hmmm...I've liked some of the independents, and the INSP and other documentaries. Old Henry and the Kid were good. Sci-Fi Western: Firefly and Mandalorian.
thank you sir. i feel the same way. i was a boot maker for many years. when ppl wanted "old" west for cowboy shooting i had to " sell" authentic .... But i understand... k
Thanks for the clarification. I've always thought the same thing. I think the run down look seemed out of place for the period. Now adays, it would be right. It's cool. I love the illusion. As the band Styx sings, "Welcome to the Grand Illusion!" Playing in a band, I can tell you that it is an illusion. Ha. We all live for it for sure. Thanks Santee. I love these episodes.
The thing that always got me was all the horses tied to hitching rails up and down the street but not a single pile of horse manure on the whole street. If you have been around horses you know that is horseshit!PUN INTENDED
Even that adobe wall that you were standing front of is a Hollywood cliché. If the bricks are visible, it means the adobe has fallen off and needs repair. It was never meant to be a stylish effect.
Well I find myself with nothing witty to say, as I have no first hand knowledge of a movie set. So I guess I have to congregate you on rendering this ol mountain man witless 😮
I have noticed these things in some movies but heck what could I possibly do about it but let it go and enjoy the movie. I hope to see a few of them there western talkies you speak of pretty darn soon Santee.
I was wondering if it was common to have actual houses built in a town you never see any in western movies they're always on the outskirts and people are usually living in the hotels.
Here is a question- were there traffic laws in towns in the West? Did people drive their horses and wagons on the right or left side of the road and was it customary or enforced? What about road intersections? Speed limits? I know that the ancient Romans had roads with chariot ruts to keep the traffic moving and the space between the ruts became standard gauge ( 4 foot, 8 1/2 inches) on the rais but what about roads?
@@ArizonaGhostriders You are welcome- In many movies I have seen where there is heavy traffic on the streets of towns, I think there must have been some kind of laws about it. Otherwise, chaos.
