The O.K. Corral - 1881 to 1981
It seems as if it was yesterday, but during October of 1981, at 2;30 in the afternoon, in Tombstone, Arizona, I stepped into the O.K. Corral and in one hundred years to the minute, I participated in recreating the famous Gunfight at the OK Corral, in the exact same spot in front of world-wide tv cameras broadcast to audiences around the globe.
I was the tallest cowboy, first into the corral, wearing a dark brown western hat, long white duster, carrying a long barrel 44-40 Colt. Frank McLaury was the first to be shot and the last to die that day, one hundred years to the minute after I walked into the corral, taking his place in an exactly scripted recreation of the infamous fight choreagraphed by Tombstone's historian Ben Traywick, who played the part of Wyatt Earp.
Three Earps, One Holliday ( believe it or not, a local dentist who looked creepily like Holliday), and on the other side two Clantons, two McLaurys, and one Billy Claibourne, fleet of foot when the shooting started.
I wrote about it all in the inaugural edition of History Magazine in their world-wide edition. What was hard to encapsulate was the feeling of actually being there, going through the experience, and having other citizens talk with us as if were WERE the real cowboys.
Many of the "Wild Bunch" (the actors group) were often approached and offered "help" by local and sometimes out-of-towners that included extra loaded guns. Periodically, we had to call in Tombstone's actually Marshall to explain patiently that we were only fooling around...it's not real, blanks....you understand.
One German tourist filming me loading my pistol asked me, " Do you use REAL bullets?" My shells were real .38 caliber casings loaded with black powder (everything had to be authentic) and capped with cotton wad cutters, hence the blank feature. Big bang, lotsa smoke, no one dies. He actually asked me, REAL bullets. These guys were REALLY into this. I said no, and explained all this to him and then asked the Marshal to pat him down for any Lugers he might have on him. None, thanks God.
After five years of shooting it out in the OK Corral twice a month, it grows on you. I know every inch of the place, where every one fell, their personal histories. I even spent the night there once. Tombstone is the touchstone for the American West, and the aura of the good versus the bad gunfight. I couldn't leave the place, my wife actually had to force me to give it up, and, in the end, she was right.
But, I left stronger for it as a man. More determined to realize that in life, one must stand up for what a man thinks is right, fight for it, and bowl over what you think is wrong. Pick your fights. If you are going to lose and know it, be prepared to accept your loses andmove on. If you're going into a fight, like the OK Corral, go in, both guns blazing, and don't go out until you've won, until you are the only one left standing. Until you know you've won.
And, don't let anyone define you, who you are, what your values are, your manhood, your self esteem. You do that for you.
That's how I see it.
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I was the tallest cowboy, first into the corral, wearing a dark brown western hat, long white duster, carrying a long barrel 44-40 Colt. Frank McLaury was the first to be shot and the last to die that day, one hundred years to the minute after I walked into the corral, taking his place in an exactly scripted recreation of the infamous fight choreagraphed by Tombstone's historian Ben Traywick, who played the part of Wyatt Earp.
Three Earps, One Holliday ( believe it or not, a local dentist who looked creepily like Holliday), and on the other side two Clantons, two McLaurys, and one Billy Claibourne, fleet of foot when the shooting started.
I wrote about it all in the inaugural edition of History Magazine in their world-wide edition. What was hard to encapsulate was the feeling of actually being there, going through the experience, and having other citizens talk with us as if were WERE the real cowboys.
Many of the "Wild Bunch" (the actors group) were often approached and offered "help" by local and sometimes out-of-towners that included extra loaded guns. Periodically, we had to call in Tombstone's actually Marshall to explain patiently that we were only fooling around...it's not real, blanks....you understand.
One German tourist filming me loading my pistol asked me, " Do you use REAL bullets?" My shells were real .38 caliber casings loaded with black powder (everything had to be authentic) and capped with cotton wad cutters, hence the blank feature. Big bang, lotsa smoke, no one dies. He actually asked me, REAL bullets. These guys were REALLY into this. I said no, and explained all this to him and then asked the Marshal to pat him down for any Lugers he might have on him. None, thanks God.
After five years of shooting it out in the OK Corral twice a month, it grows on you. I know every inch of the place, where every one fell, their personal histories. I even spent the night there once. Tombstone is the touchstone for the American West, and the aura of the good versus the bad gunfight. I couldn't leave the place, my wife actually had to force me to give it up, and, in the end, she was right.
But, I left stronger for it as a man. More determined to realize that in life, one must stand up for what a man thinks is right, fight for it, and bowl over what you think is wrong. Pick your fights. If you are going to lose and know it, be prepared to accept your loses andmove on. If you're going into a fight, like the OK Corral, go in, both guns blazing, and don't go out until you've won, until you are the only one left standing. Until you know you've won.
And, don't let anyone define you, who you are, what your values are, your manhood, your self esteem. You do that for you.
That's how I see it.
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