History Buffs: Tombstone

this episode's sponsored by great courses plus hello and welcome history buffs my name is Nick Hodges and to celebrate our 30th episode I'm gonna do a western and it's gonna be one of the greatest of all tombstone this is the story of Wyatt Earp the heroic US Marshal who brought civilization to a lawless town at the barrel of a gun well at least that's how the legend goes since the early days of cinema there's been a dozen movies made about him but the vast majority of them are highly romanticized reshaping historic events to simple themes of good versus evil whereas the real story is far more interesting and complex and I'm happy to say that tombstone for the most part gets it right so over the course of this review I'm going to go into the history behind Wyatt Earp and discuss just how faithful this movie is this is Tombstone the town of Tombstone was founded in 1879 and it got its colorful name thanks to the efforts of a prospector called ed she fled he would regularly explore the Arizona deserts looking for silver but was warned against it by the army they told Shifu that the only thing he would find out there was his tombstone at the time the southern Arizona Territory was fraught with danger home to outlaws bandits and hostile Apache but as luck would have it she Flynn did discover silver at a remote site in 1877 a lot of it so with a healthy sense of humor he named his claim tombstone news of the silver strike spread like wildfire hundreds of people migrated to this remote corner of the Arizona desert to seek their fortune one of them was Wyatt Earp mr. Earp my name is dake Rolly date US Marshal for this territory edit I'm retired excuse me I said to forget it I don't want the job that's final I don't think you understand you don't understand I did my duty this is pretty much all you're gonna get as a back story just that Wyatt Earp used to be a lawman back in the day but that wasn't always so before his brief career in law enforcement he was a Buffalo hunter a saloon keeper a gambler an enforcer even found work as a pimp which is actually where he met his wife Mattie Blaylock who was his working prostitute so yeah this extensive resume just shows how Wyatt Earp was more than just a cop he was a man of his time a wanderer who roamed across the West to make a name for himself I will be in Tombstone where he finally would wear wear sir who this fella I want to tell you about he called himself the dude now dude that's the name no one would self apply where I come from but then there was a lot about the dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me in the film we see Wyatt's meeting with his brothers Virgil Earp and Morgan Earp as well as all of their wives however there were two other brothers who also joined them called James Earth and Warren up but we never see them in the movie in any case by the time they're all together in Tombstone in December 1879 the Erb brother set out to start a stagecoach business by converting the wagons they brought with them but without any connections or serious capital they couldn't compete with the larger companies who have gotten there first so they were forced to sell out and why it has a look for other ways to make a living the movie understandably shows none of this due to time constraints instead we skip ahead to Wyatts reverting back to his old profession as an enforcer this is one cool scene that are happy to say is pretty accurate it's when Wyatt's pops into the oriental saloon and he spots a gambler making trouble this shady guy was called Johnny Tyler and he was the ringleader of a gambling gang called the slopers they had their eyes set in the Oriental but Wyatt was having none of it he grabbed Tyler by the ear and threw him out onto the street the only difference is that this altercation took place in 1881 and not 1879 but are so impressed that something this ambiguous turned out to be true so after that scene we see Wyatt's reunite with an old friend and everybody's favorite character Doc Holliday an educated gentleman from Georgia he was remembered as a famous gunslinger despite the fact that he only ever killed two people having said that he was definitely feared he had contracted tuberculosis when he was 15 and ever since then he lived every day as if it was his last by heavily drinking getting into bar fights and gambling with dangerous men often winning by using his intelligence to piss off poker players focused our game I know let's have a spelling so you might be wondering why a wild-card like Doc Holliday was even friends with Wyatt Earp well back in 1878 Doc Holliday saved Wyatt's life in Dodge City Kansas and they had remained close ever since in fact the reason why Holliday was even in Tombstone was because White's had invited him and now he was looking to use his gambling skills to make a quick buck but eventually he would start provoking the wrong people which brings me to one of my favorite scenes in the entire movie holidays confrontation with Johnny Ringo no I'm sure of it I hate him he's drunk and vino veritas I take what are G's credit judaa sortelha long ago event is still Torah in particuiar scandal did they just have a latin schoolboy off that is both incredibly geeky and yet cool the same time but highly unlikely I'm afraid whilst the real Doc Holliday was educated Johnny Ringo dropped out discord he was 14 and didn't speak Latin which is a shame because this scene is pretty cool anyway I'm getting a little ahead of myself just who exactly was Johnny Ringo well he was a member of a group of outlaws who are known as the Cochise County Cowboys criminals who made the bulk of their money by stealing horses and cattle some historians claim that these guys one of the earliest examples of organized crime in America initially they were accepted or at least tolerated in the Arizona Territory simply because they did all of the cattle rustling in Mexico and sold their stolen cattle to corrupt American Ranchers and typical of human nature it was just someone else's problem but that tune quickly changed for the Mexican army began building forts along the border making future crossings difficult with that no longer an option the Cowboys began carrying out their criminal activity in the Arizona Territory but I like in the movie they're a little bit subtler about it I mean for example one thing they definitely didn't do was brazenly advertised who they were by wearing red sashes since tombstone was released in 1993 it may have been influenced by all those Street gang movies coming out at the time and they might have inspired Tombstone by having the Cowboys borrow the gang colors of the Bloods I am a knight they're walking Psychopaths talking king of my jungle just the gangster stalking living life like a firecracker quick as my fuse vendetta says death fast the colors I choose and then there's a stupid bit where the Cowboys read the theater and just look at how they give a standing ovation it's hilarious had nobody in the audience Patterson I like they see this kind of stuff so often that they're not even fazed by it which is interesting because the scene inadvertently contradicts another that really happened on October 28 1888 all curly bill Brocius stumbled onto the streets in the dead of night in the movie he is high from opium but from what I was able to research he may have only been drunk in any case it doesn't matter whether higher intoxicated he frightened the townsfolk by firing his gun into the air the deputy marshal Fred white took responsibility and went outside of the somme curly bill despite snowing Kelly's reputation it still wasn't enough to stop Fred white confronting him so this begs the question this isn't cool but this is cool he can't shoot your guns into the air outside but it's perfectly fine indoors ok no doubt some of you in the comment section saying no [ __ ] the moats cabbies firing his gun into the air that why he might kill someone yes that is true but then again how come nobody was bothered by this not only does nobody care but if you slow down the footage you can clearly see Fred White's look like he's about to doze off Fred wake up made billy's a nearly got shot in the face don't you care look I'm sorry keep bringing up a theater babe I just need to point out how something like this would not be tolerated in Tombstone that's why was such a big deal with curly bill and his drunken rampage and especially with what happened next as Fred white began to Sam and Kelly bill the gun misfired mortally wounding him immediately Wyatt had left onto the scene and pistol-whipped curly bill to the ground as wise began to arrest him a few cowboys rushed over to confront him demanding that Curley be released or else defiantly he ignored them and also the angry townsfolk who wanted a lynching for what happened instead curly bow was taken to Tucson to stand trial but was later acquitted as an accidental shooting now one thing I'd like to mention is that by this point in the movie Wyatt and his brothers of private citizens and it's the shooting of Fred white that helps convince them later to reach oh and more enforcement in real life however Virgil and Wyatt had already done so Virgil became deputy marshal Pima County on November 27th 1879 and White's became deputy sheriff on July 28th 1880 only Morgan became a lawman after Fred White's death in fact the death of Fred why didn't even bring about the ban of guns in Tombstone that wouldn't happen until April 1881 which is about six months later the reason for them rejoining law enforcement had nothing to do with morality it was simply to make money their original plan for making it rich didn't pan out so they had to settle for this instead but there were opportunities to make money as a lawman in February 1881 Wyatt's ran for the office of Cochise County Sheriff and his biggest perk was keeping tempers in to the taxes collected from silver miners which could only up to $30,000 to $40,000 a year which is about 1 million dollars in today's money in the run-up to the election Wyatt and his competitor Johnny bein made a deal that if Wyatt's dropped out of the race then Johnny would sign him up as an under sheriff and they would split the income 5050 this was of course a lie and why it was determined in winning the next election an opportunity to redeem Wyatt came on the 15th of March 1881 when a Wells Fargo stagecoach was transporting 26,000 dollars in silver bullion through the Arizona desert at around 10 o'clock three Cowboys appeared from the brush to hold up the stagecoach when it refused to stop the Cowboys opened fire but despite killing the driver and a passenger the shotgun driver was able to escape with a silver following the botched robbery the three Cowboys went on the run with a 3600 dollar bounty on their heads they were later identified as Bill Leonard James Crane and Harry head hearing the news wide saw an opportunity if he brought in the Cowboys in himself it could improve his chances of winning the next election but sheriff in an effort to find them why--it's approached a man called Ike Clanton in the movie I kazar for member of the Cowboys but in reality he was more of an associate a rancher who was comfortable in buying their stolen cattle and maintained a close relationship with them why it's proposed to Ike that if he gave up information on the three Cowboys whereabouts then he could keep that a reward money and wise would get the credit at first Ike was hesitant if the Cowboys haven't found out that he was as good as dead so Wyatt's gave us words that no one would ever find out but in the end it didn't matter the three Cowboys were killed elsewhere along with any chance for glory or a reward - why is that settled the matter but not to Ike the secret of his betrayal was still very much alive and it haunted him fearful of the day if Wyatt's ever talked this was the real reason for the confrontation between Wyatt Earp and Ike Clanton but it's never shown in the movie for months the fear and paranoia consumed Ike turning him to drink and clouding his judgment at first he accused Wyatts of telling a secret to his brothers or his friends like Doc Holliday and then things came to a head in October 26th 1881 when a drunken Ike Clanton began making violent threats swearing in public that he was going to gun down the herbs there was also a rumor that I could recently been to the telegraph office possibly calling other Cowboys for backup the only thing that was confirmed was that Ike and for the Cowboys had been seen in the vacant lot behind the OK Corral with Ike was his brother Billy Clanton Billy Claiborne and Tom and Frank McLaury Wyatt's Virgil and Morgan debated over what to do next this personal dispute was dangerously close to escalating but they couldn't ignore this threat in their lives and if I can his friends were armed which was illegal in Tombstone then that alone called for action during the discussion Doc Holliday approached the earth´s and offered his support to this why it's set to dock it's not your problem doc you don't have to mix up in this that is a hell of a thing for you to say to me so just like that doc was temporarily deputized and the four of them headed for the okay Corral not knowing that they would soon be a part of the most famous gunfight in the history of the Wild West I would just like to say thanks to our sponsor for this video great courses plus if you're interested to learn more about the Wild West that you should check out their series the American West history myth and legacy with Professor Patrick Alice for beginning to end he tells it all in a series of 24 lectures this subscription on-demand video learning service provides exclusive lectures and courses from top professors of the Ivy League and other great universities globally it also boasts experts from places like the National Geographic the Smithsonian and the Culinary Institute of America with a limited access to over 8,000 lectures you'll be able to learn on any device of your own choosing to start your one-month free trial just enter the grey courses plus com forward slash history buffs or click on the link in the description box below an important thing to know about tombstone is that despite its authenticity it still has a feel of a typical Western one that plays up to the mythology of good versus evil in the movie the Cowboys are depicted as a menace and they terrorized the entire town but as always the truth is a little bit more complicated than that the aftermath of the gunfight didn't unite the people of Tombstone it divided them with some seeing the herbs as heroes and others as cold-blooded killers and the reason why might actually surprise you a lot of it was simply down to politics the rural farmers ranchers and cowboys with Democrats who deeply resented the influx of Republican merchants miners and corporate businessmen moving into Tombstone Republican ethics were set and civilizing the West imposing law and order to save Harbor profitable businesses the earth served as guardians for these ethics earning Republican support the Democrats on the other hand viewed them as government lackeys only serving the interest of corporate America at their expense the extent of this division really shows when comparing tombstones to local newspapers coverage of the gunfights the Republican tombstone epitaph and the Democratic tombstone daily nuggets the feeling among the best class of our citizens is that the marshal was entirely justified in his efforts to disarm these men and that being fired upon they had to defend themselves which they did most bravely the funeral of the McLaury brothers and Clanton yesterday was numerically one of the largest ever witnessed in Tombstone it was a most impressive and saddened inside and such a one as it is to be hoped may never occur again in this community a few days after the shootout the Earp's and Doc Holliday were arrested and put on trial for the murders of Billy Clanton Tom McLaury and Frank McLaury the historical accounts for what exactly happened is a little messy by Clanton accused the Earp's and Doc Holliday of attacking his group unprovoked and they weren't interested in disarming them that he and his party had no intentions of attacking the herbs and they were simply minding their own business sheriff bein supported this claim testifying that he told the approaching herbs that he was in the middle of disarming the Cowboys but was ignored the herbs claims the what Sheriff bein really said was that he had to psalm the cowboys and there was no need to confront them whatever be and may have said the herbs continued their approach all the same which does raise a few questions as their intentions enough to make even the actors in the film question the motives of our protagonists it is factual it's sheriff being said you don't have to go down there the ok girl I've disarmed them well if they were going down there to disarm them and he said that why did they continue the Earp's and Doc Holliday came down there with shotguns and their six guns were loaded to the hill they were looking for a fight and they picked on four of our guys and two of them had weapons and the other two didn't so it was really an unfair fight from the beginning that's another thing to consider with the Cowboys if they were preparing to kill the Earp's then why were only two of them armed and why have they been taken so easily by surprise the prosecution argued that the herbs and holiday were looking to commit murder but one moment in the gun fight exonerated Wyatt when the bullets began flying and unarmed Ike Clanton threw up his hands and ran to Wyatt here was the guy responsible for everything the man he threatened their lives but instead of shooting him Wyatts reacts to his surrender and allows Ike to run to safety exactly how you see here the only thing I didn't happen was I grinning to a nearby shop to continue shooting at the earth through a window in any case why it's composure and Professional Conduct was enough to convince the court that he and the others acted at a self-defense and so were found not guilty this cause for celebration would not be enjoyed for long the gunfight hadn't resolved anything I can the Cowboys had been humiliated but they weren't finished it would be another two months before the Cowboys made their move on December 28 1881 close to midnight Virgil was walking home when he was ambushed by three Cowboys armed as shotguns miraculously he survived but lose the use of his left arm now Virgil's assassination attempt did happen in the way shown in the movie but the following scene where the Cowboys attacked the Earp's wives is completely made up and in the interest of time the movie condenses another historic event to occur on the same night as Virgil shooting on March 18th 1882 Morgan Earp was playing billiards when two bullets were fired through a window once striking him in the back mortally wounded Morgan bled to death in Wyatt's arms these shootings would have a profound effect on Wyatt and his attitude towards the law when Virgil had been shot a few months earlier Ike Clanton was arrested when his hat was discovered at the crime scene but the case was dismissed when the other Cowboys provided alibis in private the judge told Wyatt you'll never clean up this crowd this way next time you better leave your prisoners out in the brush where alibis don't count and now that Morgan was dead these words were etched in Wyatt's mind he had followed the rule of the law to the letter but it still wasn't enough to bring the Cowboys to justice so instead he would serve his own brand of justice outside but before he could do that he needed to get his brother Virgil out of Tombstone as the train was getting ready to leave wide spotted two Cowboys preparing an ambush it was Frank Stilwell and Ike Clanton now the movie plays out the death of Frank Stilwell a little differently for some reason why it's less AI Clanton live to let the other Cowboys know he's coming for them but what really happened was that Frank Stilwell tripped and Clanton ditched him when Stilwell got up Wyatt had him at his mercy and Frank put up his hands in surrender okay lawman let's go to court the murder of Frank Stilwell was taken more seriously than we see in the movie for shooting an unarmed man in cold blood an arrest warrant was issued for Wyatt sheriff being tried to serve it but Wyatt was having none of it from now on he was going to embody the role of judge jury and executioner taking Doc Holliday and a few others they went on a killing spree trying to gun down as many Cowboys as they could find at least that's what we see in the movie in real life they only killed four people the most notable is in March 24th 1882 when the earth party tracked down curly bill Brocius and some other Cowboys by a spring and my fellow history buffs what follows is probably one of the funniest scenes in cinematic history okay in all seriousness if you can all the bad writing and the cheesy acting for this one scene it's surprisingly close to what actually happened disregarding his own safety why it's approached the Cowboys alone bullets were whizzing all around but not a single one hits him using a shotgun he blasts a Kelly bill to pieces before making his miraculous escape historically this event would mark the end of what the newspapers had dubbed the tombstone vendetta but the movie takes it a little bit further by having Johnny Ringo leading the rest of the Cowboys after the Earp's front there's about 30 of the deputizing of the Cowboys is absolutely true sheriff bean was a Democrat and a known associate of theirs so his involvement complicated things it blurred the legal confines of the law by pitting one group of lawmen against another the reason why was because sheriff bein still wanted to bring Wyatts in for the murder of Frank Stilwell and more fortunately this epic clash between the two groups never happened but not for the reason the movie is saying in tombstones finale Johnny Ringo challenges Wyatt to a duel to settle everything once and for all the tension builds as we are often reminded of Ringo superior skills as a gunfighter compared to Wyatt even though the real Ringo wasn't anything special but surprise its Doc Holliday who takes Wyatt's place and despite a tense standoff he effortlessly guns down Ringo a fitting arc to such a beloved character but in real life this epic duel probably didn't happen the death of Johnny Ringo is shrouded in mystery all we know for sure is that Johnny Ringo was found dead lying against a tree with a bullet hole in his right temple officially this death was marked as a suicide but many historians to this day remain unconvinced it doesn't seem likely that Doc Holliday or the Earp's were responsible as Ringo's corpse was found on July 14th 1882 by that point the earth partier disbanded and left the Arizona Territory in order to escape the outstanding warrants but thanks to wide supporters they would never be served they didn't even get their hands on AI Clanton in the end he was shot and killed in 1887 by a lawman in different circumstances the film ultimately concludes with an emotional goodbye between whites and Doc Holliday who was finally on his deathbed thanks for always being there doc it's a beautiful scene but sadly this never happened shortly after the earth party disbanded Wyatt and Doc had a serious falling-out the details aren't fully known but there is one possibility there may have been over a woman Josephine Marcus an attractive Jewish lady who caught White's eye back in Tombstone and allegedly doc hauled White's a damn Jew boy which angered Wyatt's causing their friendship to end Wyatt had fallen in love with Josephine and later married her so doc and Wyatt were never the same after that and they split ways for a brief moments their paths crossed once more in 1886 but in the end doc died alone in the hotel Glenwood in 1887 as for Wyatt he lived on to see the 20th century before settling down in Los Angeles California he died in 1929 his legacy as a gunslinger was born just a few years after from a biography published in 1931 called Wyatt Earp frontier marshal it told a story of a righteous hero who saved a lawless town from the evilest of criminals it was a colorful exaggeration of the truth but nevertheless created a legend and forever romanticized the West today we have a better understanding for what really happened but it still continues to divide people about Wyatt Earp some seeing him as a reluctant hero who was pushed to the extremes by a broken system and forced to take justice with his own hands others seeing him as a criminal vigilante who decided he was above the law both views up ultimately correct so it really falls down to how you perceive him tombstone takes on the more romantic approach with Wyatt Earp but there are still some dark moments with his character which I'm thankful for I'd say this is an awesome movie and I can't recommend it enough in spite of its cheesy moments here and there it does a remarkable job of faithfully adapting history and whatever minor inaccuracies I could find they weren't enough to spoil my enjoyment well that about wraps it up my name is Nick Hodges and thanks for joining me for 30 episodes I can't wait to do more until next time have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year remember to support history buffs on patreon if you wish to do so and as always let me know in the comment section what you thought about tombstone and of course what historical movie should I review next in the meantime check out the history bus Twitter and Facebook page for new updates see in 2018 you

Channel: History Buffs

Views: 2,797,924

Rating: 4.893465 out of 5

Keywords: Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, Tombstone, Arizona, Western, Cowboys, OK Corral, Val Kilmer, Bill Paxton, Kurt Russell, Powers Boothe, Michael Biehn, History Buffs, Tombstone Vendetta, Old West, Wild West, Sam Elliot, Johnny Ringo, Ike Clanton, Curly Bill

Id: QvvNRx0riOE

Length: 27min 22sec (1642 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 20 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/early_birdy]

Interesting subject really well presented.

I wish there were more videos like this one. I'm gonna have to check his other videos now.

[u/ShadowStryker3D]

I loved that movie