Tales Behind the Tombstones & Lillian Russell

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Lillian Russell, (Mrs. Alexander P. Moore) bright star of American comic opera for three decades and internationally known as a professional beauty who died at 2:20 o’clock this morning, had been ill several weeks following a shipboard accident while returning from Europe. Her death was unexpected, as her physicians two days ago announced she had passed the crisis and would recover.”

The Clinton Herald, June 6, 1922

It was not so much Lillian Russell’s great dramatic ability or her clear, well-trained voice as it was her personality and physical beauty that made her the most famous musical comedy star of her day and acclaimed for more than a generation as “America’s greatest beauty.”

Born on December 4, 1861, in Clinton, Iowa, Helen Louise Leonard had the kind of beauty that stopped traffic from her earliest years. She had a voice that her mother, Cynthia Rowland Leonard, an ardent feminist, paid to have trained when her daughter was still in her teens. Helen Louise was educated at the Convent of the Sacred Heart in Chicago and attended finishing school at Park Institute. She took singing lessons and sang in the church choir at the Episcopal church.

Her parents separated when she was in her teens, and her mother took Helen Louise and moved to New York, where young Helen started training for the grand opera. She could sustain the highest notes with virtually no effort, and do it again and again without strain. Her voice coach, Dr. Leopold Damrosch, told her mother that with a few years of training, he could make her a diva to rival the best.

The beautiful blond from Iowa had other ideas. Years of training and rehearsals, with only bit parts and backup roles as an understudy, lay before her on the road to stardom in opera. Helen Louise joined the Park Theatre Company in Brooklyn. She was eighteen when she danced onstage for the first time in the chorus of H. M. S. Pinafore, a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta that went on to resounding success.

Before the run of Pinafore was over, Helen Louise had accepted a proposal of marriage from an admirer in the show. She married the company’s musical director, Harry Graham. That marked the end of her appearance in the chorus. She withdrew from the company and settled into domestic life, but her time as a homemaker didn’t last.

In late 1879, Helen Louise gave birth to a son. A nurse was hired to care for the baby so the actress could once again take up her career. Her paycheck made a big difference for the little family. Her much older husband was not happy with his wife being the bread winner, however; he wanted her to stay home and take care of their child. But a woman raised to be independent is not easily swayed when fame and fortune call.

Then one day Helen Louise returned from the theatre to find her baby desperately ill. Despite all attempts to cure the infant, he died in convulsions. Apparently, the inexperienced nurse had accidentally pierced his abdomen with a diaper pin. Harry accused his wife of neglect, and he divorced her in 1881.

Grieving over the death of her son, feeling betrayed by her husband’s accusation, and devastated over the end of her marriage, Helen Louise concentrated on her career. Tony Pastor, legendary producer of musical comedy, heard her sing at the home of a friend and consequently offered her a job. Helen Louise liked the immediate success she’d already tasted in comic opera. At nineteen, with a statuesque figure, golden curls, skin like “roses and cream,” and a soprano voice that could do everything with ease she had found her first mentor in Tony Pastor.

 

 

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Tales & Bill Tilghman

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Sheriff Bill Tilghman

“A deputy marshal and a posse arrested two notorious female outlaws. … One was in men’s clothing.”

—August 21, 1895 edition of Evening Gazette, Cedar Rapids, Iowa

On the afternoon of August 18, 1895, United States Marshal Bill Tilghman and Deputy Marshal Steve Burke led their horses toward a small farm outside Pawnee, Oklahoma. The lawmen had tracked a pair of outlaws to the location and were proceeding cautiously when several gunshots were fired.

Marshall Tilghman caught sight of a Winchester rifle sticking out a broken window of a dilapidated cabin. He spurred his horse out of the line of fire just as the weapon went off. He steered his mount around the building and arrived at the backdoor the same time sixteen-year-old Jennie Stevens, alias Little Britches, burst out the house. She shot at him with a pistol while racing to a horse waiting nearby.

By the time Marshal Tilghman settled his ride and drew his weapon Jennie was on her horse. She turned the horse away from the cabin, kicked it hard in the ribs, and the animal took off. Tilghman leveled his firearm at the woman and shot. Jennie’s horse stumbled and fell, and she was tossed from the animal’s back, losing her gun in the process.

The marshal hopped off his own ride and hurried over to the stunned and annoyed runaway. Jennie picked herself up quickly and cursed her misfortune. She charged the lawman, dug her fingernails into his neck, and slapped him several times before he could subdue her. He was a battered man when he finally pinned her arms behind her back.

Back at the cabin, Deputy Marshal Steve Burke wrestled a gun away from thirteen-year-old Annie McDoulet, alias Cattle Annie, a rail-thin young woman wearing a gingham dress and a black, wide-brimmed straw hat. The pistol she had tried to shoot him with was lying in the dirt several feet in front of her.

Two years prior to their apprehension and arrest, Cattle Annie and Little Britches were riding with the Doolin gang, a notorious band of outlaws who robbed trains and banks. Enamored by the fame of the well-known criminals, the teenage girls had decided to leave home and follow the bandits. They helped the criminals steal cattle, horses, guns, and ammunition and warned them whenever law enforcement was on their trail.

Legend tells that Bill Doolin, leader of the Doolin gang, gave Cattle Annie and Little Britches their nicknames. Cattle Annie was born Anna Emmaline McDoulet in Kansas in 1882. Jennie Stevenson was born in 1879 in Oklahoma. Both girls had run afoul of the law before joining the Doolin gang. Each sold whisky to Osage Indians. According to the September 3, 1895, edition of the Ada, Oklahoma, newspaper the Evening Times, Jennie seemed to have “plied her vocation for a long time successfully, going in the guise of a boy tramp hunting work.” In between selling liquor to Indians and life with the Doolins, Jennie had married a deaf mute named MidKiff and Annie rustled livestock.

News of Cattle Annie and Little Britches’ arrest was reported in the August 21, 1895 edition of the Cedar Rapids, Iowa newspaper the Evening Gazette. “A deputy marshal and a posse arrested two notorious female outlaws but had to fight to make the arrest,” the article read. “The marshal’s posse ran into them and they showed fight. Several shots were fired before they gave up. One was in men’s clothing.”

The teenage outlaws were held in the jail in Guthrie, Oklahoma Territory until a trial was held. They were found guilty of horse stealing and sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment at the Farmington Reform School in Massachusetts. Cattle Annie and Little Britches were model prisoners and only served three years of their sentence.

Annie returned to Oklahoma Territory, where she met and married Earl Frost in March 1901. The couple divorced after eight years. In 1912 Annie married a house painter and general contractor named Whitmore R. Roach. They had two sons and lived a respectable life in Oklahoma City. Annie McDoulet Frost Roach died from natural causes on November 7, 1978, at the age of ninety-five. Her obituary ran in the November 8, 1978, edition of the Oklahoma City newspaper The Oklahoman. The article noted that “she was a retired bookkeeper and member of the American Legion Auxiliary and the Olivet Baptist Church. She had five grandchildren and thirteen great-grandchildren. She was laid to rest at Rose Hill Burial Park in Oklahoma City.”

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Judge Roy Bean

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“I aim to shoot the hell out of anybody that tries to stop me. I aim to mind my own business, and aim to back up the law.”

—Judge Roy Bean

With the passing of Judge Roy Bean, who referred to himself as the “Law West of the Pecos,” the rowdy frontier lost one of its most unique and picturesque characters. It was Judge Bean that was said to have held an inquest on the body of an unknown man found in his precinct, and, finding on the corpse a pistol and $40 in cash, proclaimed the dead man guilty of carrying a concealed weapon and fined him $40, which was forthwith collected from the pocket of the offender.

There were no customers from Judge Roy Bean’s opera house and saloon by his side when he died on March 16, 1903; no friends from the Langtry, Texas, community where he had resided; no lawbreakers to be tried and sentenced. Judge Bean’s son, Sam, was the only one with him when he passed.

The stout, seventy-eight-year-old man with a gray beard spent his last hours on earth in a near comatose state unaware of where he was or who he was. He died of heart and lung complications exasperated by alcohol.

Roy was born in a cabin in Mason County, Kentucky, in 1823, but he spent his childhood in Independence, Missouri. He followed his older brother to the Southwest in 1846, and the pair opened a trading post in Chihuahua, Mexico.

In 1848, eighteen-year-old Roy killed a desperado trying to steal from him and fled the area to escape arrest. There were several more run-ins with the law between 1849 and 1862. In 1862, Roy decided to join the army to fight for the North in the Civil War. He married Virginia Chavez in 1866 and the couple settled in San Antonio, Texas. Roy and his wife had four children, but the marriage was rocky and didn’t last.

When the Southern Pacific Railroad began its extension from San Antonio to the Rio Grande, Roy followed the line with a moveable house that featured a saloon. During one of the rides he met an attorney from Chicago who regaled him with stories of how the justice system worked in the eastern states. The fascinating details of law and order stuck with Roy, and when he was appointed Justice of the Peace at a railroad stop in West Texas he decided to employ all he had learned from the Chicagoan.

Roy Bean gave the temporary railroad stop that grew into a town its name. He called the spot Vinegroon. A vinegroon is a whip-tailed scorpion common in that region. The name was appropriate as well as symbolic. “I aim to run a square place,” the judge informed all potential customers. “I aim to shoot the hell out of anybody that tries to stop me. I aim to mind my own business, and aim to back up the law.”

“What law?” some brave railroad worker ventured to ask. “There hasn’t been any sign of civilized law this far west yet.”

“My own!” Judge Bean roared. “I’m the law from now on. I’m the law west of the Pecos.”

Judge Roy Bean hung a sign in front of his establishment that read: “Roy Bean, Notary Public, Ice Cold Beer. Judge Roy Bean, Law West of the Pecos.” The railroad executives liked it. It was convenient and gave the railroad a location to tie themselves to, and somebody to punish thieves and other rowdy cowboys. Cattle ranchers came in fast, and they liked the semblance of law, too. They had no time to organize and hold elections, so they took Roy Bean on as the authority.

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Cattle Annie & Little Britches

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On the afternoon of August 18, 1895, United States Marshal Bill Tilghman and Deputy Marshal Steve Burke led their horses toward a small farm outside Pawnee, Oklahoma. The lawmen had tracked a pair of outlaws to the location and were proceeding cautiously when several gunshots were fired.

Marshall Tilghman caught sight of a Winchester rifle sticking out a broken window of a dilapidated cabin. He spurred his horse out of the line of fire just as the weapon went off. He steered his mount around the building and arrived at the backdoor the same time sixteen-year-old Jennie Stevens, alias Little Britches, burst out the house. She shot at him with a pistol while racing to a horse waiting nearby.

By the time Marshal Tilghman settled his ride and drew his weapon Jennie was on her horse. She turned the horse away from the cabin, kicked it hard in the ribs, and the animal took off. Tilghman leveled his firearm at the woman and shot. Jennie’s horse stumbled and fell, and she was tossed from the animal’s back, losing her gun in the process.

The marshal hopped off his own ride and hurried over to the stunned and annoyed runaway. Jennie picked herself up quickly and cursed her misfortune. She charged the lawman, dug her fingernails into his neck, and slapped him several times before he could subdue her. He was a battered man when he finally pinned her arms behind her back.

Back at the cabin, Deputy Marshal Steve Burke wrestled a gun away from thirteen-year-old Annie McDoulet, alias Cattle Annie, a rail-thin young woman wearing a gingham dress and a black, wide-brimmed straw hat. The pistol she had tried to shoot him with was lying in the dirt several feet in front of her.

Two years prior to their apprehension and arrest, Cattle Annie and Little Britches were riding with the Doolin gang, a notorious band of outlaws who robbed trains and banks. Enamored by the fame of the well-known criminals, the teenage girls had decided to leave home and follow the bandits. They helped the criminals steal cattle, horses, guns, and ammunition and warned them whenever law enforcement was on their trail.

Legend tells that Bill Doolin, leader of the Doolin gang, gave Cattle Annie and Little Britches their nicknames. Cattle Annie was born Anna Emmaline McDoulet in Kansas in 1882. Jennie Stevenson was born in 1879 in Oklahoma. Both girls had run afoul of the law before joining the Doolin gang. Each sold whisky to Osage Indians. According to the September 3, 1895, edition of the Ada, Oklahoma, newspaper the Evening Times, Jennie seemed to have “plied her vocation for a long time successfully, going in the guise of a boy tramp hunting work.” In between selling liquor to Indians and life with the Doolins, Jennie had married a deaf mute named MidKiff and Annie rustled livestock.

News of Cattle Annie and Little Britches’ arrest was reported in the August 21, 1895 edition of the Cedar Rapids, Iowa newspaper the Evening Gazette. “A deputy marshal and a posse arrested two notorious female outlaws but had to fight to make the arrest,” the article read. “The marshal’s posse ran into them and they showed fight. Several shots were fired before they gave up. One was in men’s clothing.”

 

 

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More Tales Behind the Tombstones

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Visitors walking through the graveyards of frontier ghost towns often times find themselves stepping over weeds that have grown around fallen headstones. Sadly, the final resting place for many small families and communities has been left unattended or even forgotten. The seasons have taken with them the names chiseled in the granite, nearly erasing all memory of those mourned beneath the dilapidated tombstones.

It is estimated that one in every seventeen people died on the journey west from 1847 to 1900. Oftentimes the men, women, and children that died en route to the gold hills of California and Colorado, or the fertile farmlands of the Pacific Northwest, were buried on the spot where they died. A proper burial and lengthy funeral were forfeited in favor of pushing on to the far-off destination. Traveling across the plains demanded that sojourners constantly be on the move. The threat of bad weather, hostile Indians, wild animals, or desperados kept pioneers from staying too long in one area.

Contrary to popular belief, the thousands of settlers who perished on the trail west did not solely die in gunfights or Indian attacks. Scorching deserts, starvation, and dehydration claimed many lives. Poor sanitation bred typhoid, cholera, and pneumonia. Blood poisoning brought on by a cut or scrape from a sharp object, or shock from an accident, such as a wagon spilling over with travelers inside, brought about numerous deaths as well.

There were pioneers, though, who could not be persuaded to forego a ceremonial funeral if they lost a loved one. Nothing could keep them from burying the deceased in a plot where they could be remembered. A section of ground in a scenic location with trees to shade the grave was the preferred spot. To leave someone dear in an unmarked plot was impossible for some to accept.

As pioneers established homesteads and built towns around their farms and ranches, the dead were either buried in family cemeteries near where they had lived or next to churches where they worshipped. For nineteenth-century ancestors, it was important to remember death. The fact of death served as a reminder to those that continued on to persevere and do good works as preparation for a final judgment by a righteous God.

Whatever the cause of death might have been for early immigrants, the need to take care of a deceased person’s remains was a necessity. Until the discovery of formaldehyde in 1867, and the subsequent introduction of the product and its use as an acceptable practice in America in 1872, there were limited ways to deal with the dead. Immediate burial was preferred. If a person died in the winter and the ground was frozen and a grave could not be dug, the body was stored in a barn or woodshed until the earth thawed and the departed could be buried.

Carpenters in mining camps or cattle towns were usually the undertakers, since they had the tools and supplies to build coffins. The wooden caskets might be lined with white linen if it was supplied by the deceased’s family or friends. Sextons, people who looked after a church and churchyard, would determine where in the cemetery a person was to be buried. They would also dig the grave and fill it again.

People who lived in small towns would often gather at the graveyard where the coffin was placed atop two sawhorses. For those who lived in less rural areas, there were hearses to rent to transport the dead from the undertaker’s office to the cemetery. The vehicle had glass sides and was decorated with elaborate carvings and brass ornaments. On top were tall, shako-like plumes, one on each corner.

While cemeteries house the dead, the tombstones record on them not only their pleasures, sorrows, and hopes for an afterlife, but also more than they realize of their history, ethnicity, and culture. In this book are thirty true stories about those buried in marked and unmarked graves throughout the frontier. How these famous and infamous western characters contained within lived and then exited this world is reflected on their headstones. Tales of their demise add details of their courage, adventure, hardship, and joy not included on those tombstones.

The dead herein will never exhaust their potential to enlighten.

 

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Rio Grande

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Based on the 1933 Saturday Evening Post story by Maurice Walsh, The Quiet Man was a romantic drama set in Ireland. The tale centered on an Irish-born American who returned to his homeland to reclaim his family’s farm and birthplace in Innisfree. John Ford read Walsh’s story when it was released and purchased the rights for ten dollars. Walsh was paid another twenty-five hundred dollars when Yates and Republic Pictures joined the quest to bring the story to the screen. Walsh would earn an additional $3,750 when the film was made.

Republic Pictures agreed to finance the film with Maureen O’Hara and John Wayne starring and John Ford directing only if they agreed to first film the western Rio Grande. Yates was taking a chance, albeit a small one, backing Ford and Wayne in anything other than a western, and he wanted to hedge his bets. Whatever funds would be used to make The Quiet Man must first be made doing the film Rio Grande and its subsequent success.

Rio Grande is an almost balletic story of the relationships among a man and his two loves: his wife and the cavalry. John Wayne plays Lieutenant Colonel Kirby York who finds his son Jeff among his new recruits at his command in the West. Kirby and his wife Kathleen, portrayed by Maureen O’Hara, have been separated since the Civil War, when in the line of duty as a Northern officer he was required to burn her estate. They meet again for the first time in sixteen years when Kathleen comes to the fort to buy Jeff’s obligation, which neither father nor son allow her to do.

Based on another story from the Saturday Evening Post entitled Mission With No Record by James Warner Bellah, Rio Grande completes a loose trilogy about Ford’s beloved Seventh Cavalry.

In addition to Wayne and O’Hara, Rio Grande also featured Ben Johnson, Harry Carey Jr., Chill Wills, Victor McLaglen, and Claude Jarman Jr. Jarman portrayed Trooper Jefferson York, Wayne and O’Hara’s son in the picture. It was Jarman’s first adult part. He had risen to fame playing Jody in the Academy Award–winning film The Yearling. He was twelve when that classic was released. At sixteen, he was six feet, two inches and stood nearly eye to eye with Wayne in the Ford classic.

Rio Grande was popular with moviegoers, and the healthy box office receipts provided Yates with a financial reserve to draw from in case The Quiet Man didn’t fare well. Reviewers gave the movie high marks for its acting, music, and cinematography. Filmed in Monument Valley, the motion picture was lauded as a “scenic triumph” as well as an exceptional western story. The October 30, 1950, edition of the Hollywood Reporter called Rio Grande “the year’s finest outdoor screen adventure.”

 

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Republic’s Jungle Girl

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Zombies of the Stratosphere was one of three movies Republic produced dealing with a Mars invasion. Another profitable serial the studio made was Panther Girl of the Kongo. When wildlife photographer Jean Evans discovers a giant crab-like creature in the jungles of southern Africa, she sends word to a big game hunter and friend Larry Sanders for help. The pair soon learn these large crustaceans are the work of a mad scientist who wants to scare the population away from the area to operate a diamond mine. Jean, nicknamed the Panther Girl by the tribal locals because she shot a panther that had been terrorizing the village, and Larry are determined to find the mad scientist and stop him. Along the way, the pair must battle oversized sea urchins, wild animals, creepy henchmen, and inclement weather. They must survive gun battles, falls into quicksand, the roaring rapids, poison darts, and angry gorillas.

Panther Girl of the Kongo starring Phyllis Coats was the most expensive serial Republic Pictures produced in the 1950s. A great deal of footage used to make this film had been originally shot in 1941 for the movie Jungle Girl. Frances Gifford, the star in Jungle Girl, was the first female lead in a Republic serial, and Phyllis Coats was the last female lead in a Republic serial. In fact, Phyllis Coats wore the same outfit in Panther Girl that Frances Gifford wore in Jungle Girl.

The director of Jungle Girl was studio favorite William Witney. From 1935 to 1956, Witney practiced the philosophy Herbert Yates taught which was “make em’ fast and make em’ cheap.” Witney was a specialist in outdoor action and stunt direction. He directed or co-directed more Republic serials than any other company hire. He is considered the greatest action director in B movies.

Witney traveled to Los Angeles from Lawton, Oklahoma, to visit his sister and brother-in-law in 1933. His brother-in-law was a director for Mascot Pictures, and he got Witney a job at the studio as an office boy. After Mascot merged with Republic in 1935, Witney was promoted to script clerk and then to film editor.

In 1937, while Witney was working in Utah on a western serial, the director was fired, and twenty-one-year-old Witney was asked to take his place. Witney went on to direct the studio’s principal western, science fiction, and horror serials. From the Drums of Fu Manchu to the Mysterious Doctor Satan, he was able to masterfully put action sequences together for the screen

Among Witney’s fans are directors Steven Spielberg and Quentin Tarantino. Tarantino gave Witney high praise for his rough and believable action scenes and visual style. Witney’s Republic serials served as the inspiration for Spielberg’s Indiana Jones movies.

 

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The Quiet Man

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The rising popularity of television was of concern for several motion picture studios, not the least of which was Republic. By late summer 1948, the company had experienced a noticeable decrease in ticket sales. Audiences were choosing to stay home and watch the Milton Berle Show and Kraft Television Theatre rather than venture out to the cinema. In September 1948, Yates announced the layoff of extraneous personnel in all departments. Only workers essential to ongoing productions were retained. By the end of 1950, it was clear to Yates that he could no longer take a gamble on such arthouse-style projects like Macbeth. He would focus on familiar storylines with proven talent both in front and behind the camera. Yates would use the production funds built up between 1941 and 1945 to hire John Ford and John Wayne to make The Quiet Man.

Based on the 1933 Saturday Evening Post story by Maurice Walsh, The Quiet Man was a romantic drama set in Ireland. The tale centered on an Irish-born American who returned to his homeland to reclaim his family’s farm and birthplace in Innisfree. John Ford read Walsh’s story when it was released and purchased the rights for ten dollars. Walsh was paid another twenty-five hundred dollars when Yates and Republic Pictures joined the quest to bring the story to the screen. Walsh would earn an additional $3,750 when the film was made.

Republic Pictures agreed to finance the film with Maureen O’Hara and John Wayne starring and John Ford directing only if they agreed to first film the western Rio Grande. Yates was taking a chance, albeit a small one, backing Ford and Wayne in anything other than a western, and he wanted to hedge his bets. Whatever funds would be used to make The Quiet Man must first be made doing the film Rio Grande and its subsequent success.

Rio Grande is an almost balletic story of the relationships among a man and his two loves: his wife and the cavalry. John Wayne plays Lieutenant Colonel Kirby York who finds his son Jeff among his new recruits at his command in the West. Kirby and his wife Kathleen, portrayed by Maureen O’Hara, have been separated since the Civil War, when in the line of duty as a Northern officer he was required to burn her estate. They meet again for the first time in sixteen years when Kathleen comes to the fort to buy Jeff’s obligation, which neither father nor son allow her to do.

Based on another story from the Saturday Evening Post entitled Mission With No Record by James Warner Bellah, Rio Grande completes a loose trilogy about Ford’s beloved Seventh Cavalry.

In addition to Wayne and O’Hara, Rio Grande also featured Ben Johnson, Harry Carey Jr., Chill Wills, Victor McLaglen, and Claude Jarman Jr. Jarman portrayed Trooper Jefferson York, Wayne and O’Hara’s son in the picture. It was Jarman’s first adult part. He had risen to fame playing Jody in the Academy Award–winning film The Yearling. He was twelve when that classic was released. At sixteen, he was six feet, two inches and stood nearly eye to eye with Wayne in the Ford classic.

 

 

 

 

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Republic’s Catman of Paris

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In April 1946, thrill seekers were looking forward to the release of The Catman of Paris. The gruesome mystery melodrama involved a man suffering from a loss of memory who was accused of being a feline killer operating in Paris.

The tagline read: “Walks like a man. Attacks like a cat. Who is the Catman of Paris.” The plot involved author Charles Regnier returning to 1896 Paris after exotic travels, having written a best seller that the Ministry of Justice would like to ban. That very night, an official is killed on the dark streets . . . clawed to death! The prefect of police suspects a type of cat, but Inspector Severen thinks there is nothing supernatural about the crime and thinks Regnier is responsible for the murder. Regnier denies he had anything to do with the crime but begins to doubt himself when he has a hallucinatory blackout during a second killing.

Vienna-born stage actor Carl Esmond played the troubled author Regnier. Lenore Aubert, the female lead in the movie, was also from Vienna. The press packet Republic Pictures circulated to theaters and media across the country contained plenty of information about the film as well as background information about the picture’s stars. Aubert’s story of how she made it from Vienna to Hollywood could have been a movie on its own.

According to the November 8, 1946, edition of the Mount Carmel Item, the actress had just finished making her third movie when the Nazis occupied her homeland. She and her mother fled to France where they hoped to begin a new life. There she continued studying and acting for a year until the downfall of Paris.

“The experience Miss Aubert underwent in getting from France, through Portugal, to Spain would alone defeat most people,” the Mount Carmel Item article read. “However, Miss Aubert realized her one hope for happiness could be found in America. After six months of ceaseless efforts, she was able to get a priority on a Portuguese boat.”

Critics were complimentary of Aubert’s performance and the film itself, calling both “satisfying” and “entertaining.”

Chills, thrills, suspense, and murder awaited moviegoers who dared to see Valley of the Zombies starring Republic’s contract players Robert Livingston and Lorna Gray. Debuting in May 1946, the film was about a prominent brain surgeon who is killed; law enforcement suspects the culprit was his associate Dr. Terry Evans. Doctor Evans and his sweetheart nurse embark on a quest to prove his innocence. In trying to clear himself, the doctor and his girlfriend visit hospitals, morgues, embalming establishments, and an eerie estate where a few more murders have been committed for good measure. While searching the estate, the doctor and nurse happen onto a gruesome figure that is a zombie. The zombie’s condition can only be reversed with large quantities of blood. The caretaker of the undead individuals traverse the woods and mental hospitals at night looking for unwilling blood donors.

Directed by Philip Ford, nephew of award-winning western director John Ford, Valley of the Zombies was void of any valleys and, apart from one undead creature, any zombies. It was a picture that was produced quickly to cash in on the zombie craze.

 

 

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Republic’s Captain Marvel

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A popular character Republic Pictures was allowed to introduce in one of its chapter plays was Captain Marvel. Also known as Shazam, the superhero was created in 1939 by artist C. C. Beck and writer Bill Parker for Fawcett Comics. Captain Marvel was the most popular comic book superhero of the 1940s. He was also the first to be adapted into film. The film was entitled Adventures of Captain Marvel.

In an interdepartmental memo passed from various executives at Republic to Herbert Yates, the project was touted as having “massive potential to be a box office hit.” The twelve-part series premiered in March 1941. The plot of the chapter play was described in the following way:

To a remote section of Siam, jealously guarded by unconquered native tribes, comes the unwelcome Malcolm Scientific Expedition seeking knowledge of the ancient Scorpion Dynasty. Billy Batson, assistant to a radio expert, is the only one of the party who does not enter a forbidden chamber. As a result he is awarded the power to transform himself into a superman, Captain Marvel, upon uttering the word “Shazam.”

After a dozen spine-tingling chapters, Billy is bound and gagged so he cannot utter the word. He tricks the Scorpion into releasing the gag in order, as he pretends, to explain to him the secret of his invulnerability. Once released, he cries, “Shazam” and becomes Captain Marvel. He is able to free himself and his friends and expose the Scorpion once and for all.

Adventures of Captain Marvel was a huge success for Republic Pictures. Critics called the production “roaring good entertainment.” Many film aficionados consider the serial to be the best ever made.

The collaboration between Republic Pictures and Fawcett Comics continued after the release of the Captain Marvel serial. In 1942, the two entities brought the character Spy Smasher to the screen. Spy Smasher is a costumed vigilante and freelance agent who battles a Nazi villain known as the Mask. The Mask heads a gang of saboteurs determined to spread destruction across America. According to author and film historian Alan G. Barbour, the Mask was the first in a long line of stereotypes that pictured hard-faced Nazis as propagandist tyrants.

Spy Smasher was a twelve-part serial that was shot in thirty-eight days. Production began on December 22, 1941, just a few days after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor. The Spy Smasher wore a cape, leaped from bridges onto fast-moving cars, outgunned Nazi devils, and escaped from all types of death traps, from burning tunnels to compartments slowly filling with water. Spy Smasher used a number of gadgets, among them being various laser beams and his fire-resistant cape, to foil the Nazis’ plans.

Daredevils of the Red Circle was a twelve-part serial that included a cape-wearing villain. The suspenseful, spine-tingling, mystery film told the tale of diabolical mastermind Harry Crowel, a.k.a. Prisoner 39013. Crowel escapes from prison and, aided by a seemingly endless supply of henchmen, sets out to destroy all holdings of industrialist Horace Granville, the man who put him in prison. One target is an amusement park, home of three Daredevils of the Red Circle who perform death-defying stunts. When head Daredevil Gene’s kid brother is killed in Crowel’s attack, the three heroes swear to capture Prisoner 39013. Unbeknownst to them, he is holding the real Granville captive and, with a near perfect disguise, has taken his place. A mysterious cloaked figure known as the Red Circle aides the daredevils in their crusade.

 

To learn more about the many films Republic Pictures produced read

Cowboys, Creatures and Classics: The Story of Republic Pictures