“Blaize away! You’re a daisy if you have (Roberts, Doc Holliday, the Earp’s Strangest Ally). This is just one of Doc Holliday’s famous lines. Doc had a very interesting life, from the time of his dentistry career, to his gambling days with the Earp brothers. He will continue to be a legendary character for helping make the West livable. Doc Holliday wasn’t just a dentist; he was a gun-slinging gambler who helped the Earps tame the Wild West (SV;SV).
Doc had a tough life. He had a disease known as tuberculosis, which affects the respiratory system. In this period of time Tuberculosis wasn’t treatable and often caused death. Along with his partying habits, it is what caused Doc’s death at only 36 years old (Osinki). He could have probably lived longer than he did, if he would have listened to his doctors and friends and, by getting rest and giving up his drinking and gambling lifestyle. But Doc wouldn’t change his habits, even with his life on the line. Even with tuberculosis Doc was one of the few educated people in the West (Barra). He graduated from the Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery in 1872 (Holliday, Doc). People probably didn’t go to Doc for their oral hygiene because he constantly coughed due to his disease. For some reason, Doc wasn’t content with being a dentist; so he started to gamble for a living.
Holliday probably could have made a living as a dentist; however, he discovered that he could make more money by gambling throughout the West (SV; conj. Adverb, SV). Along with his “girlfriend” Kate Elder, Doc drifted around from place to place: Texas, Colorado, Wyoming, South Dakota, Kansas, Nevada, Arizona (SV: A,B,C) ( Holliday, Doc). Doc Holliday didn’t get along with others; he wasn’t trusted by many of the people...
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...West a better place to live. After they went down in history for their battle at the O.K. Corral, Doc Holliday finally met his match, his tuberculosis was the death of him.
Works Cited
Roberts, L, Gary..”Doc Holldiay, the Earps’ Strangest Ally.” Wild West. 01 Oct. 2006: 42. eLibrary. Web. 20 Feb. 2014.
Barra, Allen. “Tombstone Blues; O.K.; the Corral, the Earps, and Doc Holliday: A novel by Paul West, Los Angeles Times: 9. May 21, 2000. ProQuest. Web. 6 Mar. 2014.
Roberts, L, Gary..” Brothers of the Gun, Wyatt and Doc.” Wild West. 25.4: 28-35. Academic Search Premier Web. 27 Feb. 2014.
Osinki, Bill. “Main Street with every telling of the story of the OK Corral.” The Atlanta Journal the Atlanta Constitution. July 1997: G, 3:1 Web.
“Holliday, Doc.” Encyclopedia Britannica. Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc., 2014. Web. 27. Feb. 2014.
Ellsworth was mean, and it was ugly. The stench of the its streets fell second to the odor of the unbathed saddle tramps who had just delivered 150,000 cattle from San Antonio to its freight yards. Adding to these smells were the blends of whisky, tanning leather, kerosene and carved carcasses, a revolting combination. Gunfights were spontaneous, either over a woman or a card game. When Wyatt crossed the Smoky Hill River into Ellsworth in 1873, he may have remembered the "rules of the gunman," but had no intention of employing them. The two main “rules of a gunman” were to take his time and always be armed. Although many people had warned him that it would be naive to go westward without being properly armed, Wyatt didn’t own a gun. All he hoped for was to find a peaceable job. But, only hours after hitching his horse in town he began to wonder if perhaps everyone was right. The most boisterous spot in town was Brennan’s Saloon, off Ellsworth Square; its faro and poker tables buzzed 24 hours, bartenders tapped beer and ...
So you want to hear a legend hmm? Well, I'll give you what you want, but taint nothin' ‘bout it fiction. Now, you one of them scholarly types ain't ya–college and libraries and all that crap, right? Well, college kiddy you may think you know it all, but I know a thing or two about a thing or two. You haven't seen nothin'. You don't know a damn thing until you step right into the path of a cold-blooded killer. ‘Til you look that crazy sumabitch right in his red eyes and send him back to hell! My name is Deputy Sheriff Frank Worden. I'm old now. When I was young, I was the Deputy Sheriff of this here great town of Plainfield, Wisconsin. I know whatcha thinkin'. I ain't no drunk and ain't crazy. Crazy is man who massacres dozens of women–alive and dead. Crazy is a man who eats human hearts for dinner. Crazy is the way your generation made that bastard one of the most famous movie characters in the world. Crazy...is Edward Gein!
John was a good dentist, but shortly after starting his practice, he discovered that he had contracted tuberculosis. Although he consulted a number of doctors, the consensus of all was that he had only months to live. However, they all concurred that he might add a few months to his life if he moved to a dry climate. Following this advice, Doc packed up and headed West. His first stop was in Dallas, Texas, the end of the railroad at the time.
Solnit, Rebecca. "Spectators." Savage Dreams: A Journey into the Hidden Wars of the American West. San Francisco: Sierra Club, 1994. 228-47. Print.
Graham, Don. "The Secret History." Texas Monthly nd December 2002: 1-5. Web. 3 May 2014. .
Western movies have always been attempted and have strived for perfection. There has been a few that really captured the motion picture, history, and of course the actual story itself; but of course only one can take the cake. The movie, Tombstone is an action-filled film that is sure to entertain no matter what audience. Based on true events, the movie does an excellent job of portraying the correct history about the events that went on in Tombstone, Arizona. Everything from wardrobe, slang, props, and much more that was displayed in this outstanding movie couldn’t have hit the nail on the head any better. Just in case you may not have seen Tombstone, I believe it’s beneficial to know the plot, important details, history and information about
	Few gunmen in history have been as notorious as the late John"Doc" Holliday. Part of the reason Doc has enjoyed such a famedhistory is because of the overall descent man he was, that is when hewasn’t gambling, drinking, and gunslinging. When Doc died he mighthave had a handkerchief, a pocket knife, a deck of poker cards, a flaskhalf full of whiskey, and a small essay entitled "My Friend DocHolliday" by Wyatt Earp.
On March 10, 1892 the Billings Gazette reported, “The opening of spring may be more red than green for the horse thieves and cattle thieves of Johnson County” (Brash, 143). The writer of the article could little have known how truthful their premonition would prove to be. The late 1800’s were turbulent times in the West. Large tracts of publicly held range ground would be at the center of Wyoming’s very own civil war. Gil Bollinger, author and western researcher, reports that by the 1870’s and 1880’s fencing of land to enclose both crops and water sources was common (Bollinger, 81). This practice, however, was still illegal according to the federal government. In 1877, the United States Government sued Swan Land and Cattle Company, in an effort to set an example that all fences on open range must come down (Bollinger, 81). The fencing of lands was a major problem, as agricultural producers needed open access to the limited resources, especially water. Johnson County, in northern Wyoming, was an agricultural nucleus for cattle and sheep producers who knew the lush grass and good water supply would greatly benefit their operations. Since fencing was illegal, these resources were available to everyone. Cattle operators, large and small alike, ran their livestock loose and participated in large roundups once a year where all the cattle were branded. Slick calves, called mavericks, were often unrightfully claimed. Lack of fencing made any free ranging livestock available to whoever was devious enough to take them (Smith, 25).
The Taming of the West: Age of the Gunfighter: Men and Weapons of the Frontier 1840-1900.
Jones, Preston Neal. “Robinson, Edward G. (1893-1973).” St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture. Ed. Sara Pendergast and Tom Pendergast. Vol. 4. St. James Press, 2000. 229-230. Gale Biography in Context. Web. 16 Apr. 2011.
his family to pursue a life of gambling. The fact that the son prefers a short,
Slotkin, R. Regeneration Through Violence: The Mythology of the American Frontier 1600-1860. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1973.
The development of the Western genre originally had its beginnings in biographies of frontiersmen and novels written about the western frontier in the late 1800’s based on myth and Manifest Destiny. When the film industry decided to turn its lenses onto the cowboy in 1903 with The Great Train Robbery there was a plethora of literature on the subject both in non-fiction and fiction. The Western also found roots in the ‘Wild West’ stage productions and rodeos of the time. Within the early areas of American literature and stage productions the legend and fear of the west being a savage untamed wilderness was set in the minds of the American people. The productions and rodeos added action and frivolity to the Western film genre.
American western films took over Hollywood filmmaking from 1920 to 1960. Most all classic western movies carry the same themes throughout the movies. Heroic, masculine figures who are law-abiding enforcers, but also quick with a gun control the atmosphere of their western town. The movie My Darling Clementine (John Ford, 1946) encapsulates the western genre, and goes down in history as one of the best westerns ever made. After Wyatt Earp and his brothers stumble upon the town of Tombstone while to moving cattle to California, they decide to stay after Wyatt sees the need to stick around a little longer. The heroic actions yet humility of My Darling Clementine’s main character Wyatt Earp make the movie a classic American western film.
On June 25, 1876, The Battle of Little Bighorn took place near the Black Hills in Montana. This was one of the most controversial battles of the 20th century and the line between good guys and bad guys was grey at best. Gen. George Armstrong Custer (reduced to LTC after the civil war) had 366 men of the 7thU.S. Cavalry under his command that day. Sitting Bull (A Medicine Man) led 2000 braves of the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho tribes (Klos, 2013). At the conclusion of the battle, the stories of the Indians savagery were used to demonize their culture and there were no survivors from the 7thcavalry to tell what really happened.