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Wichita (1955 Film)
''Wichita'' is a 1955 American CinemaScope Western film directed by Jacques Tourneur and starring Joel McCrea as Wyatt Earp. The film won a Golden Globe Award for Best Outdoor Drama. The supporting cast features Vera Miles, Lloyd Bridges, Edgar Buchanan, Peter Graves, Jack Elam and Mae Clarke. The film's premiere was held in Wichita, Kansas, at The Wichita Theatre, 310 East Douglas, with the stars in attendance. Vera Miles had been Miss Kansas in 1948 and was third runner up in the Miss America pageant. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association awarded the film with "Best Picture - Outdoor Drama" in 1955. It was mostly filmed in California, including in Thousand Oaks, CA. Plot Former bison hunter and entrepreneur Wyatt Earp (Joel McCrea) arrives in the lawless cattle town of Wichita, Kansas. His skills as a gunfighter make him a perfect candidate for marshal but he refuses the job until he feels morally obligated to bring law and order to this wild town. His least popular move ...
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Jacques Tourneur
Jacques Tourneur (; November 12, 1904 – December 19, 1977) was a French film director known for the classic film noir ''Out of the Past'' and a series of low-budget horror films he made for RKO Studios, including ''Cat People (1942 film), Cat People'', ''I Walked with a Zombie'', and ''The Leopard Man''. He is also known for directing ''Night of the Demon'', which was released by Columbia Pictures. While in Hollywood, he was usually addressed by his anglicized name "Jack Turner", a literal and phonetic translation of his name in English. Life Born in Paris, France, Tourneur was the son of Fernande Petit and film director Maurice Tourneur.Earnshaw 2004, p. 102. At age 10, Jacques moved to the United States with his father. He started a career in cinema while still attending high school as an extra and later as a script clerk in various silent films. Both Maurice and Jacques returned to France after his father worked on the film ''The Mysterious Island (1929 film), The Mysterious ...
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Mae Clarke
Mae Clarke (born Violet Mary Klotz; August 16, 1910 – April 29, 1992) was an American actress. She is widely remembered for playing Henry Frankenstein's bride Elizabeth, who is chased by Boris Karloff in ''Frankenstein'', and for being on the receiving end of James Cagney's halved grapefruit in '' The Public Enemy''. Both films were released in 1931. Early life Mae Clarke was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her father was a theater organist. She studied dancing as a child and began on stage in vaudeville and also worked in night clubs. Career Clarke started her professional career as a dancer in New York City, sharing a room with Barbara Stanwyck. She subsequently starred in many films for Universal Studios, including the original screen version of '' The Front Page'' (1931) and the first sound version of ''Frankenstein'' (1931), with Boris Karloff. Clarke played the role of Henry Frankenstein's fiancée, Elizabeth, who is attacked by the Monster (Karloff) on her we ...
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John Smith (actor)
John Smith (born Robert Errol Van Orden, March 6, 1931 – January 25, 1995) was an American actor whose career primarily focused on westerns. He had his leading roles in two NBC western television series, ''Cimarron City'' and '' Laramie''. Early life A descendant of Peter Stuyvesant, the Dutch governor of New Netherland in the 17th century, Smith was born in Los Angeles, California, to Errol and Margaret Van Orden. Smith graduated from Susan Miller Dorsey High School in Los Angeles and enrolled at the University of California at Los Angeles. He sang with a dance band and played football and basketball and engaged in gymnastics during his school years. In the early 1940s, Smith joined the Robert Mitchell Boys Choir and appeared in several films, including Bing Crosby's ''Going My Way'' and ''The Bells of St. Mary's'', as an uncredited choir member. Acting career, 1950-1963 By 1950, he was working as a messenger for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and in 1952, the studio cast him as ...
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Carl Benton Reid
Carl Benton Reid (August 14, 1893 – March 16, 1973) was an American actor. Early years Reid was born in Lansing, Michigan. He used his full name professionally because when he worked in radio, four other people in the business were named Carl Reid. Career For seven years, Reid performed in leading-man roles of productions at the Cleveland Play House. He achieved fame on the Broadway stage in 1939 as Oscar Hubbard, one of Regina Giddens's (Tallulah Bankhead) greedy, devious brothers in the play ''The Little Foxes'', and made his film debut reprising his role opposite Bette Davis in the 1941 film version. He also appeared in several Shakespeare plays on Broadway, and in the original production of Eugene O'Neill's ''The Iceman Cometh'', as Harry Slade. His stern, cold demeanor quickly stereotyped him in villainous, and/or unpleasant characters, although he could play a sympathetic role, as he did occasionally in such films as the 1957 TV-movie version of ''The Pied Piper o ...
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Bat Masterson
Bartholemew William Barclay "Bat" Masterson (November 26, 1853 – October 25, 1921) was a U.S. Army scout, lawman, professional gambler, and journalist known for his exploits in the 19th and early 20th-century American Old West. He was born to a working-class Irish family in Quebec, but he moved to the Western frontier as a young man and quickly distinguished himself as a buffalo hunter, civilian scout, and Indian fighter on the Great Plains. He later earned fame as a gunfighter and sheriff in Dodge City, Kansas, during which time he was involved in several notable shootouts. By the mid-1880s, Masterson had moved to Denver, Colorado and established himself as a "sporting man" or gambler. He took an interest in prizefighting and became a leading authority on the sport, attending almost every important match and title fight in the United States from the 1880s until his death in 1921. He moved to New York City in 1902 and spent the rest of his life there as a reporter and columnist ...
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Keith Larsen
Keith Larsen (born Keith Larsen Burt, June 17, 1924 – December 13, 2006) was an American actor, screenwriter, director, and producer who starred in three short-lived television series between 1955 and 1961. Background Larsen was born in Salt Lake City in 1924. He was of Norwegian descent. During World War II, he served in the United States Navy. After he was demobilized he became involved in stage acting in Santa Monica, California. Career Larsen was tapped by a talent scout to play a small uncredited role in 1951 movie ''Operation Pacific''. In 1952, Larsen played Ens. Barney Smith, an aircraft carrier fighter pilot, in the film '' Flat Top''. In 1953, Larsen played the title role of Ed Reed, the Kid in the film '' Son of Belle Starr'', in which his character tries to live an upright life despite the heritage of his two lawless parents, Belle Starr and Jim Reed. Larsen's career was most notable for his work in four weekly television series, including playing Bart Adams in ...
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Morgan Earp
Morgan Seth Earp (April 24, 1851 – March 18, 1882) was an American sheriff and lawman. He served as Tombstone, Arizona's Special Policeman when he helped his brothers Virgil and Wyatt, as well as Doc Holliday, confront the outlaw Cochise County Cowboys in the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral on October 26, 1881. All three Earp brothers had been the target of repeated death threats made by the Cowboys who were upset by the Earps' interference in their illegal activities. The lawmen killed Cowboys Tom and Frank McLaury and Billy Clanton. All four lawmen were charged with murder by Billy's older brother, Ike Clanton, who had run from the gunfight. During a month-long preliminary hearing, Judge Wells Spicer exonerated the men, concluding they had been performing their duty. Friends of the slain outlaws retaliated, and on December 29, Cowboys ambushed Virgil, leaving him maimed. Two and a half months later, on March 18, 1882, they ambushed Morgan, shooting him at night through the ...
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Wallace Ford
Wallace Ford (born Samuel Grundy Jones; 12 February 1898 – 11 June 1966) was an English-born naturalized American vaudevillian, stage performer and screen actor. Usually playing wise-cracking characters, he combined a tough but friendly-faced demeanor with a small but powerful, stocky physique. Early life He was born Samuel Grundy Jones in Bolton, Lancashire, England, into a working-class family of limited means. At the age of three, he was placed by his uncle and aunt, in whose care he had been, into a Barnardo's orphanage home, since they were unable to maintain his upkeep along with their own several children. When he was seven, he and other children from similar backgrounds were shipped to Canada to be found new homes with farming foster families as a part of the British Empire's ongoing programme to populate the territory. Samuel was adopted by a family in Manitoba. He was ill-treated and became a serial runaway, being resettled several times with different families by ...
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Walter Coy
Walter Darwin Coy (January 31, 1909 – December 11, 1974) was an American stage, radio, film, and, principally, television actor, arguably most well known as John Wayne's character's brother in ''The Searchers'' (1956). Early years Originally from Great Falls, Montana, Coy was the son of Theodore Coy, who had a furniture store. The family moved to Seattle, Washington, around 1923. He played varsity football at the University of Washington and majored in dramatics. Before Coy became an actor, he worked at salmon canneries in Alaska. In 1929, he moved to New York. During World War II, he served in the Army. Career Coy performed on Broadway from 1930 to 1948. He appeared in several early Group Theatre productions. He was the first actor to play Lone Wolf on the radio series of the same name. Broadway roles * ''The House of Connelly'' (1931) - Charlie and as Seranader * ''Night Over Taos'' (1932) - Felipe * '' Men in White'' (1933) - Dr. Bradley * ''Gold Eagle Guy'' (1934) - Ad ...
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Marshal
Marshal is a term used in several official titles in various branches of society. As marshals became trusted members of the courts of Medieval Europe, the title grew in reputation. During the last few centuries, it has been used for elevated offices, such as in military rank and civilian law enforcement. In most countries, the rank of Marshal is the highest Army rank (equivalent to a five-star General of the Army in the United States). Etymology "Marshal" is an ancient loanword from Norman French (cf. modern French ''maréchal''), which in turn is borrowed from Old Frankish *' (="stable boy, keeper, servant"), being still evident in Middle Dutch ''maerscalc'', ''marscal'', and in modern Dutch ''maarschalk'' (="military chief commander"; the meaning influenced by the French use). It is cognate with Old High German ' "id.", modern German ''(Feld-)Marschall'' (="military chief commander"; the meaning again influenced by the French use). It originally and literally meant ...
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Wichita, Kansas
Wichita ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Sedgwick County, Kansas, Sedgwick County. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population of the city was 397,532. The Wichita metro area had a population of 647,610 in 2020. It is located in south-central Kansas on the Arkansas River. Wichita began as a trading post on the Chisholm Trail in the 1860s and was incorporated as a city in 1870. It became a destination for Cattle drives in the United States, cattle drives traveling north from Texas to Kansas railroads, earning it the nickname "Cowtown".Miner, Prof. Craig (Wichita State Univ. Dept. of History), ''Wichita: The Magic City'', Wichita Historical Museum Association, Wichita, KS, 1988Howell, Angela and Peg Vines, ''The Insider's Guide to Wichita'', Wichita Eagle & Beacon Publishing, Wichita, KS, 1995 Wyatt Earp served as a police officer in Wichita for around one year before going to Dodge City, Kansas, Dodge City. In the ...
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American Bison
The American bison (''Bison bison'') is a species of bison native to North America. Sometimes colloquially referred to as American buffalo or simply buffalo (a different clade of bovine), it is one of two extant species of bison, alongside the European bison. Its historical range, by 9000 BC, is described as the great bison belt, a tract of rich grassland that ran from Alaska to the Gulf of Mexico, east to the Atlantic Seaboard (nearly to the Atlantic tidewater in some areas) as far north as New York, south to Georgia and, according to some sources, further south to Florida, with sightings in North Carolina near Buffalo Ford on the Catawba River as late as 1750. Once roaming in vast herds, the species nearly became extinct by a combination of commercial hunting and slaughter in the 19th century and introduction of bovine diseases from domestic cattle. With a population in excess of 60 million in the late 18th century, the species was culled down to just 541 animals by 1889. ...
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