''They Went Thataway'' is a
non-fiction book written by James Horwitz and published in 1976. It analyzes the
Western film genre from a nostalgic, yet jaded point of view.
The book takes the form of a
quest
A quest is a journey toward a specific mission or a goal. The word serves as a plot device in mythology and fiction: a difficult journey towards a goal, often symbolic or allegorical. Tales of quests figure prominently in the folklore of ever ...
journey, with Horwitz using the idea of researching and locating the old western actors of the past for a writing project. However, Horwitz uses the journey as a way to reconnect with his much more innocent past, and wonders what happened to himself and the world around him.
The book carries a heavy
anti-Establishment sense to its narration, with numerous references to
Richard Nixon,
Gerald Ford
Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. ( ; born Leslie Lynch King Jr.; July 14, 1913December 26, 2006) was an American politician who served as the 38th president of the United States from 1974 to 1977. He was the only president never to have been elected ...
, as well as the just-concluded
Vietnam War.
Plot
Horwitz decides to travel to
Hollywood
Hollywood usually refers to:
* Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California
* Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States
Hollywood may also refer to:
Places United States
* Hollywood District (disambiguation)
* Hollywood, ...
and hunt down the surviving western heroes of his youth. As he drives across the country, he stops off at a variety of places that he had known only through western movie legends, only to find them too modernized. Upon arrival in
Los Angeles, Horwitz contacts the
Screen Actors Guild, which refuses to release the mailing addresses of the now-retired stars or even tell him who is alive or dead. He leaves his contact letters at the Guild office and places an ad in ''
The Hollywood Reporter'', asking for any of the actors willing to participate in the writing project to contact him. Through various means, Horwitz succeeds in tracking down and interviewing many western heroes, including
Gene Autry
Orvon Grover "Gene" Autry (September 29, 1907 – October 2, 1998), nicknamed the Singing Cowboy, was an American singer, songwriter, actor, musician, rodeo performer, and baseball owner who gained fame largely by singing in a crooning s ...
,
Sunset Carson,
Joel McCrea, and
Duncan Renaldo, AKA ''
The Cisco Kid''. Others, such as
Jay Silverheels and
Roy Rogers, reject him completely.
Throughout the book, Horwitz is repeatedly disillusioned by the reality behind the
nostalgia
Nostalgia is a sentimentality for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations. The word ''nostalgia'' is a learned formation of a Greek language, Greek compound, consisting of (''nóstos''), meaning "homecoming", ...
, such as
Lash LaRue being arrested for drunkenness and drug possession or Roy Rogers' horse
Trigger stuffed and mounted in a museum.
Horwitz ends the book at the site where
Tom Mix died in a car accident. He takes out his childhood cowboy boots, tries to polish them, and leaves them at the monument marking the location.
The book also contains a thorough analysis of the
western movie genre, focusing primarily on the early cowboy film legends. Horwitz covers
Hopalong Cassidy
Hopalong Cassidy is a fictional cowboy hero created in 1904 by the author Clarence E. Mulford, who wrote a series of short stories and novels based on the character. Mulford portrayed the character as rude, dangerous, and rough-talking. He was ...
's career in detail.
References
Books about film
1976 non-fiction books
Ballantine Books books
American non-fiction books
Western (genre) literature
{{Commonscat, James Horwitz (American writer), James Horwitz