Wanted Dead Or Alive: The American West in Popular CultureRichard Aquila Ah, the Wild West! Wide open plains, beautiful sunsets, and thundering herds. Days when the cowboy was king, and good guys always wore white. The love affair with the American West has stood the test of time and survived competition from sports, electronic gadgets, and reality. Wanted Dead or Alive presents the first-ever comprehensive look at how the American West has been depicted in popular culture. Following Richard Aquila's introduction, which examines the birth and growth of the pop culture West in the context of American history, noted experts explore developments in popular Western fiction, major forms of live Western entertainment, trends in Western movies and television shows, images of the West in popular music, and visual images of the West in popular art and advertising. For the reader on the trail of even more information, each section of the book concludes with suggestions for further reading. |
Contents
Malaeskas Revenge or The Dime Novel Tradition in Popular Fiction | 21 |
Writers of the Purple Sage Novelists and the American West | 43 |
Suggestions for Further Reading FICTION | 69 |
Let er Rip Popular Culture Images of the American West in Wild West Shows Rodeos and Rendezvous | 73 |
Suggestions for Further Reading | 105 |
Westbound Feature Films and the American West | 109 |
The Good Guys Wore White Hats The B Western in American Culture | 135 |
PrimeTime Bonanza The Western on Television | 160 |
A Blaze of Glory The Mythic West in Pop and Rock Music | 191 |
Cool Water Rye Whiskey and Cowboys Images of the West in Country Music | 216 |
Suggestions for Further Reading | 240 |
Viewing the West The Popular Culture of American Western Painting | 243 |
Selling the Myth Western Images in Advertising | 269 |
| 292 | |
Contributors | 293 |
| 295 | |
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actor adult Western adventure advertising American West appeared artists audiences Autry's became Buck Buffalo Bill California cattle century character Cody comic country music cowboy hero cowboy's depicted dime novels early feature fiction formula Frederic Remington frontier Gene Autry genre Gunsmoke historian Hollywood Hopalong Cassidy horse ican Indian individualism James John Wayne land landscape Lone Ranger Louis L'Amour magazines Max Brand modern Mulford mythic West narrative Native Americans Old West outlaw paintings pioneers played plot pop culture West popular culture popular music portrayed produced pulp ranch readers Remington rendezvous Richard Riders riding rodeo role romantic Roy Rogers Singing Cowboys Six-Gun social songs stars story success television Texas themes tion traditional Trail villains violence Virginian western art Western fiction Western film western hero western history western images Western movies western myth Western novels Wild West shows William Wister women writers York Zane Grey
Popular passages
Page 6 - ... and they do say, gentlemen, they do say, that out in Oregon the pigs are running about under the great acorn trees, round and fat, and already cooked, with knives and forks sticking in them so that you can cut off a slice whenever you are hungry.