Speaker 1: Hey, folks, erin here today, I am the bearer of
Speaker 1: bad news. This episode of Grim and Mile Presents will
Speaker 1: be the last, not just of this season, but of
Speaker 1: the show. We've covered so much over the past four seasons,
Speaker 1: and I hope that our journey through the high seas
Speaker 1: and the back roads of America have helped you gain
Speaker 1: a better understanding of who we are as a people
Speaker 1: and how nuanced and textured our history is as a nation.
Speaker 1: If this storytelling style is something that you have connected
Speaker 1: with over the past couple of years, fear not. There
Speaker 1: are other shows of mine that you can jump right into.
Speaker 1: Cabinet of Curiosities is still going strong, over one hundred
Speaker 1: twenty million downloads into its journey, and of course, my
Speaker 1: dark history podcast Lore is quickly approaching its ninth anniversary
Speaker 1: with close to three hundred episodes that are guaranteed to
Speaker 1: leave you feeling a few chills down your spine. There
Speaker 1: are others too. Back in August, the Grim and Mile
Speaker 1: team and I launched a brand new weekly show called
Speaker 1: That's Just Weird, covering weird news from the past and present,
Speaker 1: along with one big weird news story EA and our
Speaker 1: brand new show called Harlots, which explores the intersection of
Speaker 1: sex and power throughout history, is wrapping up its first
Speaker 1: season in just a few weeks. Here and all of
Speaker 1: those shows, Lore, Cabinet of Curiosities, That's Just Weird, and
Speaker 1: Harlots are all available everywhere you get your podcasts. You
Speaker 1: can learn more about all of those shows and so
Speaker 1: many others from our past over at Grimandmild dot com,
Speaker 1: and now on with the show. To American settlers, the
Speaker 1: West was a land of opportunity. Its soil was rich
Speaker 1: with nutrients for growing all kinds of crops. Its hills
Speaker 1: and mountains were teeming with fortune just one heave of
Speaker 1: the pickaxe away. But even after the gold Rush had
Speaker 1: ended and East Coast transplants moved back home with their
Speaker 1: sifting pans between their legs, California still had more to offer.
Speaker 1: In nineteen fifteen, a whole new group of people set
Speaker 1: out west to seek their fortune and their freedom. Thanks
Speaker 1: to one man, Thomas Edison, filmmakers had gotten their start
Speaker 1: in Fort Lee, New Jersey, which was right across the
Speaker 1: Hudson River from New York. The land was cheaper than
Speaker 1: it was in the city, yet still close enough for
Speaker 1: Broadway actors to take the ferry over to make movies.
Speaker 1: But New Jersey was also home to the kinescope patent
Speaker 1: holder Thomas Edison. The kinescope was the first motion picture
Speaker 1: camera invented, primarily by Edison's employee William Kennedy Dixon, but
Speaker 1: Edison held the patent, and he wielded it, along with
Speaker 1: many others, like a sword against every filmmaker on the
Speaker 1: East Coast. In nineteen oh seven, Edison partnered with several
Speaker 1: other patent holders, like camera company Biograph and film manufacturer
Speaker 1: Easpin Kodak to create the Motion Picture Patent's Company, otherwise
Speaker 1: known as the Edison Trust. This cartel licensed its patents
Speaker 1: out to six of America's largest filmmakers so they could
Speaker 1: make their movies, but those films could not be sold
Speaker 1: directly to distributors. All films had to be rented from
Speaker 1: the Trust, and because all aspects of the process were
Speaker 1: owned essentially by one man, that meant that Edison now
Speaker 1: had a monopoly on filmmaking, and he went after anyone
Speaker 1: caught violating his patents too. Movie houses that showed non
Speaker 1: MPPC films were technically violating the law thanks to a
Speaker 1: nineteen oh seven court case, and sometimes they found themselves
Speaker 1: shut down by US marshals for doing so. If a
Speaker 1: filmmaker or distributor still didn't get the hint, Edison would
Speaker 1: send gangsters and hired goons to remind them about the patents.
Speaker 1: There were also arbitrary and punitive rules dictating film lengths
Speaker 1: and what kind of movies could even be made. They
Speaker 1: was stifling, as you can imagine, so filmmakers started looking
Speaker 1: for a way out, and around nineteen fifteen they found
Speaker 1: it three thousand miles away in California, which was the
Speaker 1: ideal location for movie making. The weather was perfect for
Speaker 1: filming year round, the landscape was diverse, land was cheap,
Speaker 1: and there was plenty of labor to help build the
Speaker 1: new industry in a new place, far from the miserly
Speaker 1: grasp of Thomas Edison. And what's more, California's court system
Speaker 1: often sited with small independent outfits over large companies when
Speaker 1: it came to patent disputes, and enforcing those patents from
Speaker 1: across the country was going to be almost impossible for
Speaker 1: Edison and his trust. The final blow to the inventor's
Speaker 1: choke hold on the film industry came that same year
Speaker 1: when the Supreme Court issued a ruling on the MPPC.
Speaker 1: It said a patentee may simply enforce his right to
Speaker 1: exclude infringement, but he must not use his patent as
Speaker 1: a weapon to disable a rival contestant or to drive
Speaker 1: him from the field, for he cannot justify such use.
Speaker 1: In other words, Edison's reign of terror was over. Filmmakers
Speaker 1: were now free to make the kinds of movies they wanted,
Speaker 1: and now they could do it in the ideal location,
Speaker 1: one that harkened back to a time not so long
Speaker 1: before cowboys roam the range. I'm Aaron Mankee and Welcome
Speaker 1: to the Wild West. In nineteen sixty two, Paramount Pictures
Speaker 1: released the John Ford western The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.
Speaker 1: The film stars Jimmy Stewart as an old frontier lawman
Speaker 1: who tries to bring in a local outlaw without resorting
Speaker 1: to violence. When the outlaw played by Lee Marvin, is
Speaker 1: shot dead in a fight, Stuart's character believes that he
Speaker 1: has done the deed, and in reality, his friend played
Speaker 1: by John Wayne, had killed the outlaw to save the
Speaker 1: law man's life. Stuart's character eventually confesses the truth to
Speaker 1: an editor at his hometown newspaper, but the editor refuses
Speaker 1: to print it. When asked why, the editor says, this
Speaker 1: is the West, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print
Speaker 1: the legend. Throughout this fourth season of Grim and Maal Present,
Speaker 1: we have examined the beloved tropes of Western culture, back
Speaker 1: when good men walked tall and wore ten stars on
Speaker 1: their chests. But that image of the lone gunslinger protecting
Speaker 1: his town from the criminal element is fiction, a legend.
Speaker 1: It's the product of nostalgia for good old days that
Speaker 1: never really existed. They were painted into our memories by
Speaker 1: directors like Ford or Sergio Leone or Howard Hawks, directors
Speaker 1: who didn't know it at the time, but were shaping
Speaker 1: the way that the Wild West would be remembered for
Speaker 1: years to come. That period feels like a glitch in
Speaker 1: the timeline, both older than it really was and yet
Speaker 1: close enough to be romanticized. According to the US Census
Speaker 1: Bureau of eighteen ninety, the country still had a frontier
Speaker 1: up at that time, and then suddenly it didn't. Three
Speaker 1: years later, the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago featured a
Speaker 1: city illuminated by electricity, as well as a two hundred
Speaker 1: and sixty four foot tall observation wheel, the original Ferris wheel. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: well as the exposition pulsed with current, the American Historical
Speaker 1: Association was conducting a meeting not too far away and
Speaker 1: somewhere in a sweltering room, A young professor named Frederick
Speaker 1: Jackson Turner stood up to speak, and I've mentioned him
Speaker 1: in previous episodes this season, but let's go deeper into
Speaker 1: his story. He was only thirty one years old at
Speaker 1: the time, but wise beyond his years. Turner believed that
Speaker 1: the frontiers of the Midwest and western United States had
Speaker 1: been the catalyst for true independence for the American people.
Speaker 1: To him, the wild West had been an outlet for
Speaker 1: the violent tendencies of Westerners, and that without it, Americans
Speaker 1: would lose the heartiness that allowed them to be self
Speaker 1: reliant go getters. Turner's audience, however, was indifferent to his message,
Speaker 1: likely wondering if they'd be done in time to catch
Speaker 1: Buffalo Bill's last performance. Turner's frontier thesis didn't make much
Speaker 1: of a splash at first. It was lost amongst the
Speaker 1: other news coming out of the exposition, but after several
Speaker 1: years his idea finally found its way into everything from
Speaker 1: American politics to high school history and literature. His theory
Speaker 1: was well on its way to reshaping and rewriting American life,
Speaker 1: which was exactly what he had wanted at first. By
Speaker 1: the time his Frontier thesis had reached public consciousness, he
Speaker 1: had already realized that he was wrong the whole time,
Speaker 1: and as with many ideas, once it got out, there
Speaker 1: was no putting it back. Those ideas eventually leached into
Speaker 1: everything from dime store novels and radio shows about life
Speaker 1: on the Range to wild West shows. Audiences flocked to
Speaker 1: see Buffalo Bill Cody and Annie Oakley put on the
Speaker 1: root teutonist live performances in the country, ones that romanticized
Speaker 1: the frontier while making light of the Native American's plight.
Speaker 1: Those who couldn't make it to a live show or
Speaker 1: didn't care to read, could listen to tales of honor
Speaker 1: and justice each week on the radio. These audio plays
Speaker 1: followed the same formula as their dime novel counterparts. There
Speaker 1: was always a hero, Julie, a man who stood as
Speaker 1: the law in a lawless town. Maybe he was the
Speaker 1: marshal or a sheriff or a lone ranger using his
Speaker 1: wits and his sharpshooting skills to keep outlaws and bandits
Speaker 1: at bay. And in the process, the Western as a
Speaker 1: genre became the quintessential venue for a showdown between good
Speaker 1: and evil, and as the entertainment industry shifted its focus
Speaker 1: from radio to film, those showdowns got a whole lot
Speaker 1: more dramatic. Early silent films weren't just vehicles for fictional gunslingers.
Speaker 1: Edison's earliest shorts captured re enactments from Buffalo Bill's Wild
Speaker 1: West Show. Viewers could catch a glimpse of Annie Oakley
Speaker 1: giving a demo of her sharpshooting skills, or of a
Speaker 1: Native American performing a traditional buffalo dance before John Wayne
Speaker 1: or Gary Cooper put on their spurs. Americans got to
Speaker 1: see a version of the Wild West that they had
Speaker 1: only dreamed about. Not long after these Edison films debuted,
Speaker 1: Edwin s Porter filmed the very first Western, The Great
Speaker 1: Train Robbery. At only eleven minutes long, it told the
Speaker 1: sordid and bloody story of a violent robbery aboard a locomotive,
Speaker 1: and it was only the beginning too. The Great Train
Speaker 1: Robbery led the way for an entire genre of motion
Speaker 1: pictures that appealed to all kinds of people, but mostly
Speaker 1: conservative Americans longing for the good old days when men
Speaker 1: were men and the law was respected. At least that's
Speaker 1: how they saw it. In reality, the Western was about
Speaker 1: to become a metaphor for doing the right thing against
Speaker 1: a corrupt system of oppression, a standing alone for what
Speaker 1: was right when everyone else was saying that it was wrong.
Speaker 1: Toward the end of the nineteen twenties, as silent films
Speaker 1: evolved into talkies, the Western genre remained a mainstay of
Speaker 1: the medium. It consistently brought comfort and peace to a
Speaker 1: nation contending with the socio political strife of an economic
Speaker 1: depression and war. As the world continued to change, Americans
Speaker 1: turned to westerns to feed their nostalgic cravings for a
Speaker 1: time that never really existed, and Hollywood was only too
Speaker 1: happy to oblige. The genre was deceptively deep, allowing writers
Speaker 1: and directors to inject their stories with agendas and messages
Speaker 1: meant to sway the movie going public toward their causes.
Speaker 1: An audience could find just about anything they liked, be
Speaker 1: it romance, gunfights, or even horror. When we think of
Speaker 1: Hollywood westerns, we think of their Golden Age, namely the
Speaker 1: period from the nineteen fifties through the mid nineteen seventies.
Speaker 1: This is when actors such as John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart,
Speaker 1: and Clint Eastwood donned their stets and hats and six
Speaker 1: shooters to protect small one horse towns. The wild West
Speaker 1: of these Golden Age films, though, was truly a frontier
Speaker 1: for freedom for white Americans. They embodied the promise of
Speaker 1: manifest destiny, but only on the surface. Behind the scenes,
Speaker 1: that appearance of freedom came at a great cost, thanks
Speaker 1: to the Hayes Code. The Hayes Code was a set
Speaker 1: of rules that Hollywood imposed on itself to appease powerful
Speaker 1: religious organizations who believe the movie industry was nothing but
Speaker 1: a den of sin. Before the Code, filmmakers depicted sex
Speaker 1: and violence on film without much regard for who might
Speaker 1: be watching. After nineteen thirty six, offensive language, sex, adultery, sacrilege,
Speaker 1: and extreme violence were outlawed. Thanks to the code's strict governance.
Speaker 1: Of course, some films managed to slip through the cracks
Speaker 1: with content that otherwise would not have been approved, and
Speaker 1: the Code itself was updated over time, but for two decades,
Speaker 1: if a director wanted to get his movie seen by
Speaker 1: American audiences, it had to get the green light from
Speaker 1: the Hayes Office. Over time, Hollywood's self censorship became less
Speaker 1: of a priority. Don't get me wrong, the Hayes Code
Speaker 1: was still being enforced well into the nineteen sixties. But
Speaker 1: there was another threat waiting in the wings, one that,
Speaker 1: according to the United States Government, was even more sinister
Speaker 1: than a pistol full of blanks and role of thirty
Speaker 1: five millimeter film communism. America's opposition to communism began during
Speaker 1: the nineteen thirties, but took off in earnest following World
Speaker 1: War II. The Soviet Union had been our allies during
Speaker 1: the war, but things changed when all the nations returned
Speaker 1: to their respective corners of the world. A task force
Speaker 1: was formed called the House on American Activities Committee or HUAC.
Speaker 1: It was charged with flushing out communists and communist sympathizers
Speaker 1: from all facets of American life, including the government itself
Speaker 1: and Hollywood. Now, the House on American Activities Committee couldn't
Speaker 1: punish anyone for being a communist. Thanks to the First Amendment,
Speaker 1: but they could hold individuals in contempt for refusing to testify,
Speaker 1: and people who invoked their Fifth Amendment right to avoid
Speaker 1: self incrimination or who did not hand over the names
Speaker 1: of other alleged communists were blacklisted by their employers. And
Speaker 1: perhaps no one is more remembered for such a thing
Speaker 1: than the Hollywood Ten, a group of ten screenwriters who
Speaker 1: refused to testify before the House on American Activities Committee
Speaker 1: and then name names because they held firmed their principles.
Speaker 1: The Hollywood Ten were cited for contempt of Congress and
Speaker 1: spent a whole year in prison, but things didn't get
Speaker 1: any better once they were released. Some of the men
Speaker 1: left the industry entirely, while others continued to write under
Speaker 1: fake names. For example, one guy named Dalton Trumbo wrote
Speaker 1: the nineteen fifty sixth film The Brave One under the
Speaker 1: pseudonym Robert Rich. So how did one screenwriter find himself
Speaker 1: in the crosshairs of the House on American Activities Committee
Speaker 1: during the Red Scare, especially when he was writing one
Speaker 1: of the greatest American Western films of all time. After all,
Speaker 1: it featured an honorable law man standing alone against evil,
Speaker 1: an ideal example of the genre spirit. Well, not everyone
Speaker 1: thought so, especially one conservative actor known for his portrayal
Speaker 1: of macho cowboys and for his questionable beliefs. Carl Foreman
Speaker 1: had written a number of films before nineteen fifty one,
Speaker 1: including war pictures, noirs, and literary adaptations. He was a
Speaker 1: skilled screenwriter who knew how to tell a good story,
Speaker 1: and one year after the end of World War Two
Speaker 1: he decided to tell a new kind. He drafted a
Speaker 1: four page outline of a revisionist western about a loan
Speaker 1: sheriff standing up against a band of outlaws. Now, for
Speaker 1: those that don't know, revisionist westerns sort of tossed aside
Speaker 1: the American individualism and ideals of the older films within
Speaker 1: the genre, choosing instead to bring light to the corruption
Speaker 1: and moral ambiguity of the bygone era. Foreman had a
Speaker 1: solid narrative in his back pocket, but by nineteen forty
Speaker 1: seven it became clear that it was very similar to
Speaker 1: another story, a work of short fiction published in Colliers
Speaker 1: by John Cunningham titled The Tin Star. So Foreman bought
Speaker 1: the rights to the story and got to work on
Speaker 1: a screenplay, pulling from both his outline and Cunningham's piece.
Speaker 1: It was called High Noon, and it was about more
Speaker 1: than just good versus evil. This was an allegory about
Speaker 1: global unification against tyranny. It was a statement in support
Speaker 1: of democracy. Now we don't need to understand the intricacies here,
Speaker 1: but just know this. Such a plot would have been
Speaker 1: plenty popular during the war, but after rampant anti Communist
Speaker 1: attitudes took hold in the late forties, things had changed.
Speaker 1: Foreman was at the top of his game in nineteen
Speaker 1: fifty one, and he continued to plug away at the script.
Speaker 1: He was working for a well regarded production company. He'd
Speaker 1: been nominated twice for Best Screenplay, and he had just
Speaker 1: moved into a Brentwood college once owned by Orson Wells
Speaker 1: and Rita Hayworth. And then it happened. Foreman opened his
Speaker 1: mailbox to a letter printed on pink paper. It had
Speaker 1: come from Washington. He had been summoned to testify before
Speaker 1: the House on American Activities Committee. Now Foreman had two options.
Speaker 1: He could fully cooperate with their investigation and give up
Speaker 1: the names of any supposed Communists that he might know,
Speaker 1: or he could lie, hide and try to muddle the
Speaker 1: truth as much as possible. Unfortunately, the proof was already there.
Speaker 1: Carl Foreman had been a member of the American Communist
Speaker 1: Party from the years nineteen thirty eight until nineteen forty two,
Speaker 1: and he hadn't been the only one. A number of
Speaker 1: Hollywood writers and actors had joined the party around that time,
Speaker 1: but Foreman left after he enlisted to serve in World
Speaker 1: War Two. Now he had to choose between being a
Speaker 1: rat or killing his career, and neither option was ideal.
Speaker 1: Luckily for him, he didn't have to appear right away.
Speaker 1: His appointment with Congress wouldn't be for another few months,
Speaker 1: so he continued to work on High Noon, and the
Speaker 1: more he considered the story, the more he thought of
Speaker 1: his immigrant family, of his socialist mother, of the Great Depression,
Speaker 1: and how it had ended their business and wiped out
Speaker 1: their fortunes. They had swung hard left politically because of
Speaker 1: the crash, and Foreman was no different. He knew that
Speaker 1: the Blacklist was going to devastate Hollywood and the country
Speaker 1: as a whole. So he came to a decision, one
Speaker 1: that would change his life and the landscape of the
Speaker 1: western genre in Hollywood Forever. He tweaked the plot of
Speaker 1: High Noon to reflect the current American political climate. His protagonist,
Speaker 1: a Marshal named Will Caine, would represent Foreman himself, a
Speaker 1: solitary force of good going up against the bandits of
Speaker 1: the House on American Activities Committee. The townspeople that Caine
Speaker 1: failed to recruit to help him take on the outsider
Speaker 1: threat were now Foreman's fellow screenwriters and other professionals who
Speaker 1: stood idly by as the government brought its boot down
Speaker 1: on him. But Carl Foreman had a supporter who also
Speaker 1: felt the pressure of Washington's anti Communist committee. His name
Speaker 1: was Stanley Kramer. Kramer was the producer of the film
Speaker 1: and Foreman's friend. He had signed a five year, thirty
Speaker 1: film deal with Columbia Pictures, which had been a major
Speaker 1: milestone for his fledgling company. But Foreman now had a
Speaker 1: major target on his back, and every day he continued
Speaker 1: to work on the project that Bullseye White a little
Speaker 1: more to include Kramer himself. But just like Carl Foreman,
Speaker 1: Stanley Kramer had a choice to make. He could stay
Speaker 1: true to his friend and risk his production company, or
Speaker 1: cut Foreman loose and destroy the man's career. It didn't
Speaker 1: help that Karl had never written a Western before and
Speaker 1: the Pictures director Fred Zeinerman had never directed one. But
Speaker 1: this wasn't a shoot him up like the westerns of old.
Speaker 1: This was a character driven story with sharp dialogue and
Speaker 1: tightly wound suspense, the latter of which was emphasized by
Speaker 1: the frequent appearance of ticking clocks throughout the film, each
Speaker 1: of them counting down to the twelve pm mark, when
Speaker 1: the protagonist's enemy was scheduled to finally make his appearance.
Speaker 1: To play the Harry Marshall will Kine Kramer hired Gary Cooper.
Speaker 1: Cooper had been a big star in the years prior,
Speaker 1: but hadn't been doing so well career wise for some time,
Speaker 1: and saw great potential in High Noon script. His love
Speaker 1: interest was played by an up and comer that you
Speaker 1: may or may not have heard of, Grace Kelly, the
Speaker 1: future Princess of Monaco. While the producer secured the cast
Speaker 1: and prepared the shoot, Carl Foreman's date with the House
Speaker 1: on American Activities Committee began to draw closer. Gary Cooper
Speaker 1: wound up befriending Carl over the course of their working
Speaker 1: together on the film, and even volunteered to speak before
Speaker 1: the committee on his behalf but Foreman's lawyers refused to
Speaker 1: allow it. Finally, Stanley Kramer had had enough. Washington had
Speaker 1: been breathing down his neck for some time, so he
Speaker 1: confronted Carl Foreman with two demands. First, he needed to
Speaker 1: resign from High Noon, and second, he had to sell
Speaker 1: off his stock options in the picture. Foreman refused, though,
Speaker 1: which led to Kramer firing him anyway. But there was
Speaker 1: just one problem. Foreman hadn't signed a contract deferring his salary.
Speaker 1: This meant that the bank providing the film's financing could
Speaker 1: cut off access at any time, bringing production to a halt.
Speaker 1: Kramer's hand was forced. He re hired Foreman as writer
Speaker 1: and associate producer, but their friendship would never recover. On
Speaker 1: September twenty fourth of nineteen fifty one, Foreman's judgment day
Speaker 1: had finally arrived. He drove himself to the Los Angeles
Speaker 1: Federal Building for his hearing with the House on American
Speaker 1: Activities Committee. They asked him if he was a member
Speaker 1: of the Communist Party, which he answered truthfully. He was
Speaker 1: not currently a member of the party, as evidenced by
Speaker 1: the loyalty oath that he had just signed, but when
Speaker 1: he was asked if he had ever been a member
Speaker 1: prior to nineteen fifty, Foreman pled the fifth. He also
Speaker 1: wouldn't give up the names of any other Communists that
Speaker 1: he knew. His testimony led to disastrous consequences for his career,
Speaker 1: with stakeholders and company directors of High Noon legally removing
Speaker 1: all traces of him from the picture. Foreman also accepted
Speaker 1: one hundred fifty thousand dollars in exchange for his associate
Speaker 1: producer credit. Some felt that he should have held firm,
Speaker 1: but he needed the money. It didn't matter that he
Speaker 1: was one of the best screenwriters Hollywood had to offer.
Speaker 1: He was officially blacklisted, and now he was out of
Speaker 1: a job. Of course, Carl Foreman was not the only
Speaker 1: victim of the House on American Activities Committee. Around five
Speaker 1: hundred members of the motion picture industry found themselves out
Speaker 1: of work for a decade or more. Some took their
Speaker 1: lives through suicide as a result, while others died from
Speaker 1: the stress. Studios also stopped pouring money into films that
Speaker 1: they felt had a political agenda. They simply didn't want
Speaker 1: to deal with the headaches from Washington, leaving movies like
Speaker 1: High Noon a rarity, but Stanley Kramer eventually saw the
Speaker 1: lights after his partnership with Columbia dissolved. He went on
Speaker 1: to make nineteen fifty eight s The Defiant Ones with
Speaker 1: blacklisted screenwriter Nedrick Young, and when Young won the Academy
Speaker 1: Award for Best Screenplay alongside his co writer Harold Jacob Smith,
Speaker 1: his identity remained public. Foreman, on the other hand, had
Speaker 1: to flee the United States and ended up in London.
Speaker 1: He went on to write Bridge on the River Qui
Speaker 1: in Secret along with his fellow blacklisted writer Michael Wilson.
Speaker 1: That film won the Oscar for Best Quarsplay as well,
Speaker 1: but Foreman didn't receive credit for it until more than
Speaker 1: thirty years later. And meanwhile, High Noon had been a
Speaker 1: roaring success. It remained a popular Western for decades. Some, however,
Speaker 1: didn't appreciate its not so subtle message, namely John Wayne.
Speaker 1: Wayne was a staunch conservative and an outspoken member of
Speaker 1: an anti communist group called the Motion Picture Alliance for
Speaker 1: the Preservation of American Ideals. He led conservative Hollywood in
Speaker 1: a campaign against High Noon, calling it then, I quote,
Speaker 1: the most Unamerican thing I've seen in my whole life.
Speaker 1: He'd even been offered the role of will Kine, but
Speaker 1: had turned it down because of what he considered to
Speaker 1: be the film's pro communist sentiments, although it could be
Speaker 1: argued that exercising one's First Amendment right to comment on
Speaker 1: the country's failings at the expense of freedom was probably
Speaker 1: the most American thing someone could do. Well. Despite Wayne's
Speaker 1: vocal opposition of the film, Hi Noon went on to
Speaker 1: be nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor,
Speaker 1: and Best Screenplay, but there was a problem when the
Speaker 1: winners for the Best Actor category were announced. Gary Cooper,
Speaker 1: who had played the Marshall will Kine in the film,
Speaker 1: was overseas filming another project. Unable to accept the award himself,
Speaker 1: he asked a good friend to go on stage in
Speaker 1: his behalf, knowing that that friend would be in the audience,
Speaker 1: and so as the name Gary Cooper rang in everyone's ears,
Speaker 1: one man rose from his seat and traveled down the
Speaker 1: aisle to the stage. He took hold of the golden statue,
Speaker 1: smiled and said, I'm glad to see that they're giving
Speaker 1: this to a man who is not only most deserving,
Speaker 1: but has conducted himself throughout his years in our business
Speaker 1: in a manner we can all be proud of. At
Speaker 1: the end of his speech, the audience applauded and the
Speaker 1: man sauntered off the stage. Oh and the name of
Speaker 1: that friend that Gary Cooper had called in to take
Speaker 1: his place? It was the film's biggest critic and opponent,
Speaker 1: fellow actor and Western legend John Wayne. I truly do
Speaker 1: hope that you've enjoyed our journey through the Wild West
Speaker 1: over the past thirteen episodes. It's a misunderstood and misrepresented
Speaker 1: period of American history, but my team and I firmly
Speaker 1: believe that the stories we presented to you offer a
Speaker 1: more accurate and more nuanced look at what really happened.
Speaker 1: And if you enjoyed today's exploration of how Hollywood catched
Speaker 1: in on the myth of the West, then you'll want
Speaker 1: to stick around through the sponsored break. We've saved one
Speaker 1: more powerful story, and my teammates Ali Stead will tell
Speaker 1: you all about it.
Speaker 2: Nostalgia for the Wild West doesn't live in a vacuum,
Speaker 2: nor has it disappeared. It's still all around us, evident
Speaker 2: in television shows like Yellowstone, which presents a modern take
Speaker 2: on the sanitized whitewashed and ultraviolent version of what men
Speaker 2: like John Wayne thought the Wild West was actually like.
Speaker 2: Or in Westworld, where the audiences can live vicariously through
Speaker 2: characters who get to explore their wildest Wild West fantasies.
Speaker 2: Above all else, these shows leave viewers wondering, would I
Speaker 2: have been a hero with a badge on my chest?
Speaker 2: Or would I have been the outlaw clad in all
Speaker 2: black and taking what I wanted?
Speaker 1: Well?
Speaker 2: Once upon a time, for a little while, that question
Speaker 2: could have been easily answered in a place called Palisade, Nevada.
Speaker 2: It all started in the eighteen forties when a new
Speaker 2: railroad was proposed that would connect the East and the
Speaker 2: West coasts. Railroad executives didn't have time to waste on
Speaker 2: figuring out treaties or territorial rights, so they just started
Speaker 2: petitioning Congress. The concept was rejected year after year until
Speaker 2: the passage of the Railroad Act of eighteen sixty two,
Speaker 2: which allowed the new track to be laid. The plan
Speaker 2: was to have the Central Railroad Company of cal California
Speaker 2: meet the newly created Union Pacific Railroad in the middle
Speaker 2: of the country. Construction began in eighteen sixty three, with
Speaker 2: much of the labor being performed by immigrants from China
Speaker 2: and Ireland. Meanwhile, the government worked out with the railroad
Speaker 2: companies where new stations and therefore new towns would be built.
Speaker 2: There was no rhyme or reason to it. Pins were
Speaker 2: tossed onto maps with little regard for the viability of
Speaker 2: the towns that were being proposed. Some would thrive, while
Speaker 2: others would succumb to the dangers of frontier living. Gold
Speaker 2: fever back in the eighteen forties had helped flood the
Speaker 2: West with fresh blood, but towns that sprouted overnight seemed
Speaker 2: to disappear almost as quickly when those gilded promises were
Speaker 2: washed away like grit in the river. One town named
Speaker 2: Palisade was founded in eighteen sixty eight. It was meant
Speaker 2: to be a stop on the Central Pacific Railroad, which
Speaker 2: would bring people to and from Nevada. This included wealthy
Speaker 2: investors in the nearby silver mine. Palisade promised to become
Speaker 2: a prominent destination, with folks coming through on their way
Speaker 2: to Chicago or San Francisco. Unfortunately, few passengers really stuck
Speaker 2: around and spent money there. It was a small town
Speaker 2: with a population of only six hundred people, and other
Speaker 2: than the silver mine, there wasn't a lot to do.
Speaker 2: Word of their guests disappointment made it back to the townsfolk,
Speaker 2: who understood what was missing the full wild West experience.
Speaker 2: You see, years earlier, pioneers had traveled out west and
Speaker 2: written to their friends and family, and even to newspapers
Speaker 2: back east about their exciting adventures. Their readers had gotten
Speaker 2: a taste of the lawlessness and danger that was apparently
Speaker 2: prevalent in the western boom towns like Palisade. Unfortunately, when
Speaker 2: those visitors checked out, they didn't exactly get the experience
Speaker 2: they were hoping for. So the citizens of Palisade decided
Speaker 2: to take matters into their own hands. In the early
Speaker 2: eighteen seventies, when trains pulled into Palisade Station, passengers could
Speaker 2: expect to see lawmen and outlaws having shootouts at high
Speaker 2: noon in the middle of the street. Bodies hit the
Speaker 2: floor while bank robbers made daring escapes in broad daylight.
Speaker 2: It was exactly what they read about the news articles
Speaker 2: and dime novels, and it was completely fake. The whole
Speaker 2: town was in on it, including the pistols, the bank robberies.
Speaker 2: They'd even gotten animal blood from nearby slaughterhouses to sell
Speaker 2: the grizzly death scenes. No one missed out on the fun.
Speaker 2: Even the local Shoshoni tribe members got in on the
Speaker 2: action by performing raids on the town, really selling battles
Speaker 2: with locals and pretending to scalp them at the end.
Speaker 2: Even railroad employees were known to sneak actors onto the
Speaker 2: trains to set everyone up before they pulled into Palisade.
Speaker 2: Funnily enough, despite the town's notoriety as a den of
Speaker 2: sin and violence, it had no sheriff. Over the course
Speaker 2: of these reenactments, more people were killed in Palisade than
Speaker 2: actually lived there, and the travelers were none to observant.
Speaker 2: They never noticed that they themselves weren't the targets of
Speaker 2: these ruthless outlaws. Over time, as the West was settled
Speaker 2: and fewer and fewer people were coming through looking for
Speaker 2: a show, Palisade and other boomtowns folded up shop. The
Speaker 2: pops of gunshots were soon replaced with the eerie sound
Speaker 2: of wind whistling through a ghost town. A flood in
Speaker 2: nineteen ten decimated the area, and by the nineteen thirties
Speaker 2: the railroad had shut down as well. Buildings disappeared, leaving
Speaker 2: nothing behind but the land. But the name Palisade would
Speaker 2: grace American's lips a couple of more times before fading
Speaker 2: into complete obscurity. According to one legend, President Herbert Hoover
Speaker 2: was passing through in nineteen thirty two when his train
Speaker 2: was overcome by strangers armed with two dozen sticks of dynamite.
Speaker 2: Two men reportedly scuffled with the railroad inspector before running off.
Speaker 2: One inspector claimed there hadn't even been dynamite to begin with. Finally,
Speaker 2: in two thousand and five, the heir to the town
Speaker 2: of Palisades sold it at auction for one hundred and
Speaker 2: fifty thousand dollars. It's not known who bought it, but
Speaker 2: according to one article, a whole lot of nothing in
Speaker 2: the middle of nowhere sold for one hundred and fifty thousand,
Speaker 2: the most money ever paid for nothing that anyone could remember. Sadly,
Speaker 2: that's what remains of the wild West today, romantic notions
Speaker 2: of a time that never really existed. In other words,
Speaker 2: a whole lot of nothing.
Speaker 1: Grim and Maud Presents The Wild West was executive produced
Speaker 1: by me Aaron Mankey and hosted by Aaron Mankey and
Speaker 1: Alexandra Steed. Writing for this season was provided by Michelle Mudo,
Speaker 1: with research by Alexandra Steed, Sam Alberty, Cassandra de Alba,
Speaker 1: and Harry Marx. Fact Checking was performed by Jamie Vargas,
Speaker 1: with sensitivity reading by Stacy Parshall Jensen. Production assistance was
Speaker 1: provided by Josh Stain, Jesse Funk, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick.
Speaker 1: To learn more about this and other shows from Grim
Speaker 1: and Mild and iHeartRadio, visit Grimandmild dot com