December 7, 1903: "The Great Train Robbery" Premieres

December 7, 1903: The Great Train Robbery premieres in vaudeville houses. It is a Western, produced by the Edison Manufacturing Company, which was run by Thomas Alva Edison. It is directed by Edwin S. Porter, and stars Justus D. Barnes, Walter Cameron, and Gilbert M. Anderson, better known as "Broncho Billy," the 1st movie action hero, Western or otherwise.

It was the 1st American feature film to have a real plot, following the French film A Trip to the Moon the year before. The plot gets wrapped up in just 13 minutes. Filming was done the month before, at the South Mountain Reservation in West Orange, Essex County, New Jersey, near Edison's laboratory.

The plot is pretty much summed up in the title: A team of bandits forces the stoppage of a train, they rob it, and make their escape to their horses. A posse catches up to them, and the bandits are killed in the ensuing shootout. The film ends with Barnes, despite his character having bitten the dust, firing his gun straight into the camera. It's a blank, of course, but Porter wanted to give the audience the sensation that they were being fired at.

The film was a runaway success, and inspired lots of parodies. Porter even made one himself, in 1905: The Little Train Robbery, with children robbing candy and dolls from a miniature railroad car. The final gun-to-the-camera scene was copied by Martin Scorcese with Joe Pesci for the end of Goodfellas in 1990. It's also been suggested that Maurice Binder's "gunbarrel sequence" openings to the James Bond films are an homage.

Another American film titled The Great Train Robbery was made in 1941, but, aside from also being a Western, it has no connection to the 1903 film. The 1963 robbery of a Royal Mail train in Ledburn, Buckinghamshire, England, was called "The Great Train Robbery." In 1855, there had been a robbery near London that became known as "The Great Gold Robbery," and in 1978, a British film was released about it, titled The First Great Train Robbery. In America, it was released with the shorter title The Great Train Robbery, but had no other link to the 1903 film.

Edwin S. Porter lived until 1941, Walter Cameron until 1942, Justus Barnes until 1946, and Gilbert Anderson until 1971.

*

December 7, 1903 was a Monday. Baseball and football were out of season. Basketball barely existed, and hockey had only started to become professional. So there were no games on this historic day.

At the end of the month, the Ottawa Hockey Club, a.k.a. the Silver Seven, and later renamed the original version of the Ottawa Senators, began challenges for the Stanley Cup, which they successfully defended.

November 19, 1980: “Heaven’s Gate” Sinks United Artists

November 19, 1980: Heaven's Gate premieres. This "revisionist Western" was director Michael Cimino's follow-up to the critical darling The Deer Hunter, and had a lot of talent: Kris Kristofferson, Isabelle Huppert, Christopher Walken, Jeff Bridges, John Hurt, Sam Waterston, Terry O'Quinn, Mickey Rourke, and, in his film debut, Willem Dafoe. It should have worked.

But Cimino was a nut, and everyone chafed against his directing. Filming ran long. The movie eventually came in at 3 hours and 39 minutes, about twice as long as the average filmgoer's attention span for a movie without explosions. There were accusations of the horses and cattle being abused.

And, at a time when inflation was rampant in America, the cost ran up to $44 million. That doesn’t sound like much now, and with over 40 years' worth of additional inflation, it would be $153 million, which would now be a lot for a Western without much special effects, but not for a science-fiction blockbuster.

But it only made back $3.5 million, and bankrupted United Artists, one of the great Hollywood studios. MGM bought them out. It became the standard by which all movie bombs are measured.

When Kevin Costner made Dances With Wolves 10 years later, and costs ran high, people joked that it would be Kevin's Gate. Instead, it was a hit, and won the Oscar for Best Picture. They said the same thing about his film Waterworld, but that made a profit, too. They said the same thing about The Postman. and they were finally right. I guess, having made 2 baseball-themed movies (and, since, 2 more), Costner should have known: Three strikes, and you're out.

*

November 19, 1980 was a Wednesday. Baseball was out of season. Football was in midweek. There were 3 games in the NBA:

* The New Jersey Nets lost to the San Antonio Spurs, 112-104 at the Rutgers Athletic Center (now the Jersey Mike's Arena) in Piscataway, New Jersey. George Gervin scored 38 points.

* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Golden State Warriors, 110-101 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia.

* And the Boston Celtics beat the Indiana Pacers, 103-91 at the Market Square Arena in Indianapolis.

And there were 7 games in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers lost to the Philadelphia Flyers, 5-1 at Madison Square Garden.

* The Quebec Nordiques beat the Detroit Red Wings, 2-1 at the Colisée de Québec

* In an "Original Six" matchup, the Montreal Canadiens beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 5-4 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

* The Minnesota North Stars beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 3-2 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh.

* The Chicago Black Hawks beat the Buffalo Sabres, 5-2 at the Chicago Stadium.

* The Vancouver Canucks beat the Edmonton Oilers, 6-4 at the Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton.

* The Los Angeles Kings beat the Winnipeg Jets, 7-2 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.

* And the Boston Bruins, the St. Louis Blues, the New York Islanders, the Calgary Flames, the Colorado Rockies, the Washington Capitals and the Hartford Whalers were not scheduled.

October 24, 1960: John Wayne's "Alamo" Lie

October 24, 1960: The film The Alamo premieres. John Wayne had wanted to make a film about the March 6, 1836 siege of the former Spanish mission in San Antonio for 15 years. He plays Davy Crockett, and, since Crockett died at the Alamo, this is one of the few films in which a character played by John Wayne dies. His son Patrick Wayne plays an officer who survives, because he's sent out to get reinforcements. His daughter Aissa Wayne also appears.

Richard Widmark plays Jim Bowie. Laurence Harvey plays William Travis. Doo-wop singer Frankie Avalon plays Smitty, a young soldier who is an aide to Crockett. Denver Pyle, later known as Uncle Jesse on The Dukes of Hazzard, plays Thimblerig the Gambler. Richard Boone, then playing Paladin on Have Gun -- Will Travel, plays Sam Houston, who gets revenge at San Jacinto on April 21, 1836.

Ruben Padilla plays Generalissimo Antonio Miguel Lopez de Santa Anna, defending Mexico from the Texans.

"Remember the Alamo!" the Texans said in 1836. Modern Texans still say it today. But they don't remember what really happened. What are the 2 things present-day Texans hate the most? Illegal immigrants and other criminals. The Texans at the Alamo were both of those things: What is now the City of San Antonio was then part of Mexico, and they were there without permission; and they were slaveholders, and slavery had been abolished in Mexico in 1829 -- officially. Clearly, in practice, the country had not been able to fully do so.

In other words, at the Alamo, the good guys won. But the Texans yelled, "Remember the Alamo!" at San Jacinto 46 days later, won that, and declared independence. Then, in 1844, when it looked like Mexico was going to take them back, they called their Uncle Sam for help. Cowards.

And then, to thank America for saving their asses, they seceded in 1861, because they decided that having slaves was more important than accepting that all men are created equal.

And then, nearly a century later, John Wayne made a movie about the Alamo, and, of course, any side that The Duke is on must be the heroic one, right? Wrong: The men "defending the Alamo" were no heroes. And John Wayne was no hero.

*

October 24, 1960 was a Monday. Actor BD Wong and golfer Ian Baker-Finch were born.

Baseball season was over. Football was in midweek: There would be no Monday Night Football for another 10 years. And there were no games scheduled in the NHL. There was 1 game in the NBA: The New York Knicks beat the Los Angeles Lakers, newly moved from Minneapolis, 111-101 at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena.

October 19, 1990: "Dances With Wolves" Premieres

October 19, 1990: Dances With Wolves premieres, starring and directed by Kevin Costner, who wanted to make what's known as a "revisionist Western," taking the side of the Native Americans.

A decade earlier, another revisionist Western, Heaven's Gate, saw its costs run out of control, nearly put United Artists out of business, and became the standard by which all subsequent box office flops have been measured. When the price tag for Dances With Wolves grew, people began joking that it was Kevin's Gate.

But it not only made money, it was nominated for 12 Academy Awards. It won 7. Costner won for Best Picture and Best Director, but not for Best Actor. Graham Greene (the Native American actor, not the British novelist born Henry Graham Greene) was nominated for Best Supporting Actor, and Mary McDonnell was nominated for Best Supporting Actress.

In 1995, having had this success, and those of the baseball-themed films Bull Durham and Field of Dreams, Costner began to think he was commercially bulletproof, and made Waterworld. It became the 1st film ever to cost $200 million, and the Kevin's Gate jokes started again. But Waterworld made money, too.

So he really pushed the envelope: His next project was The Postman, based on a novel that was half-Western, half-post-apocalyptic story, set in 2013 Oregon. Released on Christmas Day 1997, this one did flop. Costner has made more movies, but he's never again been the big star that he was.

*

October 19, 1990 was a Friday. Actress Ciara Renée was born.

Game 3 of the World Series was played at the Oakland Coliseum, and the Cincinnati Reds beat the Oakland Athletics, 8-3. Tom Browning outpitched Mike Moore, and Chris Sabo hit 2 home runs. Harold Baines and Rickey Henderson hit home runs for the A's, and former Yankee Willie Randolph went 3-for-4, but Mark McGwire only went 1-for-4, with a single, and Jose Canseco went 0-for-4. The Reds completed the surprising sweep the next night.

The NBA season began 14 days later. There were 6 games played in the NHL:

* The New Jersey Devils beat their arch-rivals, the New York Rangers, 3-2 at the Brendan Byrne Arena at the Meadowlands.

* The New York Islanders lost to the Washington Capitals, 4-3 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland.

* The Buffalo Sabres and the Pittsburgh Penguins played to a tie, 4-4 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditoirium.

* The Winnipeg Jets beat the Vancouver Canucks, 7-5 at the Winnipeg Arena.

* The Edmonton Oilers beat the Boston Bruins, 8-1 at the Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton. This was a rematch of the previous season's Stanley Cup Finals, with the same result.

* And the Los Angeles Kings beat the Hartford Whalers, 5-2 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.

And in New Jersey high school football, my Alma Mater, East Brunswick, in Middlesex County, playing at home at Jay Doyle Field, defeated the school now known as West Windsor-Plainsboro South, of Mercer County, 35-7. It was the 1st time we had ever held Homecoming at night.

October 12, 1960: "The Magnificent Seven" Premieres

Left to right: Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, Horst Buchholz,

Charles Bronson, Robert Vaughn, Brad Dexter, James Coburn

October 12, 1960: The Magnificent Seven premieres. It is a Western, directed by John Sturges, based on the Japanese film The Seven Samurai, directed by Akira Kurosawa.

The title characters are gunfighters, hired by a small Mexican town to protect them from a gang of bandits, whose leader is played not by a Latino actor, but by the Brooklyn-born Austrian Jew Eli Wallach. (Wallach would also play a Mexican villain opposite Clint Eastwood's "Man With No Name" in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly; and had already played a Japanese interpreter for the U.S. Army in Teahouse of the August Moon.)

The Seven are played by Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, James Coburn, Robert Vaughn, Brad Dexter and Horst Buchholz. I won't spoil the movie by telling you which ones survive.

Sturges had directed McQueen before, and wanted him again, but he was starring in the TV Western Wanted Dead or Alive. McQueen, like Paul Newman an avid auto racer, staged an accident, and claimed he needed time off to recover. He got it, and was free to appear. But he and Brynner, by far the 2 biggest stars at the time, did not get along.

Coburn had an affinity for Japanese culture, as he would show many years later as a guest star on The Muppet Show. He claimed to have seen Seven Samurai 15 times, and badly wanted to appear in this version. Vaughn was a friend, and put in a good word for Coburn.

Despite being the leader of the good guys, Brynner's Chris Adams wears all black, much like Zorro does, and like Richard Boone did as Paladin on the then-current TV hit Have Gun -- Will Travel. Brynner would pay homage to this role, playing a robot in Westworld, which spawned a sequel, Futureworld, and a TV series reboot.

Brynner would play Adams again in the 1966 sequel Return of the Seven, but would be replaced in the role by George Kennedy in Guns of the Magnificent Seven (1969) and by Lee Van Cleef in The Magnificent Seven Ride (1972).

McQueen died in 1980, from cancer, only 50 years old. Brynner also died from cancer, in 1985, at 65, shortly after filming an anti-smoking commercial, saying, "Now that I'm dead, I'm warning you: Don't smoke." Coburn and Dexter lived until 2002, Bronson and Buchholz until 2003, and Wallach until 2014. Vaughn, later to star as Agent Napoleon Solo on the TV series The Man From U.N.C.L.E., turned out to be the last survivor of the actors, living until 2016, and was the only one of the good guys to outlive Wallach.

A Magnificent Seven TV series aired on CBS from 1998 to 2000, with Michael Biehn playing the leader, there named Chris Larabee. Vaughn played the man who hired the Seven in the pilot. In the 2016 remake, Denzel Washington played the leader, Sam Chisolm.

In 1980, the film Battle Beyond the Stars took the concept to space, with George Peppard playing "Space Cowboy," and Vaughn playing a variation on his character in M7. The planet they're hired to protect is named Akira, in honor of Kurosawa. Peppard would also star as John "Hannibal" Smith in The A-Team, after M7 veteran Coburn turned the part down. That show was devised as a combination of The Magnificent Seven and The Dirty Dozen. (Bronson was the only actor to be one of the M7 and the D12.)

Toshiro Mifune was Japan's Steve McQueen, its Harrison Ford, and its Clint Eastwood, before any of those men had become famous in America. In 1954, he starred in Seven Samurai, so he was McQueen as Vin Tanner. In 1958, he starred in The Hidden Fortress, which George Lucas used as a basis for Star Wars, so he was Ford as Han Solo. In 1961, he starred in Yojimbo, which Sergio Leone turned into A Fistful of Dollars, so he was Eastwood as "The Man With No Name." Not that Kurosawa was above doing an homage: In 1957, he made Throne of Blood, set it in feudal-era Japan, and cast Mifune as his Macbeth.

Mifune was in some English-language films, including John Frankenheimer's 1966 Grand Prix, John Boorman's 1968 Hell in the Pacific, and Steven Spielberg's 1979 film 1941. He died in 1997.

*

October 12, 1960 was a Wednesday. It was the day of Game 6 of the World Series. Whitey Ford pitches a 7-hit shutout, and singles home the 1st run of a 12-0 New York Yankees rout of the Pittsburgh Pirates at Forbes Field. There will be a Game 7 tomorrow, also in Pittsburgh.

The Yankees had won their 3 games 16-3, 10-0 and 12-0. The Pirates wins had been by scores of 6-4, 3-2 and 5-2. It seems as though a high-scoring game favors the Yankees. And the Yankees will score 9 runs in Game 7, while the Pirates hadn't yet scored more than 5. Sounds like a Yankee title. Except...

Football was in midweek. The NBA season didn't begin until November 1. There was 1 NHL game that day: The Chicago Black Hawks beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 3-0 at the Chicago Stadium.

October 12, 1940: The Death of Tom Mix

October 12, 1940: Tom Mix is killed in a car crash, on what is now Arizona Route 79, near Florence. He was 60, and may have been drinking. He also had money troubles, due to the drinking, gambling and 4 ex-wives. He was married for a 5th time at the time of his death. He had 2 daughters.

Thomas Hezikiah Mix was born January 6, 1880 in Mix Run, Pennsylvania, and grew up in nearby DuBois. DuBois was a company town, the company was lumber, and Mix's father, Edwin, was a stable master for the lumber company. Edwin taught Tom to ride and love horses.

He became an expert rider and an expert marksman, and by 1909, he was appearing in silent films, all Westerns, also featuring his steed, Tony the Wonder Horse. By the 1920s, he was making $7,500 a week. Often called the original cowboy star, and "The King of the Cowboys" at a time when Roy Rogers, Gene Autry and John Wayne were just kids, he made 291 films, and all but the last 9 were silent.

In 1929, he was a pallbearer at the funeral of his friend, Wild West legend Wyatt Earp, who served as a consultant on Western films. In 1988, the film Sunset starred Bruce Willis as Mix and James Garner as Earp. In 1935, Governor James Allred of Texas named Mix and honorary Texas Ranger.

But he was getting too old to do action movies. Plenty of "action heroes" today have lasted longer, but they tend not to drink as much as Mix did. He went back to performing in circuses, as he had 30 years earlier.

On October 12, 1940, he was driving from Tucson, intending to reach Los Angeles, when he swerved to avoid road construction, and crashed. But that's not what killed him: He had a large suitcase in the packing shelf in the back seat, unsecured, and it rushed forward, hit him in the back of the head, and broke his neck.

Mix was a big influence on actors John Wayne and Ronald Reagan. My grandmother, no fan of either Wayne or Reagan, mentioned him as a hero of hers, many times: "Tom Mix and his Wonder Horse Tony!"

*

October 12, 1940 was a Saturday. The World Series had ended 4 days earlier, with the Cincinnati Reds beating the Detroit Tigers in 7 games. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. The NHL season didn't start for another 3 weeks. But these notable college football games were played:

* Stanford beat nearby Santa Clara, 7-6 at Stanford Stadium in the San Francisco suburb of Palo Alto, California. Stanford went on to win the Pacific Coast Conference title.

* Nebraska beat Indiana, 13-7 at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, Nebraska. Nebraska won the Big Six Conference title. Stanford beat them in the Rose Bowl.

Stanford ended up ranked Number 2, and was named National Champions by some sources.

* Michigan beat Harvard, 26-0 at Harvard Stadium in Boston. Michigan people, depending on their level of arrogance, like to either call their school "The Harvard of the West," or call Harvard "The Michigan of the East."

With running back Tommy Harmon going on to win the Heisman Trophy, Michigan lost only 1 game all season, to Minnesota, whose running back Bruce Smith would win the Heisman the next season. Minnesota, which was idle on October 12, won the Big Ten title, but did not accept any bowl bids, and was named National Champions by most sources. Because the Big Ten had a rule that only their Champions could go to a bowl game, Michigan ended up ranked Number 3, but not going to a bowl, and with the loss to Minnesota, ended up with nothing.

It would be the 1946 season before the Rose Bowl became a game between the champions of the Big Ten and the PCC/AAWU/Pac-8/Pac-10/Pac-12.

* Boston College beat Temple, 33-20 at Fenway Park in Boston. BC finished undefeated.

* Tennessee beat the University of Chattanooga, 53-0 at Shields-Watkins Field (now Neyland Stadium) in Knoxville, Tennessee. Chattanooga have been brought into the University of Tennessee system. They played in Division II from 1973 to 1976, Division I-A from 1977 to 1981, and since 1982 in Division I-AA/FCS.

Tennessee finished undefeated, and won the Southeastern Conference title, and went to the Sugar Bowl, where they lost to BC, who claim a National Championship for the season, even though no poll, major or minor, listed them as such, despite their undefeated finish.

* Mississippi State and Auburn played to a tie, 7-7 at Legion Field in Birmingham, Alabama. This would be the only blemish on MSU's record, though it cost them the Southeastern Conference title.

* Georgetown beat Waynesburg University, 26-0 at Griffith Stadium in Washington. Georgetown were invited to the Orange Bowl, where they lost to Mississippi State.

Georgetown dropped football in 1951, restored it at the NCAA Division III level in 1970, and came back to Division I-AA (now Football Championship Subdivision, or FCS) in 1993. Waynesburg, in the Pennsylvania town of the same name, now plays in Division III.

* Texas A&M beat UCLA, 7-0 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. A&M won the Southwest Conference title.

* Rivalry: Virginia beat Maryland, 19-6 at the original Byrd Stadium in the Washington suburb of College Park, Maryland.

* Rivalry: Texas beat Oklahoma, 19-16 at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas.

* Among the service academies, Army lost to Cornell, 45-0 at Michie Stadium in West Point, New York; and Navy beat Princeton, 12-6 at Palmer Stadium in Princeton, New Jersey.

* Among New York City teams, Fordham beat Tulane, 20-7 at the Polo Grounds; Columbia beat Dartmouth, 20-6 at Memorial Field in Hanover, New Hampshire; New York University (NYU) lost to Syracuse, 47-13 at Yankee Stadium; the night before, Manhattan College beat Boston University, 20-6 at the Polo Grounds, which had just gotten lights the preceding May; and City College of New York (CCNY) had the week off.

Fordham went to the Cotton Bowl, where they lost to Texas A&M. That remains the last bowl game for any team based on New York City. Today, no team in the City is in the Bowl Championship Subdivision (BCS, formerly known as Division I-A).

* Notre Dame beat Georgia Tech, 26-20 at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Indiana.

* And Rutgers beat Lehigh, 34-0 at Taylor Stadium in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

September 23, 1969: "Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid" Premieres

September 23, 1969: Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid premieres, with Paul Newman as Robert Leroy Parker, a.k.a. Butch Cassidy; Robert Redford as Harry Alonzo Longabaugh, a.k.a. the Sundance Kid; and Katharine Ross as Etta Place, a.k.a. "The Sundance Woman." It was one of the earliest "revisionist Westerns," telling the story of the Wild West more like how it actually was, than the traditional, far simpler story.

Scriptwriter William Goldman and director George Roy Hill knew that the 1960s were changing things, so they made a Western for the times. They had the vision. Or, as Goldman had Newman/Cassidy say, "I got vision, and the rest of the world wears bifocals."

The real Butch and Sundance were active in the Rocky Mountains, especially Utah and Wyoming, in the 1890s. Targeted by local sheriffs and -- "Who are those guys?" As it turned out, the Pinkerton detective agency -- in 1901, they fled to South America, and became farmers in Bolivia. In 1908, when that stopped panning out, they went back to robbery.

The story that we've all heard is that, on November 3, 1908, the Bolivian Army cornered them in a piazza, and beat them in a shootout. It's been said that Butch was an expert robber, but never killed anyone in his life, until the end, when he used his last 2 bullets on an already-wounded Sundance, and then on himself.

But it's also been said that the army caught someone else, and that Butch and Sundance survived, got away, and went back to America, and lived a while longer. Director George Roy Hill finished the last scene with them frozen and still fighting, with the sound of gunfire all around them, giving the illusion that, maybe, just maybe, they pulled off the million-to-one escape.

Lessons to be learned from this movie:

1. Nothing lasts forever, not even the Wild West.
2. Use enough dynamite, no more.
3. There are no rules in a knife fight.
4. The man who is the best at something might not be the best man at it for you.

5. Don't worry about being unable to swim when the fall will probably kill you.

6. Life, especially a life of crime, is harder in a foreign country, especially when the dominant language is not your first language.

7. If you got a woman who looks like a young Katharine Ross, and she says we should go home because it's too dangerous to stay where we are, go home.

8. Western movies rarely tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

*

September 23, 1969 was a Tuesday. These Major League Baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Boston Red Sox, 8-3 at Fenway Park in Boston. Carl Yastrzemski hit 2 home runs, and American League Comeback Player of the Year Tony Conigliaro hit 1, knocking Mel Stottlemyre out of the box after 4 innings.

* The New York Mets beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 3-2 at Shea Stadium. Bud Harrelson singled home the winning run against Bob Gibson in the bottom of the 11th inning. Tug McGraw was the winning pitcher, with 4 innings of relief of Jim McAndrew. Lou Brock went 2-for-6 in defeat. The next night, the Mets beat the Cards, 6-0, and clinched the National League Eastern Division title.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 4-3 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Roberto Clemente went 1-for-3 with 2 walks. Willie Stargell went 0-for-5.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Baltimore Orioles, 3-1 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. The Orioles' only run came on a homer by Frank Robinson. Brooks Robinson went 1-for-3. But the O's, already having clinched the AL Eastern Division title, were doomed in this game by back-to-back bases-loaded walks of Ken Harrelson and Tony Horton by Tom Phoebus in the 3rd inning. Sam McDowell went the distance for the win.

* The Cincinnati Reds swept a doubleheader from the Los Angeles Dodgers, 6-3 and 5-2. Over the 2 games, Pete Rose went 6-for-10 with a home run and 2 RBIs, and Johnny Bench went 1-for-6 with a walk and 2 RBIs.

* The Montreal Expos beat the Chicago Cubs, 7-3 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Ernie Banks went 0-for-4.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Kansas City Royals, 6-2 at Kansas City Municipal Stadium. Harmon Killebrew went 1-for-3 with a walk. Rod Carew went 2-for-5.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the Houston Astros, 10-2 at the Astrodome in Houston. Hank Aaron went 2-for-5 with 2 RBIs.

* The San Diego Padres beat the San Francisco Giants, 5-4 at San Diego Stadium (later renamed Jack Murphy Stadium and Qualcomm Stadium). Willie Mays went 0-for-3 with a walk. The night before, he hit his 600th career home run against Mike Corkins of the Padres.

* The California Angels beat the Seattle Pilots, 5-4 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim). Following a home run by Don Mincher in the 4th inning, the Pilots took a 4-2 lead in the top of the 6th, but, if you read Ball Four by the since-traded Jim Bouton, you can probably guess what happened: The bullpen blew it in the bottom of the 6th.

* The Oakland Athletics swept a doubleheader from the Chicago White Sox at the Oakland Coliseum, 4-3 and 5-3. Reggie Jackson went 0-for-4 in the opener, but in the nightcap, he went 1-for-2 with 3 walks, his hit being his 47th home run of the season. In spite of his illustrious career, 47 would remain his career high.

* And the Detroit Tigers and the Washington Senators were rained out at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. It was made up as part of a doubleheader the next day. The Senators swept, 8-4 and 7-4. Jim Hannan outpitched Denny McLain, and then the Senators beat Mickey Lolich. Al Kaline did not play in the 1st game, and went 1-for-5 in the 2nd game.

September 14, 1957: "Have Gun -- Will Travel" Premieres

Despite this color promotional photo,

every episode of the series was in black & white.

September 14, 1957: Have Gun -- Will Travel premieres on CBS. TV viewers may have been expecting just another Western. Instead, it was unlike anything seen on TV before.

Richard Boone, 40 years old at the time the show began, plays a man known only as Paladin, a name derived from the 12 knights of the court of Charlemagne in France, circa AD 800. Hence, the knight chesspiece on his gun holster, and on his business card.

The wording on the card meant that he, with his gun, would travel to wherever his would-be hirer wanted. But it led a lot of people to believe that "Wire Paladin" was his full, if odd, name. In fact, in those pre-telephone days, "wire" meant "send a telegraph message to." His real name was never divulged on screen. A novelization of the episode "Genesis," which served as his origin story, gives his name as Clay (probably short for "Clayton") Alexander, but since this name was never used on the TV show, it remains speculation.

Most TV Westerns don't give exact dates, and are generally set between 1865, the end of the American Civil War, and 1900, a convenient date for "the closing of the American frontier." Yet 2 episodes -- oddly, airing within a few weeks of each other -- give dates of 1875 and 1879.

Paladin operates out of a luxury suite at the Carlton Hotel in San Francisco, then the biggest and most sophisticated city in the American West. He is a rough and tough man, a deadly gunslinger, and a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, and thus, almost certainly, a Union officer in the American Civil War.

But he is also a very sophisticated man, wearing the finest suits available at the time when he's not on the job, capable of quoting Scripture, Shakespeare, ancient Greeks or Romans, well-known poets, or just about anybody else he wants before carrying a job out. This may be the result of a privileged and highly educated upbringing in Boston, as he mentions having spent time there, but that doesn't make Boston definitively his hometown.

Despite this refinement, he is a man of his time. He treats Native Americans and Chinese better than his contemporaries, but he still calls the only other regular character on the show, the Carlton's head bellhop, played by Kam Tong, "Hey Boy." He will defend a woman's life and her honor, but in one episode, he absolutely opposes women gaining the right to vote, which did not happen until 1920.

When he is on the job, Paladin dresses all in black, going against the stereotype: In Westerns, wearing black, especially a black hat, tended to indicate a villain. Paladin is unquestionably the hero of the series.

While he also carries a knife and a derringer pistol, his main weapon was a .45 caliber, 7½-inch barrel, Colt Single Action Army pistol, which he had customized with rifling for greater accuracy. In the show's first episode, he tells a would-be opponent, "I’d like you to take a look at this gun. The balance is excellent. This trigger responds to a pressure of one ounce. This gun was hand-crafted to my specifications, and I rarely draw it unless I intend to use it." In a later episode, he tells a prospective customer, "This gun is not always necessary, but it is indispensable."

It's not always necessary because, more often than not, Paladin tried to talk people into doing the right thing -- or, at least, out of doing the wrong thing. And if he could shoot without killing, he would. He didn't always have the option. He also frequently upbraided the people who put his targets into their position. He charged $1,000 a job -- with inflation, about $2,550 by 1957, and about $26,600 in 2022 -- but, if he thought the cause was just, he might do one for free.

The 1st 2 seasons began with a shot of him from the side, from the waist down, the white chess knight on the black holster. Without otherwise moving, he would draw the gun, point it at the camera, say a line that would be heard later in the show, and then re-holster it. The pilot episode began with the line mentioned above: "I'd like you to take a look at this gun... " From the 3rd season onward, he would be shown from the right side in full silhouette, then draw his gun, turn and crouch, but not fire, and then re-holster. This may have inspired the "gunbarrel sequence" that opens every James Bond film.

Have Gun -- Will Travel lasted 6 seasons, until 1963, and stood out from the programming of the time, which, while never crude like TV shows from the 1980s onward, tended not to go out of their way to appeal to the viewer's intellect.

Of the show's 225 episodes, 24 of them were written by Gene Roddenberry, who appreciated the thought that went into the Paladin character. He later pitched Star Trek as "Wagon Train to the Stars," and Paladin, while he did frequently get angry, and occasionally get wistful, was also something of a ladies' man, and can be seen as being an inspiration for Roddenberry to create both Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock.

Richard Boone was typecast as a Western actor, and never seemed right in films set in the present day. From 1972 to 1974, he played a retired sheriff in the Jack Webb-produced Western Hec Ramsey. He died of throat cancer in 1981. Kam Tong died in 1969, age 63.

There have been announced attempts at a revival series: With John Travolta in 1997, Eminem in 2006, and playwright David Mamet as showrunner in 2012. All fell through.

There is a Carlton Hotel in operation in San Francisco today. Whether it's in the same location as it would have been in Paladin's time, I don't know.

*

September 14, 1957 was a Saturday. Baseball All-Star Tim Wallach was born on this day.

There were 4 college football games played that day, none of them involving what were then considered major teams. The NFL, NBA and NHL seasons were yet to begin. These baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Chicago White Sox, 5-2 at Yankee Stadium. Dick Donovan went the distance for the win. Tom Sturdivant held the South Siders to a 2-2 tie after 7 innings, but Bob Grim gave up a home run to Jim Rivera in the 8th. Mickey Mantle went 0-for-3 with a walk.

* The New York Giants lost to the St. Louis Cardinals, 6-1 at Busch Stadium (formerly Sportsman's Park) in St. Louis. Willie Mays hit a home run. Stan Musial did not play. The Giants had already announced their move to San Francisco for the next season.

* The Brooklyn Dodgers beat the Milwaukee Braves, 7-1 at Milwaukee County Stadium. Gil Hodges hit a home run in support of Carl Erskine. Hank Aaron went 1-for-4. The Dodgers had not yet announced their move to Los Angeles for the next season, but it was already publicly considered a fait accompli.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Cleveland Indians, 13-10 at Fenway Park in Boston. Ted Williams did not play for the Red Sox. Vic Wertz hit 2 home runs for the Indians.

* A doubleheader was split at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. The Baltimore Orioles won the opener, 3-1. Brooks Robinson went 1-for-2 with a walk and an RBI. The Detroit Tigers won the nightcap, 4-3. Robinson only appeared in this game as a defensive replacement. Over the 2 games, Tiger star Al Kaline, playing in his hometown, went 2-for 7 with a walk.

* The Washington Senators beat the Kansas City Athletics, 3-2 at Griffith Stadium in Washington. Roy Sievers led off the bottom of the 10th inning with a game-winning home run.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Cincinnati Redlegs, 5-0 at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. Robin Roberts allowed 8 hits, but kept the shutout. Frank Robinson went 1-for-3.

* A doubleheader was split at Wrigley Field in Chicago. The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Chicago Cubs in the 1st game, 3-1. Roberto Clemente didn't play, and Ernie Banks went 1-for-2 with 2 walks. The Cubs won the 2nd game, 7-3. Banks hit 3 home runs, while Clemente only pinch-hit, not reaching base.

September 12, 1964: "A Fistful of Dollars" Premieres

September 12, 1964: The film A Fistful of Dollars premieres, beginning the age of the "Spaghetti Western."

Italian film director Sergio Leone loved American Western films, and wanted to make some of his own. He chose to film in southern Spain, because the Tabernas desert was reminiscent of the American West before "the closing of the frontier" at the turn of the 20th Century.

As a result, Spanish journalist Alfonso Sánchez, noting Italy's love of pasta, coined the phrase "Spaghetti Western." In Japan, they were called "Macaroni Westerns"; in Eastern Europe, noting the location rather than the producer, "Paella Westerns"; in Germany, simply "Italo-Westerns." Leone's success set the pattern for other Italian directors to follow: A mostly Italian technical staff, a Spanish filming location, and actors from Italy, Spain, Germany, and, of course, America.

Leone is best known for the three movies that are known as either the Dollars Trilogy, the Blood Money Trilogy, or the Man With No Name Trilogy. Clint Eastwood, who had become famous in the late 1950s after playing supporting character Rowdy Yates in the Western TV series Rawhide, had caught Leone's attention.

The 1st film is Per un pugno di dollari: "For a Fistful of Dollars," or simply A Fistful of Dollars. In this film, Eastwood's character is called "Joe" by the character Piripero, and that's how he's listed in the credits. However, that may not be his real name. He plays what would now be called an anti-hero, playing two gangs off each other for his own gain.

The film was based on Yojimbo, a samurai film by Akiro Kurosawa, starring Toshiro Mifune. Kursoawa had also made The Seven Samurai, which was turned into the Western The Magnificent Seven; The Hidden Fortress, which would later inspire George Lucas in the making of Star Wars; and Rashomon, whose multiple points of view would inspire many American productions, especially in TV situation comedies, even though Rashomon was by no means a comedy, but a murder mystery.

A Fistful of Dollars was released in Italy on September 12, 1964; in West Germany on March 5, 1965; and in Spain on September 27, 1965. The 2nd film in the series, Per qualche dollaro in più (For a Few Dollars More), was released in Italy on December 30, 1965, and in Spain on August 17, 1966. In this one, Eastwood's character is called "Manco."

The 3rd film was titled Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo -- "The Good, the Ugly, the Bad," but its English title became The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. Eastwood, representing "The Good," is addressed as "Blondie." Lee Van Cleef represents "The Bad," a sadistic mercenary with the ironic nickname of "Angel Eyes." Eli Wallach, the Brooklyn-born Jewish actor who nonetheless played every ethnicity under the Sun, including the Mexican villain of The Magnificent Seven, represents "The Ugly": A Mexican bandit known as Tuco. The film was released in Italy on December 23, 1966.

By that point, none of the films had been released in America, because distributors feared being sued by Kurosawa. Finally, a deal was worked out, in which Kurosawa would get 15 percent of the American gross, and all 3 films were released in America in 1967: A Fistful of Dollars on January 18; For a Few Dollars More on May 10; and The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly on December 29. They were all smash hits, and made Eastwood a legend.

Sergio Leone made Once Upon a Time in the West in 1968, and a gangster film, Once Upon a Time in America, in 1984. He died in 1989, from a heart attack. He was only 60 years old. Eastwood went on to star in many more films, including Westerns, directing many of them himself, starring in some of them as variations on his "Man With No Name" character from the Dollars Trilogy.

In 2006, the BBC produced a police series titled Life On Mars, with Sam Tyler (Jon Simm), a detective from Manchester being thrown back to 1973, where he's still a cop, but in a world of lesser technology. His boss, the very old-school Gene Hunt (Philip Glenister), has a poster of The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly in his office. Sam asks him, "Which one are you?" Gene says, "All three." ABC made an American version in 2008, set in New York, and repeated the scene, with Jason O'Mara as Sam and Harvey Keitel as Gene.

Eastwood's proto-bulletproof vest was homaged in Back to the Future Part III in 1989. And a Wild West holodeck adventure gone wrong formed the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "A Fistful of Datas" in 1994.

In a 2012 episode of the YouTube series Epic Rap Battles of History, "Epic" Lloyd Ahlquist played Clint Eastwood, against YouTuber and visual artist Mike Diva as Bruce Lee.

*

September 12, 1964 was a Saturday. These baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees beat the Minnesota Twins, 4-3 at Yankee Stadium. Bobby Richardson singled home the winning run in the bottom of the 9th, to give Mel Stottlemyre a complete-game victory. Elston Howard hit a home run. Roger Maris went 1-for-4. Mickey Mantle did not play. Harmon Killebrew hit a home run for the Twins.

* The New York Mets lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers, 8-0 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Pete Richert pitched a 2-hit shutout. Frank Howard went 4-for-4 with 2 RBIs, although none of his hits, or any of the Dodgers' 13 hits, was a home run.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Kansas City Athletics, 1-0 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Jackie Brandt brought home the only run with a sacrifice fly in the 8th inning, as Frank Bertaina outpitched Bob Meyer. Brooks Robinson went 0-for-2 with a walk.

* The Los Angeles Angels beat the Boston Red Sox, 3-2 at Fenway Park in Boston. Lou Clinton hit a 2-run home run in the top of the 10th. The Red Sox got a bases-loaded walk in the bottom of the 10th, but couldn't find the tying run. Tony Conigliaro went 0-for-5. Carl Yastrzemski appeared only as a pinch-hitter, and drew a walk.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Chicago White Sox, 11-10 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Washington Senators, 6-5 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. The Tigers got home runs from Norm Cash in the 9th and Dick McAuliffe in the 10th to win it. Al Kaline went 2-for-4 with a walk.

* The Chicago Cubs beat their arch-rivals, the St. Louis Cardinals, 3-2 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Ernie Banks and Lou Brock each went 1-for-3 with a home run, a walk, and 2 RBIs.

* The Milwaukee Braves beat the Cincinnati Reds, 8-2 at Milwaukee County Stadium. Hank Aaron did not play. Joe Torre went 2-for-2 with 2 walks and an RBI. Frank Robinson went 0-for-3 and was hit with a pitch.

* The Houston Colt .45s beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 2-1 at Colt Stadium in Houston. Don Larsen was the winning pitcher for the Colts, who became the Astros the next season. For the Pirates, Roberto Clemente went 0-for-4, but Willie Stargell went 2-for-3 with a solo home run.

* And the San Francisco Giants beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 2-1 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Orlando Cepeda hit 2 home runs, and Willie Mays went 1-for-3 with a walk.

It was the opening weekend of the NFL season, and 1 game was played, before the rest of the games the next day: The football version of the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Dallas Cowboys, 16-6 at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas.

Two games were played that day in the American Football League. Playing their 1st game at their new home of Shea Stadium, the New York Jets beat the Denver Broncos, 30-6. And the San Diego Chargers beat the Houston Oilers, 27-21 at Balboa Stadium in San Diego.

There were 3 college football games played:

* UCLA beat the University of Pittsburgh, 17-12 at Pitt Stadium.

* Furman beat Mississippi College, 13-10 at Sirrine Stadium in Greenville, South Carolina.

* And the University of Houston beat Trinity University, 34-7 at Rice Stadium in Houston.

And in English soccer, Arsenal beat North-East team Sunderland, 3-1 at the Arsenal Stadium, a.k.a. Highbury, in North London.

July 24, 1952: "High Noon" Premieres

Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly

July 24, 1952: High Noon premieres. Despite a lot of trouble, it becomes one of the most beloved films of all time.

Carl Foreman was a screenwriter, and joined the Communist Party in 1938, leaving it in 1942. In 1951, at the height of the Korean War and during the Red Scare, he bought the rights to John W. Cunningham's Western-themed short story "The Tin Star," finding it similar to a screenplay he'd written, and didn't want to get sued.

That same year, he was called to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee, but he refused to name names. He was labeled an "uncooperative witness," which meant that, once his current project was done, he would be put on the blacklist. He sold his partnership in the production of High Noon to his partner, Stanley Kramer, and moved to Britain, knowing it would be easier to find work there and in Europe.

Fred Zinneman was appointed the director. John Wayne was offered the lead role, but he refused, his right-wing sensibilities leading him to believe that the story was an allegory against blacklisting. Years later, he told an interviewer, "I will never regret having helped run Foreman out of the country."

Kramer offered the role to Gregory Peck. He turned it down, not for political reasons, but because it was too similar to a recent role he played, The Gunfighter. He would call turning High Noon down the biggest mistake of his career. The role was was offered to Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift and Charlton Heston. They all turned it down. (Yes, Heston turned down the role of a man with a gun. No, it wasn't because of politics.)

Finally, the role of Will Kane was offered to Gary Cooper. Already a Hollywood legend, he had been a "friendly witness" before HUAC, but did not implicate anyone, and became an opponent of blacklisting. For the role of Will's bride, Amy Fowler, they got Grace Kelly, whom Kramer saw in an off-Broadway play.

It didn't seem to make much sense: Cooper was 50, and Kelly was just 21. Also, while it was not generally known to the public, one of the worst-kept secrets in Hollywood was that Cooper slept with most of his female co-stars. Kelly would gain the same bed-on-the-set reputation, although rumors of she and Cooper making sheet music remain unsubstantiated.

High Noon was also the film debut of Lee Van Cleef, although he had no lines, and he became identified with Westerns. Ian McDonald was cast as the villain, Frank Miller; Sheb Wooley, later to have a Number 1 hit with "The Purple People Eater" as Miller's brother and gang member Ben; Thomas Mitchell, best known as Uncle Billy in It's a Wonderful Life, as Mayor Jonas Henderson; Lloyd Bridges as Deputy Marshal Harvey Pell; a pre-M*A*S*H Harry Morgan as Sam Fuller; Lon Chaney Jr. as Kane's predecessor as Marshal, Martin Howe; and Mexican actress Katy Jurado in a key role as Helen Ramírez, who had been Miller's girlfriend, then Kane's, and is now Pell's, and was part of the reason Kane sent Miller to prison.

The story, which moves in real time, begins in 1898, in Hadleyville, New Mexico Territory, with the wedding of Marshal Will Kane to Amy Fowler, a Quaker and therefore a pacifist. For this reason, Will is giving up his role as Marshal, and they have signed a deal to run a store in a nearby town.

However, the town gets word that Miller has been released from prison, and will arrive on the train coming into Hadleyville at 12:00 noon. Miller's gang, made up of his brother Ben, Jack Colby and Jim Pierce, are already waiting for him at the station.

The Kane's plan was to leave town after the ceremony, and Amy is sure that now they have even more reason to do so. But Will knows that if he leaves town now, the town will be defenseless against the Miller Gang. Amy tells Will she is leaving on the noon train, with or without him.

But no one will back Will up. Acting Marshal Pell is angry that Will didn't nominate him as his successor, and says he'll only help if Will will now do so. Will refuses again, and Pell turns in his badge and pistol. Will tries to raise a posse, but some of the men are cowards. Some believe that a gunfight, however it turns out, will damage the town's reputation. Some actually support the Millers. The former Marshal is old, and too arthritic to properly fire a gun. The only ones ready to support Will are a man with one good eye and a 14-year-old kid.

The "gunfight on Main Street at high noon" has become a trope of Westerns on film and TV, but, in this case, the title High Noon refers to the time the train is supposed to arrive. In fact, it arrives one minute late. Frank Miller disembarks, and Amy Kane gets on.

The Miller Gang and Will face each other, four against one. They draw. The gunshots are heard at the station, and Amy jumps off the train, and runs back to town. Will kills Ben and Colby, but is wounded by Frank. Amy chooses her husband over her faith, and takes Pell's gun and kills Pierce. Frank grabs Amy, and uses her as a human shield to draw Will out to where he can shoot him. Amy claws Frank's face, and he pushes her to the ground. This gives Will the chance he needs to kill him.

Amy rushes into Will's arms. Only now do the townspeople rush to Will's side. He responds to their hypocrisy by removing his Marshal's star and throwing it in the dirt. He and Amy climb about their wagon and drive away.

The film was nominated for 7 Academy Awards, winning 4, including Cooper for Best Actor. Since he was working in Europe at the time, he asked Wayne to accept the Oscar on his behalf. Although Wayne's contempt for the film and refusal of its lead role were well known, he said, "I'm glad to see they're giving this to a man who is not only most deserving, but has conducted himself throughout the years in our business in a manner that we can all be proud of."

But later, Wayne told an interviewer that he considered High Noon "the most un-American thing I've ever seen in my whole life," and later teamed with director Howard Hawks to make Rio Bravo in response. Hawks explained, "I didn't think a good town marshal was going to run around town like a chicken with his head cut off asking everyone to help. And who saves him? His Quaker wife. That isn't my idea of a good Western."

In 1953, President Dwight D. Eisenhower, a known fan of Westerns, screened High Noon at the White House. President Ronald Reagan, himself a very conservative Republican and a former actor, who appeared in some Westerns, called it his favorite movie of all time. So did later Democratic Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.

In 1980, CBS aired High Noon, Part II: The Return of Will Kane. Lee Majors, better known for starring in The Six Million Dollar Man, played Will, with Katherine Cannon as Amy. Will finds the successor appointed to replace him has been corrupt, and, this time, the townspeople support him, and he wins. In 2000, Stanley Kramer's widow, Karen Sharpe Kramer, produced a remake of the original for TBS, with Tom Skerritt as Will and Susana Thompson as Amy.

Near the end of the 1988 film Die Hard, when Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman) thinks he's won, holding Holly McClane (Bonnie Bedelia) in much the same way that Frank Miller held Amy Kane, he tells John McClane (Bruce Willis), "Still the cowboy, Mr. McClane? Americans, all alike! Well, this time, John Wayne does not walk off into the sunset with Grace Kelly!" And McClane tells him, "That was Gary Cooper, asshole!" And the Kanes drove off into the sunset, not walking off. But John manages to save Holly and everyone else, anyway.

*

July 24, 1952 was a Thursday. There was another notable piece of film history on this day, although no one would know it for decades: Film director Gus Van Sant was born.

These baseball games were played on that day:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Cleveland Indians, 4-2 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Mike Garcia went the distance, outpitching Tom Morgan. Joe Tipton and Dale Mitchell hit home runs. For the Yankees, Yogi Berra hit a home run, but Mickey Mantle went 0-for-4.

* The New York Giants beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 9-5 at the Polo Grounds. Max Lanier went the distance for the Jints, who knocked Harry Brecheen out of the box in the 2nd inning, despite not having Willie Mays available due to the Korean War. Lanier was backed by home runs from Davey Williams, Sal Yvars, Dusty Rhodes and Bobby Thomson.

* A doubleheader was split at Ebbets Field. The Cincinnati Reds won the opener, 3-2, with Bubba Church outpitching Clem Labine. The Brooklyn Dodgers won the nightcap, 2-1, with Duke Snider hitting a home run in the bottom of the 11th inning, as Ben Wade went the distance. Over the 2 games, Jackie Robinson went 2-for-8 with a home run, a walk and an RBI.

* The Boston Braves beat the Chicago Cubs, 3-1 at Braves Field in Boston.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Washington Senators, 4-2 at Briggs Stadium in Detroit. (It became Tiger Stadium in 1961.)

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Boston Red Sox, 3-0 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Lou Kretlow pitched a 2-hit shutout. Ted Williams was serving in the Korean War, and was unavailable for the Red Sox.

* The St. Louis Browns beat the Philadelphia Athletics, 4-3 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis.

* And the Philadelphia Phillies were supposed to play the Pittsburgh Pirates at Shibe Park in Philadelphia, but the game was moved back 2 days, for a doubleheader on July 22. The Phillies swept, 14-4 and 8-1.

April 22, 1962: "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" premieres

April 22, 1962: The Western film The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance premieres, directed by John Ford. It stars Jimmy Stewart, John Wayne (their only appearance together), Vera Miles, and Lee Marvin as the eponymous desperado. Despite the title containing the most obvious spoiler since Death of a Salesman, it does not give the identity of the titular shooter away.

The song of the same title, sung by Gene Pitney, was composed after the fact by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, and was not a part of the film. Nevertheless, for the most part, the song tells the story:

When Liberty Valance rode to town.
the womenfolk would hide, they'd hide.
When Liberty Valance walked around
the men would step aside.

'Cause the point of a gun was the only law
that Liberty understood
When it came to shooting straight and fast
he was mighty good.

Stewart plays Ransom Stoddard, a young lawyer from the East, who arrives in a Western Territory, not named but definitely not yet a State, only to be immediately robbed and beaten by Valance and his gang. Wayne plays Tom Doniphon, who takes "Ranse" to the home of his girlfriend, Hallie (Miles), who treats his injuries.

From out of the East, a stranger came
a law book in his hand, a man
the kind of a man the West would need
to tame a troubled land.

'Cause the point of a gun was the only law
that Liberty understood.
When it came to shooting straight and fast
He was mighty good.

Many a man would face his gun
And many a man would fall.
The man who shot Liberty Valance
He shot Liberty Valance
He was the bravest of them all.

He would have to be. Ranse learns Valance frequently terrorizes the town of Shinbone and the surrounding country, since the local Marshal, Link Appleyard (Andy Devine), is too cowardly to stop him. Tom says Valance only understands force, but Ranse is determined to bring Valance to justice through the law.

Ranse establishes his law practice, and begins to romance Hallie. Tom makes it clear that Hallie is his bride-to-be. Valance bullies Ranse again, and Ranse begins practicing with a gun loaned to him by Dutton Peabody (Edmond O'Brien), the publisher of the town's newspaper.

Ranse and Peabody are elected the town's delegates to a convention to decide whether the Territory should apply for Statehood. Statehood would mean a federal government presence in town, enforcing federal law. That would be bad news for the cattle barons, who are used to getting their own way. So they hire Valance to try to stop Ranse and Peabody from voting for Statehood. Valance challenges Ranse to a gunfight. Tom offers to assist Ranse in leaving town, but Ranse stubbornly declines.

The love of a girl can make a man stay on
when he should go, stay on
just trying to build a peaceful life
where love is free to grow.

But the point of a gun was the only law
that Liberty understood.
When the final showdown came at last
a law book was no good

Alone and afraid, she prayed that he'd
return that fateful night, oh that night
when nothing she said could keep her man
from going out to fight.

From the moment a girl gets to be full grown
the very first thing she learns:
When two men go out to face each other
only one returns!

This is where the song differs from the film: Ranse didn't stay for the love of Hallie, but out of stubbornness. And although Hallie now wanted Ranse, not Tom, and was worried about the gunfight, the film did not depict her praying for Ranse, or discouraging him from dueling.

That night, Valance and his gang vandalize the newspaper office, and severely injure Peabody for reporting Valance's murder of a local farmer. Ranse arms himself and goes after Valance. But, even drunk, Valance easily shoots Ranse in the arm, causing him to drop his gun, then prepares to kill him. Ranse picks up his gun and shoots, and Valance falls dead.

Everyone heard two shots ring out!
One shot made Liberty fall!
The man who shot Liberty Valance
he shot Liberty Valance
he was the bravest of them all!

The man who shot Liberty Valance
he shot Liberty Valance
he was the bravest of them all!

Everyone who was watching and listening during the gunfight did hear two shots: The shot from Valance that wounded Ranse, and the shot that made Valance fall dead. Tom sees Hallie treat Ranse's wound, and knows that he's lost her.

At the Territorial Convention, Ranse is nominated for delegate to Congress, but withdraws after a representative of the cattle barons, still opposing Statehood, accuses him of building a career from murdering a man.

Tom arrives, and explains to Ranse that it was he who killed Valance: Knowing that Ranse could not win, Tom shot him with a rifle at the same time Ranse fired -- two shots at the same time, hence, "Everyone heard two shots ring out, one shot made Liberty fall," but, in fact, there were three shots, and only Tom knew, until he told Ranse. Tom encourages Ranse to accept the nomination for Hallie's sake, before quietly walking out of the Convention.

Time passes -- 25 years. Ransom and Hallie Stoddard return to Shinbone by train, for Tom Doniphon's funeral. Ransom had been elected Governor, and then U.S. Senator. A President had appointed him U.S. Ambassador to Great Britain. It is a Presidential election year, and the rumor is that Ranse will be nominated for Vice President.

He tells the newspaper's current editor, who had been preparing an anniversary story on the shooting, the truth. Not wanting to ruin Ranse's legacy, he burns his notes, and says, "When the legend becomes fact, print the legend." And yet, when the Stoddards board the train to begin their journey back to Washington, Ranse thanks the train conductor for the railroad's courtesies, and the conductor, none the wiser, answers, "Nothing's too good for the man who shot Liberty Valance!"

TL;DR: Jimmy Stewart got the girl, but John Wayne got the bad guy.

*

April 22, 1962 was a Sunday. Football was out of season. The NBA Championship had been won 4 days earlier, by the Boston Celtics, over the Los Angeles Lakers in 7 games.

On this day, the Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the defending champion Chicago Blackhawks 2-1, to take Game 6 of the Finals and win the Stanley Cup for the first time in 11 years. This started a string of 3 straight and 4 in 6 years under head coach-general manager George "Punch" Imlach, with future Hall-of-Famers like Frank Mahovlich, Tim Horton, George Armstrong and Johnny Bower.

When the string ends on May 2, 1967, the Leafs will have won 13 of the 49 Stanley Cups awarded in the NHL era -- 26 percent. At the time, they were only 1 behind their arch-rivals, the Montreal Canadiens, for the most. In the 60 years since, they have never even been to the Finals again, while the Canadiens have added 10 more.

And these baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees were swept in a doubleheader by the Cleveland Indians, 7-5 and 9-3 at Yankee Stadium. In the opener, Yogi Berra and Tom Tresh hit home runs, but Bill Stafford didn't get out of the 3rd inning.

In the nightcap, the game was tied 3-3 after 6, but the Tribe scored 2 runs in the 7th and 4 in the 9th to pull away. Jim Coates started, and Luis Arroyo, injured during the recent Spring Training, ended up as the losing pitcher, a mark of his decline from being the game's best relief pitcher the previous season. Over the 2 games, Mickey Mantle went 1-for-5 with 3 walks.

* The New York Mets lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates, 4-3 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. The Mets were now 0-9 in their history, and the Pirates were 10-0, so the Mets were 9 1/2 games out of 1st place even though they'd played only 9 games. In this game, Jim Hickman got 3 hits, and Gil Hodges 2, the rest of the team combined, only 2. Roberto Clemente went 3-for-4. The next day, the Mets got their 1st regular-season win, beating the Pirates, 9-1.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Boston Red Sox, 8-6 at Fenway Park in Boston. Norm Cash hit 2 home runs. Al Kaline went 2-for-5 with an RBI. Carl Yastrzemski went 1-for-5 with an RBI. Jim Pagliaroni and Gary Geiger hit home runs for the Red Sox, and both would end up on the 1969 Seattle Pilots, written about by pitcher Jim Bouton in what became his book Ball Four. (And they both homered in the same game? Pagliaroni, who hit only 90 runs in his career? Ang Geiger, who hit 77? Yeah, surrre! Maybe their greenies kicked in.)

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Washington Senators, 8-3 at District of Columbia Stadium (later Robert F. Kennedy Stadium) in Washington. Brooks Robinson, Jim Gentile, Gus Triandos and Jackie Brandt all homered for the O's.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the San Francisco Giants, 6-4 at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. Frank Robinson went 0-for-4, but the Reds got home runs from Vada Pinson, Johnny Edwards and Wally Post. Willie Mays went 1-for-4 with an RBI.

* The Kansas City Athletics swept the Chicago White Sox, 7-1 and 7-5 at Comiskey Park in Chicago.

* The Milwaukee Braves beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 6-3 at Milwaukee County Stadium. Hank Aaron was injured in the 1st inning, and was replaced by his brother, Tommie Aaron. Eddie Mathews went 0-for-1, but drew 4 walks. Duke Snider went 1-for-4 with an RBI.

Hank played again the next day. The main reason he was able to go to hit a record 755 home runs was his remarkable durability and availability: Whatever aches and pains he may have had, from 1955 to 1970, he never played in fewer than 145 games, and only twice in fewer than 150.

* The Chicago Cubs swept a doubleheader from their arch-rivals, the St. Louis Cardinals, 11-5 and 5-1 at Busch Stadium (formerly Sportsman's Park) in St. Louis. In the 1st game, Ernie Banks went 2-for-5 with a home run and 3 RBIs, while Stan Musial went 1-for-4. Banks went 0-for-4 in the 2nd game, while Musial appeared only as a pinch-hitter, and did not reach base.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Houston Colt .45s, 4-3 at Colt Stadium in Houston. The Colts became the Houston Astros in 1965.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Los Angeles Angels, 5-0 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, where the Angels groundshared with the Dodgers until their stadium could be built in nearby Anaheim. Jim Kaat pitched a 4-hit shutout, with 10 strikeouts and no walks. Harmon Killebrew hit a home run.