WYATT IN A MOVIE?

MAYBE OR MAYBE NOT

- BY BOB BOZE BELL

Earlier this summer I was contacted by a True West reader named Dean Shier who told me he just may have found an image of Wyatt Earp on film.

In my 1993 book, The Illustrated Life & Times of Wyatt Earp, I covered the tidbit that came from the Hollywood director Allan Dwan about his memory that the real Wyatt Earp was an extra on his 1916 silent film The Half-Breed starring Douglas Fairbanks. I covered all this in my book, but at the time I had not seen the film and relied on a friend, Jeff Morey, who had seen it. It was Jeff's astute opinion that the only person in the film that Dwan may have been referring to was a guy who more resembles Texas John Slaughter who was, like Earp, also a lawman in Cochise County. Perhaps Dwan confused the two men?

Dean told me he easily found the film on YouTube. It has been restored with lost footage and everything. So, with much enthusiasm, I did the same thing—and so can you!