From: john-dean@fraglineone.net   
      
   Dave in Toronto wrote:   
   > Bob Tiernan wrote:   
   >> Dave in Toronto wrote:   
   >>   
   >>> Bob Tiernan wrote:   
   >>   
   >>>> He fed John Ford a bullshit version of OK Corral,   
   >>>> which Ford then used in My Darling Clementine.   
   >>>> Earp was, I think, sick of talking about OK   
   >>>> Corral (which he said was just 30 seconds of   
   >>>> his life) and probably liked to screw with   
   >>>> people in his old age.   
   >>   
   >>   
   >>> I think he did with Stuart Lake when Lake was   
   >>> researching his *biography* "Frontier Marshall"   
   >>   
   >>   
   >> I've not read that version.  Anyway, another   
   >> poster said in response to all of this that   
   >> after Ford heard the story first hand he   
   >> "went ahead and made MDC anyway", implying   
   >> that Ford's version of the gunfight had   
   >> little to do with what Earp told him.  But   
   >> my point was that Ford claimed he based it on   
   >> what Earp told him, so we have to go with that.   
   >>   
   >> I don't really mind MDC, but would like it more   
   >> if it used fictional names for the characters   
   >> and the town.   
   >>   
   >> Bob T   
   >   
   >   
   >   
   > As a movie I liked MDC as well, despite it's inaccuracies.  Some   
   > beautiful compositions and some great performances. There was an   
   > earlier version of the OK corral shootout where fictional names were   
   > used - "Law and Order" with Walter Huston playing the Wyatt Earp   
   > character -  It was made in 1932 so it creaks a bit with age but it's   
   > well worth a look if you can find it.   
   >   
   > Are there any accurate historical records of how long the shootout   
   > lasted? I've read that the actual time span was very short - about   
   > fifteen seconds or something.   
   >   
      
   General opinion seems to be thirty seconds, based on testimony from the   
   survivors and witnesses. No-one was holding a stopwatch so it's a matter of   
   taking folks' word for it, relating to the type of situation where   
   judgements of time are notoriously inaccurate. However, everyone is agreed   
   that it was pretty much a stand-up, face to face business without the   
   convoluted running around that several films have shown so there's no reason   
   that an affair involving a bunch of men popping off at each other from a   
   distance of 10 feet or so would have lasted very long.   
   There's a lot of detail here, including actual witness statements:   
   http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/earp/earphome.html   
   --   
   John Dean   
   Oxford   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)