The thought of the American frontier takes me back to my favorite John Wayne films. But the "real" American west wasn't like the one we see in movies, or television. The actual old west was a lot dirtier. Let's face it, the Cartwright boys on Bonanza stayed pretty clean and well groomed for a bunch of guys who were out riding a hurd of cattle on the open range. The best example of a true western look, in my opinion, was Festus on Gunsmoke.
The old west brings visions of shootouts, saloon fights, cattle rustlers, poker games, chuck wagons, Indian attacks, stagecoach holdups, etc. The true American west was a dirty, smelly and dangerous place to be in the 1800s and early 1900s. Follow the pictures on this blog if you don't believe me. Ah, what Jesse and Frank would have done if only they would have had deoderant and minty tasting tooth paiste in those days. Maybe they would have been law-abiding citizens...I doubt it!
