When the Legend Becomes Fact

Saturday matinees in the local theater featuring cowboy heroes were a favorite destination for the young crowd. 

With their fancy clothes and pearl handle pistols they cut a fine figure as they rode

in on a beautiful horse, sometimes singing and always tipping their hats to the ladies. They never

shot to kill but instead simply to knock the gun out of the bad guy’s hand.

Then times started to change. Clint Eastwood and more like him arrived wearing grungy, sweat-

soaked clothes while spewing a lingo laced with vulgar language. Now we can expect a shootout

to end with somebody dying in a pool of blood. Still entertaining? Yes, I will still watch one

occasionally, but they lost my wife.

To my notion only a few of these movies teach virtue or integrity beyond base entertainment.

One that I’ve mulled over for a long time is worthy of singling out: The Man Who Shot Liberty

Valance. Based on a short story by Dorothy M. Johnson, it features a strong cast with John

Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, Lee Marvin and the love interest of both Stewart and Wayne, Vera Miles.

In addition to the actors, the movie focuses on a reoccurring and real-life situation, even up to the

present time.

Jimmy Stewart, an easterner with a newly-earned law degree, rides a stagecoach on his way to

the little western town of Shinbone. Liberty Valance, played by Lee Marvin, and his gang accosts

them, robs them of their valuables, and severely beats and whips Stewart with a weighted quirt.

Marvin laughs and wants him to know the law means little here. Left beaten and bloody, his

situation is hopeless, that is, until John Wayne shows up to help him to a place where he can

convalesce.

As the plot develops, Stewart works to earn his way in the community but realizes he will need

to face up to the hostile, bullying Marvin one day. A jealous factor enters when Wayne sees his

lady friend Vera Miles warming up to Stewart who is teaching her to read and write. Even so,

Wayne gives him some instructions in using a six-shooter.

The day arrives where Stewart is goaded to take the challenge. In the evening hours he hears the

call and enters the dark street with pistol in hand to face Marvin. He wounds Stewart’s arm

which forces him to pick up his revolver from the dirt with his left hand. The end seems

inevitable when Stewart lifts his arm and aims his wavering gun at Marvin. Shots ring out, but

unexpectedly Marvin falls dead.

So there, Stewart shot Liberty Valance, the outlaw who’d been terrorizing Shinbone. With the

status of a hero, he enters politics and starts to win elections, finally attaining the pinnacle of the

U. S. Senate. But he holds a dark secret. Wayne had pulled him aside and told him that it was he

who shot Liberty Valance with his simultaneous rifle shot from a dark alley. Wayne dared not                                                                  admit to it because he could then be charged with murder, so Stewart was let to lay claim to

winning the gun duel against the bad man. He capitalized on the false legend through his

political career, but the secret kept eating at him.

On the death of John Wayne’s character, Stewart and his wife Vera Miles make the long trip to

Shinbone to pay their respects, something which raised a lot of eyebrows. Why would they do

such a thing for a bedraggled drunken cowboy? The truth finally came out when the newspaper

editor insisted on an interview. Stewart agreed: the public had a right to know.

The reporter present at the meeting furiously wrote the fact based story and gave it to his editor

who read it, then threw it in the wood stove. The movie version quotes him as saying “when the

legend becomes fact, print the legend.” It would not be his paper that tarnished the career of this

respected politician. The book and the movie are favorites of mine and I will return to them

again.

The theme of legends recurs again and again. For instance, who is the real Sakakawea and what

did she really do? Many stories have been told about her guiding Lewis and Clark on their trip

west. We’re taught she was important, probably much more than her actual actual contribution.

Not so long ago pioneers to this part of the country encountered dry ground. But not to worry

they were assured, because when you break the prairie you’ll find that “rain follows the plow.”

Then the blowing dirt storms of the 30s arrived. It was like the old Indian said, “Wrong side up.”

Some try to create their own legends and become legendary. How about the candidate for

governor who claims she was a shotgun wielding teenager who prevented her parents’ store

from being robbed. Legends arise when we least expect them.