The Big Trail, director Raoul Walsh’s epic covered wagon frontier Western, keeps getting better and better. Released in 1930, it was everything a movie was supposed to be and much more. Loaded with detail, action and drama, it was 70mm big, long before widescreen would become common in the 1950s. In fact, it was too big, and not many theaters were equipped to screen it. The movie was supposed to make a star out of a young actor named John Wayne, but that didn’t happen either. No matter.

July 2012
In This Issue:
More In This Issue
- Sieber Goes Down
- Why were post-mortem photos taken of Harvey Logan a.k.a. Kid Curry?
- How much did a good cowboy hat cost, and how long did it last?
- What were the pay scales for Old West lawmen?
- Did cowboy poets perform in the Old West?
- What happened to real-life saloon owner Al Swearengen, famously portrayed in HBO’s Deadwood?
- Cheyenne: The Complete Third Season
- Monogram Cowboy Collection, Vol. 2
- The Big Trail
- Welcome to Hard Times / Day of the Evil Gun
- Harley Brown
- 10 for 10: Coeur d’Alene, ID
- West’s Best Greasy Spoons
- The Corny Old West
- A Proud People
- Mr. Hornaday’s War
- If Walls Could Talk
- Lord of Lightning
- Sioux War Dispatches
- Here Lies Hugh Glass
- The Legacy of the Ranger Belt
- Up and Down in the Black Hills
- West From Salt Lake
- July 2012 Events
- Fireworks & Festivities
- The Peacemaker’s Clone
- Was Geronimo a Drunk?
- Honorable Warriors
- Gunfight at the Eco-Corral
- Warner Bros. Theater Screenings
- Hollywood’s Honest Abe
- Phil Collins