Lost in the myths and fairy tales of the Old West & beyond.
“You’re a daisy if you do” and “You’re no daisy. No daisy at all.” are two Doc Holliday lines that people love to quote from the 1993 film, Tombstone. It’s lines like this that make Tombstone so memorable. Here’s a question for you though. Did you know that the real Doc Holliday used this phrase?
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If you’re planning to take a trip to Tombstone, AZ you should try to stay for a night. The experience of walking the empty streets late at night is not to be missed. Make sure to wear boots so that you can hear the thud of your heels on the boardwalk. Be sure to walk Allen…
Read moreOn Tuesday, October 26, 1881, one of the most famous gunfights in western history occurred, The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. We’ve all seen the films. Some of the fight scenes are epicly long as in Gunfight at the OK Corral and others are short and more historically accurate, as in the 1994 film Wyatt…
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Back in 2003, I was lucky enough to take a trip out to Tombstone to visit some of Doc Holliday and Wyatt Earp’s old haunts. It was something that I’d dreamed of doing since I first watched Tombstone and Wyatt Earp back in 1994. I’ve loved watching Westerns since I was small and I’ve always…
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Tombstone, Arizona is one of the most famous Western towns in America. Just the name brings to mind dusty trails through the desert, saguaro and tumbleweed. You might imagine Tombstone back in the 1880s as being empty, a wide street with one saloon. Bat wing doors swing open and you find yourself in a room…
Read moreWriting a novel based on real history and real people is difficult. The problem with history books is they can be a bit dry. I wanted to make my characters human and really breathe some life into them. My solution was music. There’s a song for just about every human emotion out there. Someone has…
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Long before The Doc Holliday Series came into existence, I ran a Tombstone fansite called “Some of the Fellas From Tombstone.” In 2000, I interviewed Peter Sherayko who portrayed cowboy Texas Jack Vermillion in Tombstone. He worked as technical advisor for the film and is the head of The Buckaroos, a group of specialised performers…
Read moreI found this story and I had to share. Apparently Bob Dylan is a huge fan of the movie Tombstone, so much so that he asked Val Kilmer to say some of the lines during a meeting they had. Kilmer wouldn’t quote the film in front of Dylan no matter how much Dylan prodded him….
Read moreOne of the main reasons that I wrote A Gentleman in Hell is because I am obsessed with Doc as a character. It’s hard not to like Val Kilmer’s portrayal of Doc in Tombstone. He’s educated, witty, clever, loyal, a slick dresser, a good pianist, fast with a gun, and can ride a horse while hocking up half a lung. Not bad considering! To top it all, he gets all the best lines in the film. Then there’s Quaid’s Doc, a bit darker and more world-weary than Kilmer’s Doc. He’s more of a drunk, has a mean temper and rather strangely an extremely filthy handkerchief. He’s a grinning skull and a fatalist.
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