The History Files

We spent two episodes talking about the origins of the American cowboy, the golden age of the cattle drive, and some of the heroes of the old west. This week – in part three – we talk about the cowboy’s migration from the range to the silver screen and further developments of cowboy culture.

Show notes and links:

* The Crown (TV series)

* Firearms of the American West at SteamCon II (2010) (Bad Cat Productions at youtu.be)

* Buffalo Bill

* Miller Brothers 101 Ranch

* Bill Pickett

* Tom Mix

* William S. Hart

* Packing Iron: Gunleather of the Frontier West – Richard C. Rattenbury, Janet Begley, Norm Flayderman

* This week’s special music: A Cocky Cowboy, Cliff Ferre with the Cafe Society Quintet (archive.org)

Thanksgiving, American style. What’s this holiday all about? Who were those “Pilgrims” and why were they so keen to get to North America? And what about Squanto? Find out in this week’s exciting episode of The History Files!

Show notes and links:

* The History Files #77: Cowboys Pt. 2 (csicon.fm)

* Firearms of the American West at SteamCon II (2010) (youtu.be)

* Squanto

* Martin Frobisher

* John Cabot

In part two of our short series on the cowboy, we dive into the peak years of the big cattle drives, the crystallization of American cowboy accoutrements, and take a look at some of the noteworthy personalities that made names for themselves in and around the cattle towns of the second half of the nineteenth century.

Show notes and links:

* The History Files #76: Cowboys Pt. 1 (csicon.fm)

* Bad Cat Productions (youtube.com)

* Charlie Siringo (author of “A Texas Cowboy”)

* “Arizona Cowboys”, Dane Coolidge (amazon.com)

* “Bear River” Thomas J.  Smith

* John Wesley Hardin

* Elmer Keith

* Monte Walsh (1970 film)

* Bad Cat Store at Zazzle (zazzle.com)

* Archive.org – today’s special music, “Get Along Little Doggies” performed by the Cartwright Brothers (1927)

Saddle up and stow your bedroll, it’s time to hit the dusty trail as we take a look at the history of the American cowboy. This week, in part one, we start in the early 19th century in the American southwest with Mexican Vaqueros, and end up mid-century in Abilene, Kansas and the era of the cattle drive.

Show notes and links:

* The History Files #75: Election Shenanigans (csicon.fm)

* Bad Cat Productions – head over and subscribe! (youtube.com)

* “Ranch life and the hunting-trail”, Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919 (archive.org) Complete text.

* The Cowboys, William H. Forbis & Time-Life Books.  (amazon.com)

* Two Years Before the Mast, Richard Henry Dana, Jr.

* Joseph McCoy

* Bad Cat Store at Zazzle (zazzle.com)

* “The Cowboy’s Lament”, performed by Ken Maynard (1930)  This Week’s special music.

It is said that truth is stranger than fiction. When it comes to presidential elections, this is definitely the case. This week we take a look at elections shenanigans over the past couple hundred years and answer questions like “What’s Tammany Hall?”, “What American president served the longest?”, and find out who said “Vote early, vote often.”

Show notes and links:

* Westworld (TV Series 2016– ) (imdb.com)

* Amelia Earhart May Have Died a Castaway on Uninhabited Island (nbcnews.com)

* Stars and Stripes – USA Month on British Pathé (youtube.com)

* Corrupt Bargain (wikipedia.org)

* Posse Comitatus Act

* Tammany Hall

* Vote early and vote often

* Bad Cat Productions’s YouTube channel

* Bad Cat Store at Zazzle (zazzle.com)

* TMS 30 Second Film Festival! (frogpants.com)

As Halloween approaches, our thoughts turn to darker topics. This week we take a look at the history of witch hunts, which, it seems, were not always just about witches. Old World and New World, it seems folks just can’t suffer a witch and all that.

Show notes and links:

* The Lady’s Not for Burning (wikipedia.org)

* The Lady’s Not For Burning (1950) – John Gielgud, Pamela Brown, Richard Burton (youtube.com)

* The Crucible

* 1 Samuel 28:6 (NKJV) – Saul and the witch of EnDor

* The Malleus Maleficarum (malleusmaleficarum.org)

* DBad Cat Store at Zazzle (zazzle.com)

* The History Files (@history_files) (twitter.com)

It’s dystopic, it’s cyber, it’s a thriller… and it’s a Western! Well, sort of. It’s the new (2016) HBO big-budget series Westworld, and we’re here to talk about it after seeing the first two episodes.

Show notes and links:

* Westworld (1973) Written and dir. by Michael Crichton

* Westworld (2016)

* Ed Harris’ LeMat Conversion Revolver in HBO’s WestWorld (Forgotten Weapons)

* Bad Cat Store at Zazzle (zazzle.com)

The exploration of the New World, what we now call North America, is a long and many-faceted story. If Columbus wasn’t the first from the Old World to set foot in the Americas, then who was? The Norse? The Chinese? And if Drake’s Bay isn’t on Point Reyes, California… then where is it? We might not have the answers, but we certainly have some questions.

Show notes and links:

* Roman Bullets Tell Story of 1,800-Year-Old Attack on Scottish Fort (livescience.com)

* BRASS – The Steampunk Radio Adventure (battlegroundproductions.org)

* Christopher Columbus

* Norse colonization of the Americas (wikipedia.org)

* Evidence of the Chinese Fleets visiting California | 1421 | 1434 (gavinmenzies.net)

* Was Columbus Jewish? – Chuck Missler (khouse.org)

* New Albion

* The Secret Voyage of Sir Francis Drake: 1577-1580 – Samuel Bawlf

* Northwest Passage

* Bad Cat Store at Zazzle

Grab your shooting irons, saddle up, and ride out with The Magnificent Seven. This week we give our opinions of this dusty, shooty Western in theaters now in Fall of 2016. Spoiler: we liked it.

Show notes and links:

* Ancient Roman coins unearthed from castle ruins in Okinawa (japantimes.co.jp)

* Surely Columbus Didn’t “Discover” America.. Roman Sword Found on Oak Island May Rewrite History (themindunleashed.com)

* BRASS – BATTLEGROUND PRODUCTIONS (battlegroundproductions.org)

* The Magnificent Seven (1960)

* Elmer Bernstein

* The Magnificent Seven (2016)

* Bass Reeves

* Jesse Chisholm

* Bad Cat Shop at Zazzle (zazzle.com)

What’s almost as interesting as actual history? Why, making historical movies, that’s what. Today we get into a bit of Gordon’s background working on various film and television projects over the years, and finally answer the age-old question, “What’s more dangerous, water or horses?”

Show notes and links:

* History Buffs: Master and Commander (youtube.com)

* 2,000-Year-Old Human Remains Found on Famous Antikythera Shipwreck (ancient-origins.net)

* The Autobiography of Yakima Canutt  (amazon.com)

* BRASS: The Audio Series. Season 2 by John Longenbaugh (hatchfund.org)

* BRASS – BATTLEGROUND PRODUCTIONS (battlegroundproductions.org)

* Bad Cat Shop at Zazzle (zazzle.com)