LEGENDS RETURN TO THE AMERICAN WESTERN
Armie Hammer
There are many institutions which one could argue to be uniquely American--the Constitution, jazz, blues, and baseball. Yet all are derivative and have roots in other cultures of the distant past. However, the American Western stands alone as uniquely American as, apple pie.
An entire of generation of readers will relish a walk down memory lane in this most-cherished of TV genres, as Rawhide and Deadwood producer A.C. Lyles and Western-genre expert, actor Bruce Boxleitner (How the West Was Won) punctuate this latest release from Event Bookazine with insightful commentary and one-of-a-kind memories.
Released to coincide with the release of Disney’s The Lone Ranger, starring Armie Hammer and Johnny Depp, an entirely new audience is ready for the re-awakening of interest in what was once, hands-down, the most popular and beloved of American story-telling traditions. Westerns represent an American ideal, and a reflection of their times.
The first television Cowboy heroes (e.g., Hopalong Cassidy, Gene Autry, Roy Rogers) were untarnished heroes in white hats who always won and never missed a shot. Eventually they came to be represented as loners (Shane), followed by the outcast or misunderstood (Have Gun Will Travel), the wrongfully-disgraced (Branded) and finally outlaws themselves as anti-heroes (Alias Smith and Jones) in lieu of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
Among the 13 chapters, are: The Loners; The Long Ranger: Never Alone; Gunsmoke; The Gamblers; The James Bonds of the Old West; When the Classics Were Ready for Their Close-ups; and, Revisionist History. Also, an exclusive interview with TV’s Bruce Boxleitner, who was hand-picked by James Arness (Gunsmoke) to appear in the classic epic, 1962’s How The West Was Won.
The 128-page magazine –out July 9- focuses on the most celebrated westerns; referencing other shows of each era - including, The Rifleman, Maverick, The Wild, Wild West) - as well as competing shows, focusing on the great actors and the characters they played, along with beautiful pictures from the world’s foremost collector of TV Western photography, Doug Abbot, with production notes and behind the scene anecdotes.
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