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Made in America: Exploring the Hollywood Western Red River (1948) – Notes on Cattle and Cowboys

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Made in America: Exploring the Hollywood Western Red River (1948) – Notes on Cattle and Cowboys MADE IN AMERICA: EXPLORING THE HOLLYWOOD WESTERN RED RIVER (1948) – NOTES ON CATTLE AND COWBOYS TRANSCRIPT Red River (1948): Notes on Cattle and Cowboys Hollywood has done its part to iconize the American cowboy. At least 27 Hollywood films have depicted a fictional account of the first cattle drive along the Chisholm Trail, including The Texans released in 1938 directed by James P. Hogan and starring Randolph Scott and Joan Bennett. Red River which was released in 1948 starred John Wayne and Montgomery Clift. Coincidentally, Walter Brennan costarred in both films depicting cattle drives on the Chisholm Trail. Historical background is very useful when watching Red River so I thought I should talk today about cattle drives in the American West. They were a major economic activity in the nineteenth century particularly between 1866 and 1886 when twenty million cattle were herded from Texas to railheads in Kansas for shipment to stock yards in Chicago and points East. It would take as long as two months for the cattle to travel from a home ranch to a railhead. As early as 1836 ranchers in Texas began to drive cattle along a beef trail to New Orleans. Then in the 1840s cattle drives expanded northward into Missouri, the towns of Sedalia, Baxter Springs, Springfield and St. Louis became principle markets. The Shawnee Trail also known as the Texas Road or Texas Trail played a significant role in cattle drives as early as the 1840s. But by 1853, as three thousand cattle were trailed through Western Missouri local farmers blocked their passage and forced the herds to turn back because the Texas longhorns were carrying ticks that carried Texas fever. Texas cattle were immune to this disease, but the ticks that they left behind infected the local cattle and killed them. By 1855, farmers in Western and central Missouri formed vigilance committees stopped some of the herds and killed any Texas cattle that entered their counties. And a law effective in December of that year was passed banning diseased cattle from being brought into or through the state. The cowboys then took their herds towards the railheads through the eastern edge of Kansas but there too they met opposition from farmers who induced their territorial legislatures to pass a protective law against cattle driving in 1859. MADE IN AMERICA: EXPLORING THE HOLLYWOOD WESTERN RED RIVER (1948) – NOTES ON CATTLE AND COWBOYS The Civil War began in 1860. And in the early years of the War, Texans drove cattle into confederate states for the use of the confederate army, but the War blocked access to eastern markets as the union armies interfered with the cattle drives. The cattle drives stopped, and as a result Texas cattle numbers grew significantly. In that period. And after the War cattle could not be sold for more than two dollars a head in Texas. By 1866, an estimated 200,000 to 260,000 surplus cattle in that state were available. Chicago needed cattle. In 1865, at the end of the Civil War, Philip Danforth Armour opened a meat packing plant in Chicago known as Armour and Co. and with the expansion of the meat packing industry demand for beef increased significantly. By 1866, cattle could be sold to northern markets for as much as $40 a head making it profitable for cattle particularly from Texas to be herded long distances to market. The problem was how to get the cattle to the railheads. And in 1867, the cattle shipping facility owned by Joseph G. McCoy opened in Abilene Kansas, and was built west of farm country and close to the railhead at Abilene so the town became a center of cattle shipping, loading over 36,000 head of cattle in its first year. The route from Texas to Abilene became known as the Chisolm Trail. It ran through present day Oklahoma which was then Indian Territory, but there were relatively few conflicts with Native Americans who usually allowed cattle herds to pass through for a role of ten cents a head. The Chisholm Trial ran through a number of rivers which ensured that the cattle had enough water in order to make the trip. Later, other trails forked off to different rail heads including those at Dodge City and Wichita, Kansas. By 1877 the largest of the cattle shipping boom town, Dodge City Kansas, shipped out half a million head of cattle. With six states enacting laws in the first half of 1867 against trailing cattle north, Texas cattlemen realized the need for a new trail that would skirt farm settlements and thus avoid the trouble over tick fever. The Chisholm Trail was the most important route for cattle drives. The typical drive comprised 1500 to 2500 head of cattle; the typical outfit consisted of a trial boss, perhaps the owner, from 10 to 15 hands or cowboys each of whom had a string of 5 to 10 horses, a horse wrangler who handled those horses and a cook who drove the chuck wagon. The wagon carried bedrolls, tents were MADE IN AMERICA: EXPLORING THE HOLLYWOOD WESTERN RED RIVER (1948) – NOTES ON CATTLE AND COWBOYS considered to be an excess luxury. The men drove and grazed the cattle most of the day, herding them by relays at night. Ten or twelve miles was considered a good day’s drive, as the cattle had to walk slowly in order not to lose weight and they had to thrive on the route. They ate grass, the men ate bread, meat, beans with bacon and coffee. Wages were about forty dollars a month and they were paid when the herds were sold. Cattle drives created cattle towns and the cattle towns flourished between 1866 and 1890 as railroads reached places that were suitable for gathering and shipping cattle. The first was Abilene Kansas. Other towns in Kansas included Witchita and Dodge City. In the 1880s, Dodge City boasted of being the Cowboy Capital of the World. The most famous cattle towns like Abilene were railheads where the herds were shipped to Chicago. Cattle owners made these towns headquarters for buying and selling, and cowboys like the ones in Red River, after months of monotonous work dull food and abstinence of all kinds were paid off and turned loose. They got shaved and shorn they bought new clothes and gear just like the cowboys in Red River. They drank. Historically, madams and gambling hall operators flourished in towns that were wide open twenty four hours a day. Drinking and violence created the peace officer that cattle towns made famous. Wild Bill Hickok and Wyatt Earp are perhaps the two best- known cattle town marshals. American cowboys were drawn from multiple sources. By the late 1860s, following the American Civil War and the expansion of the cattle industry former soldiers from both the Union and the Confederate Armies came West seeking work and a significant number of African American freedmen, Mexicans and American Indians were also drawn to cowboy life. In the West cowboys ranked low in the social structure of the frontier period. Most cowboys came from lower social classes and the pay was poor. The average cowboy earned approximately a dollar a day plus food and a bed in the bunkhouse. Nonetheless the traditions of the working cowboy are etched into the minds of the general public because of the development of the Wild West Shows in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries which showcased and romanticized cowboy life. Beginning in the 1920s and continuing to the present day, Western movies popularized cowboy lifestyle but also formed persistent stereotypes, both positive and negative. MADE IN AMERICA: EXPLORING THE HOLLYWOOD WESTERN RED RIVER (1948) – NOTES ON CATTLE AND COWBOYS The cowboy code promotes positive values that encourage honorable behavior, respect and patriotism, but the cowboy and the gunslinger have come to be associated with one another. Likewise, cowboys in movies are often shown fighting Native Americans but in reality, working ranch hands have little time for anything other than the constant hard work involved in maintaining a ranch. In America, hard work is associated with manliness and American masculinity is equated with the cowboy. The character of the cowboy expresses manliness. The cowboy does the best he can at all times, his work is comfortless, arduous and often dangerous. In Red River, the cowboys are tough long enduring hard working and gritty. They are slow to complain. Loyalty is an important characteristic of the cowboy and it is an important issue in Red River. Issues of loyalty in particular, showcase Howard Hawks’ critique of capitalism. It can be argued that Tom Dunson represents traditional norms and forms being an older man he values profit over the welfare of his men and his animals. Money and property are ends for Dunson. Matthew Garth, on the other hand, a younger man, can be said to represent new modern norms and forms of manliness. Property and profit are means to an end rather than ends in themselves for Garth. It seems that Hawks is offering two types of masculinity to his viewers. So keep an eye on the dialectic between old and new when watching Red River. I’m looking forward to discussing Hawks’ treatment of capitalism and masculinity with you in the forum. MADE IN AMERICA: EXPLORING THE HOLLYWOOD WESTERN RED RIVER (1948) – NOTES ON CATTLE AND COWBOYS is a 1948 Western film produced by Howard Hawks and starring John Wayne and Montgomery Clift. The film’s supporting cast features Walter Brennan, Joanne Dru, Colleen Gray, Harry Carey, John Ireland, Hank Worden, Noah Beery, Jr., Harry Carey Jr., and Paul Fix.
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