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The Hollywood West:
Lives of the Film Legends Who Shaped It
Edited by Richard W. Etulain and Glenda Riley
Trace the Hollywood Western through the lives and works of its greatest screen legends.
Throughout the twentieth century, the popular image of the American West has been continually filtered, interpreted, and
reinterpreted through Hollywood’s vision. In The Hollywood West, the third book in Fulcrum’s Notable Westerns Series, 10 well-known historians dramatize a century of the Hollywood Western,
revealing the real individuals behind the great Western heroes and heroines.
The Hollywood West brings into focus the most influential characters and themes of the Hollywood Western—from the singing Westerns of Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, and Dale Evans in the 1930s, to the directorial achievements of John Ford and John Wayne’s and Gary Cooper’s larger-than-life Western heroes in the 1940s; from Barbara Stanwyck and Katy Jurado, who “feminized’ the Western, to Jay Silverheels, Iron Eyes Cody, and Chief Dan George, who were the first Native American actors in leading roles.
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Beginning in the mid-1930’s, film star
Barbara Stanwyck increasingly portrayed women of the American West as “tough broads.” Stanwyck eschewed such traditional figures as the wife, the civilizer, the schoolteacher, and the soiled dove. In
so doing, Stanwyck not only challenged the film industry, but also asked the viewing public to accept more compelling interpretations of women’s contributions to the development of the American
West. Ultimately, she spearheaded the movement to feminize Hollywood Westerns by bridging the gap between Victorian male-centered Westerns of
the early 1900s and feminist Westerns of the late twentieth century. Along with other leading ladies, such as her good friend Joan Crawford, Stanwyck
achieved this modernization by replacing male heroes with female heroines. Gradually, her public acceptance and numerous awards made Barbara Sanwyck the undisputed queen of the female-centered Western.