March 21, 2024
Volume 54 - No. 12
Left: An obituary detailing the end of a “soiled doves” life. Above: Tommy Lee Jones, and Robert Duvall from the great western, “Lonesome Dove”. Right: A typical “soiled dove” taking a break. Bottom Right: A “check” used to secure a night with a prostitute. Below: A saloon filled with women who may have been dance hall girls, or prostitutes. There was a distinct difference.
by lyle e davis We just finished watching one of the best films ever produced - “Lonesome Dove,” a mini-series that orignally ran Monday through Thursday evenings from 7pm to 11pm. What powerful writing, what masterful dialogue and brilliant acting! A tour-de-force for Robert Duvall, Tommy Lee Jones, and many other memorable actors. Probably no more accurate depiction of the Old West could be found than “Lonesome Dove,” nominated
for 18 Emmy Awards and winning seven. The reason the film-series became such an epic production is its depiction of the “Old West” the way it was. Based, in part, on true events, it recounted the trials and tribulations of two retired Texas Rangers, their lives and loves, their strengths, their weaknesses. The Old West is many things to many people . . . and has hundreds, perhaps thousands of different stories. When we refer to The Old West
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we are generally talking about the period after the Civil War, the rest of the 1800’s, and the early part of the 20th century. It was then that thousands of pioneers pushed their way westward in search of land, better lives, gold and silver, and sometimes, to escape the law. Geographically, the “Old West” generally applies to those states west of the Mississippi River. Think of it! We have outlaws, gunfighters, the American cowboy, buried treasures on the frontier, all kinds of Old West Legends that give us tales, biographies, and in-depth
history into the lives and times in the American West. We had it all back then. Whiskey, drugs, sporting women, and outlaws, to scandal, sex, sin, and saloons, the Wicked West was filled with both glitz and grits. You’ll find plenty of each of these elements in “Lonesome Dove.” There was, however, perhaps an unfair over-emphasis on the premise that so many women in the Old West were prostitutes, or, as the cowboys called them, “whores.” Certainly, there were prostitutes . . . a fair number of
Doves
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