Historical Research
The Strange, Close Relationship Between Wyatt Earp And Doc Holliday
Every once in a while I see the question online: Were Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday lovers? Let me make the case that the answer to this provocative question could plausibly be yes. Note: If you have a problem with this concept, that is a you problem. Wyatt Earp would…
The Past is a Foreign Country—And It’s Bisexual
In my article on Billy Breakenridge, I used the term “gay” for the ease of modern readers. This is historically incorrect. Sexual preference as identity did not exist in his time period. In the past, sex was an activity, not an identity. It was something you did, it didn’t define…
Who Was Billy Breakenridge, Sister Boy of Tombstone?
This weekend, October 17 through 19, Tombstone, Arizona celebrates Helldorado Days, a commemoration of Tombstone’s place in the history of the Old West, with street entertainment and food, historical costume fashion shows, gunfight re-enactments, and a parade. Helldorado was inspired by the book of the same name written by Billy…
Why is the word “Murder” on top of the title page of some comedy play in your Up Jumped The Devil book trailer?
Good question! The play you are referring to is Stolen Kisses. An entirely original comedy-drama in three acts by Paul Merritt. Paul Merritt was a prolific playwright in the late 1800s, popular on both sides of the Atlantic. Although well received by the theater-going public, critics despaired of him. “Mr….
Doc Holliday: Southern but Not Confederate
Do any reading about Doc Holliday and you’ll likely come across references to his “beloved antebellum” Georgia and/or South. Finding statements that Doc Holliday would have been just as racist as everyone else of his time, place, and class is also common. But would he? There is a certain “truthiness”…
God Forbid Women Have Hobbies
I have been researching gifts one person might give their friend and/or lover in the late 1800s, for Reasons.1 Having plummeted down a rabbit hole, I discovered an 1830 catalogue of Mr. William Tassie’s “Extensive Collection of Impressions from Engraved Gems, Consisting of Devices and Emblems, with Mottos in Various…
Damsel is a Word not a Trope
I have noticed lately a trend in which the word “damsel” is used as short-hand to mean “damsel in distress.” As in: “I need you to scream for me.” “Like a damsel?” Or: “I imagined a story where I didn’t have to be the damsel.” This chaps my hide. “Damsel”…
First Massachusetts Coffee License
Look! It’s a piece of coffee history, one of my favorite kinds of history. And the honor of possessing the first coffee & chocolate license in Massachusetts – possibly in the colonies – goes to a woman: Dorothy Jones in 1670. Yay for enterprising colonial women who know the value…
The Taliesin Murders
This is the story of how an ACTUAL CRAZY AXE MURDERER killed seven people – Wisconsin’s worst act of mass murder until 2005, inspired a Thomas Wolfe story – as well as many an urban legend, and completely changed a style of architecture – yet most of us have probably never even…
Titanic Disaster … Fun??
May 23, 1914 Luna Park on Coney Island opens its summer season with a “spectacular” depiction of the Titanic Disaster “in three amazing acts.” Note the people falling off the end of the ship. And the heads bobbing in the water. Way to keep it classy, Coney Island of 1914….