The Straight Dope 06/25/2004

The Straight Dope -- By Cecil Adams
http://www.straightdope.com

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THE STRAIGHT DOPE 06/25/2004

Dear Cecil:

Many movie and TV westerns have a climactic scene in which two men face
each other on a street in a dusty town. There's a lightning fast draw of
pistols, shots are fired, and the bad guy almost always dies. Did this
sort of gunfight, with two men drawing on each other, really happen in
the old west? Were there really gunfighters known for their fast pistol
draws and accuracy? --Chris Rohrs, Novato, California

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Cecil replies:

You figure I'm going to say it's all Hollywood. Hollywood definitely had
a lot to do with it, but even in the classic cinematic depiction, High
Noon (1952), Gary Cooper faces off not against a lone opponent but an
armed gang. Truth is, the archetypal one-on-one showdown is one of those
fixed ideas that doesn't have much basis in fiction, let alone in fact.
Although a few such confrontations did occur, the Wild West had no
tradition of formal dueling--the more common approach was to get the
drop on the other guy before he got the drop on you. On the other hand,
some of what we might guess was showbiz razzle-dazzle--spinning pistols,
for one thing--may actually be legit.

For more, see:
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/040625.html

STAFF REPORT

Dear Straight Dope:

Is there an herbal, or at least non-cancerous, cigarette non-smoking
actors use while on camera? --Voltaaron

Guest contributor Cervaise replies:

The short answer is yes and no: A wide variety of products can be
substituted for tobacco cigarettes if a nonsmoking actor is asked to
play a smoker in a film or play. Most of them suffer from certain
defects of verisimilitude, however. More importantly, there's no such
thing as a noncarcinogenic smoke.

In live theater, it's easier to fake this sort of thing because we
expect the presentation to be stylized to some degree and we're more
forgiving if something is not strictly realistic. Also, the audience
tends to be farther away from the performer, so we don't get as clear a
view of the prop. Sometimes faking it is as easy as using a real
cigarette but not lighting it. For whatever reason, we accept an unlit
cigarette on stage in much the same way we know but don't care that the
fancy crystal decanter is actually full of iced tea instead of bourbon.

For more, see: 
http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mcigsforactors.html

STRAIGHT DOPE CLASSIC - 04/08/1983

Dear Cecil: 

ABC recently aired the movie classic, The Wizard of Oz, which brings to
mind something I first heard in high school. 

A friend of mine had collected several of the Oz books by L. Frank Baum,
and he said the one entitled The Wizard of Oz was in fact a satire of
the French Revolution. The Tin Man, the Scarecrow, and the Lion
represented different members of the royalty, and the various witches
were somehow opposing factions--or maybe it was the other way around. 

I know Animal Farm satirized the Russian Revolution. Did The Wizard of
Oz do the same for the French Revolution? If so, what characters
represent which actual people? --Cameron G., Phoenix

Dear Cameron:

This is the first I've heard about a connection between The Wizard of Oz
and the French Revolution. Your friend is obviously confused. Everybody
knows the satire of the French Revolution was "Bye Bye Miss American
Pie."

The story I got about The Wizard of Oz was that it was an allegorical
treatise on the Populist movement in the U.S. in the 1890s. This
interpretation strikes me as being about as crazed as your friend's, but
since it was published in an allegedly scholarly journal (Henry
Littlefield, American Quarterly, 1964) ... well, I'll let you be the
judge.

For more, see:
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_392.html

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