CivilWarTalk Throwback Thursday, 9 - 5 - 2019

James N.

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For a change of pace for this week's Throwback Thursday, here's a still from the 1960's movie How The West Was Won featuring John Wayne as William T. Sherman, left, and character actor Henry (Harry) Morgan as Ulysses S. Grant on the evening of the first day of the Battle of Shiloh, directed by legendary filmmaker John Ford. Below is another still from this scene showing Russ Tamblyn as Reb and George Peppard as Zeb Rawlings, who watch from the background while Grant and Sherman discuss the day's events. This was only one of several sequences relating to the settlement of the West (others involved wagon trains, railroads, Indian fighting, the perils of river rafting and "pirates", etc., etc.) How The West Was Won was a "spectacle" movie with the gimmick of being the only "dramatic" - that is, a non-documentary or travelogue - production actually filmed using the three-camera technique known as Cinerama, developed in the 1950's by producer Mike Todd. (Other movies that followed that were released as Cinerama were in fact filmed with a single 70mm camera.) How The West Was Won was a road-show release that required a theater set up for Cinerama projection on a wide screen that semi-surrounded the viewer, and typically was shown for several months in that location. Later, it was butchered in editing by being cut down for other screens, and eventually winding up on television!

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Anyone else having (preferably) old Civil War-related photos, mementoes, or memorabilia they would like to share is welcome and encouraged to do so in this weekly thread!
 
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Literally the only time John Wayne actually looked like mid-1800's US Army officer and not one of John Ford's make believe "what-in-sam-h***!" stage reject US Army uniform.

I was actually contemplating dragging out my DVD of this movie to watch the other day. It has its moments, but it can get boring at some points.
 
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I'd forgotten I had also copied and saved this still from the movie showing Grant and Sherman inside the log cabin headquarters that had been appropriated as a field hospital, causing them to move outside by the campfire. (No evidence of the downpour that actually occurred the night of April 6, 1862 though!) This has not been cut down and shows the correct ratio of the Cinerama screen, much wider than even modern ones.
 
That is George Peppard, not John!

J
Thanks; fixed! I certainly know better, too, because I have How the West Was Won, Breakfast at Tiffany's and The Blue Max on DVD's. (Personally, I thought I did pretty well remembering Russ Tamblyn off the top of my head!)
 
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