We all know that in real life the celebrated “heroes” of the old west were a pack of corrupt and/or outrightly criminal thugs who would have had a pretty odd worldview. And let’s face it, by our standards their personal hygiene habits would have been pretty disgusting.
But since the Frontierado holiday is all about celebrating the myth of the West and not the grinding reality of it here’s my list of the Top Four Westerns Based on Real-Life Figures. Coming up with lists like this is one of the perks of being the international commissioner of Frontierado (along with the seven-figure income and a staff of three hundred people).
1. BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID (1969) – Redford and Newman set the standard for the “buddy western” with this magnificent movie. Newman once described this flick by saying “It’s a Continue reading
IRISH NELLIE CASHMAN – Nellie Cashman was born Ellen O’Kissane in 1845. Sometime between 185o and 1852 her family moved to Boston, where the ambitious young woman was later working as a bellhop at Boston hotels. During the U.S. Civil War Nellie did some spying for the Union cause, following which she and her family moved to San Francisco in 1866. 
Irish Nellie used part of her growing fortune to finance the Sisters of Saint Anne. When snowstorms trapped dozens of gold seekers in the Cassiar Mountains in a series of avalanches, Irish Nellie heard that Canadian authorities were advising against rescue attempts due to how dangerous the Cassiars were. 
Here’s another item from the unhinged case files of Anti-Donald Trump Hysteria. This was originally posted when Trump-hating buffoons went berserk about Trump firing an ambassador AS ALL PRESIDENTS ARE FREE TO DO. The ignorant and uninformed anti-Trumpers have no clue about how their own country functions as incoming presidential administrations replace the previous administration’s ambassadors (and other personnel) with their own people. 
With America’s increasingly unhinged Democrats pretending it’s some sort of scandal that de facto Third Party President Donald Trump fired the insubordinate and partisan Marie “Tears of a Clown” Yovanovich as Ambassador to Ukraine, here’s a reminder that ALL PRESIDENTS ARE FREE TO FIRE AMBASSADORS WHENEVER THEY WANT AND FOR ANY REASON. PRESIDENTS SET POLICY, NOT TENURED FUNCTIONARIES. 
AUD-I-SEE aka AudiSee (1978) – Balladeer’s Blog takes a look at the largely forgotten AudiSee series of audiovisual science fiction stories for adolescents. Each episode is roughly 30 minutes long. The audio element consists of voice actors including a narrator. The visual element consists of an illustrated booklet that came with the AudiSee package. 
This weekend’s superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog looks at some of the earliest comic book adaptations of the iconic character the Green Hornet. That figure originated on radio in January 1936 and in a very early example of a shared universe, the Green Hornet’s secret identity was Britt Reid, grand-nephew of John Reid – the Lone Ranger. 
And just as the Lone Ranger show’s theme music came from classical music – the William Tell overture – the Green Hornet show’s theme came from Rimsky-Korsakov’s Flight of the Bumble Bee. 
The police and even Daily Sentinel crime reporter Mike Axford (formerly of the 1932 radio series Warner Lester, Manhunter) misunderstood the Green Hornet’s vigilante activities and suspected the masked hero of being a criminal himself. The Hornet took advantage of that misperception by convincing some of his gangster foes that he was indeed an outlaw and wanted a cut of their illegal operations. 
PART 70 – Some of the Fool Killer’s targets on both sides of the aisle in the April 1914 edition of James Larkin Pearson’s version of the folk figure: 
THE STEAM MAN OF THE PRAIRIES (1868) – Written by Edward Sylvester Ellis. Before the Frank Reade stories came this work that is often hailed as the first Dime Novel with a science fiction theme. 
JOHN WILSON VERMILLION aka TEXAS JACK VERMILLION and “SHOOT-YOUR-EYE-OUT” VERMILLION, was born in Virginia in 1842 to William and Nancy Vermillion. After the Civil War broke out in 1861, Jack enlisted in the 2nd Tennessee Cavalry sometime in 1862. 
Some accounts state Vermillion claimed to be from Texas and related Tall Tales that the Lone Star State had jackrabbits as big as horses. One illogical account claims that when Jack was asked why he was called Texas Jack he replied “Because I’m from Virginia.” Well, okay then! 
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