True Grit

Have you seen the new Coen brothers' new movie, True Grit yet? Our own Frank James and Cole Younger played a small role at the end of the film. The main character, Mattie Ross seeks out Younger and James at a Wild West show. Though Mattie converses with Cole, Frank has no lines. As she leaves, Mattie says something to the effect of “Keep your seat, trash” in reference to his reluctance to stand in the presence of a lady, as Cole did.

I have to say that we find this an inaccurate portrayal of Frank. He was considered gentlemanly and most likely would have risen from his chair in the presence of a lady. Of course we can not make this claim with 100% certainty, and that’s where artistic license comes in, which naturally the Coen brothers took advantage of. Actually, my theory is they didn't want to make a short, insignificant scene longer by giving him lines, but still wanted to draw attention to his presence. Anyway, it was cool to see a couple of real life & local outlaws represented in such a big film!

Cole was played by Don Pirl. I was unable to find the name of the actor who played Frank. Apparently those without speaking roles are not listed in the cast.

The Coen brothers, who directed the 2010 film and Charles Portis who wrote the book True Grit, published in 1968 did stick to the facts when they put Frank & Cole in the Wild West Show setting. After his full pardon from the state of Minnesota in 1903, Cole Younger used the $77,000 he obtained from a Chicago business man to purchase interest in the Buckskin Bill Wild West Show, owned by H.E. Allot, a fellow ex-con. Cole serves as manager of the show, changing its name to “The Great Cole Younger and Frank James Historical Wild West Show.” Allot was made the assistant manager, Frank James, the arena manager.

Their first show was in Chicago, then Galesburg, IL on May 4^th. By mid May, the show was in Fort, KS, followed by Springfield, MO. They arrived in Memphis, TN on May 23^rd and performed at the Chickasaw Ball Park, then Jackson, TN on the 27^th. They arrived in Nashville on the 31^st where the performers camped near Centennial Park. Then it was on to…

Columbia, TN - June 8^th

Chattanooga, TN - May 11^th

Cleveland, TN - May 13^th

Knoxville, TN - May 14^th where Frank and Cole stayed at the Imperial Hotel

Morristown, TN - May 16^th

Lynchburg, VA - May 22^nd

Newport News, VA - May 28^th

Richmond, VA - May 30^th

Washington D.C. - July 1^st where the performers held a parade. “A band of 40 Indians in war paint led the procession. The parade moved along H St. to Massachusetts Ave NW, then onto I St. and down to Pennsylvania Ave. going east toward the Capital then bearing left on Maryland Ave. to the show grounds.”

York, PA

Lancaster, PA

Harrisburg, PA

Erie, PA

Wheeling, WV – July 30^th

Huntington, WV – August 1^st

Lexington, KY – August 15^th

Nashville, IN

Maryville, MO – August 29^th

Osceola, MO

Monett, MO

Nevada, MO – September 21^st was the last show. 

Frank and Cole were both fed up with each other and the problems they has encountered with the performers, the public and law enforcement from the show’s start. Over the course of their travels, the crew and cast drank too much, got into brawls, gambled illegally and committed other crimes, all of which the local populace and law enforcement blamed the show’s management.

However, Frank was generally viewed by the press as a changed man. The Huntington Advisor hailed “After 28 Years Bandit Returns”, briefly recounting the September 1875 bank robbery, then painting Frank as a law abiding citizen. He even admitted to his criminal past in the Huntington publication, perhaps the only time he did so on public record, “While I was guilty of quite a number of bank robberies as well as several holdups of trains and stage coaches, there have been dozens of affairs which the authorities say they traced to me and which I not only took part in but knew nothing of them until after the affair was over.”

The end of the Wild West Show was neither the beginning nor the end of acting for Frank James. He first appeared in the play “Across the Dessert” while working at the Standard Theater in November of 1901, then a melodrama at the Masonic Temple in Ft. Wayne, TX on November 26^th, 1901, and 3 years later, “The Fatal Scar” in Chillicothe, MO where he preceded the play with a rather lengthy and moralistic speech, for which he received a standing ovation from the audience.