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Levite's Leaven Number Four
THE WOLF HUNT and THE BANK ROBBERY
If you've hear me speak, you'll recall that I mention two wonderfully funny very old films, each about 8 minutes long, called The Wolf Hunt and The
Bank Robbery. They were filmed in the Wichita Mountains in 1908 by Bill Tilghman, one of the famed "Three Guardsmen" of Oklahoma. (The other two were Chris Madson and Heck Thomas--you knew that,
didn't you???? If not, do some research as they were great men and books have been written about them.)
As far as I know, these are the first films ever produced in the state. Anyway, I suggest that you get the movies and show them to your kids, maybe even get them to write dialogue for them since they are silent flicks and reflect a part of Oklahoma's history that should never be forgotten.
Ride the Wind, one of the wonderful books on the Oklahoma Centennial Young Adult Booklist (check this page if you haven't yet...new books are added each week), is the story of the Abernathy boys whose father was the famed "Catch 'em Alive Jack Abernathy," the man who caught wolves with his bare hands, and The Wolf Hunt is just that...eight minutes of Jack catching woves and letting them go...it's so silly it's very funny....but the story which surrounds it is even funnier.
In the summer of 1905, President Teddy Roosevert (the guy that signed our Statehood Proclamation, which is also on my web) came to Oklahoma Territory to hunt wolves with Jack, but when he went back to Washington and told his friends about it, they
all said it was just another of Teddy's wild stories.
That made him so mad he told Jack to get a movie made and if he did, Teddy would call the Supreme Count into session and show it to them, because if those guys went out and said it was true that an Okie could catch wolves with his bare hands, they would be believed! So Jack did. And he and Bill Tilhman got asked to the White House, and Jack ended up being appointed the job of U.S. Marshal
for the Western half of the Territories! The Bank Robbery is just as silly, but it has the added attraction of a woman character and is billed as "STARRING Quannah Parker" who wore his signature stove pipe hat and road back and forth in front of the camera a couple of times.
You can buy both movies from the Oklaoma History Museum, and here's how you do it (information courtesy of Jackie Francis, who sent it to
me! Thanks, Jackie!)
If you're short on funds, make it a PTO project. The films come in either VHD of DVD-R. The VHS is $15.00 and the DVD-R is $25.00. Make your check out to Oklaoma Historical Society and mail it with your address to:
Bill Moore
Oklaoma Historical Society
2100 N. Lincoln Blvd.
Oklahoma City, OK. 73105
Better still, go visit the museum! Tell Bill you're coming to pick them up! bdmoore@ok-history.mus.ok.us
I depend on neat people like Jackie to help me in finding addresses like these, so if you have something wonderful you want to share, e-mail
me and I'll get the word out! mlgriffis@cox.net
Molly
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