More Tales From The Village

     A public announcement “Good morning, good morning, congratulations on yet another day.”
    “What did they mean by that announcement do you think?” No.14 asked
    “Who can say, they are always making announcements about something or other”No.32 replied “Humour is the very essence of a democratic society, that’s another one.”
    “Democratic?”
    “In some ways, we used to have local elections, but they don’t bother anymore.”
    “Why not?”
    “Beats me! The last election we had I didn’t bother to vote.”
    “Why ever not?”
    “Didn’t like the new candidate, who’s standing beside you now? I intend to discover then, who the prisoners and who the warders. He even started to sound like Number 2 at one point, the citizens can rest assured that their interests are very much my own, and that the security of the citizens is my primary objective!”
    “Why didn’t you vote for Number 2 then?”
    “What the old regime forever, and the old Number 2 forever, what’s it matter who is Number 2, one Number 2 or forty different Number 2’s it don’t make no difference, they’re all the same in the end.”
    “You sound bitter.”
    “I tell you my friend; I have met no-one here who has committed a crime. Me, I look forward to my nightcap of hot chocolate and the oblivion of sleep that it brings!”
    “Is that all you have to look forward to here?”
    “There’s a saying they have here, questions are a burden to others.”
    “Only when we don’t know the answers.”
    “And answers a prison for oneself.”
    “What, meaning it’s better not to know the answers?”
    “Meaning it’s probably best not to know the questions. Do you know what?”
    “No what?”
    “I fancy an ice cream.”
    “Flavour of the day is strawberry.”
    “How do you know that?”
    “I heard an earlier announcement. I tell you what; I’m going to gum up the works!”
    “How are you going to do that?”
    “I’m going to ask for a vanilla 99 cornet with flake!”

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The Harmony Posters

 

   I had thought to have come to the end of the Harmony poster series, however having watched ‘Living In Harmony’ two nights back I recognized {for the first time} a familiar face behind the bar of the Silver Dollar saloon. Not a poster this time, but a small framed photograph of Wyatt Earp, such as this one.
  His full name was Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp 1848 –1929. He was a legendary frontiersman of the American West, who was an itinerant saloonkeeper, gambler, lawman, gunslinger, and confidence man but was perhaps best known for his involvement in the gunfight at the O.K. Corral in1881.
   Earp was a lawman and gambler in Cochise County, Arizona Territory, and a deputy marshal in Tombstone. He worked in a wide variety of trades throughout his life and took part in the famous gunfight at the O.K. Corral, during which lawmen killed three outlaw Cochise County Cowboys. He is often erroneously regarded as the central figure in the shootout, although his brother Virgil was the Tombstone City and Deputy U.S. Marshal that day, and had far more experience in combat as a sheriff, constable, marshal, and soldier.
    Earp was at different times a professional gambler, teamster, and buffalo hunter. Over his lifetime, he owned several saloons, maintained a brothel, mined for silver and gold, and refereed boxing matches. He spent his early life in Pella, Iowa. In 1870, he married Urilla Sutherland, who contracted typhoid fever and died in childbirth. During the next two years, he was arrested for stealing a horse, escaped from jail, and was sued twice. He was arrested and fined three times in 1872 for “keeping and being found in a house of ill-fame.”
    Earp was the fourth of eight children born to Nicholas Earp and his second wife, Virginia Ann Cooksey. His four brothers James, Virgil Morgan and Warren as well as a half-brother Newton, would play integral roles throughout Wyatt’s life. He grew up in Illinois and Iowa but in 1864, toward the end of the American Civil War, his family moved to an area near San Bernardino, California. In 1868 most of the Earps returned to Illinois via the Union Pacific Railroad, on which Wyatt and Virgil lingered to work in what is now Wyoming. The following year Wyatt rejoined his family, which had moved to Lamar, Missouri. There he married in 1870 and was elected local constable. However, following his pregnant wife’s death, he entered a turbulent period, marked by numerous run-ins with the law. Facing allegations of embezzlement, he left Lamar in 1871, and later that year he was arrested for stealing horses in Indian Territory but was never tried; sources differ on whether he escaped from jail or jumped bail. He eventually settled in Peoria, Illinois, where he was arrested for various offences, most of which concerned his involvement with brothels. After moving to Wichita, Kansas, in 1874, he continued to work in prostitution establishments most likely as a bouncer and was again arrested on several occasions. However, he later worked as a police officer, first in Wichita, later in Dodge City, before heading off to the gold rush in the Black Hills He then returned to Dodge City as assistant marshal, and there he became noted as both a lawman and a gambler. During this time he befriended such gunmen as Doc Holliday and Bat Masterson.    
    Leaving Dodge City, he went to New Mexico Territory and then California, working for a time as a Wells Fargo guard. In 1879 he moved to the Wild West town of Tombstone, Arizona Territory, where most of the Earp family had congregated, buying real estate and businesses. Wyatt became a gambler and a guard in a saloon, and his brother Virgil became town marshal.
    By 1881 a feud had developed between the Earps and an outlaw gang led by Ike Clanton. The conflict resulted in the celebrated gunfight at the O.K. Corral October 26^th 1881, pitting the Clanton gang against three Earp brothers Virgil, Wyatt, and Morgan and Doc Holliday. Three of the outlaws were killed, but Ike and another member escaped. Although the shoot-out, which allegedly lasted only 30 seconds, later made Wyatt famous, various reports indicate that Virgil played a more central role. The gunfight, however, failed to end the feud. In December 1881 Virgil was ambushed allegedly by Clanton and his colleagues though he survived his gunshot wounds. However, in March 1882 Morgan was fatally shot while playing billiards. Looking for revenge, Wyatt, his brother Warren, and some friends went in search of the assailants and subsequently killed at least two suspects, including Frank Stilwell. Wyatt was accused of murder, and he fled, moving first to Colorado, then to several boomtowns in the West, and eventually to California. He settled there, where he supported himself variously by police work, gambling, mining, and real-estate deals.
    By 1874, he arrived in the boomtown of Wichita, Kansas, where his reputed wife opened a brothel. On April 21^st 1875, he was appointed to the Wichita police force and developed a solid reputation as a lawman, but he was fined and dismissed from the force after getting into a fistfight with a political opponent of his boss. Earp immediately left Wichita, following his brother James to Dodge City, Kansas, where he became an assistant city marshal. In the winter of 1878, he went to Texas to track down an outlaw, and he met John "Doc" Holliday, whom Earp credited with saving his life.
    After leaving Tombstone, he went to San Francisco where he reunited with Josephine Marcus, and she became his common-law wife. They joined a gold rush to Eagle City, Idaho, where they owned mining interests and a saloon. They left to race horses and open a saloon during a real estate boom in San Diego, California. Back in San Francisco, Wyatt raced horses again, but his reputation suffered irreparably when he refereed the Fitzsimmons vs. Sharkey boxing match and called a foul which led many to believe that he fixed the fight. They moved briefly to Yuma, Arizona, before joining the Nome Gold Rush in 1899. He and Charlie Hoxie paid $1,500 {about $46,000 today} for a liquor license to open a two-story saloon called the Dexter and made an estimated $80,000 {or about $2,459,000 today}. The couple left Alaska and opened another saloon in Tonopah, Nevada, the site of a new gold find. Around 1911, Earp began working several mining claims in Vidal, California, retiring in the hot summers with Josephine to Los Angeles. He made friends among early Western actors in Hollywood and tried to get his story told, but he was portrayed only very briefly in one film produced during his lifetime: Wild Bill Hickok {1923}.
    Wyatt Earp died on January 13^th 1929 one of his pall bearers was the famous film star of the day Tom Mix. Long after his death, he still retains many devoted fans and admirers. His modern-day reputation is that he was one of the Old West's toughest and deadliest gunmen.

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Caught On Camera!

    Last night my wife Morag and I sat watching ‘Living In Harmony,’ when the episode reached the scene where the Prisoner was behind bars in the jailhouse, I could not believe what I was seeing. So much so I had to run the film back and watch the scene again!

   Ignoring the Kid’s extraordinary behaviour, and concentrating on the Prisoner sitting on his bunk rolling a cigarette. Then taking a match he strikes it on the steel frame of the cage and lights his cigarette. You can see the smoke from said cigarette in the top picture, and the enlarged section. But something isn’t quite right with this scene, because the Prisoner lights that cigarette twice! After striking the match the Prisoner doesn’t light his cigarette because in close-up he has only just finished rolling it, and yet in long-shot there is suddenly smoke in the air! Then as the Kid continues his extraordinary behaviour the Prisoner strikes the match and lights his cigarette…a second time, as in the next picture.

    In all the times I have watched ‘Living In Harmony’ over the years this is the first time I have seen the Prisoner light his cigarette twice, probably because my attention has always centred on the Kid’s antics. However it does go to show that no matter how many times one watches ‘the Prisoner’ there is always that little something you haven’t seen before!

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Watching The Prisoner - Living In Harmony

 

    It has been 5 weeks since ‘Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling,’ and during that time No.6 was returned to London as though on the day he was due to hand in his letter of resignation, which he had written the night before, according to the original script. He travelled across Europe to Austria and the town of Kandersfeld, before being returned to the village, and while he was away the day to day life in the village went on as normal. Now “they” have taken No.6 back a little further, as far back as the American 1800’s and the frontier town of Harmony.
    ‘Living In Harmony’ is the fourth “out of Village” experience for our friend No.6, and we do seem to be dealing with the fourth dimension, as No.6 once said “Don’t tell me that time travel is in it as well!”
   Fancy living in Harmony stranger, after all it’s a good town. No.6 has never been one to live in harmony in the village, and in that regard there is the connection to ‘A Change of Mind’ disharmony was frowned upon!
   I have admitted this before, that although I am a huge fan of the American Western film, as well as Spaghetti Westerns, ‘Living In Harmony’ has always been my least favourite episode. However having said that, since my research into the posters and framed pictures and portraits seen on the walls in both the Silver Dollar Saloon and the Sheriff’s office, I can now appreciate this episode better.

    Just like the village there is no leaving Harmony, but at least there is a road out of town but that’s guarded by the Judge’s boys. And horse flesh in Harmony is expensive, the cheapest horse being $5,000 all the rest are expensive!
    Cathy has my sympathy having that foul Kid forcing his attentions on her, I enjoy the moment when the Kid’s trying to kiss Cathy and she bites his bottom lip! I think the Kid has been deprived of love all his life, so it’s no wonder he has a fixation about Cathy. But one can only imagine what Number 22 must have felt as Cathy was strangled to death by the Kid. Then later actually strangled to death by No.8, or was she? After all she was conscious enough to tell Number 6 she wished it had been real, perhaps she just fainted after that!
   As for the Kid what turned him into a dumb psychotic gunslinger who can say. Certainly the idea was that the Kid wears the clothes of the men he has killed. Perhaps his parents were attacked by Indians when he was a child, the shock of seeing his father murdered, possibly tortured and his mother raped was just too much for him and the trauma of the ordeal struck him dumb! Well that’s my pet theory for what its worth. However there’s always one way out and No.8 took it, suicide! He threw himself off the balcony in the Silver Dollar Saloon, and he wasn’t the first to throw himself off anything. Cobb was to have thrown himself out of a hospital window, No.73 did throw herself out of a hospital window, and we must not forget another No.8, who under interrogation was asked if she was attempting suicide when Nadia was trying to swim away from the village!
    What was No.2’s mantra “Put him in a dangerous environment, give him love, take it away, isolate him, make him kill, then face him with death. He’ll crack, break him even in his mind, and the rest will be easy.” But it wasn’t easy, and what’s more it didn’t work, and for that No. 2 is responsible, he would have to pay for this failure. The buck stops with him as they say!
   Why watch this episode on November 12^th? For no special reason, unlike several episodes in the Prisoner series it’s impossible to date this episode so it automatically slipped down the screening order. ‘Living In Harmony’ could have fitted in between other episodes earlier in the screening, and perhaps should have done if only for the foliage, the leaves on the trees and bushes which do rightly suggest an earlier time in the year. But it is where it is and now we move on to December 1^st when a familiar face is brought back to the village…….

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