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TWO-GUN BILL
The Story of Williatn S. Hart
by KATHERINE H. CHILD
"While playing in Cle. veland [in 1913], I attended
illiam S. Hart not only got
that chance to make West- a picture show. I saw a Western picture.
W ern motion pictures, he It was awful! I talked with the manager of
made the best of it. In spite of their early
popularity, Western films were, as Hart the theater and he told me it was one of the best
had seen, exercises in mediocrity. When
Hart came to California in 1914, he Westerns he had ever had. Npne of the impossibilities
brought with him a fresh approach to or libels on the West meant anything to him-it was
Western film making. He added authen-
tic costumes and locales to a heretofore drawing the crowds .... I was so sure that I had made
popular, highly idealized image of the a big discovery that I was frightened that some one
West to create a truly original style for
his films. Much as the work of Frederic would read my mind and find it out.
Remington and Charles Russell has
come to be emblematic of the West in the Here were reproductions of the Old West being
art world, so does the work of William seriously presented to the public-in almost a bur-
S. Hart symbolize the West on film.
Though he was not the first Western lesque manner-and they were successful. It made me
actor/ film maker nor the last, he was tremble to think of it. I was an actor and I knew the
surely one of the most important,
achieving both commercial success and West .... The opportunity that I had been waiting for
artistic recognition for his films.
William Surrey Hart was born in New- _ years to come was knocking at my door. ... Rise or fall,
burgh, New York, sometime between sink or swim, I had to bend every endeavor to get a
1862 and 1865. There is some contro-
versy about the exact year of Hart's birth. chance to make Western motion pictures."
During his later career he gave his year of William S. Hart (My Life East and West, 1929)
birth as anywhere between 18 70 and
1876, but his death record and his civil
service record both indicate that he was
born in 1864. Hart was the eldest of eight My Life East and West, Hart seems to Mrs. Hart left Bill with her husband in
children born to Nicholas and Roseanne look back on this period of his life as a Minnesota and returned East for medical
(McCauley) Hart. Two brothers died great adventure. Many times the family's care with the girls and the baby. Nicholas
shortly after birth and another, Nicholas, only neighbors were Indians. Nicholas worked long hours and Bill was often left
Jr., died as a small child. The other four worked with Indians whose children with little or no supervision. He enjoyed
children were girls, Frances, Nettie, were often Bill's playmates; he learned very little success in school-he much
Lotta, and Hart's lifelong companion, to speak the Sioux language from these pref erred to spend his time riding horses
Mary Ellen. children, although he was by no means or fishing. He worked briefly with local
Hart's parents were both of European fluent. He also gained a respect for In- farmers, but always returned home
descent. Nicholas was raised in England dians and their culture that he never lost. discouraged.
and emigrated to the United States as a But times were hard, and his father's Nicholas had heard about the swift
young man, and Rose was born in Ireland employment was always uncertain. streams of the Dakotas from Indian
and raised in Newburgh, where she When Bill was a small child, Nicholas friends, so he and Bill traveled to Kansas
and Nicholas met. A miller by trade, began slowly losing his eyesight, making and the Dakota Territory in 1875 search
Nicholas traveled from town to town in it increasingly difficult for him to find of the perfect millsite. Nicholas's Indian
the midwest setting up millsites for work. A risky operation saved his sight, contacts enabled them to travel deep
others. He was always in search of the but he was separated from the family into Sioux Country unmolested; while
perfect site for his own mill where he for an extended period. In turn, Rose father and son spent a great deal of time
could not only build his fortune, but succumbed to a series of ailments that with the Indians, their search for a mill-
could at last make a home for his fam- necessitated her return to New York on site was unsuccessful and they returned
ily. The uncertain nature of his work, several occasions. Life in remote settle- home to Orinoco, Minnesota.
along with his quick tempe~ made the ments was not easy on her, and several Christmas of 1875 was happy for the
family's existence a precarious one. difficult childbirths with no one but an Harts. Rose had recovered, and the fam-
Memories of childhood poverty were Indian midwife to attend to her had ily was once again united. They were
never to leave Hart. taken their toll. not, however, to settle in one place for
Nevertheless, in his autobiography, Shortly after Nicholas, Jr., was born, long. Nicholas's former partner, a Sioux,
20 / TERRA, Vol. 26, No. 2 · Nov./ Dec. 1987