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\X'M. S. HART 153

Earp, "Uncle" Billy Tilghman and dissolved his connection with Para-
"Bat" Masterson often visited him, as mount after finishing Singer Jim
did Will Rogers. Charlie Russell, the McKee.
great cowboy artist, was a close friend._ Hart's last picture, Tumbleweeds,
So were James Montgomery Flagg, was ·made for United Artists in 1925.
Paul Whiteman and Rudy Vallee. It was an ambitious and expensive
Hart loved to entertain, and whether film that contains one of the greatest
his guests were celebrities or cowboys, single action scenes in any Western
all got the same courteous treatment. film, a vast land rush sequence de-
He drew no lines- racial, religious, or picting the opening of the Cherokee
social-and even entertained boys from strip. ,Tumbleweeds had a stormy
the other side of the tracks, like Pat career. Joseph M. Schenck, then with
O'Malley, who had ridden with the UA, wanted to cut it from seven to
Al Jennings gang, and reformed. A five reels. Hart refused and Schenck
man was either his friend or enemy, countered by releasing the picture in
and every woman was a lady. second rate houses. Hart sued United
In 1921, after Hart's twenty-fifth Artists for mishandling, and won.
picture for Paramount-Artcraft, he But it was a Pyrrhic victory. Hart
retired for over a year. Lambert retired to "Horseshoe," his ranch at
Hillyer went to work for other com- Newhall, California, and devoted his
panies, directing Milton Sills, Lon time to writing.
Chaney, Tom Mix, and Florence His not always reliable autobiog-
Vidor. Then, in the summer of 1923, raphy, My Life East and West, was
Hart made Wild Bill Hickok for published in 1929. His other books:
Paramount with Cliff Smith, his old The Golden West Boys, a children's
assistant of Triangle-Ince days, direct- series (1919); Pinto Ben cmd Other
ing. Both the public and the critics
liked It and Hart immediately began
Cliff Smith was Hart's right hand
Singer Jim McKee. Before it was
completed he was surprised to be in-
formed by Jesse Lasky that exhibitors
were complaining his pictures were
"old-fashioned." Lasky added that if
Hart was to remain with Paramount
he would have to give up his inde-
pendence. Paramount would select
story, director, and supporting cast.
Hart would star, but not produce.
Hart later declared that Paramount
promised to show him the exhibitors'
letters, but never did.
Hart had once said that the truth
about the West meant more to him
than a job, and he. proved it when he