Wyatt Earp in popular culture
This only began to change after his death when the extremely flattering biography Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshal was published in 1931.
Since then, Earp has been the subject of numerous films, television shows, biographies, and works of fiction which have increased both his fame and his notoriety.
Earp's modern reputation suffered in the 1950s when his relationship with Celia Ann “Mattie” Blaylock, a known prostitute, was revealed.
When a post office was established in 1930 in the unincorporated settlement of Drennan, near the site of some of his mining claims, it was renamed Earp, California in his honor.
Earp's good friend William Hart produced and wrote the seven-reel epic Wild Bill Hickok released by Paramount in 1923.
[8] In the film, Hickok calls on his friends Earp, Calamity Jane, Bat Masterson, Doc Holliday, Charlie Bassett, Luke Short and Bill Tilghman to help clean up a wild cowtown.
[9] In reality, Earp was a virtually unknown assistant marshal in Dodge City when Wild Bill Hickok was murdered in 1876.
While living in Los Angeles, Earp met several well-known and soon-to-be famous actors on the sets of various movies.
The book later inspired a number of stories, movies and television programs about outlaws and lawmen in Dodge City and Tombstone.
Corral, released in 1957, starring Burt Lancaster as Earp, cemented his place in Western history as a hero lawman.
"[9][19]: 234 When Ford was working on his last silent feature Hangman's House in 1928, which included the first credited screen appearances by John Wayne, Earp used to visit the set.
John Wayne later told Hugh O'Brian that he based his Western lawman[19] walk, talk and persona to his acquaintance with Wyatt Earp, who was good friends with Mix.
Among the best-known actors who have portrayed him are Randolph Scott, Guy Madison, Henry Fonda, Joel McCrea, Burt Lancaster, James Garner, Jimmy Stewart, Hugh O'Brian, Kurt Russell, Kevin Costner and Val Kilmer.
[30] However, X-ray testing showed an original serial number, 5686, which matches a batch of revolvers purchased by the U.S. Army in 1874.
[34] The authenticity of the revolver displayed at the auction is attested to by a typewritten letter dictated by Bill Miller to his daughter LaVonne Griffin.
The revolver attributed to Wyatt Earp was sold to John Anderson, a founder of Isagenix International in Chandler, Arizona, for $225,000.
[30] Before leaving Tombstone, Earp borrowed a short, 22-inch, 10 gauge, double barrel Spencer percussion shotgun from Fred Dodge, which he used to kill Curly Bill Brocius.
Marshal Heck Thomas, who in 1896 used the gun to kill outlaw Bill Doolin, a member of the Dalton Gang.
[36][37][38][39] John H. Flood Jr., Wyatt Earp's secretary, who he regarded like a son, drew a sketch of the gunfight at the O.K.
Ellsworth completed four expeditions to Antarctica between 1933 and 1939, using a former Norwegian herring boat as his aircraft transporter and base that he named Wyatt Earp after his hero.
[43][45] Crime novelist Robert B. Parker wrote a dramatization of Wyatt Earp's life entitled Gunman's Rhapsody in 2001.
Wyatt and Morgan Earp figure prominently in Michael Crichton's novel Dragon Teeth published posthumously in 2017.
