As nervous as a long tail cat in a room full of rocking chairs

Masterson sets the reporter straight

Since we have been doing the play, yours truly has defended himself against a gun by using a notebook shield more times than I can remember.  Elliot Longfellow, the reporter is out of his element when he travels to the old west and it shows.

I enjoyed watching some westerns this weekend where a reporter was one of the characters and I have concluded that we all play our reporter characters as – well – nervous wimps.   Now, there is nothing I have found in any records to say that reporters were less than manly.  I also have not found anything to say they were.

The first movie was Unforgiven, a great Clint Eastwood western where a reporter is following around a famous English shootist to write his memoirs.  When he gets a gun pointed at him, he looses his bladder ability.  (I don’t do that on stage, but more than one of my fellow actors thinks it would bring great hilarity).

The second was the HBO show Deadwood, where the newspaper publisher / reporter is surrounded by the harsh realities of old west everyday.  When confronted, he merely turns the other cheek, which is usually due to a fist just before the turning.

So why have we decided that the newsman was the old west version of a tattle tale and not manly?  The reality was the many of the newsman of the day were  unfair observers, offering their opinion before the facts were even gathered.  No better example exists than the famous gunfight at the O.K Corral.  The two newspapers in town quickly chose sides and determined guilt and innocence. One paper called the Earps and Doc Holiday killers, the other innocent victims.  Depending on what side of the story you were on, those reporters were either your best friend or worst enemy.  Either way, they fought their battles not with a revolver, but with a venom dipped pencil.

That had to make for nervous reporters every time a new edition hit the streets.