1.
Val Kilmer
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Val Edward Kilmer is an American actor. Originally a stage actor, Kilmer became popular in the mid-1980s after a string of appearances in comedy films, then the cult classic Real Genius, as well as the military action film Top Gun and the fantasy film Willow. Kilmer was born December 31,1959, in Los Angeles, the son of Gladys Swanette and Eugene Dorris Kilmer and his parents divorced in 1968 when he was 8 years old. In 1977 Kilmers younger brother Wesley drowned in a pool at age 15. Kilmers grandfather was a miner in New Mexico, near the border with Arizona. His mother was of Swedish descent and his fathers ancestry included English, Scots-Irish, French and German. Kilmer attended Berkeley Hall School, a Christian Science school in Los Angeles and he attended Chatsworth High School with Kevin Spacey and Mare Winningham, and also attended the Hollywood Professional School. He became the youngest person at the time to be accepted into the Juilliard Schools Drama Division, on May 5,2012, Kilmer was awarded an honorary doctorate of Fine Arts from William Woods University. In 1981, while at Juilliard, Kilmer co-authored and starred in the play How It All Began, Kilmer turned down a role in Francis Ford Coppolas 1983 film The Outsiders, as he had prior theatre commitments. In 1983 he appeared off Broadway in The Slab Boys with Kevin Bacon, also in 1983, Kilmer self-published a collection of his own poetry entitled My Edens After Burns, that included poems inspired by his time with Pfeiffer. The book of poems is difficult to obtain, and expensive, even second-hand copies fetch $300 and his big break came when he received top billing in the comedy spoof of spy movies Top Secret. Where he played an American rock and roll star, Kilmer sang all the songs in the film and released an album under the film characters name, Nick Rivers. While garnering more substantial roles and prestige, he gained a reputation as a ladies man, dating numerous women, some many years older, including Cher. During a brief hiatus, he backpacked throughout Europe before going on to play the character in the 1985 comedy Real Genius. He turned down a role in David Lynchs Blue Velvet before being cast as naval aviator Iceman in the action film Top Gun alongside Tom Cruise, Top Gun grossed a total of $344,700,000 worldwide and made Kilmer a major star. Kilmer starred in the Colorado Shakespeare Festival production of Hamlet]] in 1988, in 1989, Kilmer played the lead in both Kill Me Again, again opposite Whalley, and in TNTs Billy the Kid. After several delays, director Oliver Stone finally started production on the film The Doors, Kilmer spoke with Oliver Stone early on, concerned about what he might want to do with the story because Kilmer didnt believe in or want to promote substance abuse. Kilmer saw Morrison as having picked the wrong heroes, who had different issues, Kilmer saw Morrisons story as one that could be told a thousand different ways and didnt want to tell it by playing the role in the style of drugs, with which Oliver Stone agreed
2.
Diana DeGarmo
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Diana Nicole DeGarmo is an American singer/songwriter and actress. She rose to fame in 2004 as the runner-up of the season of American Idol, releasing her debut studio album, Blue Skies. The following year, DeGarmo ventured into a career in musical theatre and she has starred in two Broadway, one off-Broadway and three national tour shows. She made her acting debut in a six-month arc as Angelina Veneziano on The Young. DeGarmo has since released two extended plays, Unplugged in Nashville and Live to Love and she is married to fifth season American Idol finalist Ace Young. Diana DeGarmo was born in Birmingham, Alabama, but was raised primarily in Snellville, DeGarmo began singing at a young age, including the 1997 Georgia Music Hall of Fame Awards, and in Atlanta-based stage productions of Annie and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. At age ten she was part of the Cartoon Gang on The Cartoon Network, as a third grader she was a Coca-Cola Kid during the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. The next year she sang at Opryland USA during the Christmas season, in 2002, she was named Miss Georgia Teen and was also a finalist on the NBC talent search program Americas Most Talented Kid. DeGarmo took part in the season of American Idol in 2004. During her American Idol run she never fell to the bottom 2 and she became one of the front runners by week 6. She was 16 years old at the time she competed and she performed around the country with the rest of the season 3 Top 10 during the summer of 2004. The songs DeGarmo sang on the follow, DeGarmo was signed to RCA Records shortly after the Idol finale and released her single, Dreams. The single reached number 2 in Canada and number 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, the single also included her version of I Believe and a remake of Melissa Manchesters Dont Cry Out Loud. She recorded her album in between Idol summer tour stops. DeGarmos debut album, titled Blue Skies, was released on December 7,2004, as of fall 2008, the album had sold 168,000 copies with little to no advertising. The lone single from the CD, Emotional, was released to radio in November 2004 and she toured independently in the spring and summer of 2005 in support of Blue Skies. During the same time she recorded a song for the soundtrack of the Disney movie Ice Princess, reaching for Heaven, written by Desmond Child, can be heard during the climactic ice skating scene in the movie. In June 2005, RCA and DeGarmo parted ways, on September 17,2005, DeGarmo received the Horizon Award at the Georgia Music Hall Of Fame Awards ceremony, the award recognizes Georgia artists on the path to successful and lengthy careers
3.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
4.
Western (genre)
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Cowboys and gunslingers typically wear Stetson hats, bandannas, spurs, cowboy boots and buckskins. Other characters include Native Americans, bandits, lawmen, bounty hunters, outlaws, mounted cavalry, settlers, Westerns often stress the harshness of the wilderness and frequently set the action in an arid, desolate landscape of deserts and mountains. Often, the vast landscape plays an important role, presenting a. mythic vision of the plains, specific settings include ranches, small frontier towns, saloons, railways and isolated military forts of the Wild West. Many Westerns use a plot of depicting a crime, then showing the pursuit of the wrongdoer, ending in revenge and retribution. The Western was the most popular Hollywood genre, from the early 20th century to the 1960s, Western films first became well-attended in the 1930s. John Fords landmark Western adventure Stagecoach became one of the biggest hits in 1939, Westerns were very popular throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Many of the most acclaimed Westerns were released during this time – including High Noon, Shane, The Searchers, the Western depicts a society organized around codes of honor and personal, direct or private justice–frontier justice–dispensed by gunfights. These honor codes are played out through depictions of feuds or individuals seeking personal revenge or retribution against someone who has wronged them. The popular perception of the Western is a story that centers on the life of a semi-nomadic wanderer, a showdown or duel at high noon featuring two or more gunfighters is a stereotypical scene in the popular conception of Westerns. In some ways, such protagonists may be considered the descendants of the knight errant which stood at the center of earlier extensive genres such as the Arthurian Romances. And like knights errant, the heroes of Westerns frequently rescue damsels in distress, similarly, the wandering protagonists of Westerns share many characteristics with the ronin in modern Japanese culture. The Western typically takes these elements and uses them to tell simple morality tales, Westerns often stress the harshness and isolation of the wilderness and frequently set the action in an arid, desolate landscape. Apart from the wilderness, it is usually the saloon that emphasizes that this is the Wild West, it is the place to go for music, women, gambling, drinking, brawling and shooting. The American Film Institute defines western films as those set in the American West that embodies the spirit, the struggle, the term Western, used to describe a narrative film genre, appears to have originated with a July 1912 article in Motion Picture World Magazine. Most of the characteristics of Western films were part of 19th century popular Western fiction and were firmly in place before film became an art form. Protagonists ride between dusty towns and cattle ranches on their trusty steeds, Western films were enormously popular in the silent film era. With the advent of sound in 1927-28, the major Hollywood studios rapidly abandoned Westerns, leaving the genre to smaller studios and these smaller organizations churned out countless low-budget features and serials in the 1930s. Released through United Artists, Stagecoach made John Wayne a mainstream star in the wake of a decade of headlining B westerns
5.
Wyatt Earp
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He is often regarded as the central figure in the shootout in Tombstone, although his brother Virgil was Tombstone city marshal and Deputy U. S. Marshal that day, and had far more experience as a sheriff, constable, marshal, and soldier in combat. He was at different times a constable, city policeman, county sheriff, Deputy U. S. Marshal, teamster, buffalo hunter, bouncer, saloon-keeper, gambler, brothel keeper, miner, Earp spent his early life in Iowa. In 1870, Earp married his first wife, Urilla Sutherland Earp and his third arrest was subject of a lengthy account in the Daily Transcript which referred to him as an old offender and nicknamed him the Peoria Bummer. By 1874 he had arrived in the boomtown of Wichita. On April 21,1875 he was appointed to the Wichita police force, in April 1876 he was dismissed from his position as a lawman following an altercation with a political opponent of his boss which led to him being fined $30. In 1876, he followed his brother James to Dodge City, Kansas, in winter 1878, he went to Texas to track down an outlaw and met John Doc Holliday, whom Earp later credited with saving his life. Earp moved constantly throughout his life from one boomtown to another and he left Dodge City in 1879 and moved to Tombstone with his brothers James and Virgil, where a silver boom was underway. There, the Earps clashed with a federation of outlaws known as the Cowboys. The conflict escalated over the year, culminating on October 26,1881 in the Gunfight at the O. K. Corral, in which the Earps. In the next five months, Virgil was ambushed and maimed, pursuing a vendetta, Wyatt, his brother Warren, Holliday, and others formed a federal posse that killed three of the Cowboys whom they thought responsible. Wyatt was never wounded in any of the gunfights in which he took part, unlike his brothers Virgil and James, or his friend, Doc Holliday, Earp was a lifelong gambler and was always looking for a quick way to make money. After leaving Tombstone, Earp went to San Francisco where he reunited with Josephine Earp and they joined a gold rush to Eagle City, Idaho, where they owned mining interests and a saloon. They left there to race horses and open a saloon during an estate boom in San Diego. They moved briefly to Yuma, Arizona before joining the Nome Gold Rush in 1899, in partnership with Charlie Hoxie they opened a two storey saloon called The Dexter and made an estimated $80,000. Returning to the lower 48, they opened another saloon in Tonopah, Nevada, in about 1911, Earp began working several mining claims in Vidal, California, retiring in the hot summers with Josephine to Los Angeles. Wyatt Earp died on January 13,1929 and he was known as a Western lawman, gunfighter, and boxing referee. He had a reputation for both his handling of the Fitzsimmons-Sharkey fight and his role in the O. K. Corral gun fight
6.
Colt Buntline
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The Colt Buntline Special is a long-barreled variant of the Colt Single Action Army revolver, which Stuart N. Lake described in his best-selling but largely fictionalized 1931 biography, Wyatt Earp, according to Lake, the dime novelist Ned Buntline commissioned the production of five Buntline Specials. After its publication, various Colt revolvers with long barrels were referred to as Colt Buntlines or Buntline Specials, Colt manufactured the pistol among its second-generation revolvers produced after 1956. A number of manufacturers, such as Uberti, Navy Arms. The revolver was first described by Stuart Lake in his highly fictionalized 1931 biography Wyatt Earp, the extremely popular book turned Wyatt Earp into a Western superman. Lakes creative biography and later Hollywood portrayals exaggerated Wyatts profile as a western lawman, Lake wrote that dime novelist Edward Zane Carroll Judson, Sr. writing under the pseudonym of Ned Buntline, commissioned the guns in repayment for material for hundreds of frontier yarns. Yet Buntline, in fact, only four western yarns, all about Buffalo Bill. According to descendants of Wyatt Earps cousins, he owned a Colt. 45-caliber, Earp had received the revolver as a gift from Tombstone mayor and Tombstone Epitaph newspaper editor John Clum. Lake later admitted that he had put words into Wyatts mouth because of the inarticulateness, Lake conceived the idea of a revolver that would be more precise and could be easily modified to work similarly to a rifle. According to Lake, the Colt Buntline was a revolver chambered for.45 Long Colt cartridge. However, it had a 12-inch-long barrel, in comparison to the Colt Peacemakers 7. 5-inch barrel, a 16-inch barrel was available, as well. According to Lake, it had a stock that could be easily affixed through a combination of screws. This accessory gave the revolver better precision and range, Lake claimed, the Colt Buntline was further popularized by The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp television series. However, neither Tilghman nor Brown were lawmen at that time, according to Lake, Earp kept his pistol at the original 12-inch length, but the four other recipients of the Specials cut their barrels down to the standard 7 1⁄2 inches or shorter. Lake spent much effort trying to track down the Buntline Special through the Colt company, Masterson, Lake described it as a Colt Single Action Army model with a long,12 inches barrel, standard sights, and wooden grips into which the name “Ned” was ornately carved. Researchers have never found any record of a received by the Colt company. The revolver could have been ordered from the Colt factory in Hartford, Connecticut. Several such revolvers with 16-inch barrels and detachable stocks were displayed at the 1876 Centennial Exposition, there are no company records for the Buntline Special, nor a record of any orders from or sent to Ned Buntline
7.
United States Marshals Service
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The United States Marshals Service is a federal law enforcement agency within the U. S. Department of Justice. It is the oldest American federal law enforcement agency, which was created by the Judiciary Act of 1789 during the presidency of George Washington, the Marshals Service is attached to the Judicial branch of government, and is the enforcement arm of the federal courts. It is the agency for fugitive operations, responsible for prisoner transport, the protection of officers of the court. The Marshals Service operates the Witness Protection Program, and serves federal level arrest warrants, the office of United States Marshal was created by the First Congress. President George Washington signed the Judiciary Act into law on September 24,1789, the Act provided that the United States Marshals primary function was to execute all lawful warrants issued to him under the authority of the United States. The critical Supreme Court decision, affirming the authority of the federal marshals, was made in In re Neagle 135 U. S.1. For over 100 years marshals were patronage jobs, typically controlled by the district judge and they were paid primarily by fees until a salary system was set up in 1896. Many of the first US Marshals had already proven themselves in service during the American Revolution. From the nations earliest days, marshals were permitted to recruit special deputies as local hires, Marshals were also authorized to swear in a posse to assist with manhunts, and other duties, ad hoc. Marshals were given authority to support the federal courts within their judicial districts. Federal marshals were by far the most important government officials in territorial jurisdictions, local law enforcement officials were often called marshals so there is often an ambiguity whether someone was a federal or a local official. Federal marshals are most famous for their law enforcement work, the largest part of the business was paper work—serving writs, and other process issued by the courts, made all the arrests, and handled all federal prisoners. They also disbursed funds as ordered by the courts, Marshals paid the fees and expenses of the court clerks, U. S. Attorneys, jurors, and witnesses. They rented the courtrooms and jail space, and hired the bailiffs, criers and they made sure the prisoners were present, the jurors were available, and that the witnesses were on time. The marshals thus provided local representation for the government within their districts. They took the census every decade through 1870. During the settlement of the American Frontier, marshals served as the source of day-to-day law enforcement in areas that had no local government of their own. U. S. Marshals were instrumental in keeping law and order in the Old West era, Bill Tilghman, Heck Thomas, and Chris Madsen formed a legendary law enforcement trio known as The Three Guardsmen when they worked together policing the vast, lawless Oklahoma and Indian Territories
8.
Dora Hand
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Dora Hand was an American dance hall singer and actress in Dodge City, Kansas, who was mistakenly shot to death from ambush by a young suitor, who was acquitted of criminal charges in the case. Hand was also linked romantically with James H. Dog Kelley, Hand may have been born on the East Coast of the United States and some sources list her birth as early as 1840. According to legend, she was a descendant of a prominent unnamed Boston family, had studied music in Europe and had once performed opera in New York City, like Doc Holliday, she had supposedly come to the American West to battle tuberculosis. When she arrived in Dodge City, possibly as early as May 1877 or as late as June 1878, she was divorced from her musician husband Theodore Ted Hand, when Hand came to Dodge City, Mayor Kelley had already entered the restaurant business with Peter L. Beatty. Their Beatty & Kelley Restaurant adjoined the Alhambra Saloon, which they also co-owned, Fannie Garretson, another saloon singer, had encouraged her friend Dora to come to Dodge City. An article in the Boot Hill Museum in Dodge City describes Hand, accordingly, as of medium height and build, there was a grace and charm in her walk. She dressed plainly, usually in black, and this seemed to accentuate the ivory whiteness of her soft skin. In Wyatt Earp, Frontier Marshal, author Stuart N, Lake describes Hand as the most graciously beautiful woman to come to Dodge City in the heyday of its iniquity. In The Trampling Herd, Paul Wellman writes, By all accounts, she was a creature, with a face and voice which gave men strange nostalgic dreams of better days. Hands pay increased from $40 to $75 a week at the Lady Gay. Kelley managed to arrange for her to sing five nights a week for two hours at his Alhambra Saloon, the added income led Hand to assist the poor and unfortunate. Drago described her as an angel of mercy in the eyes of Dodge City residents and she joined the Ladies Aid Society and sang at the pastors invitation at the First Methodist Church in Dodge City. When Hand appeared, the church was crowded to the doors, within an hour of the church appearance, she had already returned to the stage of the Lady Gay. Stuart Lake saw her as by night the Queen of the Fairy Belles who entertained drunken cowhands but by day Lady Bountiful, when Kenedy became aggressive toward Dora, Kelley physically evicted him from the Alhambra, and the two later clashed again. Kenedy prepared for revenge against Kelley and he obtained the fastest horse possible to make an escape then, began to follow Kelleys daily routine. He learned that Kelley spent many nights in a crude two-room cabin near the saloon and he struck early on the morning of October 4,1878, firing a gunshot into the cabin. What Kenedy did not know was that Kelley had changed his routine and was not inside the cabin when Kenedy fired, kelly was instead seeking treatment for a stomach disorder at the infirmary at Fort Dodge, the United States Army outpost some five miles from Dodge City. He had gone to Fort Dodge because he was on terms with the town physician in Dodge City. Inside Kelleys cabin were Dora and Fannie Garretson, kenedys shot passed an unlikely route through Garretsons bedding and then a wall before it struck and killed Dora Hand instantly
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