The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance 1962 John Wayne Cut-out From Valance Tombstone Arizona 2004 #5 Acrylic Print

John Ford's last masterpiece is "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" (1962), also considered the year marking the end of the studio system of the "Dream Factory."

Tombstone, Arizona exists today as a nostalgic reminder of the Old West. Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday portraits are everywhere in "The Town Too Tough To Die."

The make believe West of the movies is represented by numerous cardboard cut-outs of Duke; as in this life size one from "Valance."

Val Kilmer as Doc Holiday, all in black from the movie "Tombstone," lingers in the background.

John Wayne and Lee Marvin as Liberty Valance represent the Old West in the film and are replaced by the "Pilgrim" Jimmy Stewart and his civilizing law books, even though his dazzling career and reputation is based on a lie.

As in "The Searchers" Wayne is the outsider who can't fit into society. He even loses his girl in "Valance" to Stewart and burns down the new addition to his house built in anticipa...

I first became obsessed with photography and motion pictures while growing up in post WW2 Manila in the Philippine Islands in the late 1940's/early 1950's. Film noirs were a particular influence. But my first love remains the theater. I acted in numerous amateur productions from 1958 to 1978. In 1979 I earned a MA in drama from the University of Arizona; earlier getting a BA in English from the University of Minnesota, where I co-founded the first film society on campus and ran it for four years. While at the U of A, I studied with the master black and white photo essayist W. Eugene Smith (1918-1978) the last year of his life. I am the last person cited in Jim Hughes' definitive biography of Gene, as I wrote about attending his final...