Quote:
Originally Posted by SStockDart
"I know, why don't we have a spelling contest" (quote, Doc Holliday)
|
Actually, that's a Val Kilmer quote. There is no evidence that Doc Holliday ever said that.
John "Doc" Holliday was, however, a real doctor- he was a dentist who earned his medical license at age 21.
The rest of that movie, as is just about every book or movie about Wyatt Earp, is largely fiction.
First of all, "the Shootout at the OK Corral" did not actually occur at the OK Corrall- it happened in a vacant lot next to a photo studio, six lots west of the OK Corrall.
Wyatt Earp was not an experienced gunfighter. He had been in exactly ONE previous shooting- he was among a group of people who fired at a fleeing criminal in the dark. Wyatt claimed to have killed him, but there is no evidence that any of Wyatt's bullets hit him. The criminal was hit in the leg by someone's bullet, and died a month later of gangrene.
Wyatt Earp was not the primary lawman in "the Shootout at the OK Corrall"- his brother Virgil was. Virgil was the town marshal, as well as a deputy US marshal, and was the only one present with any actual combat experience, as he had been a soldier in the Civil War. Virgil brought younger brother Morgan, baby brother Wyatt with him, no doubt as additional "muscle". That's also why Holliday was there. Virgil deputized all three of them.
Wyatt Earp was not primarily a lawman. Back in 1881, with no internet, television, cell phones, photo ID, or much of anything else, people like Wyatt could be a pimp, a horse thief, a gambler, and then just move to the next town and become a cop. And that's exactly what he did.
Also, Wyatt Earp was not "famous" until several years AFTER his death, when his widow commissioned a largely fictional book about him. Every time the story was retold after that, it just seemed to get bigger and bigger and bigger.
Doc Holliday was well and truly dangerous, but it wasn't because of his skill with firearms- it was because he had tuberculosis, which he caught from his dying mom. TB was known to be highly contageous, ultimately fatal, and there was no cure for it at that time, and that caused his dental practice to fail. He was fearless because he knew he was going to die anyway.