March 30, 2026
Yesterday, after I introduced McCabe & Mrs. Miller in the theater at the Scottsdale Museum of the West, the curator, Andrew Patrick Nelson, gave me a personal tour of the new art show in the new wing of the museum. I had to stop and get a photo of me with the Wild Bunch Boys.
This is part of a big, new show: "Still In The Saddle: A New History of the Hollywood Western." They had a record crowd on Saturday with 3,400 people coming into the museum. Very heartening for those of us who care.
The Presbyterian Church Wager
That was the title Robert Altman was going to use for his oddball Western based on a 1959 novel by Edmund Naughton called "McCabe." A threatening call from elders in the Presbyterian Church disabused the legal department at Warner Brothers on using the title, so Altman then went with "McCabe & Mrs. Miller" which is still an odd enough title. Where is Mr. Miller in all of this?
A few more odds and ends about my favorite Western. Here is the actual scene I love so much where the unfinished boards invade the windows and a doorway. . .
Just so counter intuitive for a typical Western movie town. I seem to recall other towns being built in Westerns but, like I said, they are utilizing real carpenters and even the unfinished nature of the buildings seem to be, well, professional.
Yes, that is a J.I. Case 80 horsepower steam engine tractor from 1912 that brings Mrs. Miller into town. For all the nitpickers out there, the movie is set in 1902.
The movie uses three songs by Leonard Cohen, "The Stranger Song," "Sisters of Mercy" and "Winter Lady."
Just got this new tune apparently inspired by my many connections to old Route 66:
I was especially touched by the these lyrics:
"Mother Road won't you take me home, the car seems to know the way. . ."
—Jeff Shreckler, author of Daddy Ran A Gas Station
Meanwhile, back down on the border, what in the hell is the style of this hat? A Deep Dish Sombrero? A Rain Barrel for The Head?
It's not a one-off either. I have seen quite a few on the heads of villagers. Someone please explain.
"Every society honors its live conformists and its dead troublemakers."
—Marshall McLuhan
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