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| Belle
Starr Standing with Pistols, ca. 1886
RC2006.068.2.00003 |
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The
Fantastic True Story of Belle Starr
The Glenn D. Shirley Western Americana Collection is most unique
for its inclusion of a wide range of materials. Shirley wrote
two books on Western outlaw Belle Starr. These tomes are entitled
Belle Starr, Outlaw Queen: The Fantastic True Story of Belle
Starr (1960) and Belle Starr and Her Times: The Literature,
the Facts, and the Legends (1982). The scope of materials
Shirley collected on this famous outlaw demonstrates the exceptional
breadth of information found throughout the collection. It runs
the gamut from fiction to non-fiction, academic to popular,
historical to modern and include everything from public records
and photos to newspaper clippings, histories, fictional stories,
and movie materials.
Documentation
confirms that Belle Starr married three times; first to Jim
Reed, then to Sam Starr and finally to one of Sam's relatives,
Jim July Starr. She gave birth to two children during her
marriage to Jim Reed, Rosie Lee (Pearl) and James Edwin (Eddie).
Her life came to a dramatic end when she was shot dead by
an unknown assassin in 1889. Starr's list of known associates
and adversaries reads like a who's who of the old West, with
the likes of the James Brothers, the Younger Brothers and
Isaac C. Parker, "the hanging judge." |
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| Belle
Starr the Bandit Queen or the Female Jesse James
New York: Richard K. Fox, 1889, reprint by Steck, Austin,
TX, 1960
RC2006.068.1.00027 |
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Belle Starr the Bandit Queen?
Belle Starr's last years coincided with the height of "yellow
journalism," a time when newspapers focused on drama
at the expense of facts in reporting. In his book, Belle Starr
and her Times, Glenn Shirley posits that the mythical Belle
Starr was born of one brief, but highly inaccurate, newspaper
article about Starr's death, run in both the Dallas Morning
News and in the New York Times. It is theorized
that this article inspired dime novel publisher Richard K.
Fox to pen and publish Belle Starr, the Bandit Queen,
or the Female Jesse James. In spite of a multitude of
inaccuracies, Fox's interpretation was often used as a historical
reference in books that followed.
Amid rampant misinformation, Starr's image
as a romantic Western outlaw grew to legendary proportions.
Shirley writes, "Her legend so flourished…that
Frederick S. Barde, one of Oklahoma's ablest newspapermen,
made an on-the-scene search in 1910 for the facts on her life
and death in the Indian Territory. Barde wrote, "‘Time
has thrown about her life a tinge of romance, yet those who
knew her well see no glamour in what she did—she was
merely a dissolute woman, unfortunate in her early life, and
in her later years merely a companion of thieves and outlaws.
It is doubtful if she herself ever did more than steal horses.'"
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Belle in Print
In addition to historical references, Shirley collected fiction,
including a number of titles based on the legend of Belle Starr.
These books contain overly romanticized plots, often adorned
with the face of a wild-eyed temptress that could not look less
like the real Belle Starr. A blurb on the back of one reads,
"Whether it was another man's horse or another woman's
man, Belle Starr knew what she wanted and took it. Leaving lovers
and enemies, lawmen and outlaws in her wake, she blazed a trail
of terror and passion from Fort Smith all along the wild Indian
territory called the Cherokee Strip (Belle of Fort Smith,
back cover)." |
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Film
still from "Montana Belle" with Jane Russell,
1952 ca.
RC2006.067.2.00006 |
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Hollywood Belle
As a romantic outlaw, Belle Starr held a great deal of appeal
in Hollywood and she was portrayed by various actresses in
a number of films and made-for-TV-movies. It is interesting
to note that in spite of her ordinary looks and modest figure,
Belle Starr is portrayed in film by such screen sirens as
Gene Tierney in Belle Starr (1941) and Jane Russell
in Montana Belle (1952).
Her character resurfaced again in the 1980
made-for-TV-movie also titled Belle Starr, with leading
lady Elizabeth Montgomery. These movies were highly fictionalized,
drawing on the Starr of legend rather than fact. Renewed literary
and historical interest in the character Belle Starr was sparked
by the 1941 movie, which Shirley states "touched off
three decades of revisionist writing."
The movie related items seen here represent
one of the most impressive portions of the Glenn D. Shirley
Western Americana Collection. With over 1,200 movie posters,
8,290 photographs and 6,540 lobby cards, this collection constitutes
a treasure trove of Western film history. |
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