MY INTERVIEW WITH BAT MASTERSON – INSP ‘WILD WEST CHRONICLES’ STAR JACK ELLIOT
On
a day in January, I visited Morning Star’s studio in Acton, California, to watch
a day’s shooting of two INSP series, Elkhorn, about the early formative days in
Teddy Roosevelt’s life, and Wild West Chronicles.
For
three TV seasons, actor Jack Elliot has brought legendary lawman Bat Masterson
to life on INSP’s Wild West Chronicles, and he’ll be returning for a fourth
season starting on Wednesday, September 4th. He plays Bat engagingly,
with an air of gravitas backed by a sense of humor, and an unwillingness to
suffer fools and liars.
A
glance at photos of the historical figure and of the actor reveals another
likely reason for his casting. “It's freakish,”
Jack acknowledges with a laugh, referring to his startling resemblance to Masterson.
“I assumed I looked a little bit like him.” After all, in 2015 he portrayed
Masterson on an episode of Gunslingers. “But then I'll look at photos from set
and compare that to the original: even down to the mustache, the nose. It's a
little creepy.” Or to put a more positive spin on it, “It was meant to be.”
Later
in life, Bat Masterson became a journalist, and wrote about his friends and
acquaintances and adversaries, and his book, Famous Gunfighters of
the Western Frontier, was the inspiration to have the character of Bat
interviewing his contemporaries, and be the conduit for telling each episode’s
story. And in another example of life imitating art, Jack Elliot has become a
writer, scripting his first episode of the series. “I have: The Hunt
for John Wesley Harden. So many of the stories from the old West are bad guys,
and we don't want to glorify that. We want to glorify the good guys. So it's a
buddy cop drama basically, about the hunt for John Wesley Harden. We start
filming today. Actually, they're filming it right now. You wouldn't think it'd
be such a departure from acting, but writing is truly a departure. Realizing
that every single word that goes into a script, especially a 22-minute script,
is important. It has to be packed with information. You can't have any fat. And
you still have to be able to make it interesting, make the characters
compelling.”
HENRY
PARKE: When you were chosen to play the character of Bat Masterson, were you
very knowledgeable about him?
JACK
ELLIOT: Not super knowledgeable, but I did my due diligence, tried to read as
many biographies as I could, and watched a bit of the series, but I also didn't
want to do Gene Barry's Bat Masterson. I wanted to make him my own. I didn't
want a preconceived notion of who he was.
HENRY
PARKE: What do you think the Gene Barry show got right, and what did they get
wrong?
JACK
ELLIOT: I don't want to judge his work. I think that he had a great character
for the time. You know, the, the gambler, suave, debonair. Of course he didn't
have a mustache. But I think he did a lot right. Hopefully we're just kind of adding to the
history of the guy. Definitely doing our own thing, but I think they got a lot
right.
HENRY
PARKE: In your research, were there things about Masterson that surprised you?
JACK
ELLIOT: So many things. The guy was a renaissance man. A lot of these guys were
renaissance men and women, that didn't just do one thing. He did so many
things. And after 40 years of successful life in the Old West he decides to
move to New York and become a newspaper man. And he did that successfully for
20, 30 years. And hobnobbed with all these greats. He was great friends with TR,
called to the White House. Teddy made him a U.S. Marshall for the district of
Manhattan. I think he had to sit in on trials;
just a really interesting cat.
I'M PRESENTING 'NEWS OF THE WORLD' SATURDAY, JULY 13TH AT THE AUTRY!
I will also be signing copies of my new book, The Greatest Westerns Ever Made, and the People Who Made Them. You may be able to buy them at the Autry Bookstore, or you can buy a copy from Amazon HERE.
TOM TYLER IS A 'RIP ROARIN' BUCKAROO' AT LONE PINE!
Details are still being finalized for the annual Lone Pine Western Film Festival, October 10th through the 13th, but I've just learned that on Friday the 11th at 11 a.m., I'll be interviewing Sandra Slepski, niece of Wester star Tom Tyler, then we'll be screening his 1936 film Rip Roarin' Buckaroo, which I believe was shot in Lone Pine. I'll have a whole lot more information as the Festival gets closer.
...AND THAT'S A WRAP!
Please check out the July/August issue of True West, featuring my article celebrating the 75th anniversary of She Wore a Yellow Ribbon.
And here's a link to my most recent article for the INSP blog, about the Joel McCrea Westerns, Stars in My Crown.
Happy Trails,
Henry
All Original Contents Copyright June 2024 by Henry C. Parke - All Rights Reserved
