Death Valley Days: Camel Train

It is 1847 as Edward Beale (Stanley Lachman) and Kit Carson (William Reynolds) ride through the southwestern deserts.  It is difficult terrain but Beale claims that camels would be ideal.  He intends to lobby Congress to buy some camels from the Middle East.  Back in Washington, he convinces Senator Jefferson Davis (Harry Fleer), who promises to get funding.  Unfortunately, the rest of Congress is unconvinced.  Years pass.  In 1853, Davis is Secretary of War and is able to push funding for a Camel Corps.  Beale hears the good news from David Dixon Porter (Ed Hinton).  Porter explains how he will go to the Middle East to purchase camels and deliver them to Texas.  After that, it will be up to Beale.  Eventually, the camels arrive and Beale uses them on a trek from Texas to California.  He has high hopes but then the Civil War!  The War Department has no use for a camel corps and wants to cut costs on this unneeded program.

This is a fairly accurate retelling of the Camel Corps.  After California was secured a second time during the Mexican American War, Kit Carson and Ed Beale rode east together as shown.  The role of George Crossman as the chief proponent for camels and the man who likely bent Jeff Davis' ear on the subject is given to Ed Beale.  David Porter did sail to the Levant for camels and landed them at Indianola on the Texas coast.  Hadji Ali was the chief cameleer and was called "Hi Jolly," Beale mapped a new route across the southwestern deserts with the aid of camels.  The Camel Corps was disbanded and the camels sold on account of the Civil War.  Overall, good history to be had.

The story is almost a documentary in style.  Both Beale and Mary, his wife, break the fourth wall and narrate on several occasions.  That was very strange for a half-hour show.  Being only half an hour, there is a lot of compression.  The narration is clearly to pack in more information given the time constraints.  Even so, recommended.

Death Valley Days: Gold Rush in Reverse

Lt. Edward Beale (Stanley Lachman) of the US Navy is in California when gold is discovered.  Lt. Losier (Doug McClure) of the Army declares his intention to take a sample to Washington, DC, to let the country know of the find.  Beale is determined that the navy will have that honor.  As such, he buys a sample by selling a bottle of quinine from his medical kit.  However, Losier has already left and the ship on which he served doesn't have enough sailors to leave port; they deserted to join the gold hunters!  As such, he catches another ship and sails to the Mexican coast.  He rides from San Blas to Mexico City to Vera Cruz, fighting ladrones (bandits) for the entire 800-mile trip.  From Vera Cruz he sails aboard the USS Germantown.  Still concerned that Lt. Losier is on his tail, he only pauses for the night in Mobile, Alabama, before racing on toward Washington.  As luck would have it, Losier's ship had hit bad weather and he was delayed by months.  So it was that the US Navy delivered the news to Washington that gold had been discovered in the newly annexed California.

The story is more exciting than the history.  Indeed, Beale did cross Mexico, but the plentiful gunfights are fanciful addition.  Beale spoke Spanish and posed as a Mexican rancher during his incognito crossing.  However, this is a true story.  Entertaining and worth watching.

Death Valley Days: The Bear Flag

The story opens in Sonoma, California, in 1846.  Mariano Vallejo discusses with Don Miguel Ruiz the troubles being wrought by American immigrants.  Ruiz fears that they will attempt to annex California to America, like has happened in Texas.  To Ruiz's surprise, Vallejo hopes for just such an outcome.  Soon after, a band of Americans steal horses that were set aside for General Castro.  In Sonoma, there is concern that this will soon get out of hand and plans are made to send the ladyfolk to Monterey.  They are too late.  The Americans arrive in Sonoma and take Vallejo prisoner.  To the Americans' surprise, Vallejo invites them into his office and offers them drinks.  He gladly signs a letter of capitulation.  Now in control of part of California, they have the dilemma of what flag to fly.  As they are not sanction by the United States, they don't see it as appropriate to fly the stars and stripes.  Thus, they set to designing a new flag.

"Let's have a lone star on it!" one suggests.  That idea receives mixed reactions, mostly dissent as copying Texas.

"California Republic," one declares to universal approval.

"Let's have a bear!" another suggests.  Though his idea is initially opposed, he sells the idea and it is soon adopted.

The men search for materials and soon stitch together a flag.  William Todd, a cousin of Mary Todd Lincoln, paints the flag.  Shortly, he has painted a lone star in the corner, a grizzly bear, and 'California Republic' on the flag.  They pull down the Mexican flag and hoist the bear flag.  So begins the Bear Flag Republic!

Less than a month later, Vallejo receives word that the US and Mexico are at war; Commodore Sloat of the US Navy has raised the US flag at Monterey and claimed California for the United States.  And thus ended the Bear Flag Republic.

Though generally accurate in the portrayal of the events, this is a kinder & friendlier account.  The American immigrants had been encouraged by Capt. John C. Fremont to both take the horses and revolt.  The treatment of Vallejo, who was clearly eager to join the United States, was not quite as kind as shown.  Rather than being granted parole, he was removed to Sutter's Fort as a prisoner.

Interesting and informative, but poorly scripted.  There are too many characters.  This should have focused on one or two participants.  However, it is clear that the idea was to present the many viewpoints of the era, from Californios who were against, those who were ambivalent, and those who were in favor.  There is a similar diversity of opinions among the immigrants.

Just okay.

Death Valley Days: The Firebrand

It is 1846 in Los Angeles and Captain Gillespie of the US Marines has declared martial law.  The city had surrendered without a fight in August and Gillespie was left as military commander.  Former Governor Pio Pico and his brother Andres Pico meet with Gillespie to protest his measures.  However, Gillespie promises to intensify them.  When Gillespie later arrives at a local saloon to arrest a blustering drunkard, Andres has had too much.  He incites the populace to rise up against the Americans.  Despite warnings from his elder brother, Andres sets out with a force of 80 men to confront the army of General Stephen Watts Kearny.  Though he beats them, he sees the wisdom of his brother's counsel and proposes surrender.  However, when told he would be treated as an outlaw and sent to prison for his attack on the American army, he threatens to fight on.  Meanwhile in San Diego, General Kearny meets with Commodore Stockton, declaring his desire for vengeance and exaggerating the force that defeated him at San Pasqual.  Will Andres and Kearny fight again for a final bloody massacre?

Andres Pico is the titular Firebrand, a man eager to fight an unwinnable war.  The episode leaves out much of the history but gets the gist correct.  Lt. Archibald Gillespie had been left in charge of Los Angeles by John C. Fremont and then promptly triggered a revolt.  The ride of Juan Flacco detailed part of this story.  Andres and his band of Californio Lancers trounced two companies of US Dragoons at San Pasqual in early December 1846 (this battle happens entirely off screen, missing a great chance for some action in this snoozefest of an episode).  Of note, Gillespie had joined Kearny by this time and was present at the battle.  Kit Carson managed to reach San Diego and summon reinforcements from Commodore Stockton to assist/rescue the threatened dragoon column.  Though the show implies this was the only battle, Kearny did get his opportunity to fight.  The battles of Rio San Gabriel (Jan 8, 1847) and La Mesa (Jan 9, 1847) preceded the signing of the Treaty of Cahuenga (Jan 13, 1847). 

The casting is uninspired.  These actors are playing random roles with little regard to the real people.  The Pico brothers come off best, which is appropriate as this is their story.  The uniforms aren't correct.  The actor playing Fighting Bob Stockton is bald, the one playing General Kearny has a mustache, and a random Mexican drunkard has a revolver (uncommon in the era).  Overall, I was embarrassed for Ronald Reagan that he did the intro and outro for this turkey.

Skip.

Death Valley Days: George Vest

It is 1869 and 12-year-old Andy Cody is running outside with his dog, Johnny.  Johnny races ahead and Andy hears two gunshots.  Catching up to Johnny, Andy sees the dog is dead and Carter Johnson standing nearby with a shotgun.  Andy is understandably upset, but Johnson declares that he repeatedly warned Andy to keep off his property.  Demanding justice for the unwarranted killing of his dog, Andy asks George Graham Vest (Ronald Reagan) to sue Johnson for damages.  Vest agrees.  Soon, Johnson is in court to defend himself from the $500 suit over a 10-year-old mutt not worth more than 50 cents.  The evidence clearly shows that the dog had little value and was indeed trespassing.  In his summation, Vest orated about friendship and the loyalty of a dog.  The jury found in favor of Andy.

Interestingly, this is a true story though many of the names have been changed.  Why?  Leonidas Hornsby, a sheep farmer, shot Old Drum after having announced his intention to kill any dog found on his property.  Charles Burden, Old Drum's owner, sought recompence.  As shown, Vest won the case more on account of his moving oratory than any evidence.  Rather than $500, Burden was awarded $50.

There are some noteworthy things that the episode glossed over.  Carter Johnson is supposedly a man with political influence and Vest plans to run for Senate.  That he pursues the suit anyway shows what an upstanding lawyer he is.  Hmm.  George Vest was for the Confederacy.  He argued to maintain slavery in Missouri and later became a Representative and Senator in the Confederate government.  In 1870, when the suit went to trial, Vest had no reason to fear the influence of a sheep farmer.  Furthermore, as a former Confederate office holder during Reconstruction (1865-1877), he was ineligible for election.  He was not elected to the US Senate until 1879, when Reconstruction had ended.  Senators were selected by the state assembly and didn't get popular votes as they do today.

Entertaining and an interesting bit of American history, but too many liberties were taken to view it as educational.

Death Valley Days: David Farragut

It is June of 1856 in San Francisco and the Vigilance Committee is arresting citizens and has already hanged two men.  Doctor Ashe has managed to escape the committee and reports the troubles to Captain Farragut (Ronald Reagan).  Farragut says he can't do anything without orders from the president.  So long as the committee doesn't attack federal property, there's nothing he can do.  Nonetheless, he takes a longboat to the Barbary Coast of San Francisco to see for himself.  He is unsatisfied by the answers from a committee functionary named McCartney.  McCartney is sending bands of men to arrest all sorts of people without due process.  Farragut checks with the head of the committee, JD Calhoun.  Calhoun denies all blame for McCartney's actions.  As luck would have it, Farragut had left orders with Lt. Burnell to sail three ships to stand off the Barbary Coast.  Farragut threatens the miscreant committee men with a barrage that will flatten the area.  Everyone comes to their senses and the city is saved.

All this was new to me, so I decided to research the topic.  Sure enough, there was a Vigilance Committee that took law into its own hands, once in 1851, and again in 1856.  William Tecumseh Sherman - future arsonist of Atlanta - was a banker in San Francisco at the time and had been asked to command the city militia during this exact period.  His letters show that he was frustrated by the inaction of General Wool - the army commander in the region - and the mixed signals from Governor Johnson.  He also noted that Farragut refused to get involved without orders from President Pierce.  As Pierce had already taken a hands-off attitude in what became Bleeding Kansas, it seemed unlikely he would authorize military action in San Francisco.  In his biography of Farragut, Alfred T Mahan - author of The Influence of Sea Power Upon History - offers an oblique comment that the Navy approved of Farragut's actions during those troubled times in California.  In an article from the National Review, it was noted that Farragut dispatched a ship "for moral effect."

It would appear that The Battle of San Francisco episode vastly expanded Farragut's minimal role in the taming of the Vigilance Committee.  As an active participant in opposing the committee, it is a certainty that Sherman would have mentioned this astonishing effort by Farragut, especially since Sherman had been denied assistance by Farragut the day before the proposed events in the episode.

Farragut was in the region to establish the Mare Island Naval Station and was living aboard a sloop-of-war with his wife, Virginia.  I had thought it odd that she was living on the ship, but the episode was accurate on this point.  There were no accommodations on the island as yet and he was stationed here from 1854 to 1858.  6 years later, he would "Damn the torpedoes" and steam into Mobile Bay during the Civil War.

Disappointing.

Death Valley Days: California's Paul Revere

It is September 1846 and the US garrison at Los Angeles is under siege by Californios.  Lt. Archibald Gilespie is in command of no more than 50 men.  Fort Moore has no water supply and his ammunition is limited.  He needs reinforcements to avoid defeat.  John Brown, locally known as Juan Flaco (Spanish for Lean John), volunteers to ride to Monterey to inform Commodore Stockton of the siege.  He rides through the Californio lines and is off to the Cahuenga Pass.  After a series of fictional challenges, he arrives in Monterey only to discover that Stockton has sailed on to San Francisco.  On a fresh horse, he finally delivers the news of the siege, six days after he had left.  Stockton orders the USS Savannah to assist Gilespie.

Though Death Valley Days proposes that Juan Flaco saved California by his impressive Paul Revere-like ride, the truth is that it hardly mattered.  Gilespie had brought the revolt on himself by imposing martial law on a city of 3,000 when he had such a tiny command.  The day Juan Flaco delivered his message, Gilespie surrendered the fort and retreated to San Pedro.  The Californios now held Los Angeles.  It was not until the California Battalion under Fremont, sailors and marines under Stockton, and dragoons under General Kearny combined forces in January of 1847 that Los Angeles was retaken.  John Brown's ride was a marvel in its time but failed to save Gilespie from surrendering to the Californios, the entire point of his ride.

Meh.

Death Valley Days: Spring Rendezvous

With a horse full of fur from his time in the mountains, Kit Carson (James MacArthur) is headed to the Rendezvous at Green River in Wyoming.  He has decided he needs a wife and he knows just the one: Waa-Nibe (Brioni Farrell) of the Arapaho.  However, there is a Frenchman who also has eyes for Waa-Nibe.  Shugar is a giant of a man who is regularly seen trouncing other trappers with little difficulty.  By contrast, Kit is a smallish man, even called Little Man by the Arapaho.  Kit challenges Shugar and the pair mount horses at 200 paces and carry rifles.  Kit's crack shooting wins the day and he marries Waa-Nibe.

Though I cannot speak to the particulars, the gist is entirely true.  In 1836, Kit Carson attending the annual Rendezvous.  The Rendezvous was an opportunity for fur trading companies to purchase all the furs that the mountain men had collected since the previous year.  It was the annual county fair for those living in the wilderness.  Joseph Chouinard (Shugar in the show) was known as the Great Bully of the Mountains, threatening to beat Americans as he had beaten his fellow Frenchmen.  Kit Carson replied with threats of his own and the duel was on.  Though both are shown with rifles in the episode, Carson more likely had a horse pistol.  The two men were on horseback and practically face to face when they shot at each other.  Carson was a split second faster, shooting the Frenchman's hand and ruining his aim.  Even so, Carson had a slice under his right ear and powder burns on his face from the near miss.

Kit Carson was 27 at the time and Waa-Nibe was the first of his three wives.  She died shortly after their second daughter was born in 1841.  Though it was funny to see Hawaii Five-O's Danno as Kit Carson, the episode was an entertaining and reasonably accurate peak into the life and times of a mountain man.

Death Valley Days: Emperor Norton

In 1853, Joshua Norton is a successful commodities trader in San Francisco.  His latest financial coup is having purchased a shipload of rice from Peru.  Unfortunately, more shiploads of rice arrive and the price drops dramatically.  He is ruined.  Now destitute, he bemoans the state of affairs in the country and declares that there should be an emperor for a country the size of the United States.  Epiphany!  Dressed in outlandish finery, he arrives at a local newspaper and requests that his proclamation of being emperor be published.  The paper does exactly that, tongue in cheek.  However, the city of San Francisco embraces Emperor Norton I.  Soon, Norton has an entourage of 2 dogs, Lazarus and Bummer.  He has regular proclamations published but none are obeyed.  However, he does drive George Washington II, a man who claimed to be the reincarnation of the first president, to leave San Francisco.  When Norton I died in 1880, his funeral was attended by thousands.

Ludicrous as this sounds, it is all true.  Born in England in 1818, Norton grew up in South Africa before migrating to the United States in 1845.  He arrived in San Francisco in 1849 and was quite successful for several years before his rice disaster.  The Presidio provided uniforms, local businesses accepted his scrip as money, and the local police saluted him on the streets.  Lazarus and Bummer were stray dogs who were often associated with Norton I on account of political cartoons by Edward Jump.  Frederick Coombs, another Englishman, bore a striking resemblance to George Washington and declared himself the reincarnation.  Norton issued a proclamation to have GW II sent to an asylum; GW II departed San Francisco, but resumed his claims on the east coast.

Emperor Norton was an inspiration for one of the characters in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain; Twain had lived in San Francisco during part of Norton I's reign.

Entertaining and educational.

Death Valley Days: Joaquin Murrieta

The story opens with a raid by Joaquin Murrieta and Manuel Garcia AKA Three-Fingered Jack.  They kill several men and steal bags of gold.  On the way out of town, the bandit cries, "I am Joaquin!"  Elsewhere, Stephen Dix is enjoying an evening with his wife and infant daughter.  He commands a riverboat that travels to and from the gold fields, leaving for a week at a time.  He begs his wife to let him take their daughter on his next circuit and she reluctantly agrees.  Of course, Joaquin and his band attack the riverboat, killing Stephen and absconding with the infant.  Ann is desperate to locate her missing daughter and thus wants to talk to Murrieta.  She contacts Captain Love, the ranger assigned to track Joaquin and end his long series of crimes.  Love and his men encounter Murrieta's band but are forced to kill both Joaquin and Three-Fingered Jack.  Deciding that she will never find her daughter, Ann retreats to a church she has visited many times since the tragedy only to find that her daughter was left there by Joaquin shortly after the river raid.  Happy reunion of mother and daughter.

The framing of the story is awkward.  How to tell the tale of a notorious outlaw without having the outlaw as the central character?  Joaquin Murrieta was active during the California Gold Rush.  His banditry was brought to an end by Captain Harry Love.  Love had been a Texas Ranger who fought in the war with Mexico before joining the Gold Rush in 1850.  His mining efforts came to naught.  He instead found his fortune by tracking and killing Joaquin Murrieta in 1853.

Originally, Murrieta was a 49er like many others.  The legend from a dime novel of the period is that he was beaten, his brother killed, and his wife raped.  He killed those responsible and was thereafter branded a criminal.  This background was not provided in the episode, and he is a straight black hat, his only redeeming feature being his refusal to leave an infant on a riverboat of corpses.

By contrast, Love is shown as the clean-shaved white hat who is eager to help Ann find her missing daughter.  That is far from an accurate portrayal of Love.  It was often said that he killed innocent men in place of Murietta and Garcia to claim the immense reward offered by California.  In later years, he killed his estranged wife and was in turn killed by her bodyguard.

Joaquin Murietta, Three-Fingered Jack, and Captain Love appear in The Mask of Zorro (1998), though greatly fictionalized and placed in the wrong decade.

Death Valley Days: Lola Montez

The story opens in Grass Valley, California, in the 1850s.  Lola Montez (Paula Morgan) has married Patrick Hull.  Lola breaks the 4th wall and offers some of her history, from eloping as a teen to marry Lt. Thomas James, to dancing in England, to an affair with composer Franz Liszt, to her elevation to Countess of Landsfeld in Bavaria thanks to the besotted King Ludwig I.  From this great height, she fell during the revolutions of 1848.  She tells of meeting Patrick on her way to San Francisco and their marriage.  Now caught up to the present and halfway through the episode, her life plays out.  The marriage to Patrick crumbles, her fortunes falter further, and she ends her days in a sanitarium in New York where she died at the age of 39.

This is entirely too much story told in too short a time.  Sadly, her most interesting life events all took place outside of the American West, the putative subject of Death Valley Days.  So, rather than an entertaining and brief anecdote about her life in the West, here is a lighting fast biography of one of the 19th century's most interesting women.  This is a thumbnail sketch that deserved a fuller telling.  The best option would have been to find something interesting in the West - like that she was an inspiration for actress Lotta Crabtree while she was in Grass Valley - rather than offer a slapdash biography.

Meh.

Death Valley Days: The Girl Who Walked the West

The Corps of Discovery is entering Shoshone territory and Sacajawea (Victoria Vetri) offers Lewis (Dick Simmons) and Clark (Don Matheson) some pointers on how to interact with her people.  She offers a history of how she came to be Charbonneau's squaw.  She was kidnapped 5 years earlier and sold from one tribe to another until she came to be bought by Charbonneau in the Mandan territory.  Though Lewis and Clark hired Charbonneau as a guide, it is really Sacajawea who knows the way west and they will miss her guidance if she rejoins her tribe.  Charbonneau (Victor French) is a nasty and thoroughly dislikable man.  At one point, he strikes Sacajawea and Clark intervenes, threatening dire consequences to Charbonneau if he hits her again.  The eventual meeting with the Shoshone goes poorly until Sacajawea reveals herself and proves to be the chief's sister.  Furnished with horses by the chief, the Corps of Discovery continues west toward the Pacific and Sacajawea goes with them.

Another true tale of the West, but, again, there are casting issues.  Don Matheson was a only a few years older than the actual William Clark, but Dick Simmons (54) was old enough to be Lewis's (31) father.  Charbonneau (38) was older than either Lewis or Clark but is played by someone younger (33) than either of the actors playing them.  Still, French did a credible job.  Also of note, though the Corps is depicted much smaller than it was, York - who was William Clark's slave - is shown among them.

The epilogue - offered by host Robert Taylor - stated that Sacajawea lived into her 90s.  The more probable case is that she died of a fever in 1812.  In 1809, William Clark was entrusted with raising and educating Jean-Baptiste Charbonneau (the baby that Sacajawea is usually depicted carrying).  In 1813, he took in Lizette Charbonneau.  In 1825, when listing the fates of the Corps of Discovery members, he listed Sacajawea as dead.

Entertaining and informative.

Death Valley Days: Kit Carson

Death Valley Days went off the air when I was 3 so I missed out on this show. I've heard about it and have watched a couple episodes over the years. I just finished watching one that drew my interest: Samaritans, Mountain Style.  The tale opens somewhere in the West in 1843 or 1844, during the Second Expedition of John C. Fremont (Dick Simmons).  Kit Carson (Phillip Pine) and Frenchy Godey (Michael Pate) are playing pranks on the hapless William Gilpin (Don Keefer).  Gilpin has a low opinion of these rough mountain men, but Fremont says they are necessary for the success of the expedition.  Later, a Mexican man and his son arrive, having just survived an Indian attack which cost them many relatives and a herd of horses.  Gilpin urges Fremont to take action but he declines, stating that his job is to blaze a trail to Oregon, not risk the expedition on fighting Indians.  On their own, Carson and Godey locate the missing horses and snatch them from the Indians.  Gilpin is quite impressed and changes his opinion of mountain men.

It is a simple tale and even true.  Carson and Godey did retrieve horses for a Mexican during the expedition.  Generally, quite enjoyable.  However, the casting is a bit of a problem.  34 year-old Kit Carson is portrayed by 46 year-old Pine.  Godey was only 25 but Pate is 46.  Gilpin was 30 while Keefer is 50.  Lastly, Fremont was only 30 but is portrayed by a 53 year-old Simmons.  Though probably not a problem for most viewers, this took me out of the story repeatedly.  Also, this expedition had around 50 men who brought along a canon.  As shown, Fremont has fewer than 10 men in the expedition.  Changes have been made for budgetary reasons and casting must have depended on the stock of regular actors for the series.

Entertaining and even mildly educational.