Roundup: January 11, 2017

Almansor Court – 700 S. Almansor, Alhambra, CA.
Social Hour: 5:00 PM
Dinner: 6:00 PM

Our Speaker: Brian Dervin Dillon
His Subject: California, U.S.A. and the Mexican Revolution

The Mexican Revolution began in 1910, and lasted for more than a decade.  It was the most cataclysmic and traumatic event of modern Mexican history, and the precursor of following revolutions in China (1911), Ireland (1916) and Russia (1917).  America and Americans participated in every aspect of the Mexican Revolution, in all of its many different factions, yet this involvement, overshadowed by our participation in World War I immediately afterwards, is largely forgotten. The Revolution took place on both sides of the California border:  it was born in places as surprising, yet familiar, as the University of California, Berkeley, and Los Angeles. The California end of the long international border was where the Revolution began, yet also where, through the efforts of enlightened men in both countries, it never went spinning out of control, as was later the case farther east.

Brian Dervin Dillon is a fifth-generation Californian. An archaeologist, he is both the son and the father of historians.  A Phi Beta Kappa and Fulbright Fellow, at age 25 he was the youngest Ph.D. in his field since his UC Berkeley department’s founding. For more than forty years Brian has done archaeological, ethnographic and historical fieldwork in almost every California County, in all parts of Guatemala, and in three other Central American countries.  Dr. Dillon publishes in three genres:  archaeology, history, and firearms history. He has taught and lectured at UC Berkeley, UCLA, UCLA Extension, CSU Long Beach, The Southwest Museum and for the California State Department of Forestry. Brian is the recipient of more than two-dozen grants, fellowships and awards. He has traveled through every Mexican state for the past 50 years. Dr. Dillon’s two-part study on California and the Mexican Revolution was published in 2013, earning him one of the five consecutive Coke Wood Awards for historic writing from Westerners International he has been honored with.

Brian Dervin Dillon, Ph.D.
Deputy Sheriff

Roundup: December 12, 2012

Join the Westerners Los Angeles Corral for the December 2012 Roundup, Wednesday, December 12, 2012, at Almansor Court, 700 South Almansor, Alhambra, California.

Social Hour will begin at 5PM, with Dinner served at 6PM.

Our speaker will be Abe Hoffman, and his topic is entitled Actor, Outlaw, Author, Lawmen: Encounters between William S. Hart, Al Jennings, James Franklin, “Bud” Ledbetter and Bill Tilghman.

For more information:

This will be a new presentation on Western films. In 1897 William S. Hart, at that time a stage actor, was in the town of Muskogee, Indian Territory, to present a play. While riding out into the countryside he encountered Al Jennings and his gang who had recently robbed a train. Hart gave the outlaws passes to see his play, which they did, knowing that Marshal Bud Ledbetter was in the audience. Hart went on to a successful career as a film actor; Jennings was captured and went to prison. While in prison he met William Sydney Porter, serving a term for embezzlement. Freed from prison, Jennings wrote an autobiography and eventually went to Hollywood to act in movies. Tilghman and Ledbetter detested the movie Jennings had made about his life and made their own movie. Jennings went on to appear in a number of other films and eventually made Lady of the Dugout. He sent Hart a pass, repaying him for his courtesy more than twenty years earlier. The interchange between these men makes for a fascinating and little-known episode in the early history of Western films.

Dr. Abe Hoffman has given several presentations on Western films and actors. He is a long-time Los Angeles Corral member and former Sheriff (1997). Abe is an author, past Branding Iron editor and professor as well as a member of several other history organizations. In preparation for tonight’s talk, related, silent movies “Lady of the Dugout” (1918) and “Passing of the Oklahoma Outlaw” (1915) will be playing as background during the dinner hour.

Joe Cavallo, Deputy Sheriff

PHOTOS from this RoundUp can be found here.