President Chester Arthur wrote to Congress in 1882: "The governor of the territory under date of the 31st ultimo, reports that violence and anarchy prevail, particularly in Cochise County and along the Mexican border; that robbery, murder and resistance to the law have become so common as to cease causing surprise..."
John G. Bourke, writing in his 1891 book "On the Border with Crook": "In Arizona it was not customary to pull a pistol upon a man; that was regarded as an act both unchristian-like and wasteful of time - Arizonans nearly always shot out of the pocket without drawing their weapons at all."
Author J. Ross Browne describing Tucson in 1864: "If the world were searched over I suppose there could not be found so degraded a set of villains as then formed the principal society of Tucson. Every man went armed to the teeth, and street fights and bloody affrays were of daily occurrence."
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George H. Smalley was editor of the Tucson Citizen from 1898 to 1901. Years later he wrote: "My family had heard me tell about all the murder trials in our court and one day I received a letter announcing the death of an aunt of mine. My small daughter listened intently as I read the letter, then she asked, 'Who shot her, Daddy?' "
By 1906, the Tucson Citizen apparently decided the whole Wild West thing was overblown. Under the headline "Wild West As Given in Novels," it reported:
"For no other reason apparently than that he wished to emulate the Western 'bad man' who seldom existed save in the imagination of Eastern tenderfeet, J.R. Wander this forenoon, in Anderson Brothers' saloon, corner of Fifth Avenue and Tenth Street, pulled out a six-shooter and shot Al Walden through the neck.
"Walden is seriously injured, but he stands an even chance of recovery..."
"Fast is fine, but accuracy is everything."
- Wyatt Earp
"As far as I'm concerned, Americans don't have any original art except Westerns and jazz."
- Clint Eastwood
John Wayne called Monument Valley the place "where God put the West."
Kirk Douglas on John Wayne (from a 1970 profile in Esquire, written by Roger Ebert): "That's why the perfect movie star is John Wayne. I was in a lousy picture with him once, 'In Harm's Way.' I used to think about John Wayne that he brings so much authority to a role he can pronounce literally any line in a script and get away with it. But I figured 'In Harm's Way' had a line even John Wayne couldn't get away with. It was: 'I need a fast ship because I mean to be in harm's way.' I thought, oh, shit, I've gotta hear him say this line. But you know what? He said it, and he got away with it. Now that's John Wayne …"
"I never knew the big son of a bitch could act"
Director John Ford on John Wayne's performance in "Red River," directed by Howard Hawks.
Sam Peckinpah was 35 years old when he came to Old Tucson in 1961 to make his first feature film, "The Deadly Companions."
In an interview with the Arizona Daily Star back then, he said:
"The answer to good drama is so simple. It's realism. Plain, old-fashioned, blood and guts realism."
He loved shooting in Arizona for that reason.
"At least the cactus is real cactus, not some rubber-covered prop dreamed up. As a matter of fact, your cholla cactus is my favorite. It's so real that it doesn't even wait for you to bump into it. It jumps at you. I wish actresses were like that."