After learning about Mattie Blaylock, read about Wyatt Earps other wife Josephine Earp. Celia Ann "Mattie" Blaylock (January 1850 July 3, 1888) was a prostitute who became the romantic companion and common-law wife of Old West lawman and gambler Wyatt Earp for about six years. To understand the homosexual representation by Jason Priestly in "Tombstone" well I think one must grasp that a couple of years before Wyatt Earp died in Los Angeles, an embittered old man at the poor treatment he thought himself to have received in Breckenridge's own biography, "Helldorado" complaining to his own working biographer, Stuart Lake, that "Helldorado" was a kind of torpedo job . This is the book from which the movie Tombstone was based. The end of Matties story is not a happy one. Wikimedia CommonsMattie Blaylocks grave at the Pinal City Cemetery in Superior, Arizona. Mrs. Hirsch, because of Doras part in it was as anxious as my people (family), to keep it a secret. Wyatt's commonlaw wife, Matty Blalock, became addicted to opium in . Wildcat - The Untold Story of Pearl Hart. . The recent Wild West auction in Harrisburg, Pa., included a trunk owned by Celia Ann "Mattie" Blaylock, Wyatt Earp's second wife. "Allie's Story: Mrs. Virgil Earp and The "Tombstone Travesty", "Pharmacology and Pharmacokinetics of Alcohol and Opioids", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mattie_Blaylock&oldid=1143484556, This page was last edited on 8 March 2023, at 00:57. At this point, Matties profession was listed as keeping house. 1944: Wyatt Earp's common-law Jewish wife dies - Haaretz.com While Blaylocks first few years as a drifter are largely undocumented, by around 1872, she was working as a prostitute in Fort Scott, Kansas, then later settled in Dodge City where shed meet Earp. Her parents, Henry Blaylock and Elizabeth Vance, had left Indiana in 1846 and built a quiet life for themselves and their kids. She enjoyed some brief success as a juvenile actress on the San Francisco stage during the 1870s. Historians have stated that earlier in her life, Mattie began consuming laudanum for headaches and was known to abuse alcohol. [2] He began campaigning and the Prescott Miner reported on October 6, 1874, that "J.H. "[8], During 1874, when Josephine was 13, production of gold and silver from the Comstock Lode had fed a feverish stock market, leading to a great deal of speculation. Grace was upset that Josephine didn't attend. Mattie waited for Wyatts telegraph that she should return to Tombstone, but it never arrived. [76] Wyatt followed the crowd looking for gold in the Murray-Eagle mining district and paid $2,250 for a 50 feet (15m) diameter white circus, in which they opened a dance hall and saloon called The White Elephant. [34], The type of work available to unmarried women without means in that era was as waitresses, laundresses, seamstresses, or other dull work which Josephine avoided. [71]:117 Other researchers and writers aren't even sure she was in town that day. Corral and the March 18, 1882, assassination of Morgan Earp, Wyatt Earp, his youngest brother Warren, and a posse of other deputies began a vendetta. She met a gambler from Arizona who asked her to marry him. At this point, Mattie's profession was listed as keeping house. [2], By 1870, San Francisco was riding on the coattails of the still-expanding economic boom caused by the mining of silver from the Comstock Lode. From Wichita to Dodge City, to the O.K. A second stone of flat granite was also stolen. Finally, Mattie left California and moved to Globe, Arizona, where she returned to prostitution. [19] A town like Tombstone, full of single men, attracted women who sought adventure with little concern for what others might think. She attributed the highly exaggerated stories about Wyatt Earp to Josephine. Her father Henrys earnings as a baker fell. Mattie Blaylock spent her entire childhood learning scripture and attending church. 7 things you didn't know about Wyatt Earp and his famous gunfight But, in April 1881, less than eight months after Behan and Sadie built the house, she rented it to Dr. George Emory Goodfellow. Born Celia Ann Blaylock in 1850 in Johnson County, Iowa, she was raised on a small farm near the town of Fairfax. Josie said the two of them sailed with the other six members of the Pauline Markham troupe from San Francisco to Santa Barbara, where they stayed for a few days, performing in San Bernardino before leaving for Prescott, Arizona Territory, by stagecoach. Wyatt put oil leases he owned in Henrietta's name with the agreement that the proceeds would benefit Josie after his death. When Wyatt died in 1929, Josephine Earp had his body cremated and secretly buried him in the Marcus family plot in the Jewish Hills of Eternity Memorial Park in Colma, California. [3], Wyatt and Holliday had been fast friends since Holliday saved Earp's life in Dodge City during 1878. He continued his career in law enforcement in Dodge City. [26]:56. [78] Earp speculated in San Diego's booming real estate market. [70]:59 The next month, in July 1881, Josephine Behan was reported to be leaving Tombstone by stage. In 1998, a series of articles by Tony Ortega in the Phoenix New Times, including interviews with Glenn Boyer, argued that Boyer invented large portions of the book. Celia Ann Mattie Blaylock was born around 1850 into a religious family in Iowa. The moment came between March and October of 1868, when the two adult sisters left town without money or permission from their parents. What Famous People Attended Wyatt Earps Funeral? Blaylock was said to have suffered from headaches, and while in Tombstone, Arizona, she became addicted to laudanum, a then-common opiate and pain killer. [18]:36 Josephine worked hard to conceal Wyatt's prior relationship to his common-law wife and former prostitute Mattie Blaylock, with whom Wyatt was living when Josephine first met him in 1880. Tombstone (1993) - Plot - IMDb Instead . Upon their return, they arrived late in the evening and a day earlier than expected, at the house built with her father's money. [19] Wyatt had a mischievous sense of humor. [19] The Yuma Arizona Sentinel reported on October 25, 1879, "Tuesday arrived a Pinafore Company for Tucson, composed of Misses Pauline Markham, Mary Bell, Belle Howard, and Mrs. Pring, and Messrs. Borabeck and McMahon. He promised to marry her and she joined him in Tombstone. [1] Henry moved the family to San Francisco in 1868 when Josephine was 7. Eugenia and Lottie McCarthy taught us to dance the Highland Fling, the Sailor's Hornpipe, and ballroom dancing. The Sacramento Daily Record reported on October 20, 1882, that Virgil had arrived in town from Tombstone to greet his brother Wyatt arriving from the east, although Virgil was living in Colton at the time. One was Lawrence Kasdan's sober biopic with Costner in the lead role, simply called "Wyatt Earp," which was beaten to the punch and box office receipts by "Tombstone."Directed by George P. Cosmatos, the man who brought us "Rambo: First Blood Part II," the film became a popular modern Western classic, hitting the broad beats of true historical . He was in agreement, but Josephine, who was 37, miscarried soon after. The San Diego Union printed a report from the San Francisco Call on July 9, 1882 that Virgil Earp was in San Francisco (receiving treatment for his shattered arm) and that Wyatt was expected to arrive there that day. Josephine Sarah Marcus Earp | Jewish Women's Archive [1] She maintained a relationship with Johnny Behan's son, Albert Price Behan, whom she had grown to love as her own son. There is some evidence that she lived from 1874 to 1876 in Prescott and Tip Top, Arizona Territory under the assumed name of Sadie Mansfield, who was a prostitute, before becoming ill and returning to San Francisco. David B. Corral icon. [1] Sarah returned home less than a year later, chagrined and shamed by her experience. As her addiction became worse, Wyatts eyes began to stray in Tombstone and he started up an affair with Josephine Marcus. Wyatt Earp along with his brothers and their wives move to Tombstone to start a new life putting his life as a lawman and gunslinger behind him. [64]:p235 Author Stuart Lake wrote in a letter that "Johnny Behan's girl" was the key to the whole yarn of Tombstone. Nov 13, 2021 57:50. Josephine had to walk past the brothel every day on her way to school. It was cited by scholars and relied upon as factual by filmmakers. However, Waters' book has been criticized as biased for its negative portrayal of Wyatt Earp and for including details not mentioned in the original manuscript by Allie Earp (the common-law wife of Wyatt Earp's brother Virgil).[7]. Yes, 'Tombstone' is inspired by a true story. On June 14, 1900, Wyatt and Josephine were bound for Nome, Alaska. [21], Josephine loved to play poker[104] and developed a serious gambling habit,[11] losing heavily at times. When her father had difficulty finding work, the family moved in with her older sister and brother-in-law in a working-class tenement. To her the women appeared not as "soiled doves" but nicely dressed women living a life of leisure. "[2] She said, "the whole experience recurs to my memory as a bad dream and I remember little of its details. They planned to head for Alaska to join in the Alaska Gold Rush, but their departure was delayed for three weeks when Wyatt fell while getting off Market Street streetcar and bruised his hip. Tombstone diarist George W. Parsons never mentioned seeing Earp and his next common-law wife, Josephine "Sadie" Marcus, together and neither did John Clum in his memoirs. He also told Baldwin to stop lending money to Josephine, but she continued to gamble anyway. [71] Director John Ford said that whenever Josephine left town for religious conventions, Earp would come into town, play poker, and get drunk with the cowboy actors. Mattie was considered Earp's common-law wife and in the 1880 census, the 30-year-old was listed as Mattie Earp, wife of Wyatt Earp. [32] In reconstructing her life story, Josephine said years later that she actually lived with Kitty Jones and her husband, a lawyer,[27]:117 while working as a housekeeper for Behan. Enchanted by a performance of Gilbert & Sullivan's H.M.S. A staff writer for All Thats Interesting, Marco Margaritoff has also published work at outlets including People, VICE, and Complex, covering everything from film to finance to technology. By Kathy Weiser-Alexander, updated February 2020. [47]:19 Soon after they arrived, Behan's ex-wife sent their eight-year-old son Albert to live with him. Born in Wisconsin in 1850, Mattie was raised in Fairfax, Iowa until she ran away from home at the age of 16. After Earp left Tombstone and Blaylock, she waited in Colton, California to hear from him, but he never contacted her. Some women in Tombstone operated restaurants, boarding houses, and apparel and millinery shops, and a few ran some of the dry goods stores. "[19], As late as 1936, Josephine took legal action to suppress certain details of her and Wyatt's life in Tombstone. Wyatt Earp (1994) - IMDb [Henry] Jaffa told me later that Earps woman was a Jewess. [2] The Weekly Arizona Miner of Prescott reported on February 5, 1875, that Sadie Mansfield won a prize in the "Grand New Year Gift Enterprise". The information in the letter is compelling because at the time it was written in the 1940s, the relationship between Wyatt Earp and Josephine Marcus while living in Tombstone was virtually unknown. What did Wyatt Earps wife drink? Named Celia Ann Blaylock, she went to church & school, with typical parental discipline of the time. The first known record of Mattie's presence is a picture taken in Fort Scott in 1871. On December 19, 1944, Josephine Marcus Earp died, 15 years after the passing of her legendary husband, the gunfighter, gambler and lawman Wyatt Earp. In mid-1868, Celia ran away with her younger sister Sarah to avoid farm life. Blaylock and her sister Sarah, meanwhile, rejected their prospective suitors and soon hatched a plan to escape and see the world. Morgan Seth Earp (April 24, 1851 - March 18, 1882) was an American sheriff and lawman.He served as Tombstone, Arizona's Special Policeman when he helped his brothers Virgil and Wyatt, as well as Doc Holliday, confront the outlaw Cochise County Cowboys in the Gunfight at the O.K. It was around this time that she met Wyatt Earp. Wyatt is generally tied to three women: Urilla Sutherland, Cecilia Ann "Mattie" Blaylock, and Josephine Marcus. But Josephine said that her parents hid her activities, and they may have been covering for her when the census taker appeared on their doorstep. It is possible she overdosed by accident and died of respiratory depression. "Doc" Holliday: A Story of Tuberculosis, Pain, and Self-medication in Actor Kevin Costner, who played Earp in the 1994 movie Wyatt Earp, offered to buy a new, larger stone, but the Marcus family thought his offer was self-serving and declined. [1][14] Sadie was a well-known nickname for Sarah, Josie's middle name, and it was common for prostitutes of that time period to change their first name. While Blaylock grew dependent on laudanum to treat her headaches, Earp was increasingly embroiled in deadly conflict as a newfound deputy sheriff. [6] Markham already had a national reputation as a burlesque dancer and singer. Written by Kevin Jarre, it is loosely based on the records of the O.K. Henrietta's three children voided the agreement after their mother's death and didn't pass on the royalties to Josephine. [19] The most she would say is that she returned to the Arizona Territory in 1881 and joined Johnny Behan in Tombstone. He reneged but persuaded her to stay. In 1879 the Pauline Markham Theater Company came to town, and Josephine slipped away with the troupe. She went to San Francisco in March 1882 and was joined that fall by Wyatt, with whom she remained as his life companion for 46 years until his death. She wanted him to look like a church-going saint and blow things up. On the inside were the German Jews and on the outside were the Polish Jews. [26]:11 In November 1874, a woman named Sadie Mansfield took a stagecoach from San Francisco to Prescott along with several prostitutes working for Madame Hattie Wells. [64]:p235 While there are no contemporary records in Tombstone of a relationship between them, they certainly knew each other, as Behan and Earp both had offices above the Crystal Palace Saloon. Her occupation was "Courtesan". [88][89][90], In the spring they decided the gold rush in Dawson was drawing to an end and headed for Nome instead. Who was josephine earp a photo analysis by cary lane 5 8. The German Jews were usually more affluent, were better educated, and spoke German, while the Polish Jews, who spoke Yiddish, were typically peddlers and much more religious. While there, Wyatt stayed with prominent businessman Henry N. Jaffa, who was also president of New Albuquerques Board of Trade. He had a "relationship with" Sadie Mansfield, likely the same girl who had traveled with Hattie Wells' prostitutes from San Francisco. What was wyatt earp's first wife addicted to? - Answers Apartment buildings were crowded and large homes were converted into rooming houses. Descendants of Josie's half-sister Rebecca allowed a Southern California group in 199899 to erect the stone currently in place. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Tombstone (DVD, 2002, 2-Disc Set, Vista Series Directors Cut) COMPLETE with Map at the best online prices at eBay! It was amidst the chaos that Blaylock made her younger self proud and chose her own husband. He opened the Northern Saloon in Tonopah and served as a Deputy U.S. Wyatt Earp was one of the many children born to Nicholas Porter Earp and Virginia Ann Cooksey. I can remember shedding many tears in out-of the way-corners. )[43], In September 1880, Behan and Sadie left Tip Top for Tombstone. After Earp left Tombstone and Blaylock, she waited in Colton, California to hear from him, but he never contacted her. Wyatt, Virgil, and James Earp with their wives arrived in Tombstone on December 1, 1879. In the 1880 United States Census Blaylock is listed as Wyatt's wife though there is no record of a legal marriage. It was described by the Annual Review of Information Science and Technology in 2006 as a creative exercise that cannot be substantiated[121] or relied on. This is the story of that life together after Wyatt's famous. Of the countless prospectors who rushed west to mine silver, only a few became rich. [34] Josephine always sought excitement in her life. Corral gunfight, which took out three of the Cochise County Cowboys. She was laid to rest in the cemetery about one mile from the old townsite. Cason says she and her sister "finally abandoned work on the manuscript because she [Josie] would not clear up the Tombstone sequence where it pertained to her and Wyatt. But, no other corroborating evidence has been found supporting the thesis that Josephine used May Bell as a stage name, and she never claimed so. The Wives of Wyatt Earp, from Aurilla Sutherland to Sadie Marcus [95] In February 1902, they arrived in Tonopah, Nevada, known as the "Queen of the Silver Camps," where silver and gold had been discovered in 1900 and a boom was under way. Blaylock left Colton and returned to Pinal City, but the silver boom had died out and the bulk of the town's population had moved on. In 1939 Josephine sued 20th Century Fox for $50,000 in an attempt to keep them from making the film titled Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshal. All My Earps: The Many Film Faces of Wyatt Earp Tombstone (1993) - Frequently Asked Questions - IMDb [4] In the 1880 United States Census of Tombstone, Blaylock is listed as Wyatt's wife though there is no record of a legal marriage. She earned a certificate in genealogical research from Boston University and a certificate in antiques, collectibles, and appraising from Asheford Institute of Antiques. They traveled West, thinking they would find some work. Her poor lifestyle would see her age out of favor, while her laudanum addiction saw her die of suicide by opium poisoning on July 3, 1888. [26]:52 Following Wyatt's return to San Francisco, Josephine began using the name of "Josephine Earp". [113] She died penniless. The name Sadie Mansfield was also recorded in Tombstone. Dust cloud hangs over auction of Wyatt Earp's guns - USA Today Mrs. Virgil Earp. 48 snapshots of life in the real Wild West. Actors Kurt Russell, as Wyatt Earp, and Val Kilmer, as Doc Holliday were both very good. [26]:47 Like cerebral meningitis, St. Vitus Dance is a form of a streptococcus infection. During the same week, Behan registered at the Bank Exchange Hotel in Phoenix, and on March 5 the Prescott Weekly Journal-Miner reported that Sadie had returned to Gillette from Phoenix on March 2. The rest struggled to get by or gambled their fortunes away while destitute women like Blaylock relied on prostitution and cowboys terrorized towns. Wells also owned a brothel in Prescott, Arizona. With the provision that Wyatt's name be removed from the title, the movie was released as Frontier Marshal. In the midst of all this conflict, Wyatt is dealing with the fact that his wife, Mattie, has become addicted to Laudanum, a mixture of opium and morphine. The Lewis family was Jewish, and came from the Posen region in Prussia, current-day Poland, around 1850. Blaylock continued to work as a prostitute. The Other Side of Wyatt Earp - Fort Smith National Historic Site (U.S Some say he spent a lot of time hunting, others argue he occupied his time in houses of ill-repute and other less than desirable establishments of the time. Wyatt sent Mattie along with the others while he and Warren stayed to begin the Earp Vendetta Ride. Mattie eventually returned to Arizona where she spent her remaining years working as a prostitute. Of those three, there's a "maybe" around Marcus, but it should come as no surprise that Mattie Blaylock, the woman usually described as the "second Mrs. Wyatt Earp," had a history of prostitution. Eventually, she ended up in Dodge City, Kansas. [19], Each may have engaged in extramarital affairs. However, court records indicate that she continued to call herself by her childhood nickname of "Celie", which was often phonetically spelled by court clerks as "Sally"; no court records have been found throughout her life using the name "Mattie". He knew his wife preferred the name "Josephine" and detested "Sadie", but early in their relationship he began calling her 'Sadie'. Tombstone Ending Explained: What Happened To Each Main Character Josephine was apparently too full of grief to assist or to attend the funeral itself. [92][93] Although gambling was illegal, the police were paid by John Considine, owner of the three largest gambling concessions, to look the other way. Corral, which may have contributed to their animosity. Rudolph Stauffer found the Apaches that had escaped the reservation at Cave Creek and fought them. [39] Josephine wrote that Dora was hired as a singer, and she was hired as a dancer. While the town already had five saloons with five courtesans, Johnny's new saloon had none.