Wild West Lives - African-American Opinions Inform New Book On Why We Love Westerns

57 million Americans love Westerns, and black America has its fair share. This according to a new book that shows the size and surprising diversity of the Western audience, describes the top reasons why we love Westerns, then counts down the top 10 all-time fan favorites.

Cumberland, RI (PRWEB) June 28, 2005 -- The Western dead? Not likely! A new study has found that the Western audience is still vibrant-30% of Americans today will tell you they enjoy watching Westerns. Thats 57 million strong in the U.S. alone. And black America has its fair share.

For her new book, Wild Open Spaces: Why We Love Westerns, Rhode Island-based author Yardena Rand interviewed over 1,000 Western fans, including many African-Americans. Typical of Western fans everywhere," Rand says, African-Americans enjoy Westerns because a good sagebrush saga gives them a sense of 'being there. For most of us," she notes, the Old West of popular culture (movies, TV, books) is the closest well ever come to experiencing what it was like to live on the frontier."

Indeed, with our ever-increasingly hectic lives, juggling career and family, we long for something more straightforward, a life hinging on basic survival skills and help from far-flung neighbors-and many of Rands respondents make this case. For a dressmaker, a black woman who grew up in Massachusetts on John Wayne, Jimmie Stewart, and Alan Ladd, Westerns are about a period when men took care of their homes and families and fought and died for the right to do so." A retail banker from Kansas agrees. Protagonists struggle for survival, identity, and/or integrity against the most basic of challenges," she writes, stripped of politics, economics, and social niceties."

For fans, these films serve as a moral compass. Westerns dont take a specific political view," Rand notes. Rather, they lay out broad standards of behavior-sticking to your principles and fighting for what you believe in. The actual moral issues continue to be ours to debate-abortion, the right to die, for example-but the process of taking a stand and making decisions of conscience are key to what the Western is all about."

Of course, Westerns offer more than a serious look into social and personal behavior. Reaching back into what is for many a staple of their childhoods, Westerns offer a chance to relax and escape from the often heavy responsibilities of work and family. Fans revisit a time when they lived Saturday to Saturday, filling local movie theaters to cheer on their cowboy heroes, or sitting cross-legged glued to television sets, bouncing on imaginary horses, and then acting out favorite scenes from the days action with their friends. Always enjoyed Westerns, ever since I was a little fella," recalls a truck driver for a recycling company from Alabama. We used to pull a big old limb off the tree, throw a rope around the branch where it was bare, and the leaves would be behind us like the horses tail. Wed run all over that dirt road."

In fact not only did they play with their friends, but, through Westerns, many developed a strong bond with parents and grandparents. As a security guard from Louisiana notes, Roy Rogers was my favorite because every Saturday morning you had something to look forward to and not be out in the street. When my mother was alive, we used to watch TV all the time on Saturday/Sunday. We used to have such a good time watching Westerns." A farmer from Missouri had a similar experience. I watched Westerns growing up with Grandpop there. Thats all Grandpop ever watched, so I grew to like John Wayne, too."

Finally, of course, Westerns are great fun to watch; a delicious combination of elbowroom and heart-thumping action-thundering hooves, finger-twitching shoot-outs, those wild open spaces! A helicopter production manager loves the freedom, horses galloping across the plains, and blazing six-guns. Open spaces fascinated me, being a city boy," he writes. I dreamed of going West when I was little. I thought it was still like that!"

In addition to reasons why they love Westerns, Rand asks fans their favorites. Among the top ten? Classics like Shane and High Noon, but also more recent movies like Tombstone and Unforgiven. The Western continues to have something to say to modern audiences," insists Rand. Whether its enjoying traditional films like Stagecoach, anticipating Steven Spielbergs upcoming TNT miniseries, Into the West, or relishing the raw, on-the-edge Old West experience offered by HBOs Deadwood, the Western isnt going away. Its just too good a story."

To arrange an interview with Yardena Rand, contact her at 401.405.0178 or via e-mail at yrand@maverickspiritpress.com. Wild Open Spaces is available at local bookstores through special order, at Amazon.com, or directly from the author at www.ilovewesterns.com.

Online Press Kit: www.maverickspiritpress.com

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