Wagon Ho!: A Round-up of Early Western Shorts

Until the last couple of decades. the western feature film was a fixture in the cinema. its roots uniquely American, "as much a part of the filmmaking scene as a reel of film, a projector, and a studio official's relative," as Robert Osborne has written. But the feature western didn't simply spring full-blown upon the screen. Its antecedent was the short subject, from The Great Train Robbery (1903), The Battle at Elderbush Gulch (1914) and other early classics, to the myriad lesser-known one- and two-reelers of the silent era that helped define the genre. This program provides a sampling of such work, covering many of the standard western themes as evidenced in the melodramas of the day, along with examples from the serial, comedy travelogue, actuality, and even the cartoon.