William S. Hart: Projecting the American West
By: Ronald L. Davis
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
Features: 269 pages, numerous photographs, endnotes, bibliography, index, hardback

Review by: The Man Behind the Mask

He was the strong and silent type, with a gash of a mouth and beak of a nose giving character to his worn face. He was the original good badman who found redemption through the love of a woman—or an innocent child. He was a real cowboy who understood the tools of the trade: a horse, a rope, and a six-gun.

He was William S. Hart, the first big star of Western movies. His screen persona was not very close to what he was in real life.

So says Southern Methodist University Emeritus Professor Ronald L. Davis in his new book, William S. Hart: Projecting the American West. It’s the first real biography of Hart outside of his own naturally biased book that came out decades ago. And it ain’t always a pretty picture of the man.

Hart’s early life is still pretty sketchy, according to Davis. His exact birthdate is unknown, but it’s believed to be in 1864 in the town of Newburgh, New York. His father was something of a nomad, so the family lived in Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, the Dakota Territory, Oregon, and other places as Bill grew up. But his time in the Western frontier areas had the biggest impact on him, as he so often said in later years.

Hart decided to be an actor early on, but that profession has always been a bit shaky in terms of continued employment and pay. He didn’t have a breakout role until he starred as Messala in the 1899 Broadway production of Ben-Hur. He was 35 years old. And while Hart enjoyed more theater success in the following years, he didn’t make it big until 1914 when he started making Westerns.

In his early films, Hart was a one-man crew who wrote scripts, directed, obtained authentic costumes and props, and, of course, played the lead. He prided himself on his knowledge of the West even though it was more limited than he’d ever admit, and he played up his real-life experience as a major part of his image. The critics bought it. The studios bought it. But most important, the audiences bought it.

Of course, the man behind the image was different from that. In public, Hart was always “on” according to his friends and colleagues. His physical gestures were exaggerated, his vocal presentation stentorian, and he came across as preachy and egotistical. And that ego grew ever larger with the passage of time.

In private, Hart was an unhappy person with more than a bit of a martyr complex that, at times, bordered on paranoia. Others were at fault for any problems he encountered. Hart knew best, in any and all things. And that self-image drove him further and further into a hole.

He apparently didn’t like women very much, except for his sister Mary Ellen who lived with him for more than 40 years. She was his partner, his cook, his housekeeper. She did his correspondence, even when he was receiving thousands of letters per week. She kept his appointment book. Mary Ellen believed in him completely. And she viewed intruders with a jealous eye.

Hart did get married in 1922. He was 58, the woman was in her 20s, and it just didn’t work out. Hart threw her out of the house six months after the wedding and just one month after she announced that she was pregnant. The divorce was a nasty one. Hart never really tried to develop a relationship with his son, William S. Hart, Jr., and left the boy out of his will.

By 1925, Hart’s movie career was over. Audiences were attracted to a new breed of Western star, men such as Tom Mix and Buck Jones. And Hart had burned a lot of bridges with studio executives; they wouldn't work with him anymore. His remaining 21 years of life were filled with unrealized dreams of a comeback and bitterness toward the business that had made him rich and famous.

Overall, author Davis does a good job of telling the complicated story of a complicated man. He makes some mistakes regarding authentic Old West characters, such as giving Wyatt Earp a sheriff title that he never had. But that’s not Davis’ area of expertise or focus. His spotlight is on an actor who had a profound impact on the image of the West, one that still exists today. That’s a legacy that even the ego-driven Bill Hart couldn’t have predicted.

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