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JESSE JAMES T00AYKansas City Star: Holly wood's current venture into Missouri to fliui “Jesse James, in the Ozark town of Pineville. has aroused such Interest in the Middle West as to recall again the growing Robin Hood tradition w hich is gathering around the name of the old outlaw and freebooter. Volumes have been written attacking or defending the character and aims ] of Jesse Janies. He hag been represented as a cold Wooded criminal, aud a high minded martyr; a man ! without courage or scruples, and a \eritable modern knight-errant.With this controversy we ate not concerned. The* interesting thing today about Jesse James is the stature to which he has grown in the folk lore of the nation.Every country, ioonei or later, builds up in itsfolk lore consciousness a bandit hero, romantic, audacious, gay, courageous, usually robbing the rich and; giving to the i*oor Robin Hood, the greatest, lias been ; followed by Dick Turpin, Jonathan Wild, Fra Diablo.’ Sharuus O’Brien and many others. Within the memory of t ie present generation, Pancho Villa in Mexico has! become a modern version of this Robin Hood tradi I tion.In Jesse James, however, Missouri has given to] the world a character as authentic and at the same time as fictional as Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. His exploits are eelebiated in folk songs and in the faeoua Benton mural and hie death is described in the mournful ditty which runs:Jesse had a wife to mourn for his life.The children they were brave;But the dirty little coward who shot Mr.How ard,Has laid poor Jesse in his grave.Regardless of what may be written or told in motion picture story concerning him now, Jesse James is secure in his niche in the traditiou of America. It will be interesting to see whether the film now being made at Piueville will enhance or obscure the picture i now treasured in the public mind.
Newspaper Details
Albert Lea Evening Tribune
Albert Lea, Minnesota, US
Thu, Sep 01, 1938
Page 4
Full Page
Clipped by
Joplin P.
MO, USA 27 Sep 2024
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