Happy Birthday, Annie Oakley!
Filed under: Fandom
One hundred and forty nine years ago today, Little Sure Shot Annie Oakley was born -- American sharpshooter and female superstar. The idea of her was always irresistible to me. She was a real woman who became something of a superwoman with a gun at a very young age -- a self-taught shooter before the age of 10. Paying off the family farm by 15. She wasn't a carefully crafted cinematic hero, but someone real. True.I became obsessed with her at a young age, when Tall Tales and Legends* nabbed Jamie Lee Curtis to play Oakley in one episode in 1985. Some may have been introduced to the young Curtis in Operation Petticoat, or the classic Halloween, but to me, Jamie Lee was always the smirking gun-toter first, and I loved her. I must have oozed love because shortly after seeing that episode, I was walking the streets of New York City with my parents when a homeless man began to exclaim: "It's Annie Oakley! She's alive!" and chased me down the street. It didn't seem to matter that I hadn't even hit the double-digits yet.
Unfortunately, no matter how cool this woman was, she's never gotten good cinematic treatment -- that is, a great actress and an accurate plot. Just check out Wikipedia's list, where it shows just how many fictionalized accounts there have been. Barbara Stanwyck, Betty Hutton, Angela Douglas, and Geraldine Chaplin took stabs through the seventies -- often with sides of romance and less of the gun-toting magic. Then Reba McEntire got a small handful in Buffalo Girls in 1996, and Elizabeth Berridge followed suit with a side gig in Hidalgo in 2004. That's it.
Consider this a warning call, Hollywood! Next year will be the 150th anniversary of her birth. Why not celebrate it with a solid, and accurate gun-filled film? The only question is: Who should play her?
*You can see a wacky clip showing all the legends that popped up on the series, including Curtis' Oakley, through the "Video Clip" link here.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
8-13-2009 @ 4:13PM
Claire said...
I had a thing for pioneer girls as a child. Annie Oakley was one of my favorites for the same reason. She was the kind of woman I could look up to (who also existed in real life). Useless fairy tale princesses can only take a girl so far. A good female empowerment film for girls about her would be awesome.
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8-13-2009 @ 10:37PM
yoda's house of pancakes said...
Her grave is not far from where I live (Cincinnati, Oh). I've been meaning to visit it, maybe now I'll make plans to.
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