There is no Western movie worth its salt without its shootout in the saloon. Hollywood has romanticized these duels with flesh and blood Lucky Lukes, gunmen faster than their shadow. A recent example is The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, by the Coen brothers. The reality, however, should have been closer to the chaotic scene in which William Munny (Clint Eastwood) kills Sheriff Little Bill (Gene Hackman) in Unforgiven.
Shouts, jammed weapons, stray bullets and missed shots almost point blank. This is how duels should be, and not how the cinema usually presents them. What no historian will ever dispute is that saloons in the West were the scene of numerous violent episodes. The names of some of these places are very revealing, such as the Bucket of Blood, the Barreño de Sangre, a well-known and tumultuous saloon in Virginia City.
And yet, the Bucket of Blood is light years away from the Bird Cage of Tombstone, the dueling city at the OK Corral, one of the most popular shootouts in Western history. One of its protagonists was Sheriff Wyatt Earp, whose family also ran brothels and saloons. Or brothel canteens, as were many of these places. This is certainly the case with the bloody Bird Cage.
Numerous businesses began as shacks in rugged corners of California, Colorado, New Mexico or Arizona, among other then lawless states. A thatched roof and a bar where beer and whiskey were served, among an endless number of liquors that the clientele gobbled up despite their dubious quality. As the villages grew, especially if gold or silver was discovered nearby, the taverns also grew. The shack gave way to the saloon.
Drinks (and food) were no longer the only incentive to cross those swinging doors so cinematographic. The alcohol got better (or at least it didn't mix as much with God knows what anymore). Beans and longhorn meat (like the steaks in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance) were complemented by more careful preparations. And the gaming tables and theatrical and musical shows began to proliferate.
The dancers and cheerleaders led a double life that surprised no one. The Bird Cage of Tombstone, the city too tough to die, was the Aviary because it had 12 small boxes, covered with curtains. In those cages the prostitutes worked or exhibited themselves. In 1882, The New York Times reported that the Bird Cage, which had not yet popularized its last name, Bird Cage Theatre, was highly undesirable.
"There is no nightclub more hooligan, obscene and perverse", published the great newspaper of the East. Not bad for a company founded only a year earlier. A married couple of variety performers, Billy and Lottie Hutchinson, opened the business in late 1881. At first they tried to attract a respectable clientele, but they gave up on the evidence. Before the evidence and, of course, the bullets from the Colt revolvers.
The building of this relic of the West, where the curious can count up to 140 bullet holes, had several lives and can still be visited at 535 E Allen St, Tombstone, Arizona. Between 1881 and 1892, at least 26 people were shot, stabbed, or poisoned here. The building was later used as a warehouse and again as a canteen until in 1967 it was reborn as the museum and tourist attraction it is today.
The victim of the most famous crime that took place within the four walls of the Aviary was Margarita, one of the occupants of those cages or boxes unworthy of the name. "Tall, dark and slender", the chronicles describe her. She must also be very young, a teenager, if venereal disease and sexual exploitation had not already sapped her beauty. One of her clients was Billy Milgreen.
The Bird Cage wasn't Tombstone's only brothel. The Crystal Palace was behind him, although without reaching his height. One of the prostitutes in this second saloon was Little Gertie, who began to miss the visits that used to be a regular at night: yes, Billy Milgreen himself. Legend has it that Little Gertie went looking for him and she couldn't bear to see him in the arms of Margarita, whom she killed with a stab to her chest.
Too much blood not to attract seekers of the golden goose. The most violent saloon in the West has appeared on countless television shows dedicated to the paranormal, which have made a pilgrimage to Tombstone in search of inexplicable phenomena. The very company that runs the business has exploited this vein and asks its visitors to send it the ghostly photos (sic) they take. Post them at this link.
Staff claim to have seen supernatural presences. Spectral figures of women. Melodies that sound on pianolas that nobody plays. Laughter in empty rooms. The museum says that "inexplicable noises are heard at night, as if the old West was in full swing." The secret is simple. Any kid who has grown up with Sunday matinees and doubleheaders in neighborhood theaters knows this. The saloon is still open.
