Don Miller's Hollywood Corral: A Comprehensive B-Western Roundup

by Don Miller

When Don Miller's Hollywood Corral was originally published in 1976, it was eagerly embraced by the thriving core of Western film fans that had coalesced during the preceding decade. There had already been several historical surveys of the genre, but none had focused exclusively on the low-budget series Westerns of Hollywood's Golden Age. Miller's work was a lively and informative volume on the subspecies, which included more than 2,000 movies.
Hollywood Corral was eagerly accepted by its target serious B Western fans and collectors. Long out of print, it has been much sought after by a new generation of hobbyists who, thanks to the proliferation of old movies on videotape, videodisc, and cable TV, have discovered the joys of B Western watching.
With the original's mistakes corrected and a different photo selection accompanying this reprint, Hollywood Corral had been augmented with newly written essays covering specific aspects of the genre not fully covered by Miller. Some of the country's leading film historians are represented in these pages, contributing knowledge about B Western production little known even among the genre's most fervent devotees. Studio styles, literary precursors, location shooting, music scoring, and other facets of B Western production are examined with the same reverence and regard for historical accuracy generally accorded studies of more prestigious film forms.
Hollywood Corral sports a breathtaking array of rare over 400 in all, many of them never-before-published candid and behind-the-scenes shots, illustrating the entire history of the B Western era. And it also features a detailed bibliography that will direct students of the genre to other published works on Westerns.
Newly written contributions from Gene Autry and Roy Rogers - the era's most beloved cowboy stars - round out this vastly entertaining package, which is sure to delight nostalgia-minded browsers and hardcore B Western aficionados alike.

Genres: Film

600 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 1993

About the author

The late Don Miller (1927-1983) was a film historian extraordinaire. He put his extensive knowledge of motion pictures to work as a researcher for such television projects as the classic "The Twentieth Century," then helped to organize the film research archives of TV Guide. He was a frequent contributor to various film journals and fanzines. Mr. Miller followed "B" Movies with a companion volume, Hollywood Corral: the definitive study of "B" Westerns.

Reviews

[Robert]

Full disclosure, I contributed acouple of essays to this book, but that said I believe this is one of the best movie books ever published. It expands on Don Miller's original text by adding essays on various aspects of the "B" Western by the likes of William K. Everson, Karl Thiede, Alex Gordon, Ed Hulse, Doug Greene, and others, to provide both a loving look back and a solid historical survey of this vanished film genre.

[David]

Miller's encyclopedic knowledge of these movies is a real treasure and his obvious love and passion for this material bleeds through the pages.

Highly recommended for western movie buffs.

[Egghead]

Astonishing look-
unremembered movies all
hit the dusty trail

[Michael P.]

This is by far the best history of the B Western I have seen and the only one worth reading. It is thorough, expansive, and full of useful information. The problem will be getting at that information for the book has no index and badly needs one. Imagine seeing a B Western on the TV schedule. Is it worth seeing? There is no way to look up Miller's comments about the film. You'll just have to turn over every darn page until you find what you want to read. This is a big deal. The author is too in love with his thesaurus making for some very strange phrases and the radio presence of some of the actors and characters that receive otherwise in-depth coverage are not mentioned or barely mentioned. Certainly the radio careers of the characters Hopalong Cassidy, the Lone Ranger, Tom Mix (the actor Mix did not appear in the Tom Mix radio series) and the actor Roy Rogers deserve a supplementing paragraph or a few sentences. The language and lack of radio did not cost this book the fifth star. The lack of an index, however, is a serious drawback.