I Want to be a Cowboy When I Grow Up.

By Gary Geyer

Boomer Boys loved Westerns.

Perhaps more than is easily explained, boomer boys in the 1950′s were completely fascinated by the western genre. We couldn’t get enough of the action. As a matter of fact, in March of 1959, westerns on TV held eight of the top ten spots of the Nielsen Ratings.

Coming out of our ears

Not only was TV overloaded with western series, but many low budget cowboy films, old and new, were aired to fill time that the networks were not yet able to fill. Boomers made six shooters, holsters, spurs, cowboy hats and boots among the best selling toys of their time.

New frontiers

There are some parallels between the coming of age of the baby boom generation and the mystique of the west. Suddenly, opportunity was as boundless as the Wild West. Optimistic Americans expanded into new frontiers (the suburbs, California, outer space).

Other eras entirely

Just the opposite of post-war America, Westerns often told stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West. Most were set between the end of the American Civil War (1865) and the massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890.

Confronting social change

Westerns often portray how primitive and obsolete ways of life confronted modern technological or social changes such as conflict between natives Americans and settlers or the U.S. Cavalry; or between cattle ranchers and farmers. Is it too much of a stretch to relate these conflicts to boomer era conflicts such a race relations, women’s lib, and gay rights? Maybe.

Glorifying rebellious anti-heroes

American Westerns of the 1940s and 1950s emphasize the values of honor and sacrifice. However, reflecting the mood of young people in the country at the time, Westerns from the 1960s and 1970s often glorified a rebellious anti-hero and highlighting the cynicism, brutality and inequality of the American West.
The popular perception of the Western is a story that centers on the life of a semi-nomadic wanderer, usually a cowboy or a gunfighter. Clint Eastwood (High Plains Drifter), Alan Ladd (Shane) and Yul Brenner & friends (The Magnificent Seven), for example

Codes of honor

Westerns sometimes portray the conquest of the wilderness and the subordination of nature in the name of civilization or the confiscation of the territorial rights of the original inhabitants of the frontier. The Western depicts a society organized around codes of honor and personal, direct or private justice such as the feud in which persons have no social order larger than their immediate peers, family, or perhaps themselves alone.

Isolation is inherent

Westerns often stress the harshness of the wilderness and frequently set the action in an arid, desolate landscape. Specific settings include isolated forts, ranches and homesteads; the Native American village; or the small frontier town with its saloon, general store, livery stable and jailhouse.

The wilderness and the saloon are the epitome

Apart from the wilderness, it is usually the saloon that emphasizes that this is the "Wild West": it is the place to go for raucous piano playing, women (often prostitutes), gambling. drinking whiskey, brawling and shooting. In some Westerns, where "civilization" has arrived, the town has a church and a school; in others, where frontier rules still hold, it is, (as director Sergio Leone said) "where life has no value."

Maybe I’m looking for a connection that really isn’t there. All I know is boomer boys loved westerns. There has to be some explanation.

Gary Geyer is Chief Editor of Let Life In