In Search of Doc Holliday

Researching a Legend:
Part One

Chasing Hurricanes had its moments but the last two segments of my TV Series; “Georgia’s Heritage” took anxiety and fear to a whole new level. I was given 3 days to research, write and narrate, on camera, a film documentary of the Okefenokee Swamp. With the help of an inventive and hard working crew we managed to finish the film and beat the deadline. Then we were off to Valdosta, Georgia where I had my first brush with the legendary Doc Holliday.
We filmed the Holliday episode in Valdosta at the old house John Henry lived in during some of his teen-age years.
Both the character and the era interested me, but the story line was too short to make much of an impression. I finished my work on that segment and we wrapped the ‘Georgia’s Heritage’ series.
The Holliday story wasn’t a burning issue with me, but it never went away either. However, a few months after returning to Hollywood I did some preliminary work on the subject by reading everything I could get my hands on about the character and the era. Then I followed that up by going to the Central Library in Los Angeles. I spent hours researching and making notes from reference books that I couldn’t check out. Among them were Legends of the West, George Parson’s Journal and Eddie Foy’s biography, “Clowning Through Life.”
By that time the Holliday story definitely had my attention, and it wasn’t so much what was there that intrigued me, as what was missing. In every book I read Doc’s character was coming off just as the early Dime Store Novels had depicted him – that of a coughing, gun-crazed alcoholic.
Missing was the human factor, his family life, did he have brothers and sisters? What about his early education and where did he go to dental college? He was a dentist, but where did he practice? There were hints of a romantic tie with his cousin Mattie Holliday but no substance. And those were just a few questions I wanted to find answers to. In my mind you could not make a true three-dimensional character out of the stuff I’d read. But I’ll bet there are answers to those questions and I planned to go out and find them.
It was common knowledge that Doc Holliday suffered from tuberculosis. But none of the books or movies I was familiar with dealt with the disease in any way other than a superficial portrayal, that of a consumptive riddled ‘lunger.’
That line of thought sent me back to the library to root around the stacks looking for books on tuberculosis. Within a week or two I had read sections of and made notes from a dozen books on the subject.
The studies go back to 1020 when a pulmonary disorder was identified as a disease. But it wasn’t until 1839 when the disease was actually named Tuberculosis. And through all those years there was no consensus on any kind of a cure. During the late 1830’s someone had the idea to bring a number of tubercular patients into Mammoth Cave, with the hope that a constant temperature and purity of the cave air they might find a cure; the patients died within a year.
But in some perverted way that failed experiment might have pointed, not to a cure, but to a better way to care for tubercular patients – not cave air, but dry fresh air.
So that was about where the medical community stood during Doc Holliday’s lifetime, they had some of the answers, but not enough to lead them to an actual cure.
At that point in my research I figured I’d get more answers on site than following up on footnotes written by people using only one or two sources to arrive at their conclusions.
My basic plan was to drive to Tombstone study the geography of the place and listen to the locals. Then travel to Griffin, Georgia where Doc was born and spent his early years. Atlanta would be next, then Philadelphia. Susan McKey Thomas, the historian on the Holliday segment of ‘Georgia’s Heritage’ was almost sure that Doc attended ‘The Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery’ in Philadelphia and believed that records at the University of Pennsylvania library would prove that point.
My return trip to the west was tentative, but I expected to make stops in Dallas, Central Texas and then swing by Tombstone again and ask more questions.
Next week we travel to Tombstone.
To be continued)

The Goring Collection.
Prologue:
Part One
Berlin, Germany 1941
Jacob was six years old and his sister Natalie a year younger, when they stood on the windswept platform at Berlin Station and waved enthusiastically while their parents boarded the train. Jonathan and Anna Meyers had told the children they were off on a business trip to Switzerland, and they would meet them later in Rostock. The trip was precipitated when Jonathan’s friend, Fritz Heimann, while working at the Reich Chancellery saw the names Jonathan and Anna Meyers on a list stamped JEWS for DEPORTATION.
However, the news was not all bad as he noticed that, for some unknown reason, Jacob and Natalie were not named in the document and in that instant he saw a way to save the children. Fritz Heimann urged his friend to leave them in his care, explaining that he would take them to his family home in Rostock.
Jonathan Meyers was reluctant at first but eventually recognized the gravity of the situation, consulted with his wife Anna and they agreed to go along with Heimann’s plan. Jonathan sold off some of his merchandise, which included one of the finest collections of rare books, old coins and paintings in Berlin. Then he packaged his cherished Pissarro painting, The Cliff’s of Normandy, and shipped it off to Rostock.
Once the elder Meyers’ train rolled out of Berlin Station Fritz Heimann leaned on his cane and gestured. "Come along children, we must hurry, our train leaves soon."
Jacob and Natalie skipped along the platform as they made their way to the other track, and boarded the Rostock Express that would take them north to the city by the sea. During that trip north the children’s questions never ceased. When will Mama and Papa come? Where will we live? Who will we be staying with? Fritz Heimann explained that they would be living at his family home and then in a very serious tone, he admonished, “For now you must address me as your father. Do you understand?”
It was obvious, from the looks on their innocent faces that the children did not understand. However, a few moments later a mischievous grin spread over Jacob’s face as he decided to play the game. “Yes, Papa.”

Writers Notebook:

Advice you can take to the bank.
‘To master a skill or solve a problem, you must practice the skill, study and stay with your problem.’
And while you’re at it, consider the words of these three masters, all working in their own way pointing out a great work ethic.
‘If people knew how hard I have had to work to gain my mastery, it wouldn’t seem wonderful at all.’
Michelangelo
‘Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is to always try one more time.’
Thomas Edison
‘It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.’
Albert Einstein

Tom Barnes -- Actor, Writer and Hurricane Hunter.
Check out my website for books, blogs, western legends, a literary icon, reviews and interviews. Also my novels The Goring Collection and Doc Holliday’s Road to Tombstone along with a non fiction remembrance of The Hurricane Hunters and Lost in the Bermuda Triangle.www.tombarnes39.com
www.TomsHurricanes.com