For anyone who watches HBO's Deadwood you may or may not be aware the show is based on a town in South Dakota which actually existed in the late 1800s. What I didn't know, was that many of the characters are based on people who actually existed during this time. The Digital Deadwood website has a nice little history with photos of some of the real life counterparts in thier History link down the bottom. Most of the characters are there, Al Swearengen, Calamity Jane, Colorado Charlie Utter, Seth Bullock, Sol Star and Wild Bill Hickok. They've also got a little bit of history about the town and it's establishments.

The show doesn't seem to be 100% accurate in it's depiction of the town, I'd say they would have had to take some creative liberities in the process of making an entertaining show. Things like "The Gem" actually existed and was a prostitution den of Al Swearengens, but it also was a stage show place with dancers and acts. But there was an actual plague of smallpox at Deadwood and Bullock and Sol actually opened and ran a hardware store, and that Bullock was the towns first sheriff.

I did up a little photo comparison for a couple of the characters versus the real people from photos I found on their site...



Seth Bullock


Wild Bill Hickok


Soloman Star

And if you haven't already seen the Deadwood "Fucks" Per Episode site, check it out, this guy has counted how many times the word "fuck" is said per episode and gives you a FPM (Fucks Per Minute) number.

Posted by WetWired
Full Post |