Yuma Territorial Prison - in Popular Culture

In Popular Culture

(Listed chronologically) The Yuma Territorial Prison figured in:

  • "Three-Ten to Yuma", a 1953 western short story written by Elmore Leonard, and also in two film adaptations:
  • 3:10 to Yuma, the 1957 original. (directed by Delmer Daves and starring Glenn Ford and Van Heflin), and the 2007 remake, also titled 3:10 to Yuma (2007 film), directed by James Mangold and starring Russell Crowe and Christian Bale.
  • 26 Men, the 1957 episode "Incident at Yuma" of the syndicated western series of true stories of the Arizona Rangers, focuses on a prison break and the difficulty of gathering a posse faced by Captain Thomas H. Rynning, portrayed by Tristram Coffin.
  • In the 1959 western, Rawhide (S1E2 broadcast 1 Jan 59), starring Clint Eastwood. In the episode "Incident at Alabaster Plain" Rowdy Yates tells how he and a fellow Confederate Corporal (Buzz Travis) escaped the Yuma Territorial Prison during the Civil War.
  • In the 1961 western, The Comancheros, starring John Wayne, Yuma is also referenced.
  • For a Few Extra Dollars (aka Fort Yuma's Gold) is a 1966 Italian spaghetti western war film.
  • The first scene of the "Louis L'Amour" book Kid Rodelo (first published in 1966) takes place in Yuma Prison
  • In Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), the bandit Cheyenne is put on a train to Yuma (from which he escapes).
  • Yuma prison is referenced frequently in western radio and television programs such as Gunsmoke, The Rifleman and Bonanza, where ex-cons were frequently described as having done time.
  • The 1968 Italian made film "Long Ride From Hell" is a tale of revenge that chronicles the saga of a rancher who along with his brother is unjustly sent to Yuma prison.
  • In The Wild Bunch (1969), Pat Harrigan (Albert Dekker) threatens Deke Thornton (Robert Ryan): "You've got thirty days to get Pike, or thirty days back to Yuma."
  • The novel Forty Lashes Less One (1972) by Elmore Leonard takes place almost entirely inside Yuma Prison in 1909, shortly before it was closed down.

Read more about this topic:  Yuma Territorial Prison

Famous quotes containing the words popular and/or culture:

    “All official institutions of language are repeating machines: school, sports, advertising, popular songs, news, all continually repeat the same structure, the same meaning, often the same words: the stereotype is a political fact, the major figure of ideology.”
    —Roland Barthes (1915–1980)

    “Both cultures encourage innovation and experimentation, but are likely to reject the innovator if his innovation is not accepted by audiences. High culture experiments that are rejected by audiences in the creator’s lifetime may, however, become classics in another era, whereas popular culture experiments are forgotten if not immediately successful. Even so, in both cultures innovation is rare, although in high culture it is celebrated and in popular culture it is taken for granted.”
    —Herbert J. Gans (b. 1927)