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Cowboys, Indians and Perky Waitresses: Contesting Tourist Myths of the American West

Cowboys, Indians and Perky Waitresses: Contesting Tourist Myths of the American West Emily Post, an upper-middle class American divorcée, not yet the byword for correct social behaviour, as her Blue Book of Etiquette was to be published seven years later, set off from New York in April 1915 to motor to San Francisco. Armed with many misconceptions about the Wild West, she took two evening dresses, a block and tackle and a solid silver picnic set, and planned to see how far she could go in comfort. Her attitudes changed dramatically as she drove west, and she wrote perceptively about the disjunction between myth and reality and the inherent theatricality of the tourist experience. This paper analyses three incidents in her journey: the meeting with a taciturn cowboy who hailed from Massachusetts, her assessment of the vaudeville nature of a Native American dance performance, and her sensation of being behind the scenes at a theatre as a trainload of passengers were served by the legendary Harvey Girls. The creation of the myth of the Old West was well under way in 1915; this micro-study of an elite traveller's reactions suggests that the myth did not go uncontested. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of Tourism and Cultural Change Taylor & Francis

Cowboys, Indians and Perky Waitresses: Contesting Tourist Myths of the American West

Journal of Tourism and Cultural Change , Volume 4 (1): 8 – May 1, 2006
8 pages

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References (20)

Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Copyright
Copyright Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
ISSN
1747-7654
eISSN
1476-6825
DOI
10.1080/14766820608668498
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Emily Post, an upper-middle class American divorcée, not yet the byword for correct social behaviour, as her Blue Book of Etiquette was to be published seven years later, set off from New York in April 1915 to motor to San Francisco. Armed with many misconceptions about the Wild West, she took two evening dresses, a block and tackle and a solid silver picnic set, and planned to see how far she could go in comfort. Her attitudes changed dramatically as she drove west, and she wrote perceptively about the disjunction between myth and reality and the inherent theatricality of the tourist experience. This paper analyses three incidents in her journey: the meeting with a taciturn cowboy who hailed from Massachusetts, her assessment of the vaudeville nature of a Native American dance performance, and her sensation of being behind the scenes at a theatre as a trainload of passengers were served by the legendary Harvey Girls. The creation of the myth of the Old West was well under way in 1915; this micro-study of an elite traveller's reactions suggests that the myth did not go uncontested.

Journal

Journal of Tourism and Cultural ChangeTaylor & Francis

Published: May 1, 2006

Keywords: American West; automobile; Harvey Girls; Native Americans; Emily Post; women travellers

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