Interview with Jack R. Edmondson

AS: How were you introduced into the Alamo?

JE: Born in 1950, I am a classic Baby Boomer. As with most Baby Boomers, I have now reached that very comfortable and convenient stage in life wherein my age, my IQ, and my waist size are all approximately the same. Also, as with most Baby Boomers, Hollywood introduced me to the Alamo.

AS: How were you introduced into the Alamo?

JE: Born in 1950, I am a classic Baby Boomer. As with most Baby Boomers, I have now reached that very comfortable and convenient stage in life wherein my age, my IQ, and my waist size are all approximately the same. Also, as with most Baby Boomers, Hollywood introduced me to the Alamo.

Although I was born in Fort Worth, Texas, my earliest vivid memories are of living in Memphis, Tennessee, in the years when I was four and five. During that very impressionable time in my life, Disney released the feature version of Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier. My parents took me to see the movie. Leaving the theater, I recall arguing with my father that Davy did not really die at the Alamo, because the movie never actually showed him being killed.

Somehow I missed the theatrical release of The Last Command (I later caught it on television
I do remember watching episodes from the Jim Bowie television series during the mid-to-late ‘50’s..

Then–in 1960—John Wayne’s The Alamo gave my enthusiasm a major boost.

Even though I was only ten when that movie was released, I readily detected that there were many differences between it and the earlier Disney version. So I started reading books to determine which movie told the true story. I read the Landmark book, Remember the Alamo. I read You Are There at the Battle of the Alamo. I read John Myers Myers’ The Alamo. I read Lon Tinkle’s Thirteen Days to Glory. And I read Walter Lord’s A Time to Stand. Not only did these books disagree significantly with both movies, but there also were substantial differences in the facts related by these books.

I realized then that history was not an exact science.

I had always regarded the Alamo as a very dramatic story. However the controversies that enveloped it generated a mystique that made it even more intriguing to me. Similarly, I became interested in the Little Big Horn and the Earp-Holliday Tombstone saga. Both were popular events, much filmed and written about, and yet still very much shrouded in mystery and controversy.

AS: What did you do as a child to show your interest? Draw? Write? Play the Battle of the Alamo in your front yard?

JE: Unless you were a Baby Boomer who lived during the mid-1950’s, I do not think you can fully appreciate how pervasive the Davy Crockett craze really was.

Like every boy in the neighborhood, I proudly wore my own coonskin cap as I fought Indians and soldados with my toy replica of Ol’ Betsy. Unfortunately, like every boy in the neighborhood, I wanted to portray Crockett. But we couldn’t all be Davy.

My parents bought me a Marx Alamo playset, and as I recall, it had Indians attacking the Alamo. Later I got another Marx playset that included Mexican soldados. Playing alone, in my bedroom, with the Marx toys, I did not have to compete with neighborhood boys to be Crockett—or Bowie or Travis. My parents discovered that the playsets could keep me entertained in my room for hours, so they got me more. At one time or another, I had a pretty good collection of western playsets produced by Marx and a few other companies.

I did not always play Alamo. Sometimes it was Civil War or Little Big Horn. But when I played Alamo, I always improvised. Union soldiers from my Blue and Gray sets and British soldiers from my revolutionary war sets got drafted into the Mexican army to increase the size of the assault force. Buildings from other playsets enhanced the size of my Alamo fort, and (with a little imagination), allowed me to create a more authentic compound layout.

AS: How long have you reenacted?

JE: I was residing in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1985. Late that year I received a phone call from my friend, Mike Waters, in San Antonio. Mike was organizing the living history events for the Texas Sesquicentennial commemoration of the battle of the Alamo.

Mike asked if I would be willing to portray Lt. Col. William Barrett Travis, the Alamo’s commander, at the event. The centerpiece of the reenactment would be a recreation of the Alamo’s most popular legend—Travis drawing a line in the sand with his sword and challenging his command to cross the line and fight to the death with him.

I had never done a historical reenactment, and I was flattered that Mike would ask me to portray Travis. I believed it was because he knew that as a writer and historian, I could prepare an appropriately historical–yet stirring–speech for Travis to deliver. And Mike knew that I had some theatrical experience, so I could deliver the speech in an appropriately dramatic manner.

But I was wrong.

When I got to San Antonio in March, Mike told me that he had asked me to portray Travis because I owned a wide-brimmed straw hat that resembled the one worn by Laurence Harvey when he portrayed Travis in John Wayne’s The Alamo.

That hat, which had previously fit a bit tight, suddenly seemed a little loose on me.

AS: How many historical characters have you portrayed? And what continues to draw you in to the hobby?

JE: I had a wonderful time at the sesquicentennial event, and the reenactment became an annual event at the Alamo, held the weekend nearest the March 6 anniversary of the final battle.

I took it upon myself to expand the presentation into a pageant, “Victory or Death,” that I wrote for the 1988 weekend. Simultaneously, at 38, I felt I was getting a bit long in the tooth (and perhaps wide in the girth) for 26-year-old William Barrett Travis. So I promoted myself to the role of General Sam Houston and made a brief but rousing cameo appearance at the end of the program.

That role resulted in an invitation to portray Houston at the annual San Jacinto reenactment. I portrayed Houston for two years, and then got demoted to the role of “Deaf” Smith for two years. I actually enjoyed playing Deaf more than Sam, because Deaf did more horseback riding.

Back in north Texas I joined a living history group that needed a James Bowie. That was the first time I ever portrayed the man with the big knife. Since I collect Bowie knives, I had no problem supplying the primary prop for that character.

Working with that group, with other living history associations, or individually, I continue to perform first person presentations for schools and organizations, usually portraying Bowie or Houston.

AS: What is your favorite Alamo film and why?

JE: I maintain a love/hate relationship with all Alamo movies. The first time I see them, I cringe at the glaring inaccuracies. Yet I always have found some elements I applauded in even the worst of the Alamo movies (and most of them have been pretty bad). At the very least I always appreciated the fact that they helped keep the story of the Alamo alive for another generation.

I had expected to dislike John Hancock’s new Alamo movie. Some articles and published interviews that appeared before the film was released gave me the impression that the movie would be extremely revisionist, debunking the Alamo defenders in the manner of Jeff Long’s book, Duel of Eagles. Actually I am pleased to have Long’s book in my library; I actually enjoy reading opposing perspectives in history. But the new movie was not history. It was popular culture, aimed at a broader and less discerning audience.

However I was pleasantly surprised when I saw The Alamo (2004). I felt that Hancock had made a sincere effort to humanize rather than debunk, and to balance the perspectives between the Anglos, the Tejanos, and the Mexicans. I had tried to do the exact same thing in my book, The Alamo Story (2000).

To be sure, it is not the Alamo movie I would have made. However I suspect that every Alamo historian and enthusiast could make that same comment.

Again, there were a few things that made me cringe, but there also were many scenes I greatly enjoyed and appreciated. There were historical interpretations with which I did not agree, yet I regard the movie as the most historically accurate cinematic rendering by far.

So it is certainly a contender for my favorite Alamo film. The competition comes primarily from Wayne’s movie, which is not at all accurate. But I grew up with that film. Its characters are like old friends that I know very well and cherish, warts and all.

AS: What was the most thrilling “Alamo” experience you’ve ever taken part in?

JE: I have enjoyed many “thrilling” Alamo experiences.

One certainly would be the Sesquicentennial event described above. I met a great many good and knowledgeable people there, many of whom became more than friends—almost like a family. And that extended Alamo family has continued to grow every year.

We did our final rehearsal for the event in the street in front of the shrine around dusk on Wednesday, March 5. As I prepared to recite my drawing-the-line speech, Craig Covner, who portrayed Captain Dickinson, pointed out to me that if Travis really did draw the line, it would have been at just about this very moment, at just about this very spot, 150 years earlier. Whether or not Travis actually drew the line, I found myself overwhelmed with emotion as I contemplated what the exhausted Texians were doing—what they were feeling and thinking—on the evening of March 5, 1836, the last night of their lives.

Many of the reenactors remained at the Alamo throughout the night of March 5, 1986. I followed the example of the original Alamo defenders and returned to my motel room for some sleep. However I was back in front of the Alamo by 4:00 am.

March 6, 1986, the 150th anniversary of the fall of the Alamo, was a frenzy of activity characterized by large crowds, television cameras, and newspaper interviews. But our commemoration did not end there.

On Friday, March 7, most of the reenactors journeyed to Alamo Village near Brackettville, Texas, for a weekend of recreating the battle at John Wayne’s Alamo set. That night there was partying in the cantina. Then everyone retired to the “Wayneamo.” Without the surrounding skyscrapers, and with an approximately correct configuration of perimeter walls, it looked much more like the Alamo of 1836 than did the real Alamo. Virtually everyone was in their period clothing as they built campfires within the compound and prepared to bed down. The fires cast eerie shadows on the front wall of the chapel. I climbed the stairs on the “south” wall and joined a few comrades sitting above the gate. We talked a little, but mostly we watched a storm in the distance. It was not hard to imagine that the lightning and thunder were the enemy cannonade. It was a haunting—but thrilling–experience.

I also have enjoyed the privilege of working on film productions at both the Alamo Village and Dripping Springs sets. And while I have not always agreed with the contents of the productions, working at those sets has always been exciting.

After working for two and a half years on my book, The Alamo Story, finally seeing and holding the published volume in my hand was absolutely thrilling. I also was delighted that most of the reviews were exceptionally positive. Perhaps the most important appraisal came at the March, 2000, Alamo Society meeting, just a few weeks after the release of the book. Dr. Bruce Winders, the Alamo historian, spoke to the assemblage and cited all the recent Alamo publications. At the end of his talk he held up my book and announced, “This is the book everyone needs to have in their library.” That really thrilled me.

AS: What do you do every year on March 6th to “Remember the Alamo”?

JE: In the early 1970’s I attended the University of Texas. During those years I would drive down to San Antonio every March 5 and get a hotel room near the Alamo. I would get a wakeup call at 4:00 am, March 6, and venture down to the Alamo. It usually was cold, and I rarely saw anyone else. By daybreak I was ready to get back to my warm hotel room.

In 1986 I participated in the Sesquicentennial “Dawn Ceremony,” which has since become an annual event. When I am in Bexar on March 6, I enjoy attending it.

AS: Any Alamo plans for the future? Any book ideas you’d care to share?

JE: I have several ideas for book projects, but I am not quite far enough along to discuss them yet.

AS: And which Alamo defender do you closely relate to?

JE:Because I have portrayed James Bowie so often, most people assume that he is my favorite Alamo defender. Though I have found Bowie to be an intriguing character to research, he is not necessarily the Alamo figure I identify with most.

As the Alamo’s most famous courier, James Bonham stands next in line behind the Alamo’s “Holy Trinity”—Bowie, Crockett, and Travis. However another courier, John William Smith, left the Alamo on the first day of the siege and returned a week later with the Alamo’s only documented reinforcements. Smith escaped the fate of his comrades—and their immortality—only because Travis sent him out again three days before the Alamo fell. Smith lived to fight another day, charging across the plain of San Jacinto six weeks later.

I identify with John W. Smith because he did what I would have liked to have done if I had been at the Alamo—go for help.

A big thanks to Big Jim Bowie himself for taking his time to answer my questions!

~Wade