Three things have stuck in my mind about the late Hugh O’Brian, the Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp TV star who passed five years ago at age 91. I should have shown proper respect with a brief obit at the time, but at least I’m saying something now.
Thing #1: A Time magazine item about O’Brian and the Earp show (‘55 to ‘61), and the line “rhymes with burp.” (What the hell did that mean? Who knows but Time printed it.). Thing #2: The long-barreled Buntline special that was mythically (i.e., inaccurately) associated with Earp, largely due to O’Brian’s show. Thing #3: A capsule profile or mini-biography of O’Brian that said he regarded his considerable Earp earnings as “fuck-you money” — I don’t know the origin of that term, but it might have begun with O’Brian.
