Over the past two weeks, on June 22 and June 29, 2007, I gave two day-long seminars on the Alamo in film and popular culture. These presentations were part of a program called “Remembering the Alamo: Landmarks of American History.” Funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the event was attended by community college teachers from around the country. The event was held in Alamo Hall, on the grounds of the Alamo.

My fellow speakers were:

Monday: Dr. J. Frank De La Teja, of Texas State University in San Marcos. His presentation was entitled “Remembering the Alamo, Spanish exploration and settlements – the early history of the Alamo with special emphasis on the cultural issues leading to the beginning of the Texas Revolution.” 

Tuesday: Dr. H. W. Brands, University of Texas at Austin whose presentation was “To the People of Texas & all Americans in the world. . .” American western expansion and rugged individualism played-out in the Battle of the Alamo. 
 

Wednesday: Dr. Paul Mitchell Marks, St. Edwards University, Austin. “Gone to Texas”- American Social issues of the 19^th century and reality of living on the frontier.  

Thursday: Dr. Robert B. Winders, Alamo Curator and History.  “And now for the rest of the story. . .” – the battle for the Alamo. 

Friday: Me. My talk was originally titled “John Wayne’s Alamo - Popular history versus scholarly history, using historical events as subjects for popular media.”  But I spoke about all of the Alamo films and other pop culture events. I showed a recreation through still photographs of the first Alamo movie, “The Immortal Alamo” (1911) as well as the 11-minute compilation, “Alamo Movies,” that Tony Malanowski and I produced three or four years ago. I also made some points by contrasting scenes in Wayne’s “The Alamo” (1960) with John Lee Hancock’s “The Alamo” (2004). After lunch we took a vote for which Alamo movie the class would like to see and in both weeks they chose the Hancock version. It was screened in its entirety on DVD. Afterwards we had a lively question and answer period. I believe a good time was had by all. I certainly had a great time. And two lunches at the Menger — who can ask for better than that?