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"Ride With the Devil" is based on a murderous raid that occurred in Lawrence, Kan., home of the U. of Kansas.
Director Ang Lee relied on many KU-related resources. Daniel Woodrell, author of the book on which the film is based, is a KU graduate. Research collections at KU and area libraries played behind-the-scenes roles. A professor trained the actors in proper dialects. Tips about those research roles follow here.
-- See dialect.kan for story on dialect coach who trainied the movie actors.
--Scans of photos and other art available. Ccall Mary Jane Dunlap or Todd Cohen at (785) 864-8853 or 864-8858.
1 of 4: KU LIBRARIES PLAYED SECRET ROLE IN "RIDE WITH THE DEVIL"
LAWRENCE "¢ Archivists were sworn to secrecy in 1997 when film director Ang Lee visited the University of Kansas Spencer Research Library to examine Quantrill materials in the Kansas Collection.
KU archivists showed Lee and his small entourage an array of materials "¢ photos of Quantrill, his victims, a 1909 reunion of his raiders and a 1913 reunion of survivors, photos of Lawrence in the years before and after the raid and more. Most notable were two original tearsheets from Harper"¢s Weekly magazine, dated Sept. 5 and 19, 1863, that contain the famous drawings of the raid and aftermath. No photos exist of the raid "though many people have asked," says Kristin Eshelman, the Kansas Collection photo archivist.
Other Kansas Collection materials related to the raid include
-- the actual hand-written warrant for Quantrill"¢s arrest for first-degree murder, as well the subpoenas for Quantrill and 29 known members of his band, presumably never served.
-- letters Quantrill wrote to his mother a few years before the raid. They are typical son-to-mother letters that failed to foreshadow the murderous course Quantrill would follow, says Rebecca Schulte, assistant curator at the Kansas Collection.
-- first-hand accounts written by raid survivors.
-- lists of those killed.
-- an article about the 1940 film, "Dark Command," loosely based on the raid, is in the collection, too. "Dark Command" starred Walter Pidgeon as "Cantrell." John Wayne and Roy Rogers also were in the movie, which had its world premiere in Lawrence. Other Quantrill's raid movies include "Kansas Raiders," starring Audie Murphy, and "The Jayhawkers," both released in the 1950s.
A current exhibit in the Kansas Collection features the 75th anniversary of the building of Watson Library, named for Carrie Watson, the university's first full-time librarian and a childhood survivor of Quantrill's raid.
2 of 4: KU RESEARCH LIBRARY YIELDS SEEDS FOR WRITER
Daniel Woodrell, KU 1980 graduate in liberal arts and sciences and author of "Woe To Live On," the book on which the film "Ride with the Devil" was based. He makes his home in southern Missouri. In a 1998 Kansas Alumni magazine, Mark Luce wrote this about Woodrell. "The seeds for "Woe to Live On" were planted in KU's Spencer Research Library where Woodrell discovered letters representing both sides of the violent Kansas-Missouri border wars. "Initially I thought about writing about Jayhawkers. And then I thought, well that's too obvious. I thought about the point of view of the other side, which is where my family was. They weren't monsters," Woodrell said.
3 of 4: FILM RESEARCH PUTS ART EDUCATION DEGREE TO WORK
Barbara Brackman, nationally known for her research and books on quilting, worked with Ang Lee, director; James Schamus, scriptwriter; and Mark Freidberg, art director. To research details from the era that would enrich the movie, Brackman worked extensively at the Kansas State Historical Society in Topeka, KU's Kansas Collection and at the Douglas County Historical Society"¢s Watkins Library in Lawrence. Brackman said that she relied on her art education background for this project, particularly when searching for paintings and photographs that would help the directors depict the Civil War era in the Midwest. (785) 843-5100.
4 of 4. FIRST-PERSON ACCOUNTS OF QUANTRILL'S RAID
First-person accounts relating to Quantrill's raid of Lawrence are part of a permanent display of early settlements in the Douglas County Historial Society's Watkin's Museum at 11th and Massachusetts streets in Lawrence, Kan. The museum is displaying an exhibit on the underground railroad that provided protection for escaped slaves moving into Kansas, a free state, during the Civil War. Each August, the museum offers Civil War and Western Frontier programs as part of Lawrence's annual observance of the anniversary of Quantrill's raid. The museum is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and from 1:30 to 4 p.m. on Sundays. It is closed on Mondays and holidays. Steve Jansen is the museum director. (785) 841-4109.
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