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| Still from The Great Train Robbery |
The Return, A Steve Dancy Tale partly takes
place in New Jersey. Oh yeah, and Thomas Edison is a character in the latest story.
Dancy fans need not worry; Steve has been firmly converted to an unabashed Westerner. He has good
reason to visit New Jersey and it will take someone toughened by the Wild West
to sort out the mess in Menlo Park.
New Jersey may not be the Wild West of the mid nineteenth century, but the Colt revolver was invented in New Jersey, Annie Oakley called New Jersey home, the Serratelli Hat Company is based in Newark, John B. Stetson came from New Jersey, and the first Western movie was filmed in New Jersey. Six shooters, western hats, and the birth of Western movies: that ought to be enough to give New Jersey a Western pedigree. Besides, Edison needs Steve and his friends to sort out a few problems or he may never complete his electrification of Wall Street.
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| Serratelli Hat Company |
Edison, has the curriculum vitae to play a role in a traditional Western, especially one where the protagonists are miners, not cowboys. Thomas Edison’s contributions to mining included new techniques in blasting, conveying, crushing, and magnetic separation. His greatest mining invention was the electric cap lamp.
As for his cowboy credentials, he has none, but his company produced the very first Western feature film. In 1903, the Edison Manufacturing Company distributed The Great Train Robbery.
