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Too Many Wyatt Earps Walking Tombstone's Streets

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Doc Holliday backs up the Earp brothers during a reenactment of the historic gunfight at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Ariz. The town is now battling a showdown between reenactors fighting for tourist dollars.

In this Arizona town where the O.K. Corral gunfight is alive and well, a showdown has ensued between local reenactors and a stranger who rode into town with thespians ready to role-play.

Tombstone, Ariz. -- Marshal Larry Talvy's phone rang. There was trouble in town. A bunch of men in black dusters with guns were walking down Allen Street. Again.

Talvy bolted uphill to the town's main drag, strode toward the armed men and laid down the law, New West style. Show me your permit, he said, or you'll be ticketed for an illegal street performance.

It's been 127 years since Doc Holliday and Wyatt Earp fought the Clantons and McLouries at the O.K. Corral here, and Tombstone is still trying to get a handle on its gunslinger problem. Only the desperadoes are no longer brawling over cards or horses. They're fighting for tourist dollars.

The O.K. Corral gunfight has long been celebrated by Hollywood, from classics such as John Ford's My Darling Clementine to the 1994 film Wyatt Earp. And for decades, local entrepreneurs and retirees indulging their western fetishes have put on their 19th century duds and re-created it along Tombstone streets. Between performances, gunmen from the various shows and the occasional black-garbed freelancer would mingle with tourists on the three blocks of Allen Street, which is closed to traffic and lined with raised wooden sidewalks, saloons and trinket shops.

Then, three years ago, a stranger rode in and vowed to shake up what he considered a moribund tourist trap. A showdown ensued between Tombstone residents who wanted to keep the streets as calm as possible and thespians with higher aspirations.

Stephen Keith, a onetime regular at Renaissance fairs who can hold forth on the similarities between the 1993 movie Tombstone and Wagner's “Ring" cycle of operas, founded the Tombstone Huckleberry Players. They were not content to simply re- create the shootout under a tented space inside the O.K. Corral. Instead, hoping to build a crowd for a new late afternoon show, the actors would walk down Allen Street, performing skits in character and leading tourists to the performance space.

Keith acknowledged there was resistance. Locals, he said, with no theater experience didn't like seasoned actors taking their favorite roles.

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