Rich Hall's You Can Go to Hell, I'm Going to Texas

0:00:02 > 0:00:07This programme contains some strong language

0:00:14 > 0:00:16How to explain Texas?

0:00:16 > 0:00:19Well, it's the home of NASA.

0:00:19 > 0:00:21And also The Big Texan Steak Ranch,

0:00:21 > 0:00:25home of the 72 ounce, eat it all and you don't pay,

0:00:25 > 0:00:29T-bone extravaganza, replete with a quarter-acre of salad

0:00:29 > 0:00:33and a baked potato the size and texture of a sofa.

0:00:33 > 0:00:37Texas has given us Bill Hicks, Cormac McCarthy,

0:00:37 > 0:00:39and George Bush Jr.

0:00:39 > 0:00:41It's home to some of the savviest people on the planet

0:00:41 > 0:00:43and also some of the most inept.

0:00:43 > 0:00:47Texas could put a man on the moon, but they couldn't manage to get

0:00:47 > 0:00:50a president down the street without him getting shot in the head.

0:00:50 > 0:00:52Thus, it's hard to explain Texas,

0:00:52 > 0:00:55or why, when Texans leave Texas, they feel the need

0:00:55 > 0:00:57to brag about how they're from Texas.

0:00:57 > 0:01:00After all, people from Bognor Regis never strut around

0:01:00 > 0:01:02bragging about how they're from Bognor Regis.

0:01:02 > 0:01:05It's because Bognor Regis has no identity whatsoever.

0:01:05 > 0:01:09Texas has an identity, even if it's primarily mythical.

0:01:09 > 0:01:12# The stars at night

0:01:12 > 0:01:14# Are big and bright... #

0:01:14 > 0:01:17Countless films have been set in Texas.

0:01:17 > 0:01:21More often than not in these films, Texas is not just the setting,

0:01:21 > 0:01:22it's the stage.

0:01:22 > 0:01:25It's arrogant and proud and overtly masculine.

0:01:25 > 0:01:28Bigger than any of the characters inhabiting it.

0:01:28 > 0:01:31Texas has to be bigger and better than the other 49 states.

0:01:31 > 0:01:34The question is, why?

0:01:35 > 0:01:38Texas is huge, it is the biggest state in the nation.

0:01:38 > 0:01:41I don't know what they're talking about when they say Alaska's bigger.

0:01:41 > 0:01:43I've never seen Alaska, so I know that Texas is bigger.

0:01:43 > 0:01:46I got that right that I can do that.

0:01:46 > 0:01:47# Money, money! #

0:01:47 > 0:01:52Its pro-business, anti-tax, fiscally conservative.

0:01:52 > 0:01:55Its internal economy is larger than Australia,

0:01:55 > 0:01:57slightly behind Russia.

0:01:57 > 0:02:00It leads the nation in energy use

0:02:00 > 0:02:03and alcohol-related driving deaths

0:02:03 > 0:02:04and carbon dioxide emissions

0:02:04 > 0:02:07and in Baptist churches.

0:02:07 > 0:02:10It's staunchly religious and wildly consumptive,

0:02:10 > 0:02:12often at the same time.

0:02:12 > 0:02:17In August of 2012, a man named Ernesto Garza from Beeville, Texas

0:02:17 > 0:02:19sat down to his breakfast

0:02:19 > 0:02:23and noticed the image of Jesus staring up at him from a burrito.

0:02:23 > 0:02:25When the Beeville Picayune News

0:02:25 > 0:02:28printed a picture of the miraculous burrito,

0:02:28 > 0:02:31it was obvious that several bites had been taken out of it.

0:02:31 > 0:02:36See, only in Texas would a man look at a burrito and say,

0:02:36 > 0:02:39"That's the image of Jesus,

0:02:39 > 0:02:42"but that is a good-looking burrito.

0:02:42 > 0:02:45"I'm just going to eat around Jesus and then call the paper."

0:02:49 > 0:02:51It runs very deep into your soul.

0:02:51 > 0:02:54Maybe being a Texan is the biggest thing.

0:02:56 > 0:03:01If Texas comes off a little brusque, that's because it is.

0:03:01 > 0:03:03They don't have a lot of regard for your personal space.

0:03:03 > 0:03:05Texas is your friend,

0:03:05 > 0:03:08but it's the kind of friend that calls you up late at night

0:03:08 > 0:03:10to ask if it's OK to hook up with your ex,

0:03:10 > 0:03:13helps itself to seconds without asking,

0:03:13 > 0:03:14that kind of friend.

0:03:14 > 0:03:17You don't have to be born in Texas to be a Texan.

0:03:17 > 0:03:20Why, if you move to Texas, you are a Texan.

0:03:20 > 0:03:21If you're just travelling through Texas,

0:03:21 > 0:03:25as long as you are in Texas, by God, you're a Texan.

0:03:25 > 0:03:28They're not overtly concerned with what goes on beyond their borders.

0:03:28 > 0:03:32As far as Texas is concerned, there's only two states in America.

0:03:32 > 0:03:35There's Texas and there's TAFT.

0:03:35 > 0:03:39And TAFT stands for "this ain't fucking Texas".

0:03:46 > 0:03:51# And I'll ride that pony fast

0:03:53 > 0:03:59# Like a cowboy from the past

0:03:59 > 0:04:05# Be young wild and free

0:04:07 > 0:04:13# Like Texas in 1880

0:04:13 > 0:04:16# Just like Texas... #

0:04:16 > 0:04:20Only in Texas could they turn an anti-littering campaign

0:04:20 > 0:04:22into a declaration of identity.

0:04:22 > 0:04:25Most other states aren't quite as emphatic

0:04:25 > 0:04:26about their rules for behaviour,

0:04:26 > 0:04:30but for the record, don't make eye-contact with Mississippi,

0:04:30 > 0:04:33don't call Oregon after 11:00pm,

0:04:33 > 0:04:36and don't you wish your girlfriend was hot, like Nevada?

0:04:43 > 0:04:45There are more Texans in the US Armed Forces

0:04:45 > 0:04:47than from any other state,

0:04:47 > 0:04:50so you could say that one of the underlying characteristics

0:04:50 > 0:04:52of being a Texan is they like a fight.

0:04:53 > 0:04:55You could add to that that Texans are stubborn,

0:04:55 > 0:04:59and in any situation you can always rely on a Texan to stand firm.

0:04:59 > 0:05:03This is never truer than when Texans meet Mexicans.

0:05:06 > 0:05:11On March 6, 1836, here at the Mission San Antonio de Valero,

0:05:11 > 0:05:13also known as the Alamo,

0:05:13 > 0:05:16311 men gave their lives, so that someday they could build

0:05:16 > 0:05:19a Guinness Book of World Records Museum

0:05:19 > 0:05:20right on these hallowed grounds.

0:05:22 > 0:05:24The purpose of this rebellion,

0:05:24 > 0:05:27the purpose of the Texans' revolution is to fully restore

0:05:27 > 0:05:30their Federal Constitution of 1824.

0:05:30 > 0:05:32Every student in Texas is required

0:05:32 > 0:05:35to spend his or her seventh year studying Texas history.

0:05:35 > 0:05:39What makes Texas Texas isn't its history, it's its myth.

0:05:39 > 0:05:41Its history and myth is so intertwined

0:05:41 > 0:05:44that it's impossible to envision the truth about this place,

0:05:44 > 0:05:46so they don't need to know all the history,

0:05:46 > 0:05:50they merely need to invoke that single eternal rallying cry,

0:05:50 > 0:05:52"Remember the Alamo."

0:05:55 > 0:05:57'185 men fighting to their deaths

0:05:57 > 0:06:00'against a horde of 7,000,

0:06:00 > 0:06:04'in the most savage hand-to-hand combat in history.'

0:06:05 > 0:06:08'And you will always remember the Alamo!'

0:06:11 > 0:06:13Texas was once part of Mexico

0:06:13 > 0:06:16and ever since a couple of hundred tenacious young men

0:06:16 > 0:06:19took on half the Mexican army in the name of independence,

0:06:19 > 0:06:23the Alamo has been a story close to every Texan's heart.

0:06:25 > 0:06:28Even Texans who don't know the Alamo story

0:06:28 > 0:06:30know that there is something called the Alamo

0:06:30 > 0:06:33that they're supposed to be proud of and, for some people,

0:06:33 > 0:06:37it's the pop culture that they know and not the real history.

0:06:37 > 0:06:40We, kind of, have to use it as a starting point, to say,

0:06:40 > 0:06:44you know, John Wayne really wasn't at the Alamo.

0:06:47 > 0:06:51The true participants of the Alamo were seen as heroic figures,

0:06:51 > 0:06:54the most prominent of which, of course, is Davy Crockett,

0:06:54 > 0:06:57immortalised in film and song and story.

0:06:57 > 0:07:00With him was Jim Bowie, of knife fame.

0:07:00 > 0:07:02They were led by William Barret Travis

0:07:02 > 0:07:04who penned the immortal words...

0:07:09 > 0:07:12They fought off the Mexican army for 13 days.

0:07:12 > 0:07:14All but two men paid the ultimate price.

0:07:20 > 0:07:22'It's here at last.

0:07:22 > 0:07:24'The monumental history-making motion picture...'

0:07:24 > 0:07:27In film The Alamo has been made twice.

0:07:27 > 0:07:30Ironically, both are incredibly forgettable.

0:07:31 > 0:07:34The 1960 version, directed by John Wayne,

0:07:34 > 0:07:36and starring John Wayne as Davy Crockett,

0:07:36 > 0:07:38is an elephantine, strident,

0:07:38 > 0:07:41historically-muddled treatise on patriotism

0:07:41 > 0:07:43that was released to coincide

0:07:43 > 0:07:45with putting Richard Nixon in the White House.

0:07:45 > 0:07:47It's my turn.

0:07:49 > 0:07:51That idea bombed - so did the film.

0:07:51 > 0:07:53It's hard to play a legend when you are a bigger legend

0:07:53 > 0:07:56than the legend you're supposed to be playing.

0:07:56 > 0:07:59I'm going to tell you something, and I want you to listen tight.

0:07:59 > 0:08:03When I came down here to Texas, I was looking for something.

0:08:03 > 0:08:04I didn't know what.

0:08:04 > 0:08:06There's right and there's wrong.

0:08:06 > 0:08:08You got to do one or the other.

0:08:08 > 0:08:10You do the one and you're living,

0:08:10 > 0:08:12you do the other and you may be walking around,

0:08:12 > 0:08:14but you're dead as a beaver hat.

0:08:14 > 0:08:17Hollywood should have known to leave the story alone after that.

0:08:17 > 0:08:20After all, why are we supposed to cheer for a bunch of Texans

0:08:20 > 0:08:22who are fighting for independence

0:08:22 > 0:08:25when we know that less than nine years later they'd sell

0:08:25 > 0:08:28their grandmother down the Brazos to be part of the US of A.

0:08:28 > 0:08:31But in 2004, we get the touchy/feely

0:08:31 > 0:08:34Disney touchy/feely stone version of the Alamo.

0:08:34 > 0:08:37This one claims to be more historically accurate,

0:08:37 > 0:08:39which in films means it's only a matter of time before

0:08:39 > 0:08:42one of the characters does a voice-over

0:08:42 > 0:08:43as he's penning a letter home.

0:08:45 > 0:08:49Like Glory or Braveheart, we sit around for two-plus hours

0:08:49 > 0:08:51waiting for the inevitable battle

0:08:51 > 0:08:54and wondering just how many Celtic pan-pipe players

0:08:54 > 0:08:56can you employ for one movie soundtrack?

0:08:56 > 0:08:59Billy Bob Thornton takes over for the Duke,

0:08:59 > 0:09:03playing Crockett as some kind of glad-handing, toothy good old boy,

0:09:03 > 0:09:06who's never far removed from his own celebrity awareness.

0:09:06 > 0:09:09If it was just me,

0:09:09 > 0:09:12simple ol' David from Tennessee...

0:09:13 > 0:09:17..I might drop over that wall some night and take my chances.

0:09:17 > 0:09:19But that Davy Crockett feller,

0:09:19 > 0:09:21they're all watching him.

0:09:21 > 0:09:23That version tanked, as well,

0:09:23 > 0:09:27possibly because tetchy post-9/11 Americans weren't too keen

0:09:27 > 0:09:30on seeing a film about martyrs holed up in a religious site

0:09:30 > 0:09:33that begins with the word "Al".

0:09:33 > 0:09:36Still, it's a rite of passage for every 13-year-old kid

0:09:36 > 0:09:38to be dragged into the cinema by his dad

0:09:38 > 0:09:41to watch Jim Bowie and Davy Crockett get bayoneted.

0:09:41 > 0:09:44They never point out that the Alamo wasn't about religious freedom

0:09:44 > 0:09:48or taxation or removal of a maniacal despot,

0:09:48 > 0:09:50it was about men fighting to own land

0:09:50 > 0:09:52that didn't belong to them in the first place,

0:09:52 > 0:09:54but don't tell that to Texans.

0:09:54 > 0:09:59# And the 180 were challenged by Travis to die... #

0:10:00 > 0:10:05Why these men had even come to Texas in the first place can be summed up in two words -

0:10:05 > 0:10:07cheap land.

0:10:07 > 0:10:09Houston's call to arms,

0:10:09 > 0:10:12published in American newspapers, was very clear on the subject.

0:10:24 > 0:10:28# Hey, Santa Anna, we're killing your soldiers below... #

0:10:28 > 0:10:31Jim Bowie from Kentucky was a slave trader

0:10:31 > 0:10:35and a land speculator who knew an opportunity when he saw one.

0:10:35 > 0:10:38Davy Crockett was a coonskin cap wearing hillbilly politician

0:10:38 > 0:10:42from Tennessee, who had just been humiliated in an election back East,

0:10:42 > 0:10:44like Mitt Romney.

0:10:44 > 0:10:46William Travis, who was born in South Carolina,

0:10:46 > 0:10:49and who happens to be my great- great-great-great-uncle,

0:10:49 > 0:10:50or so I'm told,

0:10:50 > 0:10:53had deserted his pregnant wife, young child and a mountain of debt.

0:10:53 > 0:10:57For the record, I am nothing like him.

0:10:57 > 0:10:59I've never deserted my mountain of debt.

0:11:00 > 0:11:01What they thought was,

0:11:01 > 0:11:04"I really don't think we are going to have to die.

0:11:04 > 0:11:06"People are going to come and help us."

0:11:06 > 0:11:10And the tragedy is that people are coming,

0:11:10 > 0:11:14Travis is sending out his letters, people are responding.

0:11:14 > 0:11:16They just don't get here in time.

0:11:16 > 0:11:20The Alamo was a monument to heroism, not intelligence.

0:11:20 > 0:11:23It's fairly obvious that Travis's men didn't have to die here.

0:11:23 > 0:11:25It wasn't even a strategic position,

0:11:25 > 0:11:28it was just a mission turned into an army barracks.

0:11:28 > 0:11:30They could have abandoned it at any time and joined up

0:11:30 > 0:11:33with General Sam Houston, who was desperate for recruits.

0:11:38 > 0:11:42Newspapers back East had a page one story on their hands

0:11:42 > 0:11:44and they mined it for all it was worth -

0:11:44 > 0:11:46an epic tale of Davy Crockett

0:11:46 > 0:11:50and his stoic counterparts fighting to the death. Thermopylae.

0:11:50 > 0:11:53And that is the core of Texas character, even today -

0:11:53 > 0:11:56us versus them.

0:11:56 > 0:11:58So the Mexicans came, the Texans were slaughtered

0:11:58 > 0:12:02and to this day Travis's words still fill Texans with misty-eyed pride.

0:12:02 > 0:12:07In 1999, America's Ryder Cup team was in danger of losing to Europe.

0:12:07 > 0:12:12George Bush Jr sent a copy of Travis's "victory or death" letter

0:12:12 > 0:12:16to the golfers. A Texan golfer named Justin Leonard read those words

0:12:16 > 0:12:20and promptly went out and sank a 45-foot putt and America won.

0:12:21 > 0:12:24The men at the Alamo did not die in vain.

0:12:28 > 0:12:32A month after the massacre, Texans rallied under General Sam Houston

0:12:32 > 0:12:34and crying, "Remember the Alamo,"

0:12:34 > 0:12:38defeated General Santa Anna's entire army at the San Jacinto River.

0:12:38 > 0:12:41The battle lasted 19 minutes.

0:12:41 > 0:12:45Santa Anna turned all of Texas loose and it became independent.

0:12:54 > 0:12:57Now that it was a nation, Texas could set about

0:12:57 > 0:13:00getting rid of anyone that got in the way of its expansion.

0:13:00 > 0:13:02# That's right, you're not from Texas

0:13:02 > 0:13:04# That's right, you're not from Texas... #

0:13:04 > 0:13:07Mexicans, Tejanos and native people were forcibly removed

0:13:07 > 0:13:10and a plea for real Americans to come to Texas

0:13:10 > 0:13:13was issued by the new president, Sam Houston,

0:13:13 > 0:13:16who, yet again, offered land to anyone back East

0:13:16 > 0:13:18who was fed up with the rat race

0:13:18 > 0:13:22and wanted to be part of making Texas a great new Republic.

0:13:22 > 0:13:24# ..Texas wants you anyway. #

0:13:26 > 0:13:29The Texas that John Wayne was fighting for in 1960

0:13:29 > 0:13:31isn't the same Texas as today.

0:13:31 > 0:13:34For instance, San Antonio has a population of almost two million.

0:13:34 > 0:13:36It's 45% Hispanic.

0:13:36 > 0:13:39It also has huge communities of Guatemalans,

0:13:39 > 0:13:41Salvadorans and er...

0:13:41 > 0:13:44Palestinians, other Arabs, Chinese, Vietnamese.

0:13:44 > 0:13:49In 2011, the most common name for newborn boys in Texas was Jose.

0:13:49 > 0:13:53Still its border is patrolled like a military DMZ.

0:13:53 > 0:13:57The history of Texas's expansion has always been about selectivity,

0:13:57 > 0:13:59kind of like its memory.

0:14:00 > 0:14:04# So screw you, we're from Texas

0:14:04 > 0:14:08# Screw you, we're from Texas

0:14:08 > 0:14:11# Screw you, we're from Texas.

0:14:11 > 0:14:13# We're from Texas, baby

0:14:13 > 0:14:15# So screw you. #

0:14:17 > 0:14:20I think when I think about what's most important to me, whether

0:14:20 > 0:14:21it's being a Jew,

0:14:21 > 0:14:24or being an American, you know, being a Texan...

0:14:25 > 0:14:28Maybe being a Texan is the biggest thing.

0:14:28 > 0:14:31It isn't the faint of heart that come to Texas.

0:14:31 > 0:14:34But it's those people who are bold,

0:14:34 > 0:14:37and that really has an effect on the development

0:14:37 > 0:14:40of the Texas personality,

0:14:40 > 0:14:43because of who did come here.

0:14:45 > 0:14:48# Rump steak is sure a sender

0:14:48 > 0:14:50# Rump steak like Momma made

0:14:50 > 0:14:53# Big, juicy, nice and tender

0:14:53 > 0:14:56# The rump steak serenade... #

0:14:56 > 0:14:59So your father had an idea to build this place.

0:14:59 > 0:15:01He did, he moved in from Chicago

0:15:01 > 0:15:04and when he first came down here he wanted to put

0:15:04 > 0:15:07a Western-style steakhouse that cowboys would go to.

0:15:07 > 0:15:10He had the idea of cashing their payroll cheques

0:15:10 > 0:15:13and serving them 25 cent beer, which meant that they started drinking,

0:15:13 > 0:15:16they started spending most of their cheques while they were in there.

0:15:16 > 0:15:19Then he noticed that half of them

0:15:19 > 0:15:22could eat monstrously big sizes of food.

0:15:24 > 0:15:27The us versus them, undermanned and overwhelmed Texas mentality

0:15:27 > 0:15:30still applies today in the form of meat.

0:15:31 > 0:15:34At The Big Texan Steak Ranch, they'll attack

0:15:34 > 0:15:37a 4lb slab of steak as if it was Santa Anna's army.

0:15:37 > 0:15:40This is a 72-ounce challenge at the Big Texan.

0:15:40 > 0:15:42Four pounds of meat.

0:15:42 > 0:15:45You have to take the challenge to eat this, a baked potato,

0:15:45 > 0:15:47- four shrimps and a salad. - Three shrimps.

0:15:47 > 0:15:49Three shrimps, within an hour.

0:15:49 > 0:15:53If you do not finish it within an hour, it costs 72.

0:15:53 > 0:15:56# Rump steak is sure a sender

0:15:56 > 0:15:58# Rump steak like Momma made... #

0:15:58 > 0:16:01That's about half.

0:16:01 > 0:16:03I've only eaten half of this steak.

0:16:05 > 0:16:08So much pressure!

0:16:08 > 0:16:11There's no profile of people that do it.

0:16:11 > 0:16:15I've seen a young man that was 11 years old eat the 72-ounce steak.

0:16:15 > 0:16:17I've seen a grandmother that was 68 years old do it.

0:16:17 > 0:16:21I've seen one man ate two of them in one hour.

0:16:21 > 0:16:23Did someone put you up to this?

0:16:23 > 0:16:27I was just driving down the road and saw the sign and I had to stop.

0:16:27 > 0:16:30- You got a long way to go. - I feel like...

0:16:31 > 0:16:34I'm going to be eating steak for the next couple of days.

0:16:35 > 0:16:40It's the mystique of Texas. Is everything really bigger in Texas?

0:16:40 > 0:16:41Do we really eat a lot?

0:16:41 > 0:16:44Do we really own oil wells and ride horses to work?

0:16:44 > 0:16:46Well, of course we do! Always have, always will do

0:16:46 > 0:16:48but it's a challenge.

0:16:48 > 0:16:50It's like the battery on your shoulder, come knock this off.

0:16:50 > 0:16:52Are you a real cowboy? Are you a real Texan?

0:16:52 > 0:16:55Are you big enough to be a Big Texan by eating one of these steaks?

0:16:55 > 0:16:57# Whiskey River take my mind

0:16:57 > 0:16:59# Don't let her memory torture me... #

0:16:59 > 0:17:02Somebody should have told me not to do this.

0:17:02 > 0:17:07I've all my fans at home, watching on the Internet.

0:17:13 > 0:17:16You see the genius of the Big Texan steak is that it appeals

0:17:16 > 0:17:19to Americans by making them a mouthwatering offer

0:17:19 > 0:17:24and far too late they realise they're in way over their heads.

0:17:24 > 0:17:28About 2005 this exact economic model was adopted by bankers

0:17:28 > 0:17:30and mortgage lenders in America,

0:17:30 > 0:17:34which goes a long way toward explaining why our current economy is in the dumper.

0:17:37 > 0:17:41# I'm drowning in a whiskey river... #

0:17:41 > 0:17:43What does it mean to be a Texan?

0:17:43 > 0:17:46The right to wear a hat like this,

0:17:46 > 0:17:48a shirt like this,

0:17:48 > 0:17:49and a kerchief like this.

0:17:49 > 0:17:51It's being proud of the state.

0:17:51 > 0:17:54That's the honour of being Texan, the bragging rights.

0:17:54 > 0:17:57CHEERING

0:17:59 > 0:18:01I ate two thirds of it.

0:18:01 > 0:18:04It's still bigger than my face.

0:18:06 > 0:18:09Texas was bigger than me today.

0:18:10 > 0:18:13The 72-ounce steak challenge is a uniquely Texan experience.

0:18:16 > 0:18:20It exists not only because of the huge Texas psyche

0:18:20 > 0:18:22but also it's because it's in its history.

0:18:28 > 0:18:30# Out on the plains

0:18:30 > 0:18:32# Down near Santa Fe

0:18:32 > 0:18:33# I met a cowboy

0:18:33 > 0:18:35# Riding the range one day

0:18:35 > 0:18:38# And as he jogged along

0:18:38 > 0:18:43# I heard him singing a most peculiar cowboy song

0:18:43 > 0:18:45# It was a ditty

0:18:45 > 0:18:47# He learned in the city

0:18:47 > 0:18:50# Comma ti yi yi yeah

0:18:50 > 0:18:51# Comma ti yippity yi yeah... #

0:18:51 > 0:18:55Texas is and always will be the home of the cowboy.

0:18:55 > 0:18:59Those images of cowboys herding their cattle on vast plains

0:18:59 > 0:19:01are embedded in cinematic history

0:19:01 > 0:19:05but it's not just movies, it's also the reality.

0:19:05 > 0:19:08The cowboy wouldn't be anything without his horse or his cattle.

0:19:08 > 0:19:11It all started with one breed.

0:19:12 > 0:19:15If the Longhorn cow was a car, it would be a Land Rover.

0:19:15 > 0:19:18They were the first true pioneers of Texas,

0:19:18 > 0:19:21left behind by the Mexicans when they retreated across

0:19:21 > 0:19:24the Pecos River after their surrender at San Jacinto.

0:19:24 > 0:19:27They're nimble, mean, savvy.

0:19:27 > 0:19:30They're the first to know when storms and blizzards

0:19:30 > 0:19:33and blue northers are coming. They eat like crazy,

0:19:33 > 0:19:34then they hide in the underbrush

0:19:34 > 0:19:38and they use those clown stickers to protect themselves

0:19:38 > 0:19:41against coyotes and cougars and other predators.

0:19:42 > 0:19:45The Longhorn will for ever be associated with Texas.

0:19:45 > 0:19:49She continues to represent the romance of the American Old West.

0:19:49 > 0:19:53She seems to be the perfect cow, except for one thing.

0:19:53 > 0:19:56OK, how come in every cowboy film you see,

0:19:56 > 0:19:59where the cowboys are surrounded by Longhorn cows,

0:19:59 > 0:20:02are they never eating a goddamn steak?

0:20:02 > 0:20:04It's always stew.

0:20:04 > 0:20:07It's because the Longhorn cow is the stringiest, rubberiest,

0:20:07 > 0:20:09most inedible cow there is.

0:20:09 > 0:20:12All you can do is disguise the taste.

0:20:13 > 0:20:16Now, Longhorn cattlemen of course, in their defence will tell you,

0:20:16 > 0:20:18"Oh, it's lean, it's fat-free."

0:20:18 > 0:20:20So is a tyre tread!

0:20:20 > 0:20:23Still, if it wasn't for Longhorn cattle,

0:20:23 > 0:20:26Texas wouldn't be here today.

0:20:26 > 0:20:29Back during the Civil War, Texans went to fight for the Confederacy.

0:20:29 > 0:20:32While they were gone, as the war raged,

0:20:32 > 0:20:37all the domesticated cows they left behind indulged in a four-year orgy.

0:20:37 > 0:20:40By the time the Texans came back they were everywhere

0:20:40 > 0:20:43so, while the rest of the defeated South suffered,

0:20:43 > 0:20:47At least Texans were able to sell inedible beef

0:20:47 > 0:20:50and itchy, scratchy hides to the victorious North.

0:20:50 > 0:20:52See how that works?

0:21:00 > 0:21:04Cowboys realised that with intensive crossbreeding with European cattle,

0:21:04 > 0:21:06the beef was a better quality,

0:21:06 > 0:21:09made them ten times more money up North.

0:21:13 > 0:21:17All they had to do was get the cantankerous suckers past 800 miles

0:21:17 > 0:21:20of roaring rivers, canyons,

0:21:20 > 0:21:22badlands, rustlers,

0:21:22 > 0:21:24bureaucrats who turned them back because they carried ticks

0:21:24 > 0:21:29which caused bovine influenza, also known as Texas fever,

0:21:29 > 0:21:31also hostile Indians,

0:21:31 > 0:21:33not so hostile but financially scrupulous Indians

0:21:33 > 0:21:35who charged than ten cents a head to cross their land

0:21:35 > 0:21:39to ultimately reach the nearest railhead at Abilene, Kansas.

0:21:43 > 0:21:46This route became known as the Chisholm Trail.

0:21:46 > 0:21:50Chisholm. Leave your smutty asides at the door, Britain.

0:21:50 > 0:21:55CHISHOLM, named after the Cherokee traitor and wrangler Jesse Chisholm.

0:21:55 > 0:21:58That's right, the first cowboy was an Indian.

0:22:02 > 0:22:04OK, maybe not the first cowboy...

0:22:05 > 0:22:09..seeing as how that term was invented by the Brits 150 years

0:22:09 > 0:22:13earlier as a translation of the word "vaquero", as in buck-a-roo.

0:22:13 > 0:22:17During the Revolutionary War the term cowboy was used to describe

0:22:17 > 0:22:20loathsome Americans who sided with the Brits.

0:22:20 > 0:22:25Today it's a term used to describe loathsome Brits who put up siding.

0:22:25 > 0:22:26Ha-ha!

0:22:26 > 0:22:31Still, Jesse Chisholm was the first cowboy with solid business acumen.

0:22:31 > 0:22:33The guy knew his stuff.

0:22:36 > 0:22:42In 1948, Hollywood wasn't ready for a story about an Indian becoming a cow entrepreneur,

0:22:42 > 0:22:46so it conveniently replaced Jesse Chisholm with John Wayne.

0:22:46 > 0:22:51Howard Hawks' Red River is still considered one of the greatest Westerns ever made.

0:22:51 > 0:22:54The story opens in 1851 with a wagon train

0:22:54 > 0:22:57heading west from St Louis to California.

0:22:57 > 0:23:01Among the travellers is Thomas Dunston, John Wayne.

0:23:01 > 0:23:03As wagons travel through North Texas,

0:23:03 > 0:23:05Dunston is impressed with the land

0:23:05 > 0:23:08and decides he'll leave the wagon train and head South

0:23:08 > 0:23:11with two cows and one bull to start a ranch.

0:23:12 > 0:23:14Give me ten years and I'll have that brand

0:23:14 > 0:23:17on the gates of the greatest ranch in Texas.

0:23:18 > 0:23:23Ten years and I'll have the Red River D on more cattle than you've looked at anywhere.

0:23:23 > 0:23:27I'll have that brand on enough beef to feed the whole country.

0:23:27 > 0:23:30Good beef for hungry people.

0:23:30 > 0:23:33Red River is a stunning Western,

0:23:33 > 0:23:36stocked with grizzled galutes on horses and yodelling cowboys

0:23:36 > 0:23:40driving streams of cattle across spectacular countryside

0:23:40 > 0:23:43and tough-talking set pieces between noble men of principle.

0:23:45 > 0:23:49But you don't have to look too closely to see that at the movie's core

0:23:49 > 0:23:54lies the unstated assumption that it's the white man's right to take what he wants.

0:23:54 > 0:23:56When Dunston decides he wants to settle,

0:23:56 > 0:23:58he does the same thing to the Mexicans

0:23:58 > 0:24:01that the Mexicans did to the Indians before them.

0:24:01 > 0:24:04He just flatly lays claim to the land

0:24:04 > 0:24:07and lets his guns do the necessary paperwork.

0:24:07 > 0:24:09Tell Don Diego, tell him that

0:24:09 > 0:24:11all the land north of that river's mine.

0:24:11 > 0:24:13Tell him to stay off of it.

0:24:13 > 0:24:15- Oh, but the land is his. - Where did he get it?

0:24:15 > 0:24:17Many years ago by grant and patent,

0:24:17 > 0:24:20inscribed by the King of all of Spain.

0:24:20 > 0:24:24You mean he took it away from whoever was here before? Indians, maybe.

0:24:24 > 0:24:26- Maybe so. - Well, I'm taking it away from him.

0:24:26 > 0:24:30Others have thought as you, Senor. Others have tried.

0:24:30 > 0:24:33And you've always been good enough to stop them?

0:24:33 > 0:24:34Amigo, it is my work.

0:24:34 > 0:24:36Pretty unhealthy job.

0:24:38 > 0:24:40Get away, Matt.

0:24:41 > 0:24:42Sorry for you...

0:24:45 > 0:24:49Come on, he called the man "Senor". He called the man, "Amigo".

0:24:49 > 0:24:51He called the man "Sir"

0:24:51 > 0:24:53and John Wayne still shoots him.

0:24:53 > 0:24:57It's Dunston's sense of entitlement that both the audience

0:24:57 > 0:25:00and the film-makers just take for granted because after all,

0:25:00 > 0:25:03when the Duke is talking, ethics don't mean squat.

0:25:05 > 0:25:06Right? Right.

0:25:06 > 0:25:08Yeah.

0:25:10 > 0:25:13# As I walked out one bright sunny morning

0:25:13 > 0:25:16# I spied a young cowboy loping along

0:25:16 > 0:25:18# His head was shoved back

0:25:18 > 0:25:19# His spurs was a-jingling

0:25:19 > 0:25:22# As he come near me singing this song

0:25:22 > 0:25:26# Whoopee ti yi yo, git along little dogies... #

0:25:26 > 0:25:31Countless trails were blazed across Texas in the second half of the 19th century.

0:25:31 > 0:25:35The Old Pecos Trail, the Shawnee Trail, the Butterfield Trail.

0:25:35 > 0:25:40Cowboys were romanticised in pulp novels for readers back East,

0:25:40 > 0:25:42and wildly exaggerated.

0:25:42 > 0:25:48I hate to burst your bubble but cowboys did not engage in gunfights.

0:25:48 > 0:25:51They carried a Colt .45 by their side to fend off predators

0:25:51 > 0:25:57and rattlesnakes but the high noon shoot-out is pure pulp fantasy.

0:25:58 > 0:26:00Who would agree to do that?

0:26:00 > 0:26:03"Hey, you know what, you're an asshole.

0:26:03 > 0:26:06"When we get to the end of this trail ride in 20, 30, 40 days,

0:26:06 > 0:26:08"we're going to stand in the middle of the street

0:26:08 > 0:26:11"and pull our guns and just shoot wildly at each other.

0:26:11 > 0:26:13"Yeah.

0:26:13 > 0:26:15"Then we'll see who's an asshole."

0:26:15 > 0:26:17"That's genius, that's...

0:26:17 > 0:26:20"Yeah, that's a great idea, yeah, let's do that. Yeah."

0:26:23 > 0:26:27A Colt .45 was only accurate up to about three yards.

0:26:30 > 0:26:34Almost every saloon owner made cowboys surrender their weapons at the door.

0:26:35 > 0:26:39The craziest thing most cowboys ever did was just get drunk

0:26:39 > 0:26:42at the end of a trail ride and run up and down the street yelling.

0:26:44 > 0:26:49An entire era of the range rider only lasted about 20 years.

0:26:49 > 0:26:52As railroads advanced, the cowboy's trail shortened.

0:26:52 > 0:26:57The truth is the cowboy officially died in August 1878

0:26:57 > 0:27:00when a man named Gustavus Swift figured out that if you put ice

0:27:00 > 0:27:04in the top of a boxcar, you could refrigerate beef for transport.

0:27:07 > 0:27:10The age of the wild and free cowboy was gone.

0:27:10 > 0:27:13Ranches were the new thing.

0:27:13 > 0:27:15These ranches grew, and the biggest of them all

0:27:15 > 0:27:17belonged to the King family.

0:27:17 > 0:27:21It consisted of 825,000 acres,

0:27:21 > 0:27:25which covered six Texas counties, that's bigger than Cornwall.

0:27:27 > 0:27:30Even today, ranches cover a vast part of Texas

0:27:30 > 0:27:33and play a significant role in the state's economy.

0:27:34 > 0:27:38- What's the best thing about being a rancher?- It's just the lifestyle.

0:27:38 > 0:27:40Wide open spaces

0:27:40 > 0:27:43and animals and, you know.

0:27:45 > 0:27:48Actually what we do hasn't changed a lot.

0:27:48 > 0:27:51There's a little bit of technology, like cell phones

0:27:51 > 0:27:54and stuff like that and the Internet and things.

0:27:54 > 0:27:56- What did you used to do?- Before you had cell phones, how did you...?

0:27:56 > 0:27:59You didn't...

0:27:59 > 0:28:03You would watch and see where the guy next to you was

0:28:03 > 0:28:08and you would just take your time and make sure you cover the country.

0:28:08 > 0:28:12I don't know that it makes us any better cowboys, though.

0:28:16 > 0:28:19The rancher has always had to battle to survive.

0:28:19 > 0:28:22If it's not wildfires, it's banks.

0:28:22 > 0:28:24If it's not banks, it's dust storms.

0:28:24 > 0:28:26If it's not dust storms, it's drought.

0:28:27 > 0:28:29It was really tough last year.

0:28:29 > 0:28:33If it hadn't rained this year we'd have been through here,

0:28:33 > 0:28:36but we're going to make it now

0:28:36 > 0:28:40and we'll be able to bring some cows back. We're going to be all right.

0:28:56 > 0:28:58Texas has a lot of ranchers.

0:28:58 > 0:29:01It also has a lot of pseudo-ranchers.

0:29:01 > 0:29:04When George Bush Jr claims to be a cattleman,

0:29:04 > 0:29:08when he uses that cowboy vernacular, usurps that cowboy image,

0:29:08 > 0:29:12he's actually resorting to the most predictable of Texas class distinctions

0:29:12 > 0:29:16cos big swinging dick Texans don't buy Ferraris or yachts.

0:29:16 > 0:29:19What the hell are they going to do with a yacht in Texas?

0:29:19 > 0:29:22No, they spread out their insecurities

0:29:22 > 0:29:25over 200,000 acres of land and they put some toy cattle on it,

0:29:25 > 0:29:28and they have created an instant distinguished genealogy

0:29:28 > 0:29:32and a connection to the past and a hell of a photo op.

0:29:32 > 0:29:35It is the most disgusting kind of sentimentality

0:29:35 > 0:29:37cos it has nothing to do with real ranching.

0:29:37 > 0:29:40Why don't we ask George Bush Jr or Ted Turner if they've ever

0:29:40 > 0:29:42stood in a barn at three in the morning in January,

0:29:42 > 0:29:44knee-deep in placenta,

0:29:44 > 0:29:48with their elbows shoved up the impacted uterus of some brood cow.

0:29:48 > 0:29:52Or slapped patches of Levi's jeans, using Krazy Glue, onto the eye of

0:29:52 > 0:29:56a cow with pinkeye while the mamma's three feet away wanting to kill you

0:29:56 > 0:29:59because basically you're putting superglue onto a calf.

0:30:01 > 0:30:04I can tell you from experience, there's a huge difference between

0:30:04 > 0:30:07being a rancher and owning a ranch.

0:30:11 > 0:30:15The seat of Texas manhood is, and always will be, in the saddle.

0:30:15 > 0:30:18That might be its greatest or its worst distraction,

0:30:18 > 0:30:21its obsession with symbolic frontiersmanship.

0:30:21 > 0:30:25Its riders, intellectuals, ranchers, oilmen, politicians

0:30:25 > 0:30:30and musicians share that core ideal, to perpetuate symbolism.

0:30:30 > 0:30:33They'll never give up on being cowboys.

0:30:33 > 0:30:36Early cowboys were riders first and last.

0:30:36 > 0:30:39They were broken in body, twisted in spirit.

0:30:39 > 0:30:41They worked the trail for four months,

0:30:41 > 0:30:43got paid 40 at the end of it,

0:30:43 > 0:30:47burned all their clothes, blew the 40 and started again.

0:30:47 > 0:30:50They were bruised by debt, loneliness, failure,

0:30:50 > 0:30:55disease and untimely death, one of the most tragic figures imaginable.

0:30:59 > 0:31:03Out of tragedy comes pathos. Pathos transcends to martyrdom.

0:31:03 > 0:31:05Martyrdom creates heroism.

0:31:05 > 0:31:08And that is how Texas will forever see itself.

0:31:23 > 0:31:26If you believe the stereotypes, Texans are loud.

0:31:26 > 0:31:30Many of them possess bulbous features, but they are vigorous,

0:31:30 > 0:31:33so on the surface they're pretty much like the Irish.

0:31:33 > 0:31:37The difference, of course, is in what lies underneath the surface.

0:31:39 > 0:31:41In Ireland it's potatoes.

0:31:41 > 0:31:44In Texas it's petroleum.

0:31:46 > 0:31:49The discovery of oil not only changed Texas for ever,

0:31:49 > 0:31:52but changed the destiny of the entire world.

0:31:52 > 0:31:54Texas was about to give us a new stereotype,

0:31:54 > 0:31:58the Stetson-wearing, loudmouth, cigar-smoking oil baron.

0:31:59 > 0:32:03'Just beyond Beaumont is this obelisk honouring Spindletop,

0:32:03 > 0:32:07'the first producing oil well drilled in the state.

0:32:07 > 0:32:10'Here on January 10, 1901,

0:32:10 > 0:32:13'black gold gushed from the reserves of Texas.

0:32:13 > 0:32:16'The beginning of a tremendous oil empire.'

0:32:16 > 0:32:20In the early part of the 20th century, oil was just a nuisance.

0:32:20 > 0:32:23It got in the way of farmers who were drilling for water,

0:32:23 > 0:32:26stank up the marshes of East Texas.

0:32:26 > 0:32:29Spanish explorers had used it to waterproof their boots.

0:32:29 > 0:32:32Snake oil salesmen sold it to cure indigestion.

0:32:32 > 0:32:35As far as refining oil - ah, hell, that was something

0:32:35 > 0:32:38they did way up in Pennsylvania, not here in Beaumont.

0:32:38 > 0:32:42But a one-armed ex-juvenile delinquent born-again Christian

0:32:42 > 0:32:46named Patillo "Bud" Higgins had spent some time in Pennsylvania,

0:32:46 > 0:32:48saw that oil was a fledgling industry

0:32:48 > 0:32:52and he remembered a 15 foot high mound on the outskirts of his town.

0:32:52 > 0:32:55The residents of Beaumont had concluded it was just a salt dome

0:32:55 > 0:32:58because it was covered in salt.

0:32:58 > 0:33:03But Patillo "Bud" Higgins believed that underneath that salt was oil.

0:33:04 > 0:33:07Higgins had no formal understanding of geology,

0:33:07 > 0:33:10in fact he quit school at the age of 12.

0:33:10 > 0:33:15But for some insane reason, he envisioned all of Texas running on kerosene lamps,

0:33:15 > 0:33:20never mind that Edison's incandescent bulbs were already lighting up cities back East.

0:33:20 > 0:33:23In 1892 Higgins wrangled a cheap lease on the salt dome

0:33:23 > 0:33:27and convinced a water-well driller to sink a drill bit into the earth.

0:33:27 > 0:33:29Well, they hit salt and quicksand,

0:33:29 > 0:33:31so Higgins found some more investors.

0:33:31 > 0:33:33They drilled, they hit salt and quicksand.

0:33:33 > 0:33:36For nine years Higgins kept poking holes into his stupid hill,

0:33:36 > 0:33:40running out of money and then convincing various rubes they should invest in his project.

0:33:40 > 0:33:45Finally, at the end of 1900, in a last-ditch desperation attempt,

0:33:45 > 0:33:48Higgins took out an ad in a national magazine to lure more drillers.

0:33:50 > 0:33:52One person answered the ad.

0:33:53 > 0:33:57A Croatian salt miner named Anthony Lucas.

0:33:57 > 0:34:00Lucas had once been a captain in the Austro-Hungarian Navy

0:34:00 > 0:34:03but somehow he'd ended up mining salt in Louisiana.

0:34:05 > 0:34:07Lucas arrived in Beaumont

0:34:07 > 0:34:11and Higgins more or less turned the entire project over to him.

0:34:11 > 0:34:15In Pennsylvania, up to this time, if oil was found it was usually around 50 feet,

0:34:15 > 0:34:18but Texans don't generally do things half-assed,

0:34:18 > 0:34:22Lucas and his team drilled to over 1,000 feet.

0:34:23 > 0:34:26The drillers that were on that rig,

0:34:26 > 0:34:29they had to solve so many problems to bring that well in.

0:34:29 > 0:34:32There were layers of quicksand, layers of rock, layers of quicksand

0:34:32 > 0:34:36and even so, you had to have new ways to get through the quicksand

0:34:36 > 0:34:39because nobody had dealt with that

0:34:39 > 0:34:42so they developed ways to do all of that.

0:34:42 > 0:34:44Those were very creative men.

0:34:45 > 0:34:47And then on January 10, 1901,

0:34:47 > 0:34:52as two of Lucas's hired hands pulled up a drill to replace a broken bit,

0:34:52 > 0:34:55the ground suddenly began to shake.

0:34:55 > 0:34:58The first drilling mud bubbled up out of the hole

0:34:58 > 0:35:00and just shot into the sky,

0:35:00 > 0:35:04followed by rocks and then the rotten-egg smell of natural gas,

0:35:04 > 0:35:06then the drill casing itself.

0:35:06 > 0:35:091,100 feet of pipe just hurtled straight up into the sky

0:35:09 > 0:35:11and slammed down like a javelin.

0:35:11 > 0:35:13They come out and they start cleaning everything up.

0:35:13 > 0:35:16It's mud, it's water, it is not oil

0:35:16 > 0:35:20and the rig just starts shaking again.

0:35:20 > 0:35:26And the youngest one of those drillers was a fellow named Al Hammill.

0:35:26 > 0:35:32He went over and looked down the hole and he could see the oil.

0:35:32 > 0:35:35I walked over and looked down the hole there

0:35:35 > 0:35:39and there this frothy oil was starting up.

0:35:39 > 0:35:43It was just breathing like, you know,

0:35:43 > 0:35:46coming up and sinking back with the gas pressure

0:35:46 > 0:35:51and each flow a little higher, a little higher, a little higher.

0:35:51 > 0:35:54What shot out of that hole next would change Texas

0:35:54 > 0:35:57and the world for ever.

0:36:05 > 0:36:06That's right.

0:36:06 > 0:36:08Water!

0:36:08 > 0:36:12Not water, oil, this is just a cheap recreation.

0:36:14 > 0:36:15It was the future.

0:36:15 > 0:36:21Cars, locomotives, jetliners, and barbecues and lawn mowers.

0:36:21 > 0:36:25And tankers and shady wheelings and dealings with sheiks

0:36:25 > 0:36:27and tyrants and dictators and presidents.

0:36:27 > 0:36:31It came up in a huge gusher and it covered everything.

0:36:31 > 0:36:35And Lucas was downtown, someone called him,

0:36:35 > 0:36:38and he said, "What is it? What is it?"

0:36:38 > 0:36:41And they said, "Captain, it's oil."

0:36:41 > 0:36:48And it kept coming out of the ground for almost ten full days

0:36:48 > 0:36:51and it's too much.

0:36:51 > 0:36:54No-one had ever seen a gusher like Spindletop.

0:36:54 > 0:36:58Higgins had hoped he might get 50 barrels a day from the dome.

0:36:58 > 0:37:02It shot out more oil than all the wells in America and Russia combined.

0:37:02 > 0:37:05By the time it was brought under control and capped nine days later

0:37:05 > 0:37:10it had created a 38 million gallon lake of oil.

0:37:10 > 0:37:14It was too crude to be refined into kerosene but it made fine fuel oil.

0:37:14 > 0:37:16That is what changed the world.

0:37:17 > 0:37:19It was a quantum leap.

0:37:19 > 0:37:22Nobody had ever seen oil in that quantity

0:37:22 > 0:37:24and it just burst upon the scene,

0:37:24 > 0:37:28January 10, 1901, and nobody knew what to do with it.

0:37:28 > 0:37:33And the only way you are going to make money out of that oil

0:37:33 > 0:37:35was you have to figure out new ways to use it.

0:37:37 > 0:37:42So it set off this creative...energy, I guess would be a good word for it,

0:37:42 > 0:37:44and people started looking for ways to use it,

0:37:44 > 0:37:47otherwise everyone is going to go broke.

0:37:51 > 0:37:56When Spindletop came in in 1901, there were 3,000 cars in the US

0:37:56 > 0:37:59and 131 miles of paved road.

0:37:59 > 0:38:03There was one train belonging to the Santa Fe Railroad that ran on oil.

0:38:03 > 0:38:06Within five years, every train in America ran on oil.

0:38:06 > 0:38:10The navies of Germany, Britain, and the US, had converted their ships to oil.

0:38:10 > 0:38:15There were 50,000 cars on the road and there was no turning back.

0:38:15 > 0:38:17It redefined our way of life

0:38:17 > 0:38:23and we do say that it changed the course of world history.

0:38:23 > 0:38:27It made us veer real sharply in a new direction.

0:38:29 > 0:38:32Overnight, the mosquito-infested backwater of Beaumont

0:38:32 > 0:38:35turned into a boom town, an orgy of mud, blood, speculators,

0:38:35 > 0:38:38hookers, pimps, thieves, dreamers and schemers.

0:38:38 > 0:38:41It went from a population of 9,000

0:38:41 > 0:38:44to over 50,000 practically overnight.

0:38:44 > 0:38:51Charlatans, conmen, legitimate oil men came in, of course,

0:38:51 > 0:38:54but you had saloon keepers, streetwalkers.

0:38:54 > 0:38:59We had a boy with X-ray eyes who advertised

0:38:59 > 0:39:02that he could look into the ground and see oil under there,

0:39:02 > 0:39:05and actually he did find one well

0:39:05 > 0:39:10and then he decided that he'd better stop because he shouldn't abuse such a gift!

0:39:13 > 0:39:18It redefined Texas in terms of big oil

0:39:18 > 0:39:22because many more fields were discovered after Spindletop.

0:39:22 > 0:39:24That was just the beginning.

0:39:24 > 0:39:29Everybody got the oil fever and they just began exploring.

0:39:29 > 0:39:33# Striking oil is easier than spitting here in Texas

0:39:33 > 0:39:36# Oil comes up no matter where you plan

0:39:36 > 0:39:39# But I'll bet you never caught a Texan... #

0:39:39 > 0:39:42Call it petroleum, black gold, Texas tea,

0:39:42 > 0:39:46dinosaur juice, for the most part it was still snake oil.

0:39:46 > 0:39:48Texans knew one thing about oil -

0:39:48 > 0:39:50how to get it out of the ground.

0:39:50 > 0:39:53They didn't have the money, the equipment to refine or transport it,

0:39:53 > 0:39:56so that's when all the pilferers and plunderers

0:39:56 > 0:39:59and petrol profiteers of Pennsylvania showed up

0:39:59 > 0:40:00like carpetbaggers of yore.

0:40:00 > 0:40:03They laid pipe, they put up storage facilities,

0:40:03 > 0:40:06they sucked up leases and they generally fleeced Beaumont

0:40:06 > 0:40:08for everything they could get their hands on.

0:40:08 > 0:40:12They gave themselves epic names like the Sun Oil Company,

0:40:12 > 0:40:15the Texas Oil Company, Gulf Oil -

0:40:15 > 0:40:18just to let these backward yahoos know who meant business.

0:40:18 > 0:40:21One company took the ironic approach,

0:40:21 > 0:40:24called themselves the Humble Oil Company.

0:40:24 > 0:40:27Later they would change their name to Exxon.

0:40:27 > 0:40:30The Spindletop discovery started an oil fever

0:40:30 > 0:40:32that spread through Texas.

0:40:32 > 0:40:36The state was overrun with people looking to make a fortune.

0:40:36 > 0:40:38Oil seemed to be everywhere.

0:40:38 > 0:40:42Spindletop brought the first huge diversification of the economy.

0:40:42 > 0:40:46Because, as the oil industry grew, ultimately by the 1930s

0:40:46 > 0:40:49it would generate more money than agribusiness.

0:40:51 > 0:40:55Millions of dollars worth of oil were being popped out of the ground every year.

0:40:55 > 0:40:57It was there for anyone to take.

0:41:00 > 0:41:04Imagine for a second growing up as a young man in Texas in the early 1900s.

0:41:04 > 0:41:07There was no culture, no academia,

0:41:07 > 0:41:11school is just a place you sit in until it is time to find a job.

0:41:11 > 0:41:14The rest of America is expanding and industrialising

0:41:14 > 0:41:18but all Texas has going for it is it's big and it's full of oil.

0:41:19 > 0:41:23Many of these entrepreneurial young men became wildcatters.

0:41:25 > 0:41:27They were true independents, speculators,

0:41:27 > 0:41:30prepared to borrow a fortune from the bank

0:41:30 > 0:41:34and then risk it all drilling for oil on nothing more than a hunch.

0:41:36 > 0:41:38There has to be that sense of adventure.

0:41:39 > 0:41:41If it's missing, you don't want to go into oil.

0:41:41 > 0:41:44You could lose your shirt drilling for oil

0:41:44 > 0:41:47and more oilmen failed than succeeded

0:41:47 > 0:41:50because of the extremely high risk,

0:41:50 > 0:41:53particularly before science could do much to limit risk.

0:41:53 > 0:41:56And even then you could lose money on the economics of it.

0:41:56 > 0:41:58You might find it, but you wouldn't get your money back.

0:41:58 > 0:42:01When you're dealing with Mother Earth,

0:42:01 > 0:42:03you don't know what she's going to do,

0:42:03 > 0:42:05or what curve she's going to throw at you.

0:42:05 > 0:42:08A lot of the wildcatters didn't care if they got rich or not.

0:42:08 > 0:42:11What they wanted was to find oil.

0:42:11 > 0:42:15The search was the interesting part for so many of those men - and some women.

0:42:28 > 0:42:32Nowadays the most popular poker game in the world is Texas Hold'em.

0:42:33 > 0:42:35The players are dealt only two cards,

0:42:35 > 0:42:38then they bet on five communal cards.

0:42:38 > 0:42:40Everyone knows what's on the table.

0:42:40 > 0:42:45The winner is the one who can make the most of the paltry hand he's been dealt.

0:42:49 > 0:42:52With the right amount of bullshit,

0:42:52 > 0:42:55you can draw some people in and scare other people away.

0:42:57 > 0:42:58All in.

0:43:00 > 0:43:04And that is what the Texas oil business was in the 1900s,

0:43:04 > 0:43:06one giant game of Texas Hold'em.

0:43:06 > 0:43:08Bluster and bullshit,

0:43:08 > 0:43:10jackpot or bust, winner go home.

0:43:10 > 0:43:12It wasn't hard making a fortune.

0:43:12 > 0:43:14It was hard keeping a fortune.

0:43:16 > 0:43:17Call.

0:43:17 > 0:43:19All in.

0:43:22 > 0:43:25Dead man's hand - eights and aces.

0:43:26 > 0:43:28How about three Kings?

0:43:36 > 0:43:39One of these young men figured out something very quickly,

0:43:39 > 0:43:41you didn't need a drill to poke holes in Texas,

0:43:41 > 0:43:43you just needed a fountain pen.

0:43:43 > 0:43:45Any fellow with an outgoing nature and a bit of savvy

0:43:45 > 0:43:50could talk some weather-beaten rancher or a lonely old widow into

0:43:50 > 0:43:53signing an oil lease on their property in exchange for

0:43:53 > 0:43:57a percentage of vast imagined wealth right underneath the soil.

0:43:59 > 0:44:02Leases were the currency, the Monopoly money of the oil business.

0:44:02 > 0:44:06They were traded on muddy backstreets amongst grimy oilmen,

0:44:06 > 0:44:08hucksters and flimflam artists.

0:44:08 > 0:44:10They were won and lost in poker games.

0:44:10 > 0:44:14Their values rose and fell on nothing more than speculation or rumour.

0:44:14 > 0:44:16It wasn't hard to get a mineral lease,

0:44:16 > 0:44:18particularly during the 1930s

0:44:18 > 0:44:21because farmers were in such tough shape during the depression.

0:44:21 > 0:44:25The lease was signed and ordinarily there was a bonus paid at the time.

0:44:25 > 0:44:29Then the lease contained clauses relating to

0:44:29 > 0:44:35how the owner of the minerals would be repaid for every barrel of oil

0:44:35 > 0:44:38and how often he'd be paid and that kind of thing.

0:44:38 > 0:44:42That looked awfully good to farmers, anywhere in Texas, to ranchers too.

0:44:44 > 0:44:47Probably only one in 1,000 leases ever led to drilling.

0:44:47 > 0:44:50Only one in 100 drillings ever produced oil

0:44:50 > 0:44:52but when a well did come in, boom!

0:44:52 > 0:44:55Shak-a-lacka! Kerching!

0:44:55 > 0:44:58It fuelled another flurry of trading and speculation.

0:44:59 > 0:45:02These early day wildcatters were go-for-broke.

0:45:02 > 0:45:04Any one of them would have pissed in the Bacardi Breezer of

0:45:04 > 0:45:08your modern-day dotcom or hedge-fund cowboy who imagines himself

0:45:08 > 0:45:10to be a rogue and a risk-taker.

0:45:11 > 0:45:16Thank God I live now and not then because I surely would have

0:45:16 > 0:45:21gotten into this myself and I probably would have lost my shirt.

0:45:21 > 0:45:23And did it pay off for many?

0:45:23 > 0:45:24Yeah, it sure did.

0:45:29 > 0:45:33So, if Texans appear to be reckless and arrogant, it's all

0:45:33 > 0:45:37because of that communal stuff that shot out of the ground in 1901.

0:45:39 > 0:45:42I should have recognised you from that painting.

0:45:44 > 0:45:48The caricature of the Texas oilman quickly evolved.

0:45:48 > 0:45:51He was a suave, Stetsoned maverick, sipping bourbon

0:45:51 > 0:45:53and revelling in the adrenaline of the game itself.

0:45:53 > 0:45:56Have you never heard of a wheeler dealer?

0:45:56 > 0:46:00He is a fellow who borrows millions, makes millions, spends millions.

0:46:01 > 0:46:03The wheeler dealer never loses but...

0:46:03 > 0:46:05Taxman loses.

0:46:05 > 0:46:08He usually does on a Henry Tyroone deal.

0:46:08 > 0:46:09You have got me all wrong.

0:46:09 > 0:46:12You don't go wheeling and dealing for money, you do it for fun.

0:46:12 > 0:46:15Money is just the way you keep score.

0:46:15 > 0:46:18Or a high-rolling, white Stetsoned dimwit with no

0:46:18 > 0:46:20sense of anything except how to spend his money.

0:46:20 > 0:46:24Say now, Henry, whatever it is you are onto, I'll take a fourth of it.

0:46:24 > 0:46:25And I'll take an eighth.

0:46:25 > 0:46:29I'll see your eighth and I'll raise your fourth.

0:46:29 > 0:46:32The wheeler dealers and their hilarious wheeler dealer friends,

0:46:32 > 0:46:34Phil Harris and Chill Wills.

0:46:36 > 0:46:38Let's high ball it to New York.

0:46:41 > 0:46:44Yee-ha!

0:46:44 > 0:46:47In truth, quite a few oilmen did fit this stereotype.

0:46:47 > 0:46:51The danger lay in the fact that with money comes influence.

0:46:51 > 0:46:54If Texas were ever to erect a Mount Rushmore of oilmen,

0:46:54 > 0:46:57it would consist of these four men.

0:46:58 > 0:47:04Roy Cullen, HL Hunt, Clint Murchison and Sid Richardson

0:47:04 > 0:47:07all, at one time or another, were the richest men in Texas

0:47:07 > 0:47:10with a combined wealth running into the billions.

0:47:14 > 0:47:15Their lives constitute

0:47:15 > 0:47:18a kind of petroleum-based Lord Of The Rings.

0:47:18 > 0:47:21Starting out in the filthy oilfields, their power stretched

0:47:21 > 0:47:24to every aspect of American business and politics.

0:47:28 > 0:47:31Directly or indirectly, they put two Texans in the White House and,

0:47:31 > 0:47:35if you choose to buy into the conspiracy, removed one.

0:47:35 > 0:47:39They invented the Dallas Cowboys, the Astrodome and the Super Bowl.

0:47:41 > 0:47:44They were spectacular philanthropists,

0:47:44 > 0:47:46cut-throat poker players,

0:47:46 > 0:47:48mush-mouthed aristocrats,

0:47:48 > 0:47:50hayseed Richard IIIs,

0:47:50 > 0:47:54shit-kickers with dust on their lizard-skin boots,

0:47:54 > 0:47:57doling out pulled pork barbecue to the minions.

0:47:57 > 0:48:00They transformed Texas' economy into one of the richest in the world.

0:48:00 > 0:48:02Not one of them ever went to college.

0:48:02 > 0:48:05Three of them never got past the sixth grade.

0:48:05 > 0:48:09Their idea of refinement was to accumulate lots and lots of shit

0:48:09 > 0:48:13and show it off to the world. They were the Kanye West of their day.

0:48:13 > 0:48:15And, much like Kanye West,

0:48:15 > 0:48:17the president thought they were a bunch of jackasses.

0:48:17 > 0:48:20So they responded by having the president killed.

0:48:23 > 0:48:25At least, that's what some people believe.

0:48:29 > 0:48:32The death of JFK brought an evil new dimension to the Texas men.

0:48:32 > 0:48:35It began in the minds of conspiracy freaks

0:48:35 > 0:48:37and underground writers

0:48:37 > 0:48:42and a counterculture suspicious of all things corporate and powerful.

0:48:47 > 0:48:49According to some people,

0:48:49 > 0:48:53the oilmen had Vice President Lyndon B Johnson in their pocket.

0:48:53 > 0:48:56There is a story that the night before JFK's assassination,

0:48:56 > 0:48:58Murchison hosted a party.

0:48:58 > 0:49:02Johnson attended and, on leaving, apparently said these words,

0:49:02 > 0:49:06"After tomorrow, those SOBs will never embarrass me again.

0:49:06 > 0:49:08"That's no threat. That's a promise."

0:49:11 > 0:49:14The idea that a cabal of nefarious tycoons

0:49:14 > 0:49:18could assassinate a president and plot a right-wing takeover?

0:49:18 > 0:49:22Just an idea too juicy not to take hold of the imagination.

0:49:23 > 0:49:25At this point in time,

0:49:25 > 0:49:27can you believe that Lee Harvey Oswald

0:49:27 > 0:49:31killed present John F Kennedy by himself?

0:49:31 > 0:49:35Don't make your decision until you see Executive Action.

0:49:35 > 0:49:37In the last two years, the Secret Service has

0:49:37 > 0:49:41established 149 threats against Kennedy's life in Texas alone.

0:49:41 > 0:49:44Yet they sent him into hostile territory with no more

0:49:44 > 0:49:47protection than you or I would arrange for a favourite dog.

0:49:47 > 0:49:50Two terms for JFK, two for Bobby and two for Ted.

0:49:50 > 0:49:54Which makes action now imperative.

0:49:54 > 0:49:57- What kind of action?- Executive.

0:49:57 > 0:49:59I'll take it from here, Bob.

0:49:59 > 0:50:03The Texas oilman might be dumber than a bag of wet mice

0:50:03 > 0:50:05but now he was a right-wing nut job,

0:50:05 > 0:50:10intent on taking over the world or, even worse, destroying it.

0:50:13 > 0:50:16Well, boys, I reckon this is it.

0:50:16 > 0:50:19Nuclear combat, toe-to-toe with the Ruskies.

0:50:19 > 0:50:21HE SHRIEKS

0:50:21 > 0:50:25Of course, not everyone buys into that theory.

0:50:25 > 0:50:27These guys are all over the map in terms of their

0:50:27 > 0:50:30political affinities and their loyalties.

0:50:30 > 0:50:34I think Cullen would have had a lot of trouble supporting

0:50:34 > 0:50:36Lyndon Johnson, frankly.

0:50:36 > 0:50:38And I don't think he would have been at all happy to

0:50:38 > 0:50:41think of Johnson in the White House.

0:50:41 > 0:50:44The only one of the big four I'd really say almost certainly

0:50:44 > 0:50:47would have liked to have seen that would have been Richardson

0:50:47 > 0:50:48but he died before it happened.

0:50:48 > 0:50:52I think they have got the spotlight on the wrong area there.

0:50:52 > 0:50:56..and asking the people of Texas to put their confidence

0:50:56 > 0:50:58in the Democratic Party once again.

0:50:58 > 0:51:00Essentially, no-one will ever really know

0:51:00 > 0:51:03if these oil barons helped facilitate JFK's death.

0:51:03 > 0:51:05We stand for the things in which...

0:51:05 > 0:51:09But it has left a big stain on the reputation of the Lone Star state.

0:51:09 > 0:51:10..yes to the future.

0:51:10 > 0:51:14There are times that the history of this state

0:51:14 > 0:51:17leaves a great deal to be desired.

0:51:17 > 0:51:20I was in Europe right after the Kennedy assassination

0:51:20 > 0:51:23and, oh, Lord, you didn't want to say

0:51:23 > 0:51:26that you had been anywhere near this place.

0:51:26 > 0:51:28And I'm...

0:51:28 > 0:51:31I was horrified too. Just horrified.

0:51:31 > 0:51:34We stand for the things in which they have always believed.

0:51:34 > 0:51:38And I believe, in 1960, they're going to say, "Yes," to the future.

0:51:38 > 0:51:41They're going to say, "Yes," and put their confidence in our party.

0:51:45 > 0:51:47The simple trickle-down economic truth was that,

0:51:47 > 0:51:49by the middle of the last century,

0:51:49 > 0:51:53Texas was cash-rich but impoverished in every other way.

0:51:53 > 0:51:55Like generations before them,

0:51:55 > 0:51:59they had grown up surrounded by raw nature, hardship, deprivation.

0:51:59 > 0:52:02No-one ever got rich quick selling cattle.

0:52:02 > 0:52:05Oil changed all that.

0:52:05 > 0:52:07But the transition was too much for Texans to take.

0:52:07 > 0:52:10They had always expected the wrong things of money, thinking

0:52:10 > 0:52:14if they just spent unstintingly they could overcome intellectual

0:52:14 > 0:52:16or sexual poverty.

0:52:16 > 0:52:19So they went to town. Yee-ha.

0:52:19 > 0:52:24Just waving munificence and seeking desperately for that one single

0:52:24 > 0:52:28purchase that would seal their value in the eyes of the world.

0:52:28 > 0:52:30MUSIC: "Breakfast In America" by Supertramp

0:52:30 > 0:52:33# Mummy, dear, Mummy, dear

0:52:34 > 0:52:37# They've got to have 'em in Texas

0:52:37 > 0:52:40# Cos everyone's a millionaire... #

0:52:40 > 0:52:45New Cadillacs, ranch-style houses, wall-to-wall carpet,

0:52:45 > 0:52:47shiny appliances, cowhide furniture,

0:52:47 > 0:52:50steer horn chandeliers, cow poke bric-a-brac.

0:52:50 > 0:52:54Everything big and gaudy, everything Texas-sized.

0:52:54 > 0:52:57People in Texas like to brag that in Texas you can get in your car and

0:52:57 > 0:53:01drive and drive and three days later you're still driving through Texas.

0:53:01 > 0:53:03The proper response to that statement is to reply,

0:53:03 > 0:53:07"Yeah, I had a piece of shit car like that myself once."

0:53:15 > 0:53:19The ultimate stereotype of the raw, hard-living, bourbon-swilling,

0:53:19 > 0:53:24fist-fighting Texas cash-tosser was Diamond Glenn McCarthy.

0:53:24 > 0:53:27No other oilman rocketed into the public's imagination like him.

0:53:27 > 0:53:31He was the Texas id embodied in one man.

0:53:34 > 0:53:36An Errol Flynn knock-off,

0:53:36 > 0:53:39rubbing elbows with Howard Hughes and Hollywood stars,

0:53:39 > 0:53:43brawling, drinking and gambling his way from Buffalo Bayou

0:53:43 > 0:53:45all the way to Sunset Boulevard.

0:53:45 > 0:53:46When he wasn't drilling,

0:53:46 > 0:53:48he liked to tool around in his private plane

0:53:48 > 0:53:50or his four-wheel Jeep,

0:53:50 > 0:53:54shooting rattlesnakes and armadillos with a Colt 45.

0:53:54 > 0:53:57Yep, the man exuded pure class.

0:53:57 > 0:54:00Mr McCarthy belongs to a breed known as the Texas oil millionaires,

0:54:00 > 0:54:03almost all of whom were poor wildcatters before

0:54:03 > 0:54:05they struck it rich in oil.

0:54:05 > 0:54:08I was 26 years old and I made a million and a half dollars.

0:54:10 > 0:54:12By the time he was 33,

0:54:12 > 0:54:14he was thought to have been worth 300 million.

0:54:14 > 0:54:18That's three quarters of a billion in today's currency.

0:54:18 > 0:54:22And, like most men with gargantuan egos, he decided to create

0:54:22 > 0:54:27a legacy for himself - his own Taj Mahal, his own Eiffel Tower.

0:54:27 > 0:54:31Probably no hostelry has become so famous in such a brief period

0:54:31 > 0:54:34as Houston's fabulous Shamrock Hotel.

0:54:36 > 0:54:41McCarthy's hotel took three years to build and cost him 21 million.

0:54:41 > 0:54:44It opened on St Patrick's Day 1949

0:54:44 > 0:54:47and it was decadent in every way imaginable.

0:54:47 > 0:54:50It was to have a two-storey lobby covered in emeralds,

0:54:50 > 0:54:52a five-storey parking garage,

0:54:52 > 0:54:55the largest theatre in all of the southwest and a swimming pool

0:54:55 > 0:55:00with green-coloured water big enough for water skiing.

0:55:00 > 0:55:03He wanted to have the biggest hotel in town partly

0:55:03 > 0:55:07because that was a challenge to the Houston establishment.

0:55:07 > 0:55:12It's a mentality with him, I think, not economic practicality.

0:55:12 > 0:55:16He also had a roughly life-size oil painting of himself

0:55:16 > 0:55:19put by the downstairs elevator.

0:55:27 > 0:55:29For its gala opening night, Glenn McCarthy hired

0:55:29 > 0:55:31both a Santa Fe railroad train

0:55:31 > 0:55:34and a charter plane to bring in stars from Hollywood.

0:55:34 > 0:55:36Dorothy Lamour was there as hostess.

0:55:36 > 0:55:41So was Robert Ryan, Kirk Douglas, Errol Flynn, Ginger Rogers,

0:55:41 > 0:55:42Lou Costello, Stan Laurel,

0:55:42 > 0:55:46Edgar Bergen and his wooden puppet Charlie McCarthy,

0:55:46 > 0:55:48no relation to Glenn.

0:55:48 > 0:55:52It was all Klieg lights and taffeta, dripping diamonds and mink stoles.

0:55:53 > 0:55:57There were 10,000 onlookers lining the streets, trying to get

0:55:57 > 0:56:00a glimpse of Hollywood and Texas royalty.

0:56:00 > 0:56:02The festivities began

0:56:02 > 0:56:05when a drunken cowboy actor named Red Barry

0:56:05 > 0:56:08yanked the shoe off of an oil baroness named Anne Justice

0:56:08 > 0:56:11and began drinking champagne from it.

0:56:11 > 0:56:14NBC radio was there, broadcasting it throughout the nation.

0:56:14 > 0:56:18When Dorothy Lamour stepped up to the mic at precisely 8:30 PM

0:56:18 > 0:56:23to begin the broadcast, 3,000 tipsy Texans started braying

0:56:23 > 0:56:25and wolf whistling and nobody listening on the radio could

0:56:25 > 0:56:28understand a single thing that Dorothy Lamour said.

0:56:28 > 0:56:32Then a broadcast technician interrupted transmission and

0:56:32 > 0:56:35uttered the only intelligible thing that anyone at home could hear.

0:56:35 > 0:56:38His words were, "They're fucking it up!"

0:56:39 > 0:56:42The NBC broadcast broke down and went off the air.

0:56:42 > 0:56:46The next day, in the eyes of the world, Texas had arrived.

0:56:46 > 0:56:48MUSIC: "Mr Big Stuff" by Jean Knight

0:56:48 > 0:56:51# Tell me, who do you think you are?

0:56:51 > 0:56:52# Mr Big Stuff... #

0:56:52 > 0:56:55McCarthy managed to keep the hotel running for five years.

0:56:55 > 0:56:57Not once was it ever full.

0:56:57 > 0:57:03In 1954, it was seized by insurers and given to the Hilton hotel chain.

0:57:03 > 0:57:07In 1984, the greatest hotel ever built in America was donated

0:57:07 > 0:57:10to the Texas Medical Centre.

0:57:10 > 0:57:12And then they knocked it down.

0:57:12 > 0:57:15# Mr Big Stuff

0:57:15 > 0:57:17# You're never gonna get my love. #

0:57:17 > 0:57:23Well, I didn't have any old friends in the oil business.

0:57:23 > 0:57:24When McCarthy died,

0:57:24 > 0:57:28obituaries went out of their way to describe the man as charismatic,

0:57:28 > 0:57:31flamboyant, charming, unabashed - characteristics that

0:57:31 > 0:57:35presumably disappeared when they stuck him in front of a TV camera.

0:57:35 > 0:57:38When newsman Mike Wallace interviewed him in 1957,

0:57:38 > 0:57:41McCarthy was slightly more animated than the smoke

0:57:41 > 0:57:44drifting out of Wallace's cigarette.

0:57:45 > 0:57:48All right, Glenn, as far as mixing between White and Negro,

0:57:48 > 0:57:49you are against it.

0:57:49 > 0:57:53You've said you just can't breed a prize bull with a scrub heifer.

0:57:53 > 0:57:55And you've said it frequently. What do you mean by that?

0:57:55 > 0:57:58Well...

0:57:58 > 0:58:01It could be a long explanation.

0:58:01 > 0:58:03Why?

0:58:03 > 0:58:07To try to explain what you mean by that. You...

0:58:07 > 0:58:11When you...try to raise registered cattle,

0:58:11 > 0:58:15you attempt to put registered bulls with registered heifers.

0:58:15 > 0:58:19Are you suggesting that the White is a prize bull

0:58:19 > 0:58:21and the Negro is a scrub heifer?

0:58:21 > 0:58:26I'm not saying it in that way. I don't believe...

0:58:26 > 0:58:29'He was kind of deflated in terms of his prominence

0:58:29 > 0:58:30'by the time Wallace interviewed him.'

0:58:30 > 0:58:36He had really long since tired out the establishment in Houston.

0:58:36 > 0:58:40Again, his boisterous quality and flamboyance

0:58:40 > 0:58:44and his tendency to show up and be loud in the wrong places

0:58:44 > 0:58:48at the wrong times - he had worn out his welcome, I think.

0:58:48 > 0:58:50How a monosyllabic, racist oil-lionaire

0:58:50 > 0:58:53who somehow confuses integration with cattle breeding

0:58:53 > 0:58:57ever managed to magnify himself in the eyes of the world

0:58:57 > 0:58:58is pure Texas mystique.

0:58:58 > 0:59:02That's always been Texas' best PR stunt - mythologising itself.

0:59:02 > 0:59:07Larger-than-life characters make Texas larger than life.

0:59:08 > 0:59:12Now greatness returns to the screen.

0:59:13 > 0:59:17Glenn McCarthy's most lasting imprint would never be a hotel,

0:59:17 > 0:59:19it would be the fictionalisation of his persona.

0:59:19 > 0:59:23The 1956 film Giant, directed by George Stevens,

0:59:23 > 0:59:25based on the Edna Ferber Novel,

0:59:25 > 0:59:29modelled its protagonist Jett Rink on Glenn McCarthy.

0:59:29 > 0:59:30Rink, played by James Dean,

0:59:30 > 0:59:34is a hired hand on a cattle ranch run by Bick Benedict and his wife,

0:59:34 > 0:59:37played by Rock Hudson and Elizabeth Taylor.

0:59:37 > 0:59:40In the film, the class delineations couldn't be more obvious,

0:59:40 > 0:59:42more black and white.

0:59:42 > 0:59:45It's almost as if the film was written by a British person.

0:59:47 > 0:59:50When his tiny plot of land produces a wildcat strike,

0:59:50 > 0:59:53Rink's fortunes change instantly.

0:59:53 > 0:59:56James Dean is full of coarse animal vitality.

0:59:56 > 1:00:00Rock Hudson and Elizabeth Taylor are stalwarts of Texas ennui.

1:00:02 > 1:00:05That sure is a beautiful animal.

1:00:05 > 1:00:06Beautiful.

1:00:08 > 1:00:09Because Hudson's character

1:00:09 > 1:00:12Bick Benedict is clearly based on the patriarchs

1:00:12 > 1:00:16of the King Ranch and Jett Rink is based on the wildcatter McCarthy,

1:00:16 > 1:00:19in one single scene we get to see the transition

1:00:19 > 1:00:22of old cattle Texas to new petro-Texas.

1:00:22 > 1:00:25The contrast couldn't be more obvious.

1:00:25 > 1:00:28My, you sure do look pretty, Miss Lynnton.

1:00:28 > 1:00:29You always did look pretty.

1:00:31 > 1:00:33Just as pretty now. Good enough to eat.

1:00:39 > 1:00:42Oh, you're testy, Bick.

1:00:42 > 1:00:44Testy as an old kook.

1:00:47 > 1:00:48If nothing else,

1:00:48 > 1:00:52that scene emphasises why wealthy Texans seem to prefer white.

1:00:52 > 1:00:55Because it disassociates them from the filthy enterprise that

1:00:55 > 1:00:57made them rich in the first place.

1:00:57 > 1:00:59If the film had ended right there,

1:00:59 > 1:01:01it would have made a very succinct point.

1:01:01 > 1:01:03Instead, it goes on for a couple more hours,

1:01:03 > 1:01:06charting this interminable curve of family dysfunction

1:01:06 > 1:01:09that would eventually spawn night-time bombastic soap operas

1:01:09 > 1:01:13like Dallas and Dynasty.

1:01:13 > 1:01:15"Dye-nasty." Not "Dinasty."

1:01:15 > 1:01:17Dynasty.

1:01:17 > 1:01:19Jett Rink becomes rich overnight

1:01:19 > 1:01:22and then turns into a lonely, drunken shell of a man.

1:01:22 > 1:01:23The Benedicts grow old

1:01:23 > 1:01:25and eventually learn something about dignity

1:01:25 > 1:01:29when Bick Benedict comes to the aid of some Mexicans who are being

1:01:29 > 1:01:31treated unfairly by a diner owner.

1:01:31 > 1:01:33You too.

1:01:33 > 1:01:34Hold on a minute.

1:01:43 > 1:01:46He never stood so tall as when he crawled.

1:01:48 > 1:01:50The film consists of lots of fistfights

1:01:50 > 1:01:54and dusty Texas vistas and James Dean leaving method pauses

1:01:54 > 1:01:57between his lines that would have given Harold Pinter time

1:01:57 > 1:02:00to go out to the kitchen and make himself a sandwich.

1:02:00 > 1:02:03I'm going to tell my husband I've met with your approval.

1:02:05 > 1:02:07Well, now...

1:02:07 > 1:02:09I wouldn't do that.

1:02:09 > 1:02:11No, I...

1:02:11 > 1:02:12Remember, in Hollywood,

1:02:12 > 1:02:16the term epic is always a euphemism for turgid.

1:02:16 > 1:02:18In the second half of the film,

1:02:18 > 1:02:20when Liz and Rock and James are supposed to look aged,

1:02:20 > 1:02:22it would appear as though George Stevens

1:02:22 > 1:02:25had hired a gay, colour-blind, Kabuki make-up artist.

1:02:25 > 1:02:27Liz and Rock have blue hair

1:02:27 > 1:02:30and age lines painted on with a grease pencil.

1:02:30 > 1:02:33James Dean appears to have been spatula-ed

1:02:33 > 1:02:37and bears an uncanny resemblance to George Bush Junior.

1:02:37 > 1:02:40Realising this was what he was going to look like later in life,

1:02:40 > 1:02:42James Dean opted to go out and die in a car crash

1:02:42 > 1:02:44right after the filming.

1:02:44 > 1:02:46Texans, of course, were outraged

1:02:46 > 1:02:48by the portrayal of themselves in cinema.

1:02:48 > 1:02:49The rest of the nation lapped it up

1:02:49 > 1:02:52and gave Stevens an Oscar for best director.

1:02:52 > 1:02:55The movie Giant probably sums it up for me.

1:02:55 > 1:03:00- I would agree with Edna Ferber or the Yankees on that one.- Really?

1:03:00 > 1:03:01Yeah.

1:03:01 > 1:03:04I mean, a lot of Texans don't think so, they think it is simplistic.

1:03:04 > 1:03:06But it is a movie. But it's...

1:03:06 > 1:03:09There is a movie that will affect you, like Doctor Zhivago,

1:03:09 > 1:03:11which will...

1:03:11 > 1:03:13You know, I mean... Or Scarface.

1:03:13 > 1:03:17- I mean, you walk out of there, you are in another time.- Yeah.

1:03:17 > 1:03:21It just kind of went on a bit. It kind of really got...

1:03:21 > 1:03:26- Well, it's a big, epic story. - Yeah, but she...- Edna Ferber.

1:03:26 > 1:03:29- But what did people in Texas think of Edna Ferber?- They don't like her.

1:03:29 > 1:03:31They think that, you know...

1:03:31 > 1:03:33- She was a big, highbrow New Yorker coming down...- Maybe.

1:03:33 > 1:03:38Nonetheless, she was able to write...

1:03:38 > 1:03:43It went from paper right to James Dean and got it right.

1:03:43 > 1:03:50And the scene in Sarge's cafe there is fucking... You don't beat that.

1:03:50 > 1:03:51That's a great scene.

1:03:51 > 1:03:55Plus the song The Yellow Rose Of Texas is almost impossible to top.

1:03:55 > 1:03:57- It's just a great song.- Yeah.

1:03:57 > 1:04:01# There's a yellow rose in Texas that I am going to see

1:04:01 > 1:04:03# Nobody else could... #

1:04:03 > 1:04:07The history of Texas is almost entirely male-dominated.

1:04:07 > 1:04:10In fact, if you were to google "notable women of Texas" or,

1:04:10 > 1:04:16more specifically, "singular ladies of Texas", guess who comes up first.

1:04:16 > 1:04:18That's right, Beyonce.

1:04:18 > 1:04:24Of the 417 Texas women listed as notable, 287 are actresses,

1:04:24 > 1:04:27111 are singers

1:04:27 > 1:04:29and only 19 are listed as activists,

1:04:29 > 1:04:33philanthropists, first ladies or criminals.

1:04:35 > 1:04:39An old saying about Texas - it's hell on horses and women.

1:04:39 > 1:04:42You don't have to look far below the surface to figure that

1:04:42 > 1:04:45a place founded by itinerant soldiers of fortune,

1:04:45 > 1:04:50mythologised by drifting cowboys and fattened by wildcatters and

1:04:50 > 1:04:55good ol' boy type tycoons might just be a little bit sexually repressed.

1:04:55 > 1:04:58You know, there are only two things more beautiful than a good gun -

1:04:58 > 1:05:02a Swiss watch or a woman from anywhere.

1:05:02 > 1:05:03You ever had a good Swiss watch?

1:05:03 > 1:05:06From the first women who arrived here and for generations

1:05:06 > 1:05:09afterwards, Texas was never going to be an easy place.

1:05:09 > 1:05:12Men who expressed themselves with their work found it very hard

1:05:12 > 1:05:16to relate to women. They were mutually frightened of each other.

1:05:16 > 1:05:18The Texan's code prepared him

1:05:18 > 1:05:21to think of women not as they really were, but as some

1:05:21 > 1:05:25naive idealisation to which they could never conform.

1:05:25 > 1:05:29This shakes a man's confidence and accounts for a lot of his riding off

1:05:29 > 1:05:34into the sunset on a horse or behind the wheel of a Cadillac.

1:05:34 > 1:05:37This sense of estrangement was captured perfectly by

1:05:37 > 1:05:39Peter Bogdanovich in The Last Picture Show,

1:05:39 > 1:05:43probably one of the greatest films ever made about Texas.

1:05:43 > 1:05:48Anarene, Texas, 1951. Nothing much has changed.

1:05:49 > 1:05:53The film uses the closing of the town's only movie theatre

1:05:53 > 1:05:55as a motif to symbolise the changes

1:05:55 > 1:05:57that were happening to Texas in the 1950s.

1:05:57 > 1:06:01The theatre is owned by Sam the Lion played by Ben Johnson.

1:06:01 > 1:06:07I heard about the ball game last night. 121 to 14.

1:06:07 > 1:06:09He is just about the only self-sufficient

1:06:09 > 1:06:11and self-satisfied man in town.

1:06:11 > 1:06:12I'm not sorry for you.

1:06:12 > 1:06:15The rest of the town is infected by a general malaise.

1:06:15 > 1:06:18Basically, the only thing that reminds anyone they're alive

1:06:18 > 1:06:20is infidelity.

1:06:20 > 1:06:24- What do you think he'd do if he found us?- Shoot us, probably.

1:06:24 > 1:06:27But, Mama, it's a sin, isn't it, unless you're married?

1:06:27 > 1:06:30- You know I wouldn't do that. - Don't be so mealy-mouthed.

1:06:32 > 1:06:35In Anarene, the nourishing myth of the West

1:06:35 > 1:06:37is just blowing away in the dust.

1:06:37 > 1:06:41Against this backdrop, we meet two high school seniors named Sonny

1:06:41 > 1:06:43and Duane who both fall in love with

1:06:43 > 1:06:45a calculating high school beauty queen named Jacy

1:06:45 > 1:06:48who, for lack of anything better to do,

1:06:48 > 1:06:50manipulates just about every boy in town.

1:06:59 > 1:07:02Oh, quit prissing. I don't think you did it right anyway.

1:07:02 > 1:07:05I'll stay with her all night one of these nights too. She done promised.

1:07:05 > 1:07:08- You won't either.- Yes, I will. Why shouldn't I?

1:07:11 > 1:07:15In the end, Sonny has an unresolved affair with the coach's wife

1:07:15 > 1:07:18and Duane goes off to fight in Korea.

1:07:18 > 1:07:22There are two deaths in the film and no babies are born.

1:07:22 > 1:07:25We're left to think of Anarene as some half-remembered

1:07:25 > 1:07:28backdrop from an old movie set.

1:07:28 > 1:07:31The film is a stunning portrait of a small town

1:07:31 > 1:07:35reeling from the furious transition that has always been part of Texas.

1:07:35 > 1:07:39You wouldn't believe how this country has changed.

1:07:39 > 1:07:42I reckon the reason why I always drag you out here is probably

1:07:42 > 1:07:45I'm just as sentimental as the next feller when it comes to old times.

1:07:50 > 1:07:52Old times.

1:07:52 > 1:07:58In Hud, another film based on a Larry McMurtry novel, Paul Newman

1:07:58 > 1:08:02plays a small-town Texan, angry at the world changing around him.

1:08:02 > 1:08:05He wants to be a gunfighter but there is no-one left to fight

1:08:05 > 1:08:09so he drives around town in a big Cadillac getting into brawls

1:08:09 > 1:08:11and having affairs with women,

1:08:11 > 1:08:14using the only seduction technique that he understands.

1:08:14 > 1:08:15Don't you ever ask?

1:08:17 > 1:08:20Honey, the only question I ever ask any woman is what time

1:08:20 > 1:08:22is your husband coming home?

1:08:22 > 1:08:24Hud is a lost man in the changing West.

1:08:24 > 1:08:29This is most notable in his prize possession - a Cadillac, a machine.

1:08:29 > 1:08:30Old Texans related to horses

1:08:30 > 1:08:32and a horse was something you had to depend on.

1:08:32 > 1:08:36But poor Hud is resigned to parading around town with a status

1:08:36 > 1:08:38symbol - a car he can barely afford,

1:08:38 > 1:08:42but the only thing that separates him from anyone else in town.

1:08:42 > 1:08:46In Texas, sex and money are generally interchangeable topics.

1:08:46 > 1:08:49Naturally, if you combine these two potent elements,

1:08:49 > 1:08:53you come up with the ultimate Texas caricature - the uber-Texan,

1:08:53 > 1:08:57the Texan we all think of if we think of Texas at all.

1:08:57 > 1:09:00And that man, of course, is JR Ewing.

1:09:03 > 1:09:08Oh, don't be too sanctimonious... Rudolph Millington.

1:09:08 > 1:09:09The lady and I were together.

1:09:09 > 1:09:12The lady and I are in love.

1:09:12 > 1:09:16Say, do you have a young man named Rudolph Millington working for you?

1:09:16 > 1:09:19Well, I hate to be the one to tell you

1:09:19 > 1:09:21but he has got no character at all.

1:09:21 > 1:09:23I'm afraid you are out of a job, Mr Millington.

1:09:25 > 1:09:27Hold it right there, Rich.

1:09:27 > 1:09:32Are you actually trying to tell us that a vindictive, one-dimensional,

1:09:32 > 1:09:36crude, sexually dysfunctional star of some cheesy night-time

1:09:36 > 1:09:38soap opera is actually the ultimate representation

1:09:38 > 1:09:40of the modern Texas man?

1:09:40 > 1:09:42That's exactly what I'm saying.

1:09:42 > 1:09:46JR Ewing is the metamorphosis from cowboy to urbanite.

1:09:46 > 1:09:49Oh, he uses a chequebook instead of a handgun,

1:09:49 > 1:09:53drives a Cadillac instead of a horse, but underneath is the same

1:09:53 > 1:09:58frustrated, ambivalent, emasculated Texas guy.

1:09:58 > 1:10:01The Western has never been a responsible genre.

1:10:01 > 1:10:05It took JR Ewing to step the Texan's image down

1:10:05 > 1:10:08from myth and romance - a load of old bullshit -

1:10:08 > 1:10:11to caricature - a new level of bullshit.

1:10:11 > 1:10:13But at least it knew it was being ironic.

1:10:15 > 1:10:18Dallas has always been a town that celebrates wealth

1:10:18 > 1:10:20and ostentation over culture.

1:10:20 > 1:10:23Those who live there are downright suspicious of anyone whose

1:10:23 > 1:10:25politics are not like their own.

1:10:25 > 1:10:26MUSIC: "T for Texas" by Johnny Cash

1:10:26 > 1:10:28# T for Texas

1:10:28 > 1:10:30# T for Tennessee... #

1:10:31 > 1:10:34But the true political heart of Texas isn't in Dallas.

1:10:34 > 1:10:37It's 200 miles south in Austin.

1:10:39 > 1:10:41# ..T for Thelma

1:10:41 > 1:10:44# The gal that made a wreck out of me. #

1:10:44 > 1:10:47Texas likes to think of itself as the big wide open

1:10:47 > 1:10:49but 80% of it is urban.

1:10:49 > 1:10:5160% of those people live

1:10:51 > 1:10:54in the triangle between San Antonio, Houston and Dallas.

1:10:54 > 1:10:57Still, it practises an empty state kind of politics.

1:10:57 > 1:11:00In other words, we don't need your help, Mr Federal Government,

1:11:00 > 1:11:02cos we have big hats.

1:11:02 > 1:11:07It leads the nation in petroleum, agriculture, natural gas, chemicals.

1:11:07 > 1:11:09It is last in health care.

1:11:10 > 1:11:14It has the highest unwanted pregnancy rate in America

1:11:14 > 1:11:18but schools don't teach sex education, they teach abstinence.

1:11:20 > 1:11:22This is the mandate of Governor Rick Perry,

1:11:22 > 1:11:26the immaculately coiffed Republican from Big Springs, Texas,

1:11:26 > 1:11:27who likes to name his cowboy boots.

1:11:27 > 1:11:29The one on the left is called Freedom.

1:11:29 > 1:11:31The right one is called Liberty.

1:11:31 > 1:11:33And he announced to the nation in 2012 that

1:11:33 > 1:11:36God had told him to run for president.

1:11:36 > 1:11:39Perry failed to get the presidential nomination which,

1:11:39 > 1:11:42if nothing else, proves that God's advice is not always that sage.

1:11:42 > 1:11:45Which comes a little too late for Abraham.

1:11:45 > 1:11:48However, on the subject of sexual abstinence, Perry is focused

1:11:48 > 1:11:53and succinct to the point of denying his own existence.

1:11:53 > 1:11:58- Abstinence works.- But we are the third highest teen pregnancy...

1:11:58 > 1:12:00We have the third highest teen pregnancy rate among all

1:12:00 > 1:12:01states in the country.

1:12:01 > 1:12:04The questioner's point is it doesn't seem to be working.

1:12:04 > 1:12:07I'm just going to tell you from...

1:12:07 > 1:12:13I'm going to tell you from my own personal life. Abstinence works.

1:12:14 > 1:12:20'I ran against Rick in 2006. I ran as an independent for governor.'

1:12:20 > 1:12:22People were very worried about me being a comedian,

1:12:22 > 1:12:26about having a clown in the governor's mansion at the time

1:12:26 > 1:12:29and now I think they realise we've had one for the past 12 years -

1:12:29 > 1:12:30Rick Perry.

1:12:30 > 1:12:35The Aggies and the women are all telling Rick Perry jokes, you know?

1:12:35 > 1:12:37I mean, it's... In the whole state,

1:12:37 > 1:12:40there's not one young person that wants to grow up to be Rick Perry.

1:12:42 > 1:12:45Still my definition of politics holds.

1:12:45 > 1:12:49Poly means more than one and ticks are blood-sucking parasites.

1:12:51 > 1:12:54Whatever you think of his policies, the fact is

1:12:54 > 1:12:58the people of Texas keep voting for Rick Perry to run their state.

1:12:58 > 1:12:59God knows why.

1:13:00 > 1:13:04# Oh, say can you see

1:13:04 > 1:13:07# By the dawn's early light. #

1:13:07 > 1:13:10Sometimes you get the sense that for all its outward optimism,

1:13:10 > 1:13:13Texans cling far too much to their memories.

1:13:13 > 1:13:15They can't help but believe that maybe yesterday was better

1:13:15 > 1:13:17than anything the future can offer.

1:13:19 > 1:13:23And no nostalgic notion of Texas is more dramatically packaged

1:13:23 > 1:13:26than gridiron football.

1:13:26 > 1:13:29Certainly it isn't necessary to remind football fans that the annual

1:13:29 > 1:13:33Cotton Bowl game is one of the great sports classics of the year.

1:13:33 > 1:13:36NFL and college football has always been a big pull.

1:13:36 > 1:13:39They can draw upwards of 80,000 fans to their games

1:13:39 > 1:13:42and they all manage to behave themselves immaculately.

1:13:42 > 1:13:45And through it all, the crowd, though definitely partisan,

1:13:45 > 1:13:48plays the role of the sportsman to the visiting team.

1:13:51 > 1:13:54But only in Texas does this obsession extend to high school.

1:13:57 > 1:14:00The phenomenon known as Friday Night Lights.

1:14:14 > 1:14:16If that sounds vaguely extraterrestrial,

1:14:16 > 1:14:17it's because it is.

1:14:17 > 1:14:20If you were to fly over Texas on a Friday night in the autumn

1:14:20 > 1:14:23you would see an amazing luminescence.

1:14:23 > 1:14:29Thousands of football stadiums, lit up, full of students, CEOs,

1:14:29 > 1:14:31hairdressers, dry cleaners, ministers,

1:14:31 > 1:14:34even future presidents, all sitting in the stands

1:14:34 > 1:14:38watching 16-year-old kids try to kill each other.

1:14:38 > 1:14:40CHEERING

1:14:40 > 1:14:43The identities of entire communities live or die with

1:14:43 > 1:14:46the success of the local football team.

1:14:46 > 1:14:49It's the embodiment of everything Texans believe in.

1:14:49 > 1:14:52It shows the influence of sports on American life.

1:14:52 > 1:14:56As the saying goes, with clear eyes and a full heart, you can't lose.

1:14:56 > 1:14:59Which is bullshit. You need a big defensive line.

1:14:59 > 1:15:01Hey! Hey!

1:15:05 > 1:15:09At the helm of this symbological order is the head coach.

1:15:09 > 1:15:12At most Texas high schools he is more or less the king.

1:15:12 > 1:15:16So, don't sit back thinking, "Oh, man, you doing good, yeah."

1:15:16 > 1:15:17I don't care what the score is.

1:15:17 > 1:15:19If you are out there, you are playing and giving 110%.

1:15:19 > 1:15:21- Understand that?- Yes, sir.

1:15:21 > 1:15:23- Anybody have a question about anything?- No, sir.

1:15:23 > 1:15:25- Everybody knows what you're supposed to do?- Yes, sir.

1:15:25 > 1:15:27- Is anybody confused about anything? - No, sir.

1:15:27 > 1:15:29If you don't want to follow his orders,

1:15:29 > 1:15:31he will happily show you the door.

1:15:31 > 1:15:34Cos sometimes he has to answer to an entire town on Monday morning

1:15:34 > 1:15:36what happened to 30 people on a Friday night.

1:15:36 > 1:15:38That's just the way it is. Every once in a while,

1:15:38 > 1:15:41some small-town civic leader will complain that maybe the coach

1:15:41 > 1:15:44has too much power, maybe there's too much emphasis on sports

1:15:44 > 1:15:46and not enough on teaching.

1:15:46 > 1:15:49But 10,000 people in Texas don't show up on Friday night to

1:15:49 > 1:15:52watch a maths teacher solve X.

1:15:52 > 1:15:55A chance to get everything we have. Everything we have.

1:15:55 > 1:15:58- Don't hold anything back. Right? - Yes, sir.- Has everybody got that?

1:15:58 > 1:16:00- Yes, sir.- Let's get up and get out there. Here we go.

1:16:00 > 1:16:02THEY ROAR

1:16:02 > 1:16:07Aaargh! Ooh! Ooh! Ooh!

1:16:07 > 1:16:09Whoa-whoa-whoa!

1:16:12 > 1:16:13WHISTLE BLOWS

1:16:15 > 1:16:16To the uninitiated Brit,

1:16:16 > 1:16:18American football may appear to be a bit chaotic

1:16:18 > 1:16:21so let me explain what's going on in this particular play.

1:16:25 > 1:16:29The quarterback, the designated team leader,

1:16:29 > 1:16:32hunches up behind the centre player in a somewhat sodomitic

1:16:32 > 1:16:36position, surrounded by the company of his burly peers.

1:16:36 > 1:16:40He'll execute a running play or a pass play, his option,

1:16:40 > 1:16:43with the understanding that the fans watching equate his athletic

1:16:43 > 1:16:45performance with sexual identity.

1:16:49 > 1:16:52The men in the stands participate in this moment vicariously,

1:16:52 > 1:16:57remembering the glory days when they too played football, thus allowing

1:16:57 > 1:17:01the quarterback to compensate for their fading masculinity.

1:17:01 > 1:17:04The quarterback drops into the pocket,

1:17:04 > 1:17:06points the ball directly away from any women,

1:17:06 > 1:17:10who are further demeaned by being forced to cheerlead in tight skirts

1:17:10 > 1:17:12and applaud the prowess of the male.

1:17:12 > 1:17:15If the quarterback is any good at all, he will eventually shed

1:17:15 > 1:17:19himself of this pressure and go on to live a normal life,

1:17:19 > 1:17:22unlike most of the men in the stands, who have lost all

1:17:22 > 1:17:24perspective of their true self worth

1:17:24 > 1:17:28and are still pretending they're 16 and banging the prom queen.

1:17:32 > 1:17:34CHEERING

1:17:37 > 1:17:40OK, maybe I'm being a bit too Freudian

1:17:40 > 1:17:42and over-analytical about a football game.

1:17:42 > 1:17:45Maybe it is just a chance for a bunch of hyperactive young men

1:17:45 > 1:17:49to blow off some excess energy by tossing around a pigskin.

1:17:49 > 1:17:52But Texans cling to certain rituals and identities with such

1:17:52 > 1:17:55fervour and passion that you can't help but wonder if they're

1:17:55 > 1:17:59afraid that those identities and rituals are going to disappear.

1:17:59 > 1:18:00In a very short amount of time,

1:18:00 > 1:18:04Texas went from being rural to urban and it is that seething

1:18:04 > 1:18:08sense of abandonment that infects its psychology.

1:18:08 > 1:18:11It's no coincidence that some of the evilest movies ever made

1:18:11 > 1:18:13are set in Texas.

1:18:13 > 1:18:14Tom Dunson in Red River

1:18:14 > 1:18:18is easily John Wayne's most psychopathic character.

1:18:18 > 1:18:21The Coen brothers' first movie Blood Simple

1:18:21 > 1:18:23takes place in a small Texas town.

1:18:23 > 1:18:25So does No Country For Old Men.

1:18:25 > 1:18:28If you go into a movie and come out and feel like you have just

1:18:28 > 1:18:32spent two hours in desolate Texas, Texas has done its job.

1:18:32 > 1:18:34It begins with that line of rickety houses,

1:18:34 > 1:18:37those white people trying to push the frontier

1:18:37 > 1:18:40or those lone wolf families out there on the edge of civilisation

1:18:40 > 1:18:42out of sheer stubbornness.

1:18:42 > 1:18:45And pretty soon someone is running around with a chainsaw or

1:18:45 > 1:18:48shooting strangers in the head with a nail gun.

1:18:48 > 1:18:53By far the evilest movie ever made in Texas was Urban Cowboy.

1:18:53 > 1:18:57Oh, I'm sorry, not the evilest, the vilest.

1:18:57 > 1:19:00If for no other reason, because it created a worldwide fad where

1:19:00 > 1:19:04millions of sozzled suburban women could get rhinestoned to the hilt

1:19:04 > 1:19:08and bovinely express their individuality through line dancing.

1:19:11 > 1:19:15It's supposed to be some sort of treatise on transitional Texas

1:19:15 > 1:19:16but it's not.

1:19:16 > 1:19:19It's just a hackneyed rip-off of Saturday Night Fever made

1:19:19 > 1:19:23by Hollywood Neanderthals to exploit John Travolta's dance prowess.

1:19:23 > 1:19:25It's hard to say who is more mechanical -

1:19:25 > 1:19:30Travolta's acting or the bull. But there was that ripple effect.

1:19:30 > 1:19:34Urban Cowboy made its nightclub setting Gilley's a national entity

1:19:34 > 1:19:37and helped revive the flagging interest in country music.

1:19:39 > 1:19:41# She's going to head right back to Texas

1:19:41 > 1:19:44# Change her address and number on her phone. #

1:19:47 > 1:19:50Austin is the one Texas town that breeds true tolerance,

1:19:50 > 1:19:54celebrates individualism and embraces diversity.

1:19:54 > 1:19:57Probably because it's the government seat

1:19:57 > 1:20:01and home to over 50,000 University of Texas students.

1:20:01 > 1:20:04It's a honky-tonk crock-pot of idealists, intellectuals

1:20:04 > 1:20:06and artistic refugees.

1:20:07 > 1:20:08OK, here's a question.

1:20:08 > 1:20:10Who has the most number one singles in popular music?

1:20:10 > 1:20:13Elvis or the Beatles? Pencils ready.

1:20:13 > 1:20:15The answer is neither.

1:20:15 > 1:20:19It's George Strait. Who? Exactly.

1:20:19 > 1:20:21There's a good chance you've never even heard of George Strait.

1:20:21 > 1:20:26In Texas, that would make you a big, fat loser. The man reigns.

1:20:26 > 1:20:27CHEERING

1:20:29 > 1:20:31He set the standard.

1:20:31 > 1:20:34He set the standard for people like Clint Black to come along

1:20:34 > 1:20:39and kind of do the same thing and pretty much every true

1:20:39 > 1:20:41country singer that's come after that,

1:20:41 > 1:20:43you can hear the George Strait influence.

1:20:43 > 1:20:46A huge influence. He is one of the guys that never changed.

1:20:46 > 1:20:49I mean, he started doing straight-ahead country

1:20:49 > 1:20:52from the word go and he still does it.

1:20:52 > 1:20:55And he can still fill up venues, huge venues.

1:20:55 > 1:20:59# Here she comes A walking, talking true love

1:20:59 > 1:21:02# Saying, "I've been looking for you, love." #

1:21:02 > 1:21:06George Strait is the living link between Western swing

1:21:06 > 1:21:08and honky-tonk music of '50s artists

1:21:08 > 1:21:10like Bob Wills And His Texas Playboys

1:21:10 > 1:21:12and Spade Cooley And His Orchestra

1:21:12 > 1:21:15and the modern Texas troubadour movement.

1:21:17 > 1:21:20Western swing began in the dance halls of small towns

1:21:20 > 1:21:23throughout the Lower Great Plains in the late '20s and early '30s.

1:21:23 > 1:21:24It grew out of house parties

1:21:24 > 1:21:28and ranch hoedowns where fiddlers and guitarists played for dancers.

1:21:28 > 1:21:31Amplified instruments, especially the steel guitar,

1:21:31 > 1:21:33gave the music its unique sound.

1:21:36 > 1:21:39Modern Texas music, particularly the music made here in Austin,

1:21:39 > 1:21:41still embodies that spirit.

1:21:41 > 1:21:45It's a far cry from the schmaltz churned out by Nashville.

1:21:49 > 1:21:51In fact, if you were to ask me -

1:21:51 > 1:21:55this is just my opinion - what is Texas' most redeeming feature?

1:21:55 > 1:21:58I would answer in a heartbeat - Austin music.

1:21:58 > 1:22:03Call it no depression, outlaw music, Americana, alternative country...

1:22:03 > 1:22:06It's a distinct genre that more than makes up for the,

1:22:06 > 1:22:09"Let's put a blanket on the ground,"

1:22:09 > 1:22:12corn pone and molasses that defines most country music in America.

1:22:12 > 1:22:14MUSIC: "Hello Walls" by Willie Nelson

1:22:14 > 1:22:15# Hello, walls

1:22:15 > 1:22:17# Hello

1:22:17 > 1:22:18# Hello

1:22:18 > 1:22:22# How'd things go for you today? #

1:22:22 > 1:22:26Willie Nelson began his performing career here in 1964 at a club

1:22:26 > 1:22:28called The Broken Spoke.

1:22:29 > 1:22:33By the '70s, places like Antone's and the Armadillo World Headquarters

1:22:33 > 1:22:35were showcasing acts as diverse

1:22:35 > 1:22:39as Lyle Lovett, Stevie Ray Vaughan and ZZ Top.

1:22:42 > 1:22:47Texas is a good melting pot for every style imaginable and

1:22:47 > 1:22:50it just so happens that it all culminates in Austin.

1:22:50 > 1:22:56The country singer-songwriters in Austin are just as much

1:22:56 > 1:22:58rock-influenced as they are country, I think.

1:22:58 > 1:23:01You know, even as far back as Waylon and Willie,

1:23:01 > 1:23:05that started the whole sort of outlaw movement here in the early '70s.

1:23:07 > 1:23:11It seems like the boundaries of the music are way broader and,

1:23:11 > 1:23:15for the most part, most of the people I work with, they have no boundaries.

1:23:15 > 1:23:20I mean, I have worked on records with people who will do a Conjunto song

1:23:20 > 1:23:23followed by Western swing followed by, you know,

1:23:23 > 1:23:27a Chuck Berry feeling rock-and-roll thing.

1:23:27 > 1:23:30Today, it's the home of the largest ongoing music

1:23:30 > 1:23:33festival in the world - the South By Southwest festival,

1:23:33 > 1:23:35which has fostered artists like Hayes Carll.

1:23:35 > 1:23:37MUSIC: "Stomp And Holler" by Hayes Carll

1:23:37 > 1:23:40# He took a left down the alley Guess he should have gone right. #

1:23:40 > 1:23:44Robert Earl Keen, Kerry Rodriguez and Lucinda Williams.

1:23:44 > 1:23:47MUSIC: "Shades Of Gray" by Robert Earl Keen

1:23:47 > 1:23:50# We got 900 and never did suspect

1:23:50 > 1:23:53# The world of hurt we'd be in. #

1:23:53 > 1:23:55I think the Texas music scene

1:23:55 > 1:23:58has driven the rest of the country somewhat.

1:23:58 > 1:24:00You know, as far as singer-songwriters,

1:24:00 > 1:24:03they kind of look to Texas to see what's happening first.

1:24:03 > 1:24:07And it is really strange how many musicians,

1:24:07 > 1:24:11whether they be black blues singers, country singers

1:24:11 > 1:24:16or today's crop of musicians, all seem to come from Texas.

1:24:16 > 1:24:19# Well, you've got all the right equipment

1:24:19 > 1:24:22# And it's working like it should

1:24:22 > 1:24:25# But before I drive it off the lot

1:24:25 > 1:24:28# I got to make sure that warranty's good... #

1:24:30 > 1:24:33The troubadour's sound is plaintive and lyric driven and,

1:24:33 > 1:24:37like most things in Texas, roots itself in frontier symbolism.

1:24:37 > 1:24:39Though somewhat apologetically.

1:24:39 > 1:24:41To paraphrase Hayes Carll,

1:24:41 > 1:24:46boy, you ain't a poet, you're just a drunk with a pen.

1:24:46 > 1:24:48# Just trust me, baby

1:24:48 > 1:24:52# I wouldn't think

1:24:52 > 1:24:54# Of doing you wrong. #

1:24:57 > 1:25:03It's hard to describe but I hear a lot of Texas

1:25:03 > 1:25:06in a lot of these artists even if they're not trying to be so.

1:25:06 > 1:25:08You know, it's like it's just in their blood

1:25:08 > 1:25:11so it comes through when they...

1:25:11 > 1:25:12when it comes out of their veins

1:25:12 > 1:25:14when they are writing a song, you know.

1:25:20 > 1:25:24Part of what is great about Texas is the Buddy Holly effect.

1:25:24 > 1:25:27Why a guy like Buddy Holly could be so pure and original.

1:25:27 > 1:25:29It's because of where he was.

1:25:29 > 1:25:34He was in Lubbock, he was surrounded by endless miles of emptiness.

1:25:34 > 1:25:37He didn't have all the influences we have today.

1:25:37 > 1:25:39If Buddy had been living in New York, would he have...?

1:25:39 > 1:25:43Or California. Would he have produced anything? I doubt it.

1:25:45 > 1:25:46Willie too.

1:26:00 > 1:26:04This is probably where I should end, with a place and a people who take

1:26:04 > 1:26:07the fiction of Texas and turn it into something gallant -

1:26:07 > 1:26:09great music.

1:26:09 > 1:26:12So much of modern Texas is about old Texas.

1:26:12 > 1:26:13Those images and experiences

1:26:13 > 1:26:17that come from equal parts strength and disappointment.

1:26:17 > 1:26:19The cowboy, faded away.

1:26:19 > 1:26:22The oil business went boom, then bust, then boom,

1:26:22 > 1:26:23then bust in the '80s.

1:26:23 > 1:26:25Now it's back again

1:26:25 > 1:26:28cos a Texan never loses sight of his expansiveness.

1:26:28 > 1:26:32And if everything is bigger in Texas then surely that includes egos.

1:26:32 > 1:26:35MUSIC: "Screw You, We're From Texas" by Ray Wylie Hubbard

1:26:35 > 1:26:37# So screw you We're from Texas... #

1:26:37 > 1:26:42You know, we, of all people, talk about ourselves way too much.

1:26:42 > 1:26:45I don't know what else to say. But we do.

1:26:45 > 1:26:49And when people look at us and kind of shake their heads,

1:26:49 > 1:26:52I have to say we bring some of that on ourselves

1:26:52 > 1:26:54because we are so fascinated with ourselves.

1:26:56 > 1:27:02Texas is heartbreakingly friendly and it embraces everyone.

1:27:02 > 1:27:05I think there is a kind of residual optimism...

1:27:06 > 1:27:10..that things will get better or they will continue to be good

1:27:10 > 1:27:13and I think there is still a kind of individualism.

1:27:14 > 1:27:20There is a wonderful spirit of territory, I guess.

1:27:20 > 1:27:23A sense of place here

1:27:23 > 1:27:26that, you know, I am a Texan, I've always been.

1:27:26 > 1:27:27# We're from Texas

1:27:27 > 1:27:29# Screw you... #

1:27:29 > 1:27:31I like visiting other places but it's always a comfort to know that

1:27:31 > 1:27:33I get to go back home.

1:27:33 > 1:27:35# Screw you... #

1:27:35 > 1:27:38I'd say the Alamo is probably one of the very smallest missions.

1:27:38 > 1:27:40And it's very fragile

1:27:40 > 1:27:45and it's probably the most precious piece of real estate in Texas.

1:27:45 > 1:27:50It's ironic that in a state where bigger seems always to be better

1:27:50 > 1:27:53that the Alamo should be so significant.

1:27:53 > 1:27:56# Screw you, we're from Texas

1:27:56 > 1:27:58# Screw you. #

1:28:04 > 1:28:07When Jeffrey Skilling, the CEO of Enron,

1:28:07 > 1:28:10graduated from Southern Methodist University in Dallas

1:28:10 > 1:28:13and applied to Business School at Harvard,

1:28:13 > 1:28:15he was asked by the bursar,

1:28:15 > 1:28:18"Why do you feel you deserve to go to Harvard?" He said,

1:28:18 > 1:28:23"Cos I'm fucking smart. I'm the fucking smartest guy in the room."

1:28:23 > 1:28:25Today, Skilling is serving

1:28:25 > 1:28:28a 25-year sentence for securities fraud

1:28:28 > 1:28:32and conspiracy after bringing down Enron and setting into motion

1:28:32 > 1:28:36the near collapse of the US economy so, in his present situation,

1:28:36 > 1:28:39it's probably safe to say he is the smartest guy in the room.

1:28:40 > 1:28:45But that statement shows just how much he lost sight of his Texasness.

1:28:45 > 1:28:48He wasn't that guy on the emotional frontier

1:28:48 > 1:28:51with the big Texas sky behind him.

1:28:51 > 1:28:54He was just a guy in a room.

1:28:54 > 1:28:55And that ain't fucking Texas.

1:28:55 > 1:28:57MUSIC: "Beaumont" by Hayes Carll

1:28:57 > 1:28:59# All the way from Beaumont

1:28:59 > 1:29:02# With a white rose in my hand

1:29:02 > 1:29:04# I could not wait for ever, babe

1:29:04 > 1:29:06# I hope

1:29:09 > 1:29:11# You understand. #

1:29:17 > 1:29:20Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd