50th ANNIVERSARY

"Giant" Experts & Angles

Hollywood Portrayals of Texans

If Hollywood had never made the epic movie “Giant,” would the world still think of Texas as a wind-blown, flat-as-a-skillet landscape with more cows than people? Which came first, the cinematic images or the myths? How does Hollywood perceive Texas? Film historian Ronald Davis interviewed actors Rock Hudson, Jane Withers and Earl Holliman about the making of “Giant” for SMU’s Ronald L. Davis Oral History Collection on the Performing Arts in the DeGolyer Library.

“'Giant' told the nation what they already knew to be true of Texans -- their celebrated myths and legendary wealth. The movie just did a better job of visualizing Texas to the outside world and leaving a lasting impression,” said Davis. “'Giant' was a first-rate story told by a first-rate director. That’s why its appeal still holds.”

For an interview, call 214-768-7650.

Film As Much About Race As It Was About Texas

In the beginning of “Giant,” the rancher Bick Benedict is always correcting his Eastern-bred wife for treating the Mexican servants as deserving of respect. By the film’s end, however, Benedict, played by a young Rock Hudson, comes to blows with a cafe owner attempting to remove a Spanish-speaking patron from his restaurant. Above all its themes, “Giant” is about social change. SMU border historian Benjamin Johnson can talk about how in “Giant,” Hollywood for the first time addressed anti-Hispanic racism.

“'Giant' broke ground in the way it celebrated the fusion of Anglo and Hispanic culture in Texas and anticipated the social gains that Mexican-Americans would make over the next generation,” said Johnson, author of Revolution in Texas: How a Forgotten Rebellion and Its Bloody Suppression Turned Mexicans into Americans. “The movie is as much about race as it is about Texas.”

For an interview, call 214-768-7650.

"Giant" Then and Now: The Evolution of Modern Texas

From cotton to ranching to oil, Texas has always managed to reinvent its economic vitality. Legendary wealth has been made by the King Ranch Klebergs and the flamboyant oil millionaire Glenn McCarthy, real-life figures who bear a striking resemblance to the fictional Benedicts and Jett Rink. SMU historian Sam Ratcliffe specializes in modern Texas culture and can talk about the film’s depiction of Texas then and now.

“In the 1950s, with Texas in the grip of the infamous seven-year drought, anything that gave the state a reason for hope was welcome,” said Ratcliffe. “They realized that some of the oil ‘new rich’ were as crass as Jett Rink. On the whole, of course, Texans knew that oil was building schools, hospitals, and charities and enriching what we now call the state’s quality of life. The Texas oilman just became another humorous prop in our vocabulary and self-definition.”

For an interview, call 214-768-7650.

North Texas Mansion Inspired the Reata Ranch House

Not many people know it, but the design for the Reata Ranch House is based on a real Texas mansion. The Waggoner Mansion still stands in Decatur, Texas, northwest of Fort Worth. George Stevens rejected the hacienda architecture of the traditional Texas ranch house (which is how the Benedict place is described in the Ferber novel). Stevens worried that a Spanish-looking house would be alien to non-Texan viewers.