Gunfight at the O.K. Corral direct conflict with the Earps' roles as lawmen, Johnny Behan was Cochise County Sheriff. Virgil Earp had served for three years during the Civil War and had also been involved in a police shooting in Prescott, Arizona Territory. He was appointed Deputy U.S. Marshal for eastern Pima County by U.S. Marshal Crawley Dake, on November 27, 1879, before the Earps arrived in Tombstone on December 1, 1879. He was appointed acting Tombstone's town marshal (or police chief) on September 30, 1880, after popular Tombstone town marshal Fred White was shot and killed by Curly Bill Brocius. Only a few days
Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (film) battle." Richard L. Coe of "The Washington Post" deemed the film "just what its title suggests — blood-thirsty, empty-headed and good fun of its sort." "The Monthly Film Bulletin" called it "carefully and lavishly mounted, but it is ultimately overlong and overwrought. Leon Uris's script dulls the final scene of action by the introduction of too many minor climaxes, which never blend." The film was a big hit and earned $4.7 million on its first run and $6 million on re-release. Its Dimitri Tiomkin score, featuring the song "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral", with lyrics by Ned Washington, sung by