Interview with T.B. Burton AKA: Doc Holiday

I'm here with T.B. Burton. T.B. has many hats to wear Fast Draw Champion, Western Author, Owner of Red Doc Entertainment, and he brings Doc Holiday to life in wild west reenactments. 

Hi T.B. you are a busy man, tell us about your reenactment group: Doc Holiday's Shadows of the Past.How did you and the other fellows meet and decide to form a group?  Actually, we began by accident.  A friend of mine, Randy Jackson, called me and asked if I would be willing to do some western reenactments at a Doc Holliday Festival in Griffin Ga.  We were both SASS shooters at the time and he was contacting other shooters because we already had all the clothing and gear.  At the time we were not Shadows of the Past, but that is how I first started reenacting.

For those that aren't aware, can you describe what is Fast Draw and Sass?  SASS (Single Action Shooting Society) is a worldwide organization that began back in the mid 90's.  It is a competitive shooting club that puts on matches based on  the wild west.  It is live ammo and targets are set up in manner consistant with events in the 1800 time period (bank robberies, gunfights, etc.).  Each string, or stage, is timed and in misses recorded.  In order to shoot in SASS matches you must dress in period style outfits.  Each shooting stage in a match will usually require two pistols, a rifle, and a shotgun.  These firearms must be of the 1800's era, or replicas thereof.  The term "single action" refers to the type of pistol primarily used in that period (the hammer had to be cocked for each shot). Fast draw is a totally different sport that is geared to speed.  It also used single action pistols, but not live ammo.  Targets must be hit, but with blanks or wax bullets.  It is unbelieveable how fast a single action pistol can be drawn, cocked, and fired (and hit the target).  There are several organizations who govern fast draw.  I belong to the Classical Fast Draw Society and the Ohio Fast Draw Association.  I was fortunate to win the Classical Fast Draw Society World Championship in the Cowboy Action Class in 2005.

Tell us a bit about your books The Time in Contention Trilogy.  Cindy Smith, who did some reenacting with Shadows of the Past (performing as Squirrel Tooth Alice), wrote a short scene for the opening of a western novel and sent it to me in an email.  She asked what I thought, and I replied that it was good, but one sided.  It only described the scene from a woman's point of view.  I wrote the same scene from a man's perspective and emailed it back.  We continued to do this for quite a while.  I had not even saved the emails, but after several months Cindy informed me that she was putting it all together in book form (with each chapter containing both sides of the story). We dicided to write the story in three parts.  So we have Time in Contention - A Western Love Story, Time in Contention - The Return from Prescott, and Time in Contention - The Trouble in Tombstone.  The story is set in the early 1880's in and around Contention City Arizona.  Since Contention City is only 10 miles from Tombstone, we used some of the historical events that were going on at the time.  Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday were in Tombstone during this period, so we used them in parts of the story. We have recently combined all three volumes into one book, Time in Contention - The Trilogy.

What was your favorite scene or book that you have wrote and why? The last scene in the second book.  I just like the way it turned out.

I've had the pleasure of seeing several reenactments at The Booth Western Museum and last years Wild West Festival. How long have you been going reenactments? It began in 1998 and I'm still doing it.  My wife says I forgot to grow up.

What made you choose to portray Doc Holiday? When my friend asked me to participate in the first show in 1998, he said he would like for me to play Wyatt Earp.  Before we sstarted rehearsels, he called and asked if it would be all right if I played Doc Holliday.  I thought Doc was a very interesting character, and I liked the fact that he was from Georgia.

How can folks contact you? The email address is doctb1881@live.com or reddocentertainemnt@yahoo.com

What up coming events do you have going going on? We will be performing in Franklin Georgia on June 16th at their event.If your interested in cowboys and the wild west, come see us!