(Reprinted by permission of The H.D. Lee Company, Inc.)

Marlboro advertising campaign with its sprawling western vistas, epic frontier macho music (lifted from the movie The Magnificent Seven), and men who seem to have been hewn out of old leather.

One very successful by-product of the western mystique is Coors beer. Sold only in the West, Coors is immensely popular in the East despite the obvious difficulty and expense of obtaining it. Some people attribute its popularity to its taste; others to the Rocky Mountain spring water allegedly used in its concoction; others still to its beguiling unavailability. Another possibility is that Coors is prized so dearly because it is directly associated with the West; western mana is that strong.

The frontier pitch, as one might note, has little to offer women. The media tell us that women have had little to do with the West. Their roles usually fall into one of two confining categories: the not-so-nice lady with the heart of gold and the so-called nice lady who is fearful, possessive, restrictive, and small-minded. In High Noon, Grace Kelly demands that Gary Cooper forsake gunfighting for marriage. True to his code, Coop . . . [more]

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