We've Lost Clyde Ware

Once upon a time, when the world was young and this editor had not even heard of West Union or knew what it would come to mean – there was a brilliant new novelist who burst on the scene with two books introducing a new literary giant. I mourned when we lost him, as there were only two; he secured the contract to write the screenplays for the movies that “The Edentree” and “The Innocents “ became. It was the 60's, and having seen so many artists bend under pressure and 'go for the money', my little wannabe-an-artist-group scorned him as a sell-out. In fact, I wrote to him, using the embarrassingly trite (even in those days) term “Gone Hollywood”. TV was fairly new then – undeveloped and unexamined as an art-form (it was, essentially, televised radio). A few years later, as his scripts and burgeoning direction for “Gunsmoke” and “Rawhide” recognized the potential of TV and raised the bar forever for anyone writing for this new art-form, I wrote to this stranger again and apologized. That letter he answered. (VBG)

After moving to the Town of West Union and finding he was a native son, I wrote to him again requesting permission to show one of his movies free for WestUnionFest. He graciously gave permission for two of his films produced by his “Dreamworks” company. Whenever possible, Mr. Ware filmed in West Virginia – and in Doddridge County. He never lost his base, or that universal, common touch, and many will recognize local names and landmarks throughout his Western genre.

Rennie Brown was kind enough to send the link to the obituary from Variety: http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118024261?refCatId=14 as well as a listing of his work at: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0912086/

On August 30, 2010, the world lost Clyde Ware. I like to think of it as 'exit stage left' and would be honored to meet him backstage someday.