Let’s travel back to the late 1800s to Tombstone, Arizona––a boomtown where gunslinging, gambling, saloon brawls and shootouts like the Gunfight at the OK Corral were the norm. Where outlaws, vigilantes and “lawmen” like Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday wrote the rules of frontier justice. It was where vice and violence met. It was the Wild West. At least that’s what the Hollywood myth-making machine and opportunistic local entrepreneurs would have you believe. And at the heart of all of this legend and lore sits the Bird Cage Theater. Built in 1881, this unassuming building has endured a lot in its nearly 150 years on this planet, and yet, it has somehow remained perfectly preserved. Its story, on the other hand, has been altered significantly over the years.

And that’s what led historical researcher, art photographer and now author, Michael Paul, to research and write a book about the Bird Cage Theater. In this interview, Michael describes what his research revealed about the truth and mythology that surround the Bird Cage, what piqued his interest in researching it, and how the legend and lore surrounding the theater helped preserve it all these years while simultaneously eroding all this building contributed to the community.