Girls Of The Golden West

September, 1971

The Original Girl of the Golden West, as immortalized dramatically by playwright David Belasco and musically by Giacomo Puccini, was the archetypal mining-camp saloon proprietress with a 24-kt. heart. Puccini's opera premiered at the Met in 1910, five years after the play's hit debut, but the Italian composer might well recognize his heroine's traits in her geographical and spiritual descendants today. In 1971, you're less likely to encounter a Western lass behind a tavern counter than on a coll...

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