Happy Birthday Almanzo!

Oh, how my life would be different if Laura Elizabeth Ingalls had never met Almanzo James Wilder. I would never have met many of my online chums. Historic sites would never have existed. And television shows and movies about life on the prairie as seen through the eyes of a young girl might never have been inspired by a set of books that might never have been written.

Thankfully, a young Laura Ingalls did meet the dashing hero we read about in The Long Winter. Almanzo Wilder would court her. He would go and fetch her from her teaching job with his beautiful Morgan horses. And a couple of years later, the two would marry.

Now, we have books, televisions shows, movies, and annual events to remember the legacy created by the Wilders. We are grateful for all this pioneer family has meant to us. We are thankful for the small screen portrayals of Almanzo that actors Dean Butler and Walter Goggins brought us.

On Almanzo's 156th birthday, we fondly remember everyone's favorite farmer boy. Happy birthday, Almanzo!

Happy Birthday Almanzo!

I don't know how any of you ladies feel, but I think this is a handsome photo of young Almanzo James Wilder. This "Farmer Boy" from New York moved with his family to Spring Valley, Minnesota in 1875 due to crop failures. Almanzo would join his older siblings, Royal and Eliza Jane, on a trip into Dakota Territory, where the brothers and their sister took up claims near what would become De Smet, SD.

He would meet his future wife, Laura Elizabeth Ingalls, in De Smet. They would survive the Hard Winter, during which Almanzo and Cap Garland saved the town from starvation by going off to find seed wheat to feed the town until the trains could get through in the spring.

Though Laura actually had her eye on Cap Garland as a potential suitor, Almanzo's Morgan horses captured her attention. Eventually Almanzo and Laura began courting. He would drive her back and forth to her first teaching job.

They were wed on August 25, 1885. Life wasn't always easy for the Wilders. They suffered tremendous loss. They would eventually leave De Smet, traveling to Mansfield, Missouri, where they would spend most of their adult years.

Laura captured Almanzo's love of farming in Farmer Boy. She portrayed his heroic nature in The Long Winter. In Little Town on the Prairie and These Happy Golden Years, readers watched their romance blossom, and in The First Four Years, readers witnessed the harsh realities of the times in which the Wilders lived.

On Almanzo's birthday, we pay tribute to America's favorite "Farmer Boy." We are so glad we got a chance to know him through Laura's eyes. We are also glad to have talented actors who have brought Almanzo to life for us in their own unique ways.

Movie Review: Beyond the Prairie: The True Story of Laura Ingalls (1999)

Beyond the Prairie: The True Story of Laura Ingalls Wilder and Beyond the Prairie, Part II were released as TV movies in 1999 and 2002, respectively. These movies have been packaged together and released by Paramount on one DVD (2010) for Laura fans. I will be reviewing each movie separately, as they both cover several years.

Before I go any further, let me state I have one pet peeve about both movies: the title. If you are going to put the word "true" in your title, then you should follow real life events and not exercise creative license all over the place. Now, I have clients who write fictional autobiographies of historical figures, but they clearly place, "A Novel," on the cover, so we all know the book is a healthy blend of fact and fiction. I don't even mind that the writers and producers of Beyond the Prairie opted to exercise creative license. Just don't put that four-letter word in the title, and all is good.

In this first movie, the viewer is introduced to a teenage Laura, living on the Dakota prairie with her family: Ma, Pa, Mary, Carrie, and Grace. A prairie fire threatens their home, and they work together to save it. Laura and Pa saddle up to go help others who might have been threatened by the fire. On the way back, they stumble upon a claim with a house frame on it. A man's jacket is hanging over one of the beams, and a curious Laura lifts an envelope out of the pocket to discover an odd name, "Almanzo." Pa scolds her, but Laura can't get that name out of her mind. She even talks to Mary about it one evening as she is describing the setting sun to her blind sister.

We move swiftly along to where Laura leaves home for the first time for her first teaching job. Then the town of De Smet is cut off  from the rest of civilization by the Hard Winter, and Almanzo and Cap Garland travel many miles to find seed wheat to save the town from starvation.

Laura and Almanzo marry and have a daughter. Things won't be happy for long, though. Almanzo and Laura lose their first crop to a hail storm. They have no way to pay their debts. They battle diphtheria. Laura gives birth to a second child, but he soon dies. Then a fire destroys their home.

Now living with the Ingalls family, Laura and Almanzo decide to move to Mansfield, Missouri. The movie ends with a tearful goodbye.

When I first watched this movie on CBS, I truly enjoyed it. Granted, it didn't capture me the way Little House on the Prairie did in the 70's and 80's, but I'm older, and probably a lot pickier since I've learned more about Laura and Almanzo's real life. I have to admit, however, it was challenging to see new actors in roles that had been portrayed on television for so long by others.

This Ingalls family and the townsfolk of De Smet were more serious, sometimes sullen. Charles and Caroline actually have a fight in front of the children about his desire to move farther west. That said, I feel this was probably much more realistic than the romanticized version of events that we got from the classic books or the television show.

I've loved Richard Thomas in everything else I've ever seen him in, but he didn't quite make it as Charles Ingalls. Some of the lines he delivered were totally flat. I also didn't care for how certain aspects of his character were portrayed. When Laura is asked to teach school by Mr. Bouchie, she tells Pa that she won't do it. Charles pushes/guilts her into it by saying the family needs the money, especially with Mary in college. In an early scene from the movie, the devout, religious Charles said the word "damned." Granted, faith did not play a role in this movie at all--something else I have a problem with considering the time period and the people--but anyone who has studied the Ingalls family knows their faith was a big part of who they were.

Meredith Monroe, who I loved as Andy on Dawson's Creek, delivers a good performance here as Laura. I don't care for the fact that we have a blonde Laura, considering how in the books Laura was jealous of Mary's golden hair. In this movie, Mary is a red-head. It's odd. This Laura does not seem as feisty as one would expect, but she's older and that feistiness has turned into a desire to live her life as she pleases.

Laura's love of freedom is a bit warped in Beyond the Prairie. After accepting the teaching position from Mr. Bouchie, Laura tells Almanzo she feels she's been, "sold into slavery." If we consider that this takes place less than twenty years after the end of the Civil War, it's not an appropriate statement. It seems modern-day thinking has wormed it's way onto the De Smet prairie. Though in real life Wilder later admitted she didn't enjoy teaching, she felt a responsibility to her family and paying jobs for women were few. After her teaching time is over, she tells Almanzo her life is going to be her own and no one is ever going to tell her what to do. I feel the not wanting to say "obey" in her wedding vows is a bit embellished here.

Walt Goggins captures the shy, quiet Almanzo Wilder well. At moments he's a bit awkward, but out of all the main characters, I felt his was the most realistic portrayal. I also appreciate that Beyond the Prairie showed how Almanzo's illness permanently impacted his health, which is part of why they decided to leave De Smet.

Having watched Beyond the Prairie: The True Story of Laura Ingalls Wilder for the first time since it  originally aired on television, I'm not as enamored with it as I was then. Part of that is because Little House on the Prairie is now available on DVD and I can watch my beloved show whenever I wish, instead of needing a TV movie to give me my Laura fix. I do, however, believe it has its place in Laura fandom, because it portrays a more realistic view of what the pioneers endured. The historically accurate fashion is a bonus, and filming in Utah and Texas made it look more like a prairie than California, where Little House on the Prairie was shot.

In the end, you're either going to like this movie--which I do--or be bothered by the creative license that was taken with Laura's life.


Actors: Terra Allen, Alandra Bingham, J. Scott Bronson, Courtnie Bull, Lindsay Crouse
Directors: Marcus Cole
Writers: Stephen Harrigan
Producers: Dori Weiss, Robert M. Rolsky, Stephen Harrigan
Format: Color, DVD, Full Screen, Subtitled, NTSC
Language: English
Subtitles: English
Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Number of discs: 1
Rated: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Paramount
DVD Release Date: November 23, 2010
Run Time: 96 minutes
ASIN: B0042RJWRY

Beyond the Prairie: The True Story of Laura Ingalls Wilder Now Available on DVD!

Beyond the Prairie: The True Story of Laura Ingalls Wilder is now available on DVD at Amazon.com.

While there is some uncertainty whether this DVD includes the first Beyond the Prairie movie and its sequel, fans have anxiously awaited the release to DVD.

Using Wilder's books as the source of inspiration, Beyond the Prairie: The True Story of Laura Ingalls Wilder finds a teenage Laura Ingalls (Meredith Monroe), Pa (Richard Thomas), Ma (Lindsay Crouse), and Laura's three sisters living in De Smet, SD. Eventually she meets the dashing Almanzo Wilder (Walt Goggins), they marry and set up a little house of their own.

Crop failures, the death of their infant son, a chimney fire destroying their home, and a bout with diphtheria that leaves Almanzo permanently impaired, leads the Wilders to the decision that they must say goodbye to Ma and Pa and leave De Smet in search of new opportunities.

In the sequel, the Wilders end their journey in Mansfield, Missouri, where they purchase a small farm and some apple trees. They meet a man who helps out around the place since Almanzo is still weakened by the effects of his stroke. Their daughter, Rose, experiences some trouble at school, and Laura travels back to De Smet, SD to see her dying father one last time.

I always felt these movies were a nice way to honor Laura's legacy. While they followed the books more closely than Michael Landon's Little House on the Prairie series, I still felt they took a bit of creative license in spots. Almanzo and Laura consummate their marriage in a field. That was a stretch for me. Rose is only a toddler when they leave De Smet at the end of the first movie, but she is at least 5 or 6 at the start of the sequel, which finds the Wilders still riding in their covered wagon to Missouri. The scene between Laura and her dying father is very touching, but it almost seems like they wanted to infer that Charles Ingalls (Pa) was responsible for Laura writing her books so that Rose wouldn't forget about their triumphs and trials. As Laura enthusiasts know, it was Rose, who was an adult and also a well-established writer, that prodded her mother to pen her now classic books.

I plan to purchase this DVD. If this is only the first movie, which seems likely, I hope it sells well so that they release the sequel.

Happy Birthday Almanzo!

It's hard to believe that February 13, 2010 marks the 153rd birthday of Almanzo James Wilder, the young boy whose youth was immortalized by his wife, Laura Ingalls Wilder, in Farmer Boy.

Growing up we read about Almanzo's huge appetite, his love of farming, and his desire to raise his own Morgan horses. We read further on in the Little House series and discovered Almanzo, now as a young man, running a store in town, where he meets his future wife. We learn how that brave young man risked his life to keep the people of De Smet from starving during the Hard Winter. Then we follow Laura and Almanzo's courtship and their first few years of marriage.




Years later, these beloved books would become a television series. Starting with Season 6 of Little House on the Prairie, actor Dean Butler would bring Almanzo James Wilder to life for fans of Laura's books. Through four seasons and three television movies, Dean's portrayal of Almanzo would capture the shy, quiet man who loved farming and horses.


Nearly twenty years later, Walt Goggins portrayed Almanzo Wilder in the two Beyond the Prairie movies. While his portrayal of Almanzo was different from Dean's, I always felt Goggins was able to capture the essence of the Almanzo I had learned so much about over the years.

Who knows what else the future will hold for Laura's fans. Dean Butler has already produced some of the bonus material included with the Little House on the Prairie DVDs. Butler's Legacy Documentaries brand came out with Almanzo Wilder: Life Before Laura, which is available through the Wilder Homestead, and Butler is working on a documentary about the legendary children's author now.

As we celebrate Almanzo's birthday, we also are thankful for the many people who continue to support Laura's legacy, and hope that the love for Laura's books and the many productions based upon them continues to grow for generations to come!