We’ve All Seen It Before
We’ve all seen historical period movies and television shows where every detail has been painstakingly recreated to match the depicted era—including soda cans, cigarette packaging, and cereal boxes. Taylor Sheridan has said that, as a writer, words are important to him. As an executive producer and storyteller, though, are fine details—such as whether a historically accurate lighter is being used—really important?
Is Hollywood Getting in the Way?
Sheridan recently mentioned the constraints and endless meetings and discussion groups that can accompany a Hollywood production on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast. He praised the team he has used ever since his first film, Wind River, and has continued working with through Yellowstone, Landman, and many of his other numerous hits.
He used his production company’s selection of which lighter to use as an example of his efficient, streamlined approach, which he believes allows him to avoid the redundancy of meetings and idle busywork that he sees as a Hollywood trap. Sheridan definitely sees himself as an outsider.
No one would begrudge him for running his productions however he sees fit in order to produce the high-quality entertainment the public has grown to expect. But after hearing his recent comments—and having already noticed a sloppy lighter prop choice in one of his productions—one has to ask: Does Taylor Sheridan care about the historical accuracy of a lighter?
Does It Really Matter?
When Sheridan tackles difficult subject matter in his westerns, I don’t think anyone would argue against the historical importance of accurately portraying the treatment and atrocities that many Native Americans suffered. To depict those events inaccurately would be to distort the truth.
The historical accuracy of a lighter, however, may not seem nearly as important. At least not until you’re completely engrossed in a typical Taylor Sheridan drama, swept up head over heels along for the ride in a 1920s-era epic, when suddenly a mid-1950s Ronson lighter appears.
Not only does it appear, but it materializes as the miracle that helps carry the Dutton family line forward, without which we never would have known the world of John, Beth, and Kayce. If you know anything at all about vintage lighters, that moment leaves a bad taste in your mouth. It would be akin to a film set in the 1960s showing widespread cellular phone use decades before it existed.
How Can This Happen?
There are plenty of unknowns surrounding the vintage lighter hobby, but there are also some hard lines that can be drawn at specific points in time. Many lighters are marked with patent numbers that preclude them from existing before a certain date.
Ferrocerium was invented by Carl Auer von Welsbach in 1903, so any portrayal of a “flint”-sparked lighter before that year would be an anachronism. Butane-fueled lighters didn’t exist until the late 1940s and didn’t become common or practical until the end of the following decade.
The Ronson Whirlwind Imperial automatic petrol lighter wasn’t introduced until the mid-1950s. Yet somehow, in that pivotal moment in Sheridan’s outstanding 1923 saga, when Alexandra Dutton needs a miracle retrieved from a companion’s frozen dead body, the Whirlwind Imperial saves the day!
Having Some Fun
During that conversation on The Joe Rogan Experience, it became obvious that Sheridan dislikes many of the clerical, organizational, and bureaucratic practices that exist in Hollywood. He jokes about choosing one Bic lighter and using it in every movie so he never has to choose another Bic lighter ever again.
But there are so many better choices than a Bic lighter, and I’m a bit disappointed that someone who clearly appreciates craftsmanship, quality, and a strong work ethic would default so quickly to a cheap piece of plastic.
Throughout his westerns, Sheridan portrays cowboys doing work that many people didn’t even realize still existed in our instant-internet culture. He has demonstrated that authentic American traditions remain vital, vibrant, and worth preserving. I’d love to see one of his characters light up with a Penguin Cygnus or a Dunhill Rollalite.
There’s value in routine over convenience, and the portrayal of carrying and maintaining a petrol lighter would benefit from greater exposure through popular television series like Yellowstone. How cool would it be to see Beth Dutton pick up an anodized pink Cygnus from her bedside table, remove the fuel screw, add lighter fluid, and strike the roller to light her first cigarette of the day?
Prop Departments & Experts
I’ve sold working vintage petrol lighters to the prop departments of television productions over the years. I never sold a lighter to a production where I thought, Hmm, that lighter would be anachronistic for this show.
I’ve always assumed that the people responsible for props also bore the responsibility of ensuring that those props were consistent with the period in which the story takes place.
Now, I know Taylor Sheridan didn’t literally decide to use the same Bic lighter in every production where a lighter appears on screen. His comment was certainly an exaggeration. We also know that different lighters have, in fact, been selected, because the Ronson Whirlwind Imperial somehow found its way into 1923.
I think Sheridan should hire a lighter expert, and I’ll go ahead and make it known that I’m available on a consulting basis. With the success he’s had with all the shows he’s written, I doubt he’s sweating it too much but serious topics require sober reflection. Sloppiness in a place seen as unimportant could allow it to breed in another.
Sheridan has produced some of the finest western films and television series of my lifetime and that doesn’t even begin to account for the many other genres in which he has written and excelled. He is free artistically to portray his characters lighting up their smokes by whatever means suits his fancy but man, it sure would be cool to see him throw in a vintage petrol lighter every now and then!
Perhaps these minute details simply aren’t important to him. Whether they’re important to Taylor Sheridan or not, you can bet that every vintage lighter enthusiast is taking notes.
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