Norman's photo from one of his book jackets
Norman would often tease Rosalea in his books and might include a school teacher
or have a cat involved in the plot. A good example is the book "Roughshod", which
is set in a fictional valley called Sleeping Cat Basin.
In 1951 Norman received a payment of $7500 from Universal International Pictures to
make his novel "Roughshod" into a movie. The movie was entitled "Gunsmoke" and starred
Audie Murphy and Susan Cabot. The world premiere for the movie was held at the
Civic Center in Great Falls in March of 1953, with many of the movie's stars in
attendance.
Norman used the money from the sale of the movie rights to buy a house in
Virginia City, Montana. Virginia City
is a restored ghost town from Montana's gold strike days of the 1860's. Norman
had often used the history of this locale in his stories and felt
living in the area would help inspire his work.
Over the next several years three more of Norman's books were filmed. These
were "The Rawhide Years," "Tall Man Riding," and culminated with "Night Passage"
in 1956. "Night Passage" was filmed on location in Durango Colorado because it had the
only working narrow gauge railway in the country and the story revolved around
a railroad heist.
"Night Passage" starred Audie Murphy and Jimmy Stewart. Norman and Rosalea were
invited to Durango to observe the movie being filmed, and they gladly accepted and
spent many memorable days on location.
By this time, Norman and Audie Murphy had gotten to be pretty good friends. Audie
suggested that Norman write a story about an Appaloosa horse that could then
be made into movie. Norman liked the idea and began work right away. The result
was the book "Rope the Wind", which Norman considered to be one of his best works, and which
is dedicated to Audie.
