If Hollywood has teach us anything , it ’s that the ubiquitous watering hole that littered the stale trails traversed by thirsty cowboys roundin ’ up those dogies in the Old West all came equipped with “ batwing ” threshold ( technically called “ café doors ” ) flow in the entry . But how in the world could a barkeep protect his livelihood after hours with such a bantam roadblock between his hoard of firewater and the outside macrocosm ?
Café door were actually practical for many reasons . They allowed respiration in a small enclosure that was sate with folks smoke cigar and home base - rolled cigarette . The bidirectional hinge were handy for puncher who both enter and exited carry heavy saddlebags ( unlike automobiles , horses do n’t come equip with lock storage containers in the rear , and there was always the danger of some low - down sidewinder stealing from you while you were inside getting your drinking on ) . And those abbreviated doors shielded the church - going “ right ” passersby from have got to view the liquor , gambling , and spitting ( spittoon were as common then as ashtray would be later ) going on inside .
As Ronald M. James writes in his bookVirginia City : secret of a Western Past , most saloon actually did n’t have these doors . Outside of sure part of the area , it arrive too dusty in wintertime and too verbose in summertime for them to be viable . But for the gin mill that had them , the café doors were actually a subaltern barrier ; the buildings were traditionally equipped with a received solidification of substantial door on the outermost part of the entrance . When opened they laid categorical against each side of the edifice during business hour , but they could be shut ( and padlocked when necessary ) during bout of inclement weather , or when the edifice was unattended . While many mines in places like Virginia City , Nevada last out open 24 time of day , newspaper publisher from the meter allude to the fact that the saloons did in fact nigh in the other morning hours , make water the ringlet necessary .
As for Hollywood ’s depiction of saloon door , set designers for Westerns made the batwing doors small than would be typically used in real life — likely to make hero like John Wayne or Gary Cooper look large and that much more imposing when they bristle into the room searching for the yellow - bellied swamp rat who shoot their Pa.
