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Was Lon Chaney's character supposed to be a Turkish Janissary?

posted 9 years ago by Carycomic
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His character's surname, Kebussyan, sounds almost Armenian. And I'm assuming the slurry nickname was supposed to indicate that he was Muslim by religion.

Now, from what I've been able to dig up, the real-life Janissaries always "recruited" non-Turkish boys for training. That this elite corps of soldiers, first organized in the 14th century, was finally abolished by the Turkish government circa 1823. That the French army founded the Foreign Legion roughly ten years later. And that the U.S. Cavalry briefly experimented with camels, for southwestern desert duty, during the 1850's.

So, I'm wildly guessing, here, that Trooper Kebussyan might've been an Islamicized Armenian soldier of fortune who came to the States via the Foreign Legion and Uncle Sam's Camel Corps.

[–] MAGolding (1240) 7 years ago

Kebussyan sounds exactly Armenian to me. I assume it means "son of Kebuss".

I read the original novel Only the Valiant by Charles Marquis Warren long ago, and as I remember Kebussyan was Armenian. The soldiers couldn't find a country named Armenia in the atlas and so decided that Kebussyan was a "mad A-rab" instead. I remember a scene where Kebussyan remembered surviving some sort of massacre in the old country, though the fictiional date was probably before the first Armenian Genocide. I forget the fictional date, if any, of the novel.

The fictional date of the movie is also uncertain. I have read mentions of a rebel character meaning the date would have to be in or after 1861, and the Gatling gun means it should be in or after 1864 when the Gatling gun was invented. So if Kebussyan was an adult Janissary in 1823 he should be ready for the Old Soldiers Home even if the movie happens at the earliest possible date.

But if you want to write your own stories about a fictional character who becomes a Janissary, a French Foreign legionary, a US camel corps driver, and then a US cavalryman involved in a suicide mission, go ahead. Maybe he will turn out to be as famous as Flashman.