1918 Cupid's Round Up From Wikipedia: The American Film Institute defines Western films as those "set in the American West that embody the spirit, the struggle and the demise of the new frontier.” The term “Western,” used to describe a narrative film genre, appears to have originated with a July 1912 article in “Motion Picture World” Magazine. Most of the characteristics of Western films were part of 19th century popular Western fiction and were firmly in place before film became a popular...
