BBB's Blog
If you've ever wondered what it's like to run a magazine or how crazy my personal life is, be sure to read the behind-the-scenes peek at the daily trials and tribulations of running True West. Culled straight from my Franklin Daytimer, it contains actual journal entries, laid out raw and uncensored. Some of it is enlightening. Much of it is embarrassing, but all of it is painfully true.
In addition to this current journal, my early journal entries show the rocky road and money lost in the True West Business Timeline.
Bob's biography - The Unvarnished Truth
March 10, 2014
Worked over the weekend on several more portraits of Kingman Kids who had nicknames. I was studying an anonymous early do when the likeness of the sketch (totally accidental) reminded me of a classmate.
Daily Whipout, "The Goose"
If you are from Kingman you know exactly who this is. And, there was always this gal with the big beehive:
Daily Whipout: "Hanky"
And then there was this gal:
Daily Whipout: "Jennie"
And that led to memories of this 66 Chick:
Daily Whipout: "Mary Kay Says Okay"
That's not how it went down, but you get the picture.
"Yes, we see."
—The Bozetells
Bob Boze 2:33 PM
Bob Boze 7:39 AM
March 7, 2014
Got up at four and wailed on a spread in Signature 10 of "The 66 Kid." Shifted gears at seven and whipped out a series of little paintings to illustrate another spread:
Daily Whipout, "Beehives In The Wind #1"
Beehives in the Wind
Scientists can't agree where the Bee Hive Hairdo originated, but new evidence points towards Kingman, Arizona. In the early 1960s, young, female prom goers were known to shellac their hair, with massive amounts of hairspray, in order to survive the windy walk from the car to the gym. And with prom themes such as "Twenty Thousand Cooties Under The Sea" and "The Wind Beneath My Heels," it was a survivor-of-the-fittest choice. When all was said and done, these women could split watermelons with their hair (and often did for the amusement of their dates). But don't judge these women too harshly. Those were tough times and called for tough measures. Those early day Bee Hive Hairdos could withstand wind gusts of up to 60 miles-per-hour without mussing a single hair. The only downside was with the giant wingspans on some of those early dos, smaller girls were actually taken airborne. One such prom date was later found near Topock. She was banged up pretty good, but her hair was perfect.
Daily Whipout, "Beehives In The Wind #2"
I did five, won't bore you with the rest. But now I'm going home for lunch to fine tune this idea:
Daily Whipout, "Slow Dancing With Mary Jane At A Rainbow Dance When I Was In Sixth Grade"
"Do you wanna dance and hold me tight, kiss me baby all through the night, oh baby, do you want to dance?"
—The Beach Boys
Bob Boze 12:18 PM
March 6, 2014
I'm trying to track down the location of this still from "Easy Rider." I know it's Mohave County on Route 66, but some of my friends think it's near Hackberry, while others swear it's at Perfume Pass just southwest of Kingman. Anyone know?
"We blew it."
—Billy to Wyatt, or, was it the other way around?
Bob Boze 4:28 PM
March 6, 2014
Kathy is in Pasadena taking care of our grandson while I'm hard at it, trying to plug holes in the last 44 pages of "The 66 Kid." One incident from my youth has to be mentioned because it leads directly to the KSLX photo I ran yesterday:
Mister Motormouth
In my sixth-grade class, Mrs. Bonelli instituted a fine for talking when we were supposed to be studying quietly. She assigned one of her pets, Cathy Cannon, to mark down every time someone talked when they shouldn't. I, of course, could not go very long without talking out loud because I had to entertain the class—my mission in life!
When Cathy would catch me talking, she'd make a big deal about opening her notebook and, with an exaggerated flourish, putting a mark under my name. I would tell her this was not fair and she would make another mark. Then I would make a face at her and she would make another mark.
I had amassed $5.80 cents in fines by the end of the semester. (Jimmy Covarubius was closest to me at $2 and change). When the bill came home, my parents were very upset, until they found out all the money raised would go to cancer research. The Mohave County Miner sent a photographer to take a picture of the class, featuring me as the top donor.
I didn't realize it at the time, but the motormouth skills I was honing in Mrs. Bonelli's class would later pay me big dividends.
The Jones & Boze radio show on KSLX where being a Motormouth paid big dividends (1986-1994)
Rising above, WAYYYYY above, the rest of the Exits on New Year's Eve, 1964.
Drum Riser From Hell
As a drummer I hated being in the back. All those tall guitar geeks standing in front of me, blocking my view of the girls. And more importantly, blocking the girl's view of me. After we all saw Ringo's cool riser on the Ed Sullivan Show, my good friend Rick Ridenour asked me if he could make me a drum riser in shop class. He asked me how high he should make it and I said, "Same as Ringo's, maybe four feet high." I paid for the materials ($40 in wood) and Rick built a massive-three-piece behemoth that took its own truck to hall to gigs. Here I am, above, and at right, looming over the proceedings at the Girl's Gym on New Year's Eve, 1964. We partnered with DeMolay and played for half the door. The band made $280.
The Competition
We didn't have enough musicians in Kingman to have three bands and, in fact, had to steal from each other to make up two bands. The Dimensions were our biggest competitors. Mike Torres on lead guitar, Verne Andrews, Terry Anderson and Burt Hands, on drums, were from the class of 1966, a year behind us and to our way of thinking, the upstarts. Eventually, as you shall see, most of these musicians became part of the Exits family. One thing the Dimensions had that the Exits did not, is Go Go Girls. Below you can see The Dimensions rock out at the McCarthy Ford Dealership in 1966. Those rockin' babes are the incomparable Paup twins, Mo and Coe as they were fondly known. This lineup of the Dimensions features Kenny Kingman on drums.
The Dimensions rock out at McCarthy Motors in downtown Kingman, while Mo and Coe (Maureen and Corrine) Paup do a compelling Frug out front.
Yes, that is, in fact, Coach Baca in the background, between Verne and Mike. Our baseball coach and the guy who nicknamed me Boze.
"Would a clown by any other name sound so sweet?"
—Boach Kaka
Bob Boze 1:56 PM
March 5, 2014
Someone asked me what I was doing in the eighties and I think this picture pretty much sums it up: surfing the news on KSLX. That's David K. Jones at left and Jeanne Sedello at right, putting up with my motormouth-extended-newscast.
The Jones, Boze & Jeanne Show on KSLX, June, 1989
A note on the back says I am two minutes over on the news (we would go into the"news" at 56 minutes to the hour with instructions that it not go past the top of the hour) , a no no on a tightly programmed classic rock station in the 1980s (actually, I imagine it's probably tighter today). We had fun, but it's long gone now. I definitely don't miss the hours (up at four with a 45 minute drive into Scottsdale and on air from 6 to 9) but I do miss the gang and I do miss the money ($120K a year for a three-hour day).
"That's the news from smack-dab-in-the-middle of The West's Most Midwestern Town."
—BBB
Bob Boze 11:57 AM
March 4, 2014
My mother was pretty amazing. She kept very good scrapbooks and three of them are little treasure chests of memories and chestnuts. She is making my job so much easier for "The 66 Kid" project. For example, this is a photo taken by a MCUHS school photographer and developed in the school dark room:
As noted, this was taken, December 23, 1964 as we played for the Christmas Program in the gym. On the back of this photo I noted that there were 750 kids in attendance and I also wrote out our song list: we opened with "Surfbeat", then "Oldies But Goodies", "Do You Want to Know A Secret?" "Do You Love Me?" "Johnnie B. Goode" "Mr. Motto" "Pretty Woman" "X.K.E." (an Exit original?) "Beetle Bailey" "White Christmas" "Merry Christmas Baby" "Silent Night" (seriously!) and then another Exits original "We're Gonna Win." Our encore was "Let's Go Trippin'" featuring the shredder himself Terry Mitchell!
Here's a closer shot of us rocking out to some ten days later in the Girl's Gym for the New Year's Eve party. On the back of this photo it says:
We played for $60 or half the door, and we made $280 with 250 people attending. Sweet.
And finally, 1964 was the year we topped the Stones:
The Exits Top The Stones In 1964
According to Keith Richards, the Stones never made a dime in 1964 because of crooked promoters and all the band's travel expenses. If true, the Exits out-performed the Stones in the same time period, monetarily at least, because we made several hundred dollars that year and we lived at home so all that money was pure gravy! And, by the way, although the Exits prefer and perform the Stones' version of Route 66, we are all quite miffed that Mick Jagger sings "Don't forget Winona, Bixlow, Bartstow, San Bernadino . . ." Bixlow? Come on Mick! Get a clue, Man.
"No, really, we got plenty of satisfaction, 'cause we tried and we tried and we tried and we also lived at home. . ."
—Wendell Havatone, lead singer of The Exits
Bob Boze 4:02 PM
March 3, 2014
We had a ton of rain over the weekend. Got a message on Facebook from a neighbor. Hilda Huntress, asking me if I had seen the saguaro damage at the True West World Headquarters. I had not. Drove in this morning to this sight.
Daily Wipeout: "5,000 pound saguaro takes out True West Building sign"
Sad to see that big ol' flower go. A case of too much water, probably. Dave Daiss, the owner of the building was obligated by building codes to put a water catch all at the foot of his property and this area at the foot of the saguaro looked like a pond every time it rained. Not sure why it took this long (we have been in the building since 2002) but there you go.
Speaking of keeling over, I was embarrassed by the old farts on the Oscars last night. Especially since they all are my age! I can relate but it's still cringe-worthy: we can't hear, we are driving erratically and we cry easily. Poor Bruce Dern, Liza Minnelli and Sidney Poitier. But, I guess it does beat the alternative, but not by much.
"Do not regret getting older. It is a privilege denied to many."
—good ol' Ben Rux
Bob Boze 10:17 AM
Worked over the weekend on several more portraits of Kingman Kids who had nicknames. I was studying an anonymous early do when the likeness of the sketch (totally accidental) reminded me of a classmate.
Daily Whipout, "The Goose"
If you are from Kingman you know exactly who this is. And, there was always this gal with the big beehive:
Daily Whipout: "Hanky"
And then there was this gal:
Daily Whipout: "Jennie"
And that led to memories of this 66 Chick:
Daily Whipout: "Mary Kay Says Okay"That's not how it went down, but you get the picture.
"Yes, we see."
—The Bozetells
Bob Boze 2:33 PM
- March 8, 2014A "fried" on Facebook has located the exact spot of the Easy Rider photo I posted the other day. Check it out:
- Hello Bob !
Don't worry, I'm not the kid and you are not Olinger
I saw your post about Easy Rider on your True West blog and I think I have the answer. Look at this link:
http://goo.gl/maps/YMQ72
I think this is the right spot where the shot was taken... Keep on the good job and give my love to Arizona and New Mexico.
- 20 minutes agoBob Boze Bell
- You have nailed it! This is the exact spot! How did you find it? And, I'm still a little lost though. Is this east of Valentine and is that Crozier Springs going up the road?
- 5 minutes agoKcirtap Yatsac
- You are right Bob, this is about 3 miles north-east of Valentine. I must say luck has a lot of to do with my finding and I'm glad to see nothing has change since the making of the movie.
Bob Boze 7:39 AM
March 7, 2014
Got up at four and wailed on a spread in Signature 10 of "The 66 Kid." Shifted gears at seven and whipped out a series of little paintings to illustrate another spread:
Daily Whipout, "Beehives In The Wind #1"
Beehives in the Wind
Scientists can't agree where the Bee Hive Hairdo originated, but new evidence points towards Kingman, Arizona. In the early 1960s, young, female prom goers were known to shellac their hair, with massive amounts of hairspray, in order to survive the windy walk from the car to the gym. And with prom themes such as "Twenty Thousand Cooties Under The Sea" and "The Wind Beneath My Heels," it was a survivor-of-the-fittest choice. When all was said and done, these women could split watermelons with their hair (and often did for the amusement of their dates). But don't judge these women too harshly. Those were tough times and called for tough measures. Those early day Bee Hive Hairdos could withstand wind gusts of up to 60 miles-per-hour without mussing a single hair. The only downside was with the giant wingspans on some of those early dos, smaller girls were actually taken airborne. One such prom date was later found near Topock. She was banged up pretty good, but her hair was perfect.
Daily Whipout, "Beehives In The Wind #2"
I did five, won't bore you with the rest. But now I'm going home for lunch to fine tune this idea:
Daily Whipout, "Slow Dancing With Mary Jane At A Rainbow Dance When I Was In Sixth Grade"
"Do you wanna dance and hold me tight, kiss me baby all through the night, oh baby, do you want to dance?"
—The Beach Boys
Bob Boze 12:18 PM
March 6, 2014
I'm trying to track down the location of this still from "Easy Rider." I know it's Mohave County on Route 66, but some of my friends think it's near Hackberry, while others swear it's at Perfume Pass just southwest of Kingman. Anyone know?
"We blew it."
—Billy to Wyatt, or, was it the other way around?
Bob Boze 4:28 PM
March 6, 2014
Kathy is in Pasadena taking care of our grandson while I'm hard at it, trying to plug holes in the last 44 pages of "The 66 Kid." One incident from my youth has to be mentioned because it leads directly to the KSLX photo I ran yesterday:
Mister Motormouth
In my sixth-grade class, Mrs. Bonelli instituted a fine for talking when we were supposed to be studying quietly. She assigned one of her pets, Cathy Cannon, to mark down every time someone talked when they shouldn't. I, of course, could not go very long without talking out loud because I had to entertain the class—my mission in life!
When Cathy would catch me talking, she'd make a big deal about opening her notebook and, with an exaggerated flourish, putting a mark under my name. I would tell her this was not fair and she would make another mark. Then I would make a face at her and she would make another mark.
I had amassed $5.80 cents in fines by the end of the semester. (Jimmy Covarubius was closest to me at $2 and change). When the bill came home, my parents were very upset, until they found out all the money raised would go to cancer research. The Mohave County Miner sent a photographer to take a picture of the class, featuring me as the top donor.
I didn't realize it at the time, but the motormouth skills I was honing in Mrs. Bonelli's class would later pay me big dividends.
The Jones & Boze radio show on KSLX where being a Motormouth paid big dividends (1986-1994)
Rising above, WAYYYYY above, the rest of the Exits on New Year's Eve, 1964.
Drum Riser From Hell
As a drummer I hated being in the back. All those tall guitar geeks standing in front of me, blocking my view of the girls. And more importantly, blocking the girl's view of me. After we all saw Ringo's cool riser on the Ed Sullivan Show, my good friend Rick Ridenour asked me if he could make me a drum riser in shop class. He asked me how high he should make it and I said, "Same as Ringo's, maybe four feet high." I paid for the materials ($40 in wood) and Rick built a massive-three-piece behemoth that took its own truck to hall to gigs. Here I am, above, and at right, looming over the proceedings at the Girl's Gym on New Year's Eve, 1964. We partnered with DeMolay and played for half the door. The band made $280.
The Competition
We didn't have enough musicians in Kingman to have three bands and, in fact, had to steal from each other to make up two bands. The Dimensions were our biggest competitors. Mike Torres on lead guitar, Verne Andrews, Terry Anderson and Burt Hands, on drums, were from the class of 1966, a year behind us and to our way of thinking, the upstarts. Eventually, as you shall see, most of these musicians became part of the Exits family. One thing the Dimensions had that the Exits did not, is Go Go Girls. Below you can see The Dimensions rock out at the McCarthy Ford Dealership in 1966. Those rockin' babes are the incomparable Paup twins, Mo and Coe as they were fondly known. This lineup of the Dimensions features Kenny Kingman on drums.
The Dimensions rock out at McCarthy Motors in downtown Kingman, while Mo and Coe (Maureen and Corrine) Paup do a compelling Frug out front.
Yes, that is, in fact, Coach Baca in the background, between Verne and Mike. Our baseball coach and the guy who nicknamed me Boze.
"Would a clown by any other name sound so sweet?"
—Boach Kaka
Bob Boze 1:56 PM
March 5, 2014
Someone asked me what I was doing in the eighties and I think this picture pretty much sums it up: surfing the news on KSLX. That's David K. Jones at left and Jeanne Sedello at right, putting up with my motormouth-extended-newscast.
The Jones, Boze & Jeanne Show on KSLX, June, 1989
A note on the back says I am two minutes over on the news (we would go into the"news" at 56 minutes to the hour with instructions that it not go past the top of the hour) , a no no on a tightly programmed classic rock station in the 1980s (actually, I imagine it's probably tighter today). We had fun, but it's long gone now. I definitely don't miss the hours (up at four with a 45 minute drive into Scottsdale and on air from 6 to 9) but I do miss the gang and I do miss the money ($120K a year for a three-hour day).
"That's the news from smack-dab-in-the-middle of The West's Most Midwestern Town."
—BBB
Bob Boze 11:57 AM
March 4, 2014
My mother was pretty amazing. She kept very good scrapbooks and three of them are little treasure chests of memories and chestnuts. She is making my job so much easier for "The 66 Kid" project. For example, this is a photo taken by a MCUHS school photographer and developed in the school dark room:
As noted, this was taken, December 23, 1964 as we played for the Christmas Program in the gym. On the back of this photo I noted that there were 750 kids in attendance and I also wrote out our song list: we opened with "Surfbeat", then "Oldies But Goodies", "Do You Want to Know A Secret?" "Do You Love Me?" "Johnnie B. Goode" "Mr. Motto" "Pretty Woman" "X.K.E." (an Exit original?) "Beetle Bailey" "White Christmas" "Merry Christmas Baby" "Silent Night" (seriously!) and then another Exits original "We're Gonna Win." Our encore was "Let's Go Trippin'" featuring the shredder himself Terry Mitchell!
Here's a closer shot of us rocking out to some ten days later in the Girl's Gym for the New Year's Eve party. On the back of this photo it says:
We played for $60 or half the door, and we made $280 with 250 people attending. Sweet.
And finally, 1964 was the year we topped the Stones:
The Exits Top The Stones In 1964
According to Keith Richards, the Stones never made a dime in 1964 because of crooked promoters and all the band's travel expenses. If true, the Exits out-performed the Stones in the same time period, monetarily at least, because we made several hundred dollars that year and we lived at home so all that money was pure gravy! And, by the way, although the Exits prefer and perform the Stones' version of Route 66, we are all quite miffed that Mick Jagger sings "Don't forget Winona, Bixlow, Bartstow, San Bernadino . . ." Bixlow? Come on Mick! Get a clue, Man.
"No, really, we got plenty of satisfaction, 'cause we tried and we tried and we tried and we also lived at home. . ."
—Wendell Havatone, lead singer of The Exits
Bob Boze 4:02 PM
March 3, 2014
We had a ton of rain over the weekend. Got a message on Facebook from a neighbor. Hilda Huntress, asking me if I had seen the saguaro damage at the True West World Headquarters. I had not. Drove in this morning to this sight.
Daily Wipeout: "5,000 pound saguaro takes out True West Building sign"
Sad to see that big ol' flower go. A case of too much water, probably. Dave Daiss, the owner of the building was obligated by building codes to put a water catch all at the foot of his property and this area at the foot of the saguaro looked like a pond every time it rained. Not sure why it took this long (we have been in the building since 2002) but there you go.
Speaking of keeling over, I was embarrassed by the old farts on the Oscars last night. Especially since they all are my age! I can relate but it's still cringe-worthy: we can't hear, we are driving erratically and we cry easily. Poor Bruce Dern, Liza Minnelli and Sidney Poitier. But, I guess it does beat the alternative, but not by much.
"Do not regret getting older. It is a privilege denied to many."
—good ol' Ben Rux
Bob Boze 10:17 AM
