October 22, 2006
Cleaned out the tractor garage of pack rat crap this morning. Had to wear an extra shirt pulled up over my nose to ward off that rat virus that’s so deadly. Didn’t enjoy that. Cholla spines everywhere. They ate an entire Jones & Boze banner. Really disgusting (rat’s taste, that is).

Spent most of yesterday and about two hours today, organizing all of my art reference for the Top Secret Project. Put all my photos and tear sheets in files, cross referenced by scene number. Pretty amazing, for me.

I need to shift gears today and work on a couple Wild Bill Hickok paintings for the next issue’s Classic Gunfights. I’m dong the Phil Coe shooting and I have excellent reference shot out at Pioneer Living History Museum about seven years ago. Jerry Terrentino (sp?) was my model for Hickok and he is quite striking in his resemblance to the Prince of the Pistoleers.

Movie World Preferable to Reality
“Why can’t you leave the true stories of how the West was alone? Westerns are entertainment and we know that it’s the world of make believe. Yes, the movies do not show how it really was, if they did, it would be boring. And you would lose a lot of viewers. I have been watching movies since the mid-1940s and the costumes are great. Even if they were not the original garments worn. Surely, you can continue doing your thing on the Westerns Channel. I have a cousin who had a dude ranch in Greely, PA and his partners name was Bob Bell. I doubt it very much if you are the same person. My cousin’s partner dissolved the partnership and the ranch was sold.

“All my life I have been watching Westerns and I like them the way they are. The gunfight at the O.K. Corral with Burt and Kirk was a great movie and the clothes they wore were more colorful than a standard black outfit that they wore in the real story of their lives. The movies is the world of make believe and it happens to be interesting because the directors add life to them, they make them exciting to watch. Please understand my viewpoint. I rode a horse with today’s Western attire. I follow the styles of the actors and if you want to change to a real way it happened, I assure you I will still watch the oldies and still enjoy them.

“Bob, do your thing and whatever you tell the viewers, only the young will be educated of how it really was out West, us old-timers already know the true history of the Old West. Many books have been written and can be viewed at libraries and bookstores. Please accept this letter as friendly. I’m just a make believe type of person.”
—Tom Torrisi

If only the young could be educated of how it really was out West, then, I would say, it will have been worth the effort.

“Don’t forget until too late that the business of life is not business, but living.”
—B.C. Forbes