October 23, 2007
Book alert: Gary Wilson's long awaited book on Kid Curry, Tiger of The Wild Bunch is finally out. Gary spent 11 years researching the outlaw and has dispelled many myths about him. Gary helped me out with the Pike Landusky shooting and provided much historical detail to that encounter.

The Assassination of Jesse James is struggling along: domestic total as of Oct. 21, 2007: $2,178,826. The budget was $30 million, so they have a ways to go. The film opened in England and France this week. I have a hunch the French are going to go crazy over this film.

Had a snafu in Kingman on the time of my speech. By the way, I did the parade and speech for free, and didn't charge them for my hotel, etc. Here's the excahnge so far:

On Oct 21, 2007, at 1:59 PM, bob the dog wrote:
"Judging by the October 19, blog entry copied below 'returning by noon tomorrow' it's obvious that you had no intention of keeping your 5:30 p.m. speaking engagement at Kingman Locomotive Park on Oct. 20th. Too bad those of us who waited until well after 5:30 to be told that you had a 'family emergency', hadn't read your blog on Friday, then we would have known that you had no intention honoring your speaking committment. No wonder there were so few people there.

"We have forwarded your blog to the event organizers and other interested parties and are cancelling our subscriptions to your publications.

"Thanks for nothing."
—Bob The Dog

Bob The Dog,
When I called my contact at the Beale Days Parade, she told me they had me down for 1:30. I asked if they could move me up to 11. She told me they could. I was not aware of the 5:30 speaking time.
—BBB

On Oct 22, 2007, at 1:17 PM, bob thedog wrote:
"Then why the announcement that 'Bob Boze Bell won't be speaking due to a family emergency' that was provided to the people waiting after 5:30 p.m., obviously that was a complete lie and someone was aware that you were supposed to be speaking at that time or there would have been no such announcement. Also, a schedule printed several times in the Kingman Daily Miner had the 5:30 p.m. time listed as did posters placed in business around town, we have copies of both."
—Bob The Dog

Bob The Dog,
All I can say is I'm sorry you didn't get to hear my speech. The high points are these:

• My father had a gas station on Route 66 and the price of gas was 39.9 cents a gallon (and we got complaints all day long).

• My grandmother lived up on Hilltop on Jefferson Street and she told me how we were related to outlaws. Also, when we watched the TV show "Wyatt Earp" she told me "Wyatt Earp was the biggest jerk to ever walk the West." That set me off on a life of finding out the truth about all the Old West icons.

• I used to read True West magazine, and bought my copies at Desert Drugs in downtown Kingman (on Front Street, or Andy Devine as it's called now).

• I remember when they hauled the locomotive to its current location, building tracks right down the center of Route 66 and pulling it with cranes.

• At about the same time I saw a brand new Edsel in the show room of Dunton Motors. And, ironically, it was one of the last I ever saw.

• I received my nickname "Boze" on Dickie Grounds Field (right across the street from Locomotive Park). I ran backwards to first and second base in a baseball game with Needles and Coach Baca called me "Piaso," and cruel teammates, mainly Charlie Waters (whose father owned the Mohave Miner), picked up on this and called me "Bozo." Then it got shortened to Boze. It stuck.

• Lt. Beale's camels came through slightly before this (1857). The camels were imported from Persia and spent three months at sea, lashed on deck, on their knees. When they got off the boat in Indianola, Texas, they romped and ran, so glad to be free.

• The toughest part of the journey was at the Colorado River. Beale and his men lost 11 horses and 3 mules trying to cross. The Mohave Indians retrieved the carcasses and had a feast.

• Martha Summerhays came through Mohave County in the 1870s. She was a newlywed, married to a soldier on his way to Fort Apache, via a steamer from San Francisco. She couldn't believe how out of date the women's clothing was, who she met in Yuma, coming out of Arizona on their husband's tour of duty (think Iraq). On the steamer coming up to Fort Mojave, it was so hot, the soldiers and their wives stayed on the west side of the boat, and in the afternoon, on the east. The boat listed both ways all the way up the river.

• When Martha and the troops were crossing Golden Valley, coming towards Beale Springs, one of the soldier's dogs went crazy from the heat, and ran to its death. Martha wrote in her diary, "What a God forsaken country. No civilized people will ever live here." Her prediction is true to this day.

See, you didn't miss much.

BBB

P.S. In 1999, two crazy friends and myself bought True West and moved it to Cave Creek, Arizona. May I send you a copy?

"Don't worry about it, I think they got what they paid for."
—Kathy Radina