So, Who's Kidding Whom?

May 13, 2014
  Dan The Man came up with another PPP (proposed promotional postcard):

 
The 66 Kid will premiere on August 14, 2014 at the Powerhouse in Kingman. Go to BobBozeBell.net for more details.

   Need to get back in the patina business. You know, stuff like this:

 
Daily Whipout, "Patina #1986"

   Also working on a ride for the TV documentary. My good buddy Steve Wahl came by yesterday. He's got this cherry ride:

 
Steve Wahl's 1956 Ford

One Baby Boomer In Denial
   I have definitely turned another corner on "old." Last weekend there was an article in the Republic about a popular professor at the University of Arizona who is retiring. After talking about his quaint ways and extolling his long tenure, the article ended by saying he started teaching at the U of A way back in 1996.

   Last Friday when I was waiting in the doctor's lobby for my stress test all these old farts came in and were hobbling around and complaining about everything. I couldn't believe how old and crotchety they were. One of the oldest and feeblest lurched up to the window and the nurse asked him about his insurance and finally his birth date. He said he was born in 1949. The old fart is three years YOUNGER than me!

So Who's Kidding Whom?
"De Nile is more than a river in Egypt."
—Old Vaquero Saying

Johnny Ringo Cocktails & Southern Fried Flicks

May 12, 2014
   Had a fun weekend treating Kathy to a Mother's Day Weekend Celebration. On Friday I treated her to dinner at Cartwright's, then on Saturday we went into Scottsdale and saw the new road picture "Locke" at Camelview 5, which we both really liked (85 minutes in a car, one actor, Tom Hardy, amazing). Afterwards we went to Virtu, a hipster restaurant next to Guidon Books which John Langellier turned me on to on Friday. This time I had the Johnny Ringo Epitaph cocktail mixed up by this guy:

 
Bobby The Virtu Mixologist Mixing the Ringold Up Good

   Speaking of John Langellier and the Tempe branch of the Arizona Historical Society, they have a very large mural painted by one of my heroes:

 
A Detail from a Maynard Dixon mural at the Arizona Historical Society

   It allegedly was created to hang at the Arizona State Fair Grounds. Really a stunning piece. This is just a snippet of the left-hand corner. On Saturday morning I dropped in to Fry's on Carefree Highway to get a Mother's Day card and when I turned around I saw this:

 
True West magazine (Custer Captured, June issue), front and center IN TWO POSITIONS!

   Someone had evidently grabbed a copy of True West magazine in the upper rack and replaced it in the front rack. Behind the True West issue in the front position were 9 Cowboys & Indians. I felt bad about this, so I removed the C&Is and put them in the upper position and placed the 9 True West magazines in the front position. It was the least I could do.

   I also rented "The Baytown Outlaws" another road picture, this one a "Southern-fried" flick about some redneck siblings going up against biker mama's and a bad-ass drug dealer played by Billy Bob Thornton. It was spotty, but funny in parts, especially when the brothers go up against a Death Truck, complete with a Crow's Nest, oh, and the truck is full of black dudes with automatic weapons and Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Free Bird" plays on the soundtrack during the entire attack. I think you get the picture.

"We like in our writers the qualities we don't especially want in our friends—keen antennae for hypocrisy, a long memory for mistakes, a touch of cruelty."
—Sam Sacks

A Close-up of Mickey Free and Alchesay

May 10, 2014
   As I mentioned yesterday, I really enjoyed seeing a sneak preview of the forthcoming Medal of Honor Show at the Tempe branch of The Arizona Historical Society facility (90,000 square feet with two theaters!). This is one of the blow-up photographs in the exhibition:



General Crook and his White Mountain Apache Scouts at Fort Apach, this photo is from the collection of Jeremy Rowe and is a wonderful print.

   It was Crook who famously said, "Only an Apache can catch an Apache" and here was his proof. In this amazing photograph are nine Medal of Honor recipients, including the legendary Alchesay, front right:



Alchesay nay the namesake of Alchesay High School in White River (just north of Fort Apache)

   Alchesay shows up in a couple photographs, most notably with General Crook aboard his mule, Apache, at Fort Bowie. Big Al was a handsome dude and later joined the Lutheran Church at White River. I met his namesake, Arthur Alchesay Guenther, the anglo Lutheran pastor who probably had more to do with the high school being named for Big A, than anyone else. Pastor Guenther even showed me a photograph of Alchesay holding the tiny tike (Guenther). These kinds of history lessons, where you are talking to a guy who is connected directly to the guy in this photo is, well, kind of marvelous.

Meanwhile, the other incredible visage captured in this photo is this wonderful rascal:



Felix Ward AKA Mickey Free

Yes, this is non other than Felix Ward, the lad who started the longest war in US history. Kidnapped by Apaches, from his father's ranch near Patagonia on the Mexican border, the kid grew up as an Apache and joined the scouts at Camp Verde. While serving, one of the soldiers nicknamed him Mickey Free and the handle stuck.

"He was half Irish, half Mexican and all son of a bitch."
—Al Sieber, chief of scouts describing Mickey Free

Get Some Kicks On Route 66!

May 9, 2014
   I had a stress test down in Scottsdale this morning. Took four hours. I was stressed when I got out of there, although I think I passed. From 92nd and Shea Blvd, I drove down into Scottsdale and had lunch with this guy:

 
John Langellier, the director of the Arizona Historical Society in Tempe showing off a sneak preview of his forthcoming Medal of Honor Show.

   I asked Dan Harshberger to design another batch of postcards to promote the premier of "The 66 Kid". Here are a couple ideas he shot up to me this morning:

 
Harshberger postcard #1

 
Harshberger postcard idea #2

 
Harshberger postcard idea #3

 
Harshberger postcard idea #4



Harshberger postcard idea #5



Harshberger postcard idea #6

   See anything you like" Or want me to send to you?

"Get some kicks!"
—The 66 Kid

Changing Woman

May 8, 2014
   Is this where Powers Booth got his look for "Tombstone"? Or, is it just a happy accident?

 
Rattlesnake Pete or Powers Booth as Curly Bill?

   Just finished a new True West Moment on Changing Woman

 
Daily Whipout: "Changing Woman"

   Both the Apaches and the Navajos have a version of Changing Woman, a powerful diety who is the goddess of fertility and reproduction.

   I was looking for something else and found this little cloud study, looking north from my studio on Old Stage Road. That's Elephant Butte on the left and Continental Mountain on the right.

 
Daily Whipout, "Summer Clouds Over Cave Creek"

  Finishing up images for The 66 Kid documentary. Lots of great stuff to chose from, like this image:

 
Daily Whipout, "Big Sandy Cowgirl"

"It has never mattered to me that millions of people might think my opinions are wrong. The number of people who thought Hitler was right did not make him right.
—Frank Vincent Zappa

Fill it with Flite Fuel?

May 7, 2014
   Deena C. turns 34 today. She loved to play in the sand as a tooter, and she still does.



Deena C. plays in the sand I trucked in for our patio when we lived at 707 W. MacKenzie in Phoenix.

Last night Kathy and I watched another episode of Silicon Valley, the new TV show from Mike Judge. The episode was written by this guy:



T. Bell, Amy, Kathy, Carson and his date (an up and coming singer he met at the post office).

   Anyway, here's the title card at the end of the show to prove the authorship:



Not bad for a Phoenix boy. I couldn't be prouder if he was my own son.

Meanwhile, I am still shocked by the disappearance of all the old gas stations, even on old Route 66. The only one left, I saw, was the station in Truxton, which against all odds, is still in business. It even has the old rubber tubes that trigger a lube room bell when a car drives over them.



Old School Service Stations—gone but not forgotten

"Fill it with Flite Fuel, ma'am?"
—Our trained first greeting as we walked out of the office

Storm Over Wyatt Earp

May 5, 2014
      I was cleaning in the garage over the weekend and found a failed study of a certain, controversial lawman. Got up this morning and whipped it out to a finish before I came into work:

 
Daily Whipout: : "Storm Over Wyatt Earp." Alternate title: "Badges? Yes, We've Got Badges!"

   Went over to Grandma Betty's yesterday to celebrate her 90th birthday. She's still got it going on, sharp as a tack and able to blow out at least a decade of candles:

Betty Radina blows out several candles on her 90th birthday

"The ache for home lives in all of us—the safe place where we can go, as we are, and not be questioned."
—Maya Angelou

Route 66, Seligman and Kingman Where The Wind Does Blow

May 4, 2014
   A very long and productive road trip yesterday. Ken Amorosano and I took off at five, headed for Seligman and the start of the Route 66 Fun Run. We were a two-man crew shooting coverage for our documentary on "Legends of The Road: The 66 Kid."

   Got to Seligman at eight and Ken immediately started shooting some of the 900 cars cruising up and down the streets in front of the Snow Cap Drive-in:



Got plenty of footage of tricked out, souped up, bored and stroked, rat rodded, Detroit muscle rumbling back and forth on old Route 66.

Took off from Seligman at ten, shot segments and cars all the way to Kingman, including stops at Grand Canyon Caverns (Dinosaur Caverns back in my day), Truxton—where we filmed in a classic old Whiting Brothers gas station still in operation, complete with old school pumps and bell-ringer tubes. The only one I saw on the entire route. All the old style stations are gone, with some shells remaining but the pumps have all been ripped out. I also met the dude from Australia who wants to buy Truxton, or, I should say, the rest of Truxton. He already owns the motel and cafe.

Stopped at the Hackberry General Store for lunch.



Took off from there, but stopped a mile or two down the road to catch this. . .



Ken shooting two-lane blacktop near the Meadview Turnoff.

   Landed in Kingman a little after two. Interviewed a car club, The Salt River Slugs, about their cars, then stopped in to see Scott Dunton at the old Dunton Motors showroom. My father worked as a mechanic for Scott's grandfather. We taped a segment with Scott telling Billy Logas stories. Really funny stuff. From there, we went over to the old Elks to tape a segment on "Land of A Thousand Dances" and I got to stand on the spot where I had my Wipeout, six years ago. Hadn't been back since the incident. It was a little eerie, to say the least.

Legendary fist fighter, Mickey Campa came by and so Scott, Mick and I traded lies, then posed outside:



Three Big Windies: BBB, Scott Dunton and Mickey Campa.

Took Mick to dinner at Mr. D's where we shot our last segment. Went over to the Powerhouse Museum to see the space where I'll be doing a show in August (based on the book and the TV doc). Met Josh Noble, the director and we went over specs, etc. Also met and talked to Rob Chilcoat, who is doing the film festival.

Ken could not get over the wind (Does it always blow like this? No, sometimes it blows from the other direction) or the trains, which rumble through, like clockwork about every 15 minutes.

   Took off from Kingman at six and was home by nine. Long day, 15 hours on the road, but we got some good stuff, I hope.

"Kingman: home of incessant wind, constant trains and did we mention the wind?"
—Ken's proposed slogan for my hometown

The Fun Run Here We Come!

May 3, 2014
   Heading out early (5 a.m.) for Seligman and the Route 66 Fun Run. Filming all day on the run to Kingman.



The Snow Cap Drive-in in Seligman. I'll see you there.

"You'll meet a few hicks down on Route 66."
—Ray Benson's clever line take on Bobby Troup's ditty

The Long Life & Times of Roscoe Willson

May 2, 2014
   Went over to Janie's next door for lunch yesterday. Sat at the bar and looked out the open breezeway onto the saguaro studded hill behind us (True West World Headqaurters faces the same hill). Had a turkey sando, iced tea and worked on sketches. Beautiful day.

 
The view from the bar at Janie's

   Speaking of my home town, here's our hero Roscoe Willson when he was in Cave Creek:

 
Roscoe Willson in Cave Creek

   Roscoe is the guy who saved the postcard photo of the Quartzite Gunfight (it's in his massive archives down at the Polly Rosenbaum warehouse). Here is the online bio for the guy:

Roscoe G. Willson was born in Yellow Medicine County, Minnesota, the son of a country newspaper editor, on July 13, 1879. He finished high school at 16 and worked on his father’s newspaper, which he later published for a year.

After three years of wandering over Mexico, working on railroad construction and on coffee and rubber plantations, Willson came to Arizona in 1902 and worked at Crown King Mine in Crown King, Arizona. He did some prospecting before joining the newly organized U.S. Forest Service in 1905. During his tenure with the U.S. Forest Service in Southern Arizona, Roscoe met his wife, Maude, in 1907 and married her in January 1909. He put in 14 years with the forest service, resigning in 1919 to run sheep and work in oil fields.

In 1924, Willson and Maude opened the Arizona Specialty Company. He sold the business in 1945 to retire. He then began writing The Arizona Days and Ways column for the Sunday edition of the Arizona Republic in 1947 and continued doing so until his death on August 25, 1976 at the age of 97.

---

   And here is Roscoe when he was a Forrest Service Supervisor:

 
Roscoe Willson, Nogales, 1907

   And here's Roscoe prospecting. . .

 
Roscoe as a prospector, somewhere in Arizona

   After a long, and varied career all over the West and in Mexico, Roscoe retired in 1945, then he approached The Arizona Republic about doing a column called "Arizona Days & Ways" which he published with tales of old Arizona, usually punctuated with first person accounts, like, "The next time I was in Bisbee, i ran into Burt Mossman, the head of the Arizona Rangers, and told him of the altercation. . ." Roscoe is the guy I grew up reading in the 1950s and 1960s, and he wrote these columns until he died in 1976 at age 97! Amazing.

"He was funny because he wasn't funny, but he was always trying to be funny, and that struck me as funny."
—Angie Dickinson on Jack Warner

The Alleged Hit Squad That Targeted Glenn Boyer

April 30, 2014

   Thanks to several tips from here and from John Langellier at the Arizona Historical Society in Tempe and from Dan Nowicki at the Arizona Republic, I was able to track down the Quartzite Gunfight photo at the Polly Rosenbaum History and Archives Division in downtown Phoenix. It is housed in a huge warehouse style building down on Madison and 19th Avenue. Ken A. and I drove down into The Beast and went up to the second floor, signed a bunch of papers to gain admittance and, with white gloves on, were able to see the original photo, which is not very large:



 
Quartzite Gunfight Original from the Roscoe Willson Collection

   It's not very large and doesn't show much that we can't see in the scan we have of the photo:

 
The Quartzite Gunfight: An alleged gunfight in progress. The shooter, at left, is chasing down an assailant, at the corner of the fence, who allegedly is holding a rifle and according to the writing on the back, had fired at the gent at left and was in the process of fleeing. The writing confirms it was taken in 1904 at Quartzite, Arizona.

   We have ordered a high res scan so you can hopefully see it in better detail. I also got to check out some photos of Roscoe G. Willson himself at various times during his long and varied career when he was a prospector, a forest service ranger and a resident of Cave Creek (photos to follow). Roscoe collected photos from his time in Mexico and all over the West, and he also had the mug shots of the Tong Murderers who drove to Kingman and shot a former Tong gang member and were subsequently rounded up and after a sensational trial in Prescott, all four were executed. They are ID in pencil as Gee King, Shew Chin, Jew Har and BWL Sam.

   When we were done, the young lady helping us, Laura Palma-Blandford, asked me if I wanted to see something in the archives that pertained to me. Taken aback I wondered what that could possibly be. She then excused herself, came back in a couple minutes with a letter to the governor of Arizona written on December 8, 1999. Let's just say, it involves a certain Wyatt Earp fiction writer accusing me of being part of an assassination attempt on his life.

"It is requested that you have the proper authorities investigate this matter, principally. . .to discover for me who I should know may possibly intend to kill me. . ."
—Glenn G. Boyer

A real gunfight photo?

April 29, 2014
  To celebrate the finish of "The 66 Kid" Kathy and I joined our neighbors Cal and Jon for a respite in Rocky Point, about a four hour drive from Cave Creek. Stayed at a hotel on the beach:



Room with a view: This is room #439 at the Penasco Del Sol Hotel, in Rocky Point, Mexico

Behind my three party hardy travelers is Sandy Beach where I once camped out with the Ds and Terry Townsend in 1974 and neither the hotel nor any of the condos or buildings out there existed. Someone, I think it was me, predicted that someday the entire beach would be covered with hotels, a la Waikiki. Well, here it is 40 years later and at least half that came true.

We also partied at a legendary cantina in Cholla Bay:

Meanwhile, We are doing The 50 Best Gunfighter Photos for the next issue of True West. In the Time Life series (1970s) they ran a photograph, which is credited to Roscoe Willson (yes, with two lls) on pages 166-67:



   It purports to show an actual gunfight, in progress, near Quartszite in about 1904. We can clearly see the first gunfighter, at left, and his clothing appears to be accurate for the time period. The other participant is half hiding at the fence corner and an eye witness is at right. Photo credit in back of book says, "—Roscoe G. Willson Collection, courtesy American Heritage Publishing Co. Inc., New York"

What we want to know is: Could this be the Roscoe Willson who wrote for the Arizona Republic back in the fifties and sixties? And do we know where his collection ended up? And more specifically, who owns this photo today? Gay, consider yourself on assignment.

"Fiction departs from the truth to intensify it."
—Adam "Flippin" Gopnik, in the New Yorker

John Wayne Being Eloquent

April 24, 2014
   Got up at 5:30 and worked on a couple projects then went to yoga at eight. Just me and three other "girls" (women in their late sixties). All three were bunched up on their mats at the north end of the room and I walked down and took the south end of the room in the corner. Debbie, our teacher, looked over and said, "Bob, why are you way down there?" And I said, "Wild Bill Hickok." None of them got the reference, but I think everyone here will.

   Finished the "Legends of The Road" treatment at 11:45 with an assist from Ken A. and sent it off for proofing. Went home for lunch and had the leftover mole negro from Otro and went out to the studio to relax. Whipped out a little study that was about half done and sitting there waiting for me.

Daily Whipout, "Storm Over Kayenta"

   I've been on a Kayenta jag lately since I've been studying George Herriman, Maynard Dixon and Gunnar Winforss. Also, I've been reading the new John Wayne book by Scott Eyman and really enjoying it. And, of course, John Wayne and John Ford both have a little history in Kayenta, since it's just south of Monument Valley. I'm at the point in the book (page 495) where Ford is dying of cancer. They have a big ceremony at the American Film Institute to honor him with a Life Achievement Award. At the ceremony, The Duke seemed tongue-tied. If he had a speech he didn't give it. He simply said:

"I love him; I could say more."
—John Wayne

   That, my friend says it all. In fact, one of the amazing things about the book is how eloquent Wayne was. Kind of shocking really.

"It takes 15 years of kissing somebody's backside for a professor to get a chair somewhere and then he's a big shot in a little world, passing his point of view on a lot of impressionable kids. He's never really had to tough it out in this world of ours, so he has a completely theoretical view of how it should be run and what we should do for our fellow man."
—John Wayne, referring to Paul Hutton's world

Painting Visitation

April 23, 2014
   Busy writing the treatment for "The 66 Kid." At lunchtime today I drove down into The Beast to visit one of my old paintings. Motored into the parking garage at One Central Avenue in downtown Phoenix and took the elevator to the 12th floor. This is the view from the office:

 
The 12th floor corner office view of North 1st Street looking north towards Piestewa Peak. That's the Adams Hotel at left.

   And here's the new owner of "A Stitch In Time"

 
Rodney Glassman, owner of the BBB painting depicting Ma'am Jones of the Pecos sewing her son Sammy's eyelid back on.

"Those who hammer their guns into plows will plow for those who do not."
—Thomas Jefferson

Birth of A True West Moment

April 21, 2014
   One of my old neighbors (he lived up on Morning Star), sent me a letter way back in 1994, encouraging me to join the NCS (National Cartoonist Society) who were about to go to their annual convention in Washington, DC. I had just been fired from KSLX radio and suddenly had time on my hands, thus the invite. I have this letter tacked to my wall over my computer in the studio and I just noticed last week, that Jerry was doing a pretty mean George Herriman imitation at the bottom:

 
Cartoonist extraordinaire Jerry Scott of Baby Blues and Zits fame knocking off Herriman's Krazy Kat's style.

   Last week I myself did a couple studies, to bone up on Herriman's eccentric style. His moons are more like a fruit wedge and his buttes are more like a solid, Egyptian devan:

 
Ignatz Mouse lets fly with another brick at Krazy Kat's noggin' out Monument Valley way

   Then I got interrupted by my babysitting duty last weekend, so I put everything on hold and flew to Burbank for the gig. Today, I went home for lunch and whipped out a black and white version:

 
Ignatz bonks Krazy with another brick bat in front of the Mittens, Bozer style.

   Came back into the office and worked on the portrait of Herriman, which I had previously done in red in my "66 Kid" sketchbook. Added some black to make him more mysterious, since he passed for white his entire life:



 
George Herriman, from a photograph. Yes, the sombrero he's actually wearing is this ridiculous.

   Rebecca Edwards combined the two illustrations and I pruned the copy down to fit and she created an upcoming True West Moment which will run in the Arizona Republic in a week, or so.



   And NOW you know the entire story of how reading a book, "Shadows On The Mesa" by Gary Filmore, can inspire a sketch, or two, which can result in a True West Moment.

"Krazy burns a late candle tonight—I trust it attracts neither moth nor mouse."
—Offica Pupp

Coachella Fellas

April 20, 2014

  Funny feature in The New York Times today under the heading, "Coachella Flaunts Its Masculinity." Six photos of some very "masculine" dudes follow, along with these descriptions of said dudes:

"Kelson Berkus was clad in aqua giraffe-print swim trunks (source: "probably Fred Segal").

"Ryan Greeley, in a vintage mesh cardigan and floral swim trunks."

"Robert Ackroyd, in a white-on-white ensemble."

"Rameet Chawla, in a bee print suit."

Notable quotes from Sheila Marikar's "Masculinity" piece, "'They're catching on.' His toned shoulders, left bare by his skeleton-print tank top, shimmered under the strobe lights." And, "I feel like everyone dresses exactly the same, for the most part,' said Kurt Collins, an actor based in Los Angeles. In an effort to set himself apart, he wore his grandmother's hot-pink tracksuit to Saturday night's Neon Carnival."

"Be graceful—like me, goddammit."

—John Wayne after line readings with Linda Cristal on the set of The Alamo

Mole Negro at Otro

April 19, 2014
   Back from our quick babysitting gig with young Weston. We flew into Pasadena so his mom and dad could go downtown LA and see Nico Case and have a wild night at the Ace Hotel. We had to get up at two in the morning for a feeding (the young lad is only 10 months old) and it was a ton of fun. I'm serious. I wouldn't want to do it every night but we really enjoyed it.


Grandma Goose and Weston watching the cars go by (the only thing that makes him more excited is the dogs going by).

   Took off for home today, flew into Sky Harbor, and, since we were in downtown Phoenix we tried out the new offshoot restaurant Otro (The Other) which is a satellite eatery sponsored by Gallo Blanco. Had the mole negro:



Mole Negro burrito, at top, and mole chicken, bottom. Homemade tortillas and guacamole (in empty dish). Capped it off with Happy Hour margaritas and we were having fun.

On the plane home I read more of the new John Wayne bio by Scott Eyman. Just finished the cancer operation and the Alamo debacle before that. Not sure which was more terrifying. Both were brutal. The Alamo for its financial and artistic boneheadedness (something I can truly relate to) and the cancer for, well, the same thing: he had a lung taken out and still continued smoking! As for the financial bath he took on the Alamo, a young filmmaker he wanted to support suggested comparing the new film to the Alamo and Wayne said:

"That picture lost so much money I can't buy a pack of chewing gum in Texas without a co-signer."
—John Wayne

Adventures In Babysitting

April 18, 2014
   We woke up in Pasadena this morning and first thing on the agenda: watch the cars go by and point at them. The only thing more entertaining to Weston is to see dogs go by. Oh, my, how exciting.



Weston Allen Borscheller digs the cars zipping by on Sierra Bonito

"I was raised by coyotes."
—Weston telling me a windy