Landing at The Head of Perfume Pass

August 12, 2014
   Hit the road a little after noon and headed up Highway 93 with a car load of hardbound books and paintings. Hit rain just north of the Bagdad turnoff and it really started coming down. Visibility went down to about twenty yards and cars started pulling off to the side to wait it out. I kept moving, following a truck who was smashing through in a vapor trail of steam. Finally broke through the deluge just south of the Burro Creek Bridge, but it rained on and off all the way to Wikieup.

   Landed at the head of Perfume Pass at four. Love these familiar buttes surrounding my hometown.


The Head of Perfume Pass: yes that is a train coming up the draw. What are the odds? Here is the other end of the pass, only 55 years earlier:



This is a screen capture from the movie "Edge of Eternity" from 1959 and the film will be one of the features at the very first Cine 66 Fim Festival to be held this weekend at the old Elks in downtown Kingman.

Unloaded my paintings at the Powerhouse Museum. Tomorrow we're working all day to install the multi-media show that will accompany the rollout of "The 66 Kid" on Thursday afternoon. Other events are planned for Friday, like this:


Nice shot of the Hualapais.

   All of this is right around the corner from the old Biddolph-Dunton Ford Dealership where my father worked in the late 1940s. My grandfather was a Ford man and I am a Ford man, but even though he worked for Ford, my dad just loved cars, period.

"I wouldn't drive nothin' but a Ford. F-O-R-D, period. Ain't nothin' like a Ford. I wouldn't drive a chevrolet 'cause I can't spell it."
—Bruce Bruce

Zane Training And Heading Home

August 12, 2014
   How do you raise funny kids? We started our kids early and humiliated them regularly when they weren't zany. Here's Thomas Charles when he was five with a brand new mohawk do, undergoing some intense ham training with his dad (full disclosure: we both got mohawks on the air at KSLX and then we both rode in the Cave Creek Rodeo parade and when old ladies would wave to us we would lift up our hats to show them our punk heads).

 
Ham Training, April 1, 1987, on the Friday before the Cave Creek Rodeo Parade where I was Grand Marshal. Photos by Ralph Rippe

   Speaking of being humiliated on a regular basis, I am bound for Kingman today, to begin installation on the big "66 Kid" multi-media art show at the Powerhouse Museum. Show opens on Thursday along with the premiere of the book and the video. Want to see a sneak peek at the video. Check this out:

The 66 Kid Video Sneak Peek

  Sent out 50 hard bound books yesterday to all the people who helped me create the book. See you there.

"It is not the fastest animal which survives but that which is the most adaptable to change."
—Old Vaquero Saying

Moonscape Over The Seven Sisters

August 11, 2014
   Got out on Old Stage Road at 5:30 this morning. Trying to beat the heat. Check out this moonscape over The Seven Sisters:



Moonscape Over The Seven Sisters

   Went through a lot of artwork yesterday trying to categorize it for my curator Cal. Of course, I always get distracted and, or, inspired, to work on something I probably should throw away. Here are a half dozen studies of "Last Light" that I couldn't resist taking another stab at:



Daily Whipouts: "Six Studies of Last Light"

"At bars, women are like Marines. They don't leave anybody behind."
—John Heffron

Trains On The Brain

August 10, 2014
   It all started with trains. My father always told the story of me coming to him when I was very little and asking him to draw a train for me. He would sketch out a crude version of a train, but as he told it, I soon got frustrated when his trains didn't have the right perspective. Thought about that old family story when I found this in the garage this weekend:



Daily Whipout: "The Last of The Steam Engines Pulling Grade Near Valentine"

   Last night I had dinner with Paul and Tracy Hutton and Paul's daughter Lorena, who is on her way to Tucson for Law School. We ate at The Oceans Club at Kierland Commons and had a grand old time.



Paul and Tracy celebrate their 13th anniversary over a comp cake and candle brought by the staff at Oceans Club

   Paul and I are scheming on a TV series and we're planning a road trip to LA next month to pitch a certain director we know.

"You can fail at what you don't love so you might as well take a chance on what you love."
—Jim Carrey

Hard Bounds Are In The House!

August 8, 2014
   Worked on cleaning out the garage yesterday and got about half of it liberated. Here's what it looked like at about noon.



My half of the garage looking about as clean as it's ever going to get in this lifetime

At 3:07 p.m. a big Old Dominion truck pulled down our street and stopped at the end of the driveway. I ran out and the driver tole me I was his last stop. We walked around to the back and he opened up the back door and he jumped inside and proceeded to walk the half mile to my palette of books.



My tiny palette of 500 books arrived in this big truck. Yes they are down there. Look hard.

   To celebrate, last night Kathy and I motored downtown to drop off three boxes of "The 66 Kid" to Dan Harshberger (we high fived in his driveway!) then drove down to Gallo Blanco for dinner (two ahi tacos and a margarita, Kathy had the salmon), then down to Comerica to see Daniel and the Lion, Toad And The Wet Sprocket, and Counting Crows ($101 for two tickets, plus a $10 diet coke).

   Normally, I'm a waist down rocker, leaning more to the stylings of Kurt Cobain when it comes to the nineties, but for some reason, at age 67, I found myself digging Adam Koritz's stylings. Then on his signature tune, "The Rain King" I found the tears running down my cheeks I'm so old I didn't even try to hide it. A young couple next to me were rocking out when I noticed the girl staring at me. She leaned over to her date and whispered something, but I have a good idea what she was probably saying:

"That old man in the cowboy hat is crying?!"
—A Beautiful Baby Doll, swaying to the lyrics, "I belong in the service of the Queen, I belong anywhere but in between . . ."

   Yes, I blame the added estrogen, but we also have other issues.

"Old people are pushy, they don't have much time; they'll shove you aside in the coffee shop; cut ahead in the buffet line."
—John Hiatt

"

New Pop Ups for The 66 Kid

August 7, 2014
   "The 66 Kid" premieres a week from today in Kingman. This morning Robert Ray brought in the two pop up banners and they look fantastic:

 
Two 90 inch tall pop up banners for the premiere of The 66 Kid at the Powerhouse Museum

And here's the press release:

What was it like growing up on the world's most famous two-lane blacktop?
   "The 66 Kid", a new book by Bob Boze Bell will premiere at the Powerhouse Museum on August 14, 2014 and the author will be on hand to sign hardbound editions from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Bell will also be giving a talk about the making of the book and his history in Mohave County on Friday, August 15 at the Mohave Museum. A video, of the same name will premiere at the 66 Cine Festival at the old Elks Hall in downtown Kingan on Friday night at 8 p.m.

   Author, illustrator and Emmy Award winning director,  Bob Boze Bell puts the everlasting allure of Route 66 into perspective by showing readers what life was like growing up in Kingman, Arizona, one of the highway's quintessential  cities, curing the heyday of automobile travel in the 1950s and 1960s. this personal take on the Mother Road's history—part autobiography, part narrative history, all beautifully illustrated—expertly weaves personal memories and observations with entertaining accounts of folks who lived,, worked and played  along the road. Bell also digs deep into the roots of the region, offering seldom explored historical context  for Route 66 and the American Southwest.

   Illustrated with personal and archival photographs, period advertising art, vintage postcards, specially commissioned maps, and of course the author's own fantastic watercolors, The 66 Kid is a Mother Road book like no other, offering a unique look at a slice of Route 66's history that entertains and at the same time makes sense of the highway's continued popularity.

   Born in Forrest City, Iowa in 1946 and raised in the tough tourist town of Kingman, Arizona, Bob Boze Bell has lived a life on the road. And not just any road but the one and only Route 66.

   After five lackluster years at the University of Arizona in Tucson, Bell gravitated to Phoenix, where he and childhood friend Daniel Harshberger, published humor magazine Razz Revue from 1972 to 1977. In 1983 Bell won the Arizona Press Club's Cartoonist of the Year, and he has since won an Emmy for his work on Outrageous Arizona, a television documentary that ran on Eight, Arizona's PBS affiliate.

    In 1999, Bell bought True West magazine (published since 1953) and moved the editorial offices to Cave Creek, Arizona. He has published and illustrated groundbreaking books on Wyatt Earp, Billy the Kid Doc Holliday,  along with his series Classic Gunfights. In addition to his efforts at True West, Bell's artwork and writing have appeared in Arizona Highways, New Times, Playboy, Wild West and National Lampoon.

   Bob Boze Bell's recognition as a historian may be surpassed by his reputation as a prolific artist. "Bob Boze Bell paints what the rest of us can only imagine, " said Fred Nolan, author and Lincoln County War expert.

"Any rascal who misspent his youth in the '50s and '60s toting ice for travelers at his dad's gas station in Kingman, got his hand tangled up in a motel washing machine wringer, and lost his virginity in a Nash Rambler, should have one hell of a story to tell about his life and times on Route 66."

—Michael Wallis

Bridle & Bit Is Back, Baby!

August 6, 2014
   My good friends at Bridle & Bit, a horse lover's newspaper, are back in biz after a bad auto accident (the owner was coming home to Cave Creek on Christmas Eve and got hit head-on by a drunk driver, and survived!).

 
The B&B is not only back, it's as big as ever (128 pages) and they gave the doubletruck to a certain Cave Creek cartoonist:

 
Related to Outlaws Doubletruck, in the new and improved Bridle & Bit

"We're back, Baby!"
—Ed Wager

Are There Actual Photos of BBB at His Own Hanging?

August 6, 2014
   More treasures and trash from the Triple B Garage: I've done some crazy things in my career, but this has to be one of the craziest.

 
V magazine, 1988

   Oh, well. It seemed like a good idea at the time. Yes, that is an original Ev Mecham—with his foot in his mouth—bola tie. I think I have it somewhere—in the garage! Of course!

   Found this early example of crude Photoshop in the garage:





The Doper Roper in front of The Heatwave Cafe

   The model is Earl Bieu (sic), a printer at Al Rau Advertising, 1973. Earl was an old time printer (i.e. he drank a lot). Yes, Earl was a wild one and enjoyed what we were printing. Al Rau allowed Dan Harshberger and I to use all his cameras, layout materials and presses at night. Earl especially liked my cartoon character, The Doper Roper, and often told me D-R would make a great TV show. He even predicted that it would be on television in the near future.

   Dan Harshberger and I agreed that Earl sort of resembled the Doper Roper and perhaps we should do a photo shoot with him posing as Granthum P. Hooker. So on a Saturday we drove him out to Buckeye, where there was a small, back roads cafe called Froggy Bottom, which was a black bar in the the middle of nowhere. We were actually kind of nervous shooting this. Of course, it has some very crude retouching because this was about 25 years before Photoshop. Earle died tragically by being hit by a car on 16th Street. Here's the main Man Earl loved:



 
The Doper Roper Cliff Diving, Episode Whatever, The Razz Revue, 1975

  Meanwhile, back to the V magazine coverage. I wish I could say the cover concept was NOT my idea, but, alas it was. Photographed by Ralph Rippe. Inside there are drawings I don't even remember doing.



 
Exclusive interview with BBB in V magazine, 1988

   Who is Fred Craft, and why am I referencing him calling his wife a "whore"? Probably some politico from those days who ended up in the Republic, but I can't remember.

Most Embarrassing Q and A, I wish I Had Back?
Q: there's a rumor you are going to work for the Arizona Republic. Any truth to that?

A: No, I don't think anything will come of it. . .because Pat Murphy [the publisher] is in the process of 'graying' the Republic and I think I'm too loud."

   Maybe I was too loud in those days, but I have been doing True West Moments for The Republic for the past four years.


I Can't Believe I Actually Said It
"It doesn't pay to meet your adversaries. They'll disappoint you every time."
—BBB,  talking about meeting Tom Collins, someone who was vilified in the press but turned out to be a nice guy when I actually met him.

Postcard Blitz & Dipstick Legends

August 5, 2014

   Got the garage cleaned out enough to accept a very large palette of books. Want to knock it back one more layer tomorrow, but if the truck shows up, I'm ready. Here's a sleeper cartoon I found in my New Times files:



 
Daily Whipout: "Cover Me, I'm Going In"

   This was an illustration paired with a news report that local police needed a warrant to search a young woman they suspected of hiding drugs in her bra.
 
Al Bell Two Fisted Pump Jockey, New Times cover, June 23, 1982

   Inside the feature is a little racier than I opted for in the book (maturity?).

 
The Dip Stick Legend, 1982


The Triple B Postcard Blitz
   I also lined up three different 66 Kid postcards from my series and targeted several big TV media outlets with a one, two, three blitz. They get one postcard, then another one comes a day later and a third a day after that. The pitch starts soft, goes gonzo and finishes with me asking (actually begging) for the order. It's a long shot, but it's so hard to break wall that today on the big shows. We'll see.



 
BBB Postcard Blitz ready to go

"In this business you either sink or swim or you don't."
—David Smith

Mr. Gecko Head

August 4, 2014
   Back in the day (1973) I had a cartoon strip about a redneck cowboy who battled hippies who could turn themselves into lizards. I think it had to do with peyote but I don't remember.



Daily Whipout: "The Doper Roper Takes On Mr. Gecko Head" 



    Jeremy Rowe has the most amazing old photos of Arizona, including this shot taken near Camp Beale Springs near my hometown of Kingman in 1873 (really early). This photo and many others appear in his new book, "Arizona Stereographs, 1865-1930."



 
In-dins and scouts near Camp Beale Springs, 1874



 
Camp Verde Scouts, 1874

"One good thing about being a man is that men don't have to talk to each other."
—Peter Cocotas

Trash & Treasure From The Triple B Garage

August 3, 2014
   Down to the wire. Got a big truck steaming my way even as I type this, with a large palette of "The 66 Kid" hard bounds (500). The problem is, I keep finding little treasures in the trash heaps. Like this:



Daily Whipout: "Billy's Last Gasp"

This is the original pen and ink drawing, framed but dusty and the price on the back is $300 but I wouldn't sell this for $30,000. It's one of the best illustrations of Billy I have ever done, and, as you know, I've done plenty. It breaths, it's him and it's authentic to the evidence. I can't believe no one bought this when it showed at Suzanne Brown's Gallery in Scottsdale in 1992. Anyway, this was worth the cleaning right here.

I keep unearthing tons of postcards in various boxes. Here is just a small sample of the hundreds of postcards I have found so far, in my garage:


Postcard City From The Triple B Garage

Yes, that's a postcard for the play "True West" at bottom, left, the stage play by Sam Shepard. The funniest card is the Brokeback Mountain, upper left, second card down. On the back is a note from PH that says, "Sure looking forward to seeing you in a couple weeks! Yee Haw!" Of course PH is the Top Secret Writer, also known as Paul Andrew Hutton. The postcard, just above the Brokeback card, is the card for Dreamscape Desperado, the very successful museum show on Billy the Kid that Paul Hutton curated way back in 2007.

Here are some sketches from my college fine art classes from about 1968, or, they could be later, when I took classes at The Scottsdale Artist's School in the 1980s.


Brokeback Model, Series 69


Nude Descending A Staircase To Heaven

Found this heavily patina laden mono-print of a certain dentist at a certain street fight:


Daily Whipout: "Doc Waits His Turn"

I must say the garage and the packrats worked to give this a certain grungy bonified treasure aspect. Found this, below, in my Famous Faces file. What do Desmond Tutu and Evan Mecham have in common?


Daily Whipouts: "Desmond Tutu The Fiery Orator vs. Evan Mecham The Flaming Governor"

There's a ton more, but I've got to get back to cleaning, or I'll never finishing in time for that truck to unload.

"Trying to run a brand with a cold iron don't save no time."
—Old Vaquero Saying

Hells Bells: Bob Bell Texas Ranger or Bob Bell Black NFL Lineman?

August 2, 2014
   I'm still cleaning and sorting in the garage. I know, I know, it's been eight weeks but it gets too hot after nine a.m. and, well, I get distracted.

   For example: this morning I found this framed photo in a dusty corner, behind a very large stack of layout boards for my many New Times pieces:



Texas Rangers, Company D

   This is the famous frontier division of the Rangers, and the price tag was still on it ($75), but what caught my eye is the caption. Turns out the first guy, seated at left, is Bob Bell.

   Well, this struck a chord because I was just thinking about all the Bob Bells I keep bumping into. starting with Bob "Bozo" Bell, the semi-famous Chicago clown who many think I stole my handle from. And, although it's tempting to think this is true, I didn't know about the guy until I was in college, about three years after I started using the name as a professional nom de plume. And, then there was Bobby Bell, the Kansas City Chief's lineman who later had a Bar-B-Q sauce called Bobby Bell's Bar-B-Q Sauce. Somewhere I still have a bottle of it (probably in the garage!)

   When I was finishing "The 66 Kid" book I discovered, in a centennial book about Swea City, Iowa, that one of the previous owners of the Ford dealership there was a guy named Bob Bell. It was Gabby Motors when my dad sold cars for them in late 1955, and I had never heard this, but it made me laugh at the way researchers I know find stuff like this and twist it to suit their nefarious and selfish uses.

   A certain Billy the Kid researcher found a census from the Bonita, Arizona area from the 1870s and jumped on the name William Kidd, and made the leap of imagination that this was, in fact, Billy the Kid (who at the time was going by the alias Kid Antrim and really wasn't known as Billy the Kid until almost four years later). Based on this logic, one can easily imagine some researcher in the distant future jumping on the Swea City Ford deal and spinning out a story about how Bob Boze Bell once owned a Ford dealership in Swea City, Iowa and this proves that he was not an artist but a cheesy, used car salesman. That, my friend, is only half true.

"The problem with this world is everyone is about half right."
—Bob Bell, former Ford dealership owner

BBB Lands In Wild West?!

July 30, 2014

   Well, here's something I would never have predicted: I landed on the pages of our competitor, Wild West in the current issue.




   Johnny Boggs interviewed me last March while we were both at the Tucson Book Festival and he said it was for Wild West magazine and I said, "Well, I'll believe that when I see it."

   Well, not only did they run it, but it's a very nice piece and I'm accurately quoted. Plus, they gave a plug for my art website and the True West site. Amazing. A very classy move on Eric Weider's part (he's the owner of the Weider Group that owns Wild West and several other history titles).

   Chose ten paintings and drawings for the Powerhouse Museum show. All are featured in "The 66 Kid." Drove them down to Michael Feldman's Frame & Art Shop on Glenday at noon today. Here's a sneak peek at one of them:

Eye On The Sky (Division Doubletruck, pages 17—18), 24 X 18:, gouache



Still cleaning and filing. Found some groovy stuff in the garage a couple days ago:



 
Rolling Stone October 25, 1973 issue

   Read with interest the Gram Parsons obit which gave some of the sordid details of how two of his roadies kidnapped his coffin from Los Angeles International Airport then took the body out to Joshua Tree and burned it. They told the authorities they were off duty hearse drivers and they "had a girl all ready someplace to f**k them out of their mind; so they played that out to the guy." It actually worked and they signed with the name "Johnny Nobody." Allegedly, they were peeved because Gram's stepfather [Robert Parsons] had arranged a funeral in New Orleans and didn't invite any of Gram's band friends (that would be the dudes who kidnapped the body). Other little gems from the article: Mick Jagger allegedly wrote "Wild Horses" for and about Gram Parsons. Aslo, the cops didn't know what to charge the body snatchers with, but one of them called it "Gram Theft Parsons."

   By the way the issue is 80 pages, with covers, and it sold for 75 cents. it really is much closer to New Times than the slick mag it is today.

 
Matching Rolling Stone covers: one from the U.S. and the other from Argentina

"Eve!" he called and I sat with him as he ordered round after round of tequila. I think it must have been Gram who introduced Sauza Commemerativa {sic?) into rock & roll because Gram always knew quality when it came to f**king yourself up."
—Eve Babitz,  who comes off as major groupie-ish, in part of the obit commentary

Getting to The Truth About Jack Slade

July 30, 2014
   I am often asked how we can find the truth when there is so much bad history in print and especially online. Well, here is a perfect example of exactly how we strive to ferret out the truth.

   I wanted to do a Classic Gunfight in our October Art Issue that somehow connected to a Western artist, preferably Charlie Russell. As I went through my extensive Charlie Russell book collection I came across a pen and ink illustration Russell did of Jack Slade shooting Jules Reni (also styled as Beni). I knew a little bit about Slade from my research for Bad Men (1999), but it had been awhile and my take on the shooting was a bit hazy. So my first query was to Marshall Trimble and Mark Boardman, asking them who they think is the best resource on the truth about Jack Slade. Here is Mark's reply:

BBB,
   Try Death of a Gunfighter: The Search for Jack Slade by Dan Rottenberg
—Mark Boardman

   An hour later, Marshall chimed in with the same book and the same author. Now we had to track Mr. Rottenberg down. And with Google, it wasn't that hard. I sent my rough draft of the gunfight and a sidebar on Slade's most famous kill—Jules Reni.

   Based on the research in house and online (yes, Wikipedia was one of the sources) a problem emerged:

Meghan,
   The Jack Slade CG layout looks wonderful but we have a problem. Slade supposedly killed Jules Reni, but all of my text about this has disappeared. Not sure how this happened, but I had commentary about Reni getting the drop on Slade and shooting him with a shotgun and leaving him to die. Supposedly, Slade said he would track down Reni and cut off his ears and wear them as a watch fob. Slade did survive and later his men captured Reni at a spring and Slade went to Fort Laramie and met with the officers about what to do. Then rode to where they had Reni tied to a corral fence. Slade allegedly tortured Reni, shooting off his fingers and cutting off his ears before putting a bullet in his brain. THAT's where the watch fob ears came from.
—BBB

   And then, I got Dan Rottenburg on the telephone and we talked at length, I sent him our copy and this exchange happened:

Bob,
   Thanks for asking, and for your concern for truth. Here are the most likely facts about Jules Beni’s demise in August 1861:

   Slade had offered a $500 reward to anyone who captured Jules and brought him in alive. Two of Slade’s Central Overland employees wounded Jules in a gunfight, captured him and bound him to a packhorse to bring him to Slade. To their dismay, Jules died en route. Rather than lose the posted reward, they bound Jules to a post in a sitting position and insisted to Slade that Jules was still alive. Slade, who was skeptical, tested their veracity by cutting off Jules’s ears, without response from Jules.

   The details are on page 229-230 of my book, Death of a Gunfighter.

   Slade did supervise the hanging of at least two murderers and one horse thief. Whether these can strictly be defined as killings is a matter of definition.

Best regards,
Dan

   So I rewrote the sidebar in question and came up wit this:

A Fearsome Reputation Based on Scant Evidence
   Before Wild Bill Hickok, Jack Slade was the gunfighter everyone in the West knew and feared. Mark Twain wrote in Roughing It that “...Slade was a man whose heart and hands and soul were steeped in the blood of offenders against his dignity; a man who awfully avenged all injuries, affront, insults or slights, of whatever kind—on the spot if he could, years afterward if lack of earlier opportunity compelled it; a man whose hate tortured him day and night till vengeance appeased it—and not an ordinary vengeance either, but his enemy’s absolute death—nothing less; a man whose face would light up with a terrible joy when he surprised a foe and had him at a disadvantage."

   Twain is probably referring to the death of Jules Reni, the corrupt station keeper at Julesburg, Colorado. Slade had fired Jeni (also styled as Beni) and in March of 1860 Jules ambushed Slade and left him for dead. Remarkably, Slade survived and in August 1861 Slade's men captured Jeni and legend says Slade went to the scene of his capture and while Beni was tied to a corral fence, tortured him, shooting off his fingers and cutting off his ears for a watch fob, before putting a bullet in his brain.

   In spite of Twain’s rhetoric, Slade has only one other kill that can be documented. While division superintendent, he shot and killed Andrew Ferrin, one of his subordinates who was hindering the progress of a freight train, in May 1859. Slade’s fame apparently had much to do with his handle. As Twain wrote, “There was such magic in that name, SLADE!”

   And then in came this:

BBB,
   Incidentally, the more likely last name for Jules is Beni, not Reni.
Dan

   Okay, change made. And then this:

   As I just pointed out in my previous e-mail, Slade didn’t kill Jules, and Jules’s last name was Beni (you have it as Jeni once below).

   Mark Twain wasn’t referring to the shooting of Jules. Twain’s only meeting with Slade occurred on August 2, 1861. The killing of Jules occurred in late August 1861.

   Twain’s description that you quote below wasn’t intended as a portrait of Slade, but as a reflection of the hyperbolic rhetoric Twain heard from Slade's stagecoach employees, to contrast it with the courteous Slade he actually met upon arriving at Slade’s station.

   Slade was thought to be vindictive, but actually he wasn’t vindictive at all— quite the contrary. After being ambushed by Jules and left for dead in March 1860, he didn’t pursue Jules. Instead he sent word to Jules to stay out of Slade’s territory, even though Ben Holliday, the stagecoach owner, urged him to seek revenge.  Slade didn’t take action against Jules until Jules returned to Slade’s territory in April 1861. It’s all in my book.

   Sorry to be so picky. As the late Chicago newspaper editor Harry Romanoff used to say, “Any story will blow up in your face if you ask too many questions.”  :)

Best regards,
Dan

   I responded thus: Are you kidding?! We love this. Thank you, sir. We want to get it right.

   And now you know how we get as close to the truth as we can.

 
Charlie Russell

 
Dailly Whipouts: "Jack Slade Slips Away In The Clouds"

"Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please."
—Mark Twain

Can You Spot The Final Charlie Russell Cover?

July 29, 2014
   We're working very hard on a special issue featuring the original cowboy artist—Charlie Russell. Our art director, Dan Harshberger, has done a dozen different cover designs. Here are the final nine. Can you spot the final cover design?

 
The 9 finalist layouts for our special issue on Charlie Russell (October, 2014)

"I have throwed my last leg over a saddle, the old pump is about to quit."
—Charlie Russell, age 62, two days before he died of a heart attack

The Back Way Around The Mountains

July 28, 2014
   Drove back from LA yesterday by myself. Took the back way through Riverside and up over the mountains to Palm Desert. Enjoyed seeing that rough country.

   I especially enjoyed seeing my grandson Weston stylin' with his 1-year-birthday lid:

 
Weston and his father Mike



 
Weston stylin' while holding his favorite toy car

   Last Saturday night, I took the kids down to visit Carson Mell in his humble adobe near Hollywood. My son Thomas and Carson go way back. Here they are yucking it up before we walked to a Salvadorian restaurant.



 
Carson Mell and T. Bell

Answering The Mail
   In the August issue, page 23, BBB writes about his grandmother. He mentions that she (grandmother) said "Wyatt Earp was the biggest jerk who ever walked the West". He, BBB, never addresses the issue of WHY she said that about Wyatt Earp. Can you explain why she said it and what she meant?

—Dr. Ron Nierenberg, Marietta, Ga

Dr. Ron,
   Yes, my grandmother was from a ranching family near Steins Pass, which is about 90 miles from Tombstone and when she was growing up in the early 1900s, mere decades after the OK Corral fight, she heard the cowboy side of things. And Marshall is correct, the Earps were Yankees from Iowa and the cowboys were mainly from Texas and the Earps left Arizona after a short stay. So my grandmother had no love for the Earps . This was quite intriguing to me because I loved the TV show so much. it was that contradiction that ultimately led me to being in the history biz.

—BBB

"They say they climb mountains because they are there. I wonder if it would astound them to know that the very same reason is why the rest of us go around them."
—S. Omar Baker

Tommy Taco Hoppiing

July 26, 2014
   Went out with my son Thomas Charles taco hopping this afternoon in Pasadena. He knows his way around the barrio. Here he is with the goods from La Estrella (he also stopped at Baja Ranch and got some green chile guisado and a couple buche tacos). The dude knows his Mexican street food.



Thomas Charles on the All Mexican All The Time Tour

   We're meeting Carson Mell tonight, for Mexican food, of course. Meanwhile, Weston has been enjoying a dog in the house.



Weston Smothers Hurley as his aunt and uncle laugh like crazy

   But the coolest scene was sitting in the back yard as my son read an advance copy of "The 66 Kid" and pointed out a photo of his father to Weston.



T. Charles points out his father to Weston Bortscheller

"The child is father to the man."
—Old Vaquero Saying

Weston Digs Hurley And The All Mexican All the Time Tour

July 26, 2014
   Here we are in Pasadena walking down the sidewalk on our All Mexican All The Time Tour.


Grand Marmita, Weston, T. Charles and Deena somewhere in Pasadena.

   T. Charles and his wife Pattarapan are on their way to Thailand and my son wants one final binge on the food he loves (In our family he's known as The Mole Man). And yes, Weston is smiling. He digs his uncle.

   The little Man of the West also loves Hurley, Pattarapan's dog. Here they are this morning waking up. The kids slept in the living room and the grandparents got the spare bedroom.



Weston grooves on Pattarapan's Thailand bound dog, Hurley.

  Our destination was Burrito Express for breakfast. We ate outside because it's a beautiful morning with the temperature in the mid-seventies.



Pattarapan, Deena and T. Charles digging in on the huevos rancheros at Burrito Express.

   We ate at El Patron in Altadena yesterday and T. had the "drunken margarita" which comes with an upside down cerveza attached. Quite clever and effective.



T. Charles with a "drunken margarita." Have two of these and the title is reversed.

   While at the Burrito Express this morning I gave the family a humor assignment. I'm sending "66 Kid" postcards to various media outlets with the goal of landing a guest spot, or getting some ink. I wondered aloud how to thread the needle between asking for the order and trying to get past the gatekeepers (something I know a little about at True West). Kathy came up with "I'll make a good guest," and since we always consider the opposite of whatever anyone comes up with, Deena posited, "Don't Google me."

   Ah, my clever daughter—that is how the next batch is going out, with that warning. I will tally the success rate and report on it when the results come in.

"Luck is the residue of design."
—Branch Rickey

Weston Digs A Bigger Hat!

July 25, 2014
   On the road from Vidal, California to 29 Palms, highway 62 parallels railroad tracks for about ten miles. the entire stretch has rock and wood tributes along the rail roadbed. Pretty amazing.

Roadbed graffiti along Highway 62 between Vidal, California and Iron Mountain

Drove into San Berdu, Glendora, Arcadia and Pasadena on old Route 66. Landed at Deena from Pasadena at about 11:30 and immediately got to playing with a certain grandson.



Weston looks like just maybe he'd like a bigger hat?



Okay, it's official: Weston totally digs the bigger hat.

Tom Bell, his wife and their dog, are coming in from the LAX and we're meeting them for Mexican food. T. Charles says it going to be All Mexican All The Time, until he leaves on Sunday for a teaching gig in Thailand.

"You can take the boy out of the country but you can't take the country out of the boy."
—Old Vaquero Saying