Upcoming True West Moments

[Bob Boze Bell]

January 30, 2009
Yesterday, a friend on this site asked me when we were going to film some new True West Moments. I called my producer, Jeff Hildebrandt, at the Westerns Channel, and he is aiming for late summer, or early fall, to do the next batch. We are also working on a way to feature at least one or two of the questioners in the bumper. In other words, have you ask the question on camera. There are logistical problems (flying someone in from Scotland, for example), but Jeff and I are working on it.

I receive several questions almost every day. For example, here's one I got yesterday:

On Jan 29, 2009, at 12:33 PM, Rachel Welsh wrote:

"Hi Bob. I noticed that they are always drinking coffee in westerns and I know that they don't even grow it in the continental united states, so I was wondering how they got all of this imported coffee, and if they really did drink it all of the time. That is my main question, but since I'm writing to you I was also wondering if you knew why the sound never matches the mouth movements in spaghetti westerns. Thank You so much , Rachel"

Yes, cowboys drank a ton of coffee, and yes, it was imported. Cowboys mostly preferred Arbuckles Ariosa Coffee and you can still buy it today. check them out at arbucklecoffee.com

As for the Spaghetti Westerns, there are two answers. The first is that in those days Italian movies were filmed entirely without sound on location and then "foleyed" in "post." That means they reconstructed the sounds and dialogue in post production (in a sound studio). But, the second reason for the mouth mashup, is because the Spaghetti Westerns featured actors from all over Europe. In "The Good, The Bad And The Ugly," the outlaw Tuco is played by an American actor (Eli Wallach), and his brother in the film is played by a German. When they filmed it, both actors spoke their native tongues and then in post, it was translated, or dubbed, into, first Italian, and second, English. In the DVD for these Sergio Leone classic Westerns, Clint Eastwood remembered how he would say his lines, then wait for the other guy in the scene with him to say his lines (that he couldn't understand), and wait for him to stop talking before saying the next lines. Amazing, huh?

Bob Boze Bell
Executive Editor, True West magazine

Does anyone know how coffee was imported in those days? And made it out West. That would be interesting in itself.

"I have no desire to prove anything by dancing. I have never used it as an outlet or a means of expressing myself. I just dance. I just put my feet in the air and move them around."
—Fred Astaire

[Wacco]

Them Foley artists are great, huh?

Thanks for the update on "True West Moents." It looks like the last batch from Tombstone were filmed during the monsoon season. So, that puts them at about a year old by the time you do the new ones.

The Old West ain't gettin any younger.

[Jeff Prechtel]

Bob-
Just off the top of my head, I sure coffee was imported from South America (Brazil & Honduras?)
and maybe Mexico into the States, I'm gonna take a stab and say probably imported into the South (Charleston & N.O) and probably up north into the ports of Boston & NYC, and maybe as deep into the South as Galveston. I'm just taking an estimated guess mind you.
I would think the importation started back in the mid 1700s, as they had coffee houses
in the east coast in pre-war colonial America, as well as London.

[Sixgun]

Cuba came on line as a major coffee supplier for the southern states in the mid 1800's. It was of course blockaded during the civil war. It continued post war as a supplier till the nuclear rocket thing in the 1960's. Bob we have a great big court house here for those moments with 82 dead guys hangin around the gallows. Fort Smith was where the law started for the west. Not to mention one of three major trade and emigrant routes. Not to mention we work cheap.
Six

[Jim Hatzell]

When we were making the film "Ride With the Devil" there was a night shoot where the raid on Lawrence, Kansas is planned. There was a bunch of us in the camp and as it was not my first movie....I got as far away from the cameras and actors as I could and myself and Bob Hench got a nice fire going and planted ourselves in deep background. I got real comfortable and I smelled coffee. There was a bag marked coffe as part of the set dressing and upon opening it we founf a couple pounds of roasted coffee beans which we put into an iron skillett and crushed with our pistol butts. We got a fair bait of it going and put it into a large coffee pot (more set dressing) of boiling water and made a BIG pot of coffee about 1AM or so. Pretty soon people from all over the camp came by for a cup. Not too long after that the "concert" being filmed broke up and the cameras drifted over to our fire.....where the crew remarked about how good the coffee smelled. I think I brewed 4 more pots before the sun came up. Hell yes they had coffee in those days....the coffee ration was very important for the Army. Cuba was indeed one of the more important locations for the USA as was many other Caribean Islands. Part of the reason southern Africa was developed was for coffee plantations. There was a PBS show about the history of coffee on last week.

[Steve Sanders]

Hey BBB. I really like your 5th and Allen True West Moment. Question: did you produce the black and white segment of Virgil Earp being ambushed, or did that come from an old movie? If you did it, bravo! well done!

[Bob Boze Bell]

Yes, Mike Pellegatti and crew shot that about two years ago. We dressed the entire street, covering up electric lights and stop signs, and filmed Virgil getting shot right on the exact spot it happened. The real sheriff of Tombstone showed up, just after we got the last take in the can, as they say, and we didn't have approval, but they were between mayors and we skated. Ha. Someday we'll produce the entire sequence and show it right here, first.

[Steve Sanders]

Fantastic. Based on what we know and think we know, your sequence seems to capture exactly how it "went down." Cant wait to see the whole thing. Im fairly new to True West Moments, and we dont see them up heah in Portland OR. Are there more Tombstone sequences?

[Bob Boze Bell]

You can access the Westerns Channel on Dish and Directv. It's part of the Starz-Encore package. Yes, we also filmed the doctors sawing off Virgil's elbow (filmed at the Tombstone Boarding House), complete with bone matter plunking in a tin bowl and Allie leaning in and crying and Virgil saying, "Don't worry darling, I still have one good arm to hug you with." And we shot the Plaid Shirt killing, filmed in the Crystal Palace, although the owner came and kicked us out before we got everything we wanted. She claimed we were driving away business. We paid her $50 and she gave us an extra fifteen minutes, which is nothing on a film shoot. The plaid shirt killing is also a True West Moment.

[Steve Sanders]

Thanks Bob. Hope to see those episodes. I'll explore around our Starz-Encore package.

[Jon Couture]

Hey Steve,
I see that you're an Oregon guy and a fan of True West Magazine.....I work in Portland,
and have my own old west town just across the river in Brush Prairie Washington...I'am one of the original True West "Maniacs"....you can check our website at www.trinitywashington.com
JON COUTURE