Bob Boze Bell made his way back to Tombstone for the 140th anniversary of the Shootout at the OK Corral on October 26th.
“I just love it there,” says Bell. “I’ve been there every year, including the centennial of the fight, 125th, and all the years in between.”
What is it about the wild west that has fascinated him all these years? Bell’s grandmother used to talk about how his family was related to outlaws, and that peaked his interest.
He remembers watching "The Life and Times of Wyatt Earp" as a young boy at his grandmother’s house when one day she pointed her finger and said “Wyatt Earp was the biggest jerk who ever walked the west.”
That was the moment that ignited it all, the spark that led to his love for the wild west, and especially his passion for Tombstone.
“I was 9 years old and my mother would go in to get prescriptions filled and I would run to the front of the store and buy the latest of True West Magazine because it told the true stories of the wild west.”
In this impromptu talk at the OK Corral Theater, Bell recounts the time he spent as a kid that led to his fascination with the Wild West and his journey to buying True West Magazine.
Bob Boze Bell is known as America's Western Storyteller. He is an artist, author, writer and serves as executive editor of True West magazine. Bell is a popular, sought-after figure in television documentaries about the Old West, appearing as an expert in dozens of Wild West history shows. Bell won an Emmy Award as Executive Producer of the PBS special, Outrageous Arizona, a zany look at the state's centennial, that he also wrote and helped direct. As an author, Bell has brought to life Billy the Kid, Geronimo, Doc Holliday, Wyatt Earp and Wild Bill Hickok in his best-selling Illustrated Life and Times series. His books Classic Gunfights I, II and III are must-reads about the most important Old West gunfights. Bell’s Bad Men is now in its fourth printing, while his illustrated autobiography, The 66 Kid: Raised on the Mother Road, gives personal insight into the passions that have driven him on his lifelong quest to interpret the history of the American West for audiences around the world.
