The Red River D Belt Buckle

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  • Another Red River D belt buckle mystery? I recently found a post about this particular buckle on the Internet. This is a silver and gold belt buckle given to a female cast/crew member by Howard Hawks when she worked on the movie Red River in 1946. It contains the initials "HMC" in the lower left corner. It reportedly was stolen from a house on the Klamath River near Seiad Valley in Northern California on July 5, 2015. Record No. 54630. Reward: $2000.
    Does anybody have any idea what female cast or crew member that the "HMC" stands for on this buckle?

  • The only one that I know of is a Helen McSweeney which was the secretary to the producer. The buckle almost looks like it has:
    HMc. She would have been Howard Hawks secretary.

  • lvellek, I think you are right! I was looking through the cast and crew list for someone with the full initials "HMC". Looking again at the photo it is looks more like "HMc" with a small "c" designating the last name McSweeney.

  • I would like to share with you a couple of interesting articles I discovered from 2013 on the subject of vintage Mexican silver. In the second article it talks about the Red River D buckle and the La Azteca Silver Shop in Nogales, Sonora, Mexico. The last sentence in the part II article mentions a coming third and last installment to the story.
    I never found the third installment to the story. I did, however, contact the author of the articles. I was informed that they never got around to writing the third installment. They will review their notes from 2013 and contact me with more information on the subject. I definitely look forward to finding out what other information might be revealed!


    Part One:
    Vintage Mexican Silver: Plateria La Azteca, John Wayne's Red River Belt Buckle and the silversmithing of the Martinez family: Part One


    Part Two:
    Vintage Mexican Silver: Plateria La Azteca, John Wayne's Red River Belt Buckle and the Silversmithing of the Martinez family: Part Two

  • During the 1940s and 1950s there were numerous Westerns such as 'Red River' being filmed on locations in southern Arizona. Just outside of Tucson was a large western movie set called 'Old Tucson.'
    In those days movie studio executives, crew and cast members such as John Wayne and other celebrities would regularly go to Nogales, Sonora, Mexico for food, drinks and entertainment. Nogale's main claim to fame was 'La Caverna' also known as 'The Cavern,' a restaurant built into a rock wall just a few feet from the border.
    Here is an interesting video about 'La Caverna' Restaurant:


  • John Wayne always loved the southern Arizona region. He purchased a ranch around the same time the film ‘Red River’ was being made. It was referred to as ‘The Red River Ranch.’


    In the late 1960s John Wayne climbed atop a rise on the ranch overlooking the handsome Santa Cruz Valley in Arizona near the Mexican border and envisioned building a huge compound for his family there.
    The 4,200-foot rise, known as 'Duke's Hill,' was the highest point of Wayne's 670-acre spread of Sonoran Desert, with a view of cottonwoods lining the Santa Cruz River, just six miles from Nogales, Sonora, one of the actor's favorite haunts. However, Wayne died in 1979 before he could start building on his 100-acre hill.


    Cattle rancher, partner and longtime friend of John Wayne, Ralph Wingfield, in 1998 at the age of 89 said the scenic land was never developed because "John got sick and I got too old." Wingfield died in 2001 at the age of 91. Ralph Wingfield supplied cattle for the movie “Red River” starring John Wayne and the two men became good friends.


    The spread, surrounded by several working ranches and adjacent to the Nogales International Airport, was eventually put up for sale by Duke’s sons Michael and Ethan Wayne. It was the last of the Wayne land legacy in Arizona, which served as the landscape for some of the actor's best-known Western movies.


    I recently found a listing of the property on a real estate site. I don’t know if it ever was sold, being resold or perhaps it could just be an old outdated listing. I would be interested to know what ever became of ‘Duke’s Hill.’ Was it ever developed? Was it subdivided?

  • Kevin, I'm not sure if is an old real estate listing or not.
    I found four or more links to the property. It has a listing a price of $1,100,000.
    I'll send an email to one of the real estate agents for the hell of it and ask about it.
    Does anyone want to chip in on it with me and try to make a deal?

  • I'll start digging into the couch cushions and see what I can come up with, Drpmkp! lol


    From the picture you shared, that would have been one hell of a view off his porch, that is for sure!


    Mark

    "I couldn't go to sleep at night if the director didn't call 'cut'. "

  • Apparently none of you work with real estate, estate sales and plat maps. The first image is the sale listing for the land Michael and Ethan put up for the Duke Hills Ranch down by Nogales. You can see the property was split into three parcels. Just to the NE of the top parcel is the Nogales Airport.



    This second images shows the plat map for the county, the three parcels the land was divided into and this map gives you the current owners name and info if you click on the parcel. The info in the center of each square is the play map ID info.



    The three images are what you see when you click on each parcel.







    The land was bought by the two people listed on the plat maps. And this info is "current".

    Edited 5 times, last by lvellek ().

  • Thanks for the detailed information lvellek. It sure gives me a better idea where the land was located as well as to save my money to buy something else. Do you know what parcel 'Duke's Hill' was located?

  • Back to the Red River D belt buckles.
    I purchased a solid brass buckle like the one pictured here a couple of months ago from a seller located in Texas from Ebay. Of course I was curious what the source of the buckle was. The seller gave me a vague answer such as "some guy in California makes them for us," however they could not provide a name of the maker or the place made.
    This similar style buckle can be found for sale on other places on the Internet priced anywhere from around $50 to as much as $160. They are listed as made from pewter, brass, bronze with brushed copper, brushed brass, nickel finish, 2-tone gold on nickel finish, etc.. I paid about $90 for my solid brass version.
    Does anyone on here know what source of this style buckle comes from? Are their generic molds in various different locations where they are cast? Is there one single mold at only one location. Are they factory made or individually hand crafted?

  • ********** UPDATE ********
    I have an update to post no. 21 that I previously shared on this thread.
    In the post I mentioned that I had discovered a theft report of a Red River D belt buckle with the initials 'HMc' on it that was reported stolen in the summer of 2015. There was a description and a photo of the buckle in the report.
    GOOD NEWS. I have been contacted by the owner of the buckle who said it indeed had NOT been stolen, but rather was put in a safer place during four days when the family had to evacuate the house due to a large forest fire in the area in 2015. It apparently was temporarily misplaced. The buckle is indeed SAFE.
    The buckle has the initials 'HMc' on it which stood for his mother's name at the time, Helen McSweeney. Helen was the personal dialogue secretary to Howard Hawks, and later to Busby Berkeley.
    She worked on the film 'Red River' and was friends with all the actors and actresses at the time. He adds, "When Howard and his wife would go out of town for a long weekend, Mom and her boyfriend (Who would later become her husband of 51 years and my father) would house sit and babysit David Hawks for Howard. They were very close. My father who was a sailor would go sailing on the ‘Sea Hawk’ with Howard and some of the actors, etc."
    He did not have any new information on the Red River D buckles but attached the photo of his buckle, a photo of John Wayne wearing his ‘HWH’ buckle and the great article 'History Of The Red River D Buckle' that Chris Hearn wrote several years ago that got me interested in the subject.
    Red River D Belt Buckle - The History

  • Fantastic. Awesome detail on the buckle. It looks like the Red River name and the brand are applied to the buckle. I thought they were stamped in. Great information, Drpmkp.


    Mark

    "I couldn't go to sleep at night if the director didn't call 'cut'. "

  • Mark, the original Red River D belt buckles in 1946 were all individually hand crafted with everything individually applied and not stamped into the metal. The rope border around the edge of the buckle was silver wire tightly twisted to look like rope then applied to the buckle. Each was an original work of hand crafted art unique to itself. The 1948 buckles made for the opening of 'Red River' perhaps we're made a different way.

  • Thanks for the detailed information lvellek. It sure gives me a better idea where the land was located as well as to save my money to buy something else. Do you know what parcel 'Duke's Hill' was located?

    The info I found some time ago was that Duke's Hill was located on the south 140 acre parcel. GPS coordinates and other info shown below:


  • Thanks for the update lvellek. I wonder if anything has been constructed on the hill at the coordinates. Are those yellow grids at the bottom of the 2nd photo small lots along the river or is the Santa Cruz River the wavy line going through the bottom part of the parcel?