Posts by lvellek

Competitive market

#44171 was worn by Duke in his personal life... There was no documentation with the buckle as to who made it, it was assumed because the lettering and style was the same as the originals. Any good silversmith can copy another design.

The story about the bid getting to $17,000 and then being pulled is false, the buckle was never bid on and was totally pulled from the auction and never even placed in the auction booklets because it was discovered to be missing long before the booklets were printed. The author of the story had the bidding and item confused, the item that was bid on and then mysteriously pulled the day of the auction was item number #44004, (A Stetson Cowboy Hat from “Hondo”) that the family decided to pull at the last minute for reasons I can't go into. Item #44511 (14K Gold ‘26 Bar Ranch’ Medallion, 1960s) was also pulled at the last minute from the auction.

The NC buckle was never located and the settlement was sealed.

The longhorn buckle is not being advertised as being from any certain film but Ethan told me that is where the idea came from since they have the original buckle in their archives along with a few others he had that people had given him over the years.

Item #44171 was a smaller replica of the original. This smaller version was worn by him in his personal life. It sold for $16,000.

Item #44502 was a rough copy of the original not in very good shape. It was used for stunt work. It sold for $4,750.

There was suppose to be another buckle with the initials of NC but it disappeared when it was sent to Heritage. It was mentioned in a previous post of mine. It was from one of the original cast members. Insurance settled the disappearance.

The contract with Bohlin's is expiring and JWE is going with another company. A 70th Anniversary buckle came out in 2016 and sold for $5,500.

There are new buckles that debuted last year at the traveling exhibit. Made of solid sterling silver and I believe are sold out now, not sure, but they were commissioned by JWE for the last buckles with Bohlins and the stock number is $466, selling for $1,395. I picked one up in Nashville.

They may go with another company after talking to Ethan.

Quote from Drpmkp

The section you see to the South East of the South 140 acres belong to the Kino Springs golf course and housing development. The property that used to belong to the Wayne's was sold and not much has been done to it.

Quote from Drpmkp

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:

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".

Films still considered lost/missing.

Words and Music (1929)
Speakeasy (1929)
The Forward Pass (1929)
The Oregon Trail (1936)

No reference copies available from Library of Congress or UCLA Archives.

LOC

Annie Laurie (1927)
The Deceiver (1931)
That's My Boy (1932)
Adventure's End (1937)

UCLA
Cheer Up and Smile (1930)
Three Girls Lost (1931)
Girls Demand Excitement (1931)

I was able to get Noah's Ark a couple years ago. I've been to the LOC and what they do have is not worth using.

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.

1st of all I'm not saying the items you have are not originals what I'm saying is it there are more than 2 of the eye patches. 2nd how I know Luster Bayless is none of your business. 3rd, one of the eye patches that was sold by Heritage Auctions went for $40000. There is another eyepatch in the photo that I posted above. Both of those coming out of the vaults of John Wayne Enterprises. Plus I know there is another eye patch in the photo I am attaching below in the museum at Winterset.

What you could have is a special set that was made and given out as gifts for the making of the movies. From the pictures you have on eBay I do not see a hole cut out for the mesh that Duke used to look thru the eyepatch. The mesh was easily visible in the 2 eye patches I have seen and held in my hands over the years.

I said pretty much not exactly the same. I'm got photos of some of the others but they're part of my personal collection.

If you saw the one Norman Cook had then you seen pretty much all of them they were all pretty much the same except maybe different sized.

Red River D Belt Buckle - The History

The last time I talked to Luster he said that there were approximately 60 of the eye patches made. Duke wore one every day of the filming because the make-up they used would mess up the inside of the patch and he would have to wear a new 1 the next day. So there were a lot more than 2 of them and JWE still has a few of them in stock.

One of the eye patches was even in Nashville last year for the traveling exhibit. You'll see the eye patch in the very center of the photo.

JOHN WAYNE: NEWPORT BEACH – JOHN WAYNE BRAND SHOP

They are doing this mainly for the people that do not want a John Wayne outfit but for the ones that are using the Grit Cycle outlets that Marisa has been opening. She's up to 4 outlets currently in her business and going strong.

Of course you know Duke and Howard swapped their belt buckles and Duke wore Howard's for several films after Red River. At the end of his life Michael took the belt buckle to have one made at Bohlin's for commemorative replicas which are the ones that you can see now that are available for over $2500 they are solid Sterling silver some also have gold on them. After Bohlin's apparently received the buckle it was lost and was never found again. These buckles have a tendency to disappear. Norman Cook gave his buckle to the family to be put in the 2011 auction and when it was sent to Heritage Auction house it also ended up missing and had to be pulled from the auction before it started.

There were more than 2 eye patches made because Duke wore a different one every day of filming.

I guess they'll let anyone write about John Wayne these days. Sounds like another Michael Munn to me with a liberal agenda to deface Duke's good name. No thanks, keep your book. I'd rather read the ones the family just published. And that's my opinion for what it's worth.

Lenny

Absolutely nothing.

Quote from The Duke Is The Man

I received the update that Lenny above posted and I believe we know the same guy. He is very informative and has been helping me a great deal at LOC on my many travels there. Most of what Lenny says is true except that I have been told by a few people there that the LOC copy is actually in good shape. I have also tried many times to view the film but as Lenny stated, it has to be for a documentary film project, college paper, etc. I am starting to also talk to people about doing a documentary on John Wayne's "lost" films to get in with that angle.

I doubt we talked to the same individual since I know this guy in real life and have known him for many years. He doesn't answer the phone or even talk to outsiders about things like this. I met him when I worked in DC years ago and we used to go sailing together. But anyway, he actually went down and looked at the film the last time we talked and he said it would be hard to get a decent copy made from the master because of it's condition. And they will NOT make you a copy to take out of the LOC, the copy they make is only for viewing and taking notes at the LOC. You can't bring in any recording equipment and to say you're making a documentary they have to have documentation to that effect, copyright releases, commitment papers from a production company for the documentary. He said they've had people try to scam them before and they always get denied access.

Quote from wtrayah

Thanks for the info Ivellek. You sound like you know what your talking about. I guess our only hope is that guy in Canada. ( assuming he's for real ) the one with the 16mm print.

Second, the guy in Canada is a hoax. This has been verified by the studios that were also looking for something like what they found for The Alamo. That project is dead also. The film has been mishandled and there is no money or approval for the project. As I've said before I work in the licensing, copyright, marketing and trademark department for a film related company. Companies like Columbia, Universal, MGM & Fox take the time to do BR releases they are proud of. Paramount was able to purchase the Republic films cheap so they took the cheap route with Olive so they could make some money. A perfect example is the recent release by Columbia of the film The Bridge On The River Kwai on BR. It came with a 35 page booklet, 12 reproduced lobby cards all in a 1" hardcover case. Compared to the Olive releases where they wouldn't even spend money on licensing a decent image for the covers, so they used old film posters which are not copyrighted to get off cheap and they even look cheap in my opinion.

Quote from ethanedwards

Lenny,
I am sorry that you seem offended in some way,
and only hope this doesn't you away from our board,
which we consider to be one of the friendliest on the net.
I feel sure a PM to the member/s involved could have sorted this.

In the meantime, thanks you theis update

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Last, I wasn't so much offended as I was angered by your hypocritical comments here and in the other section I posted in. You seem to be upset at someone who has to deal with an intense set of rules but has successfully done so for 6 years now. I met the individual a few times, once when he was invited out to Newport Beach and given the grand tour. I hear Bert even gave him and his wife a private tour of the Wild Goose. I met him at the JWCF dinner in 2011. They all seem to like him and his on-the-spot knowledge is amazing. This might be a decent forum if you want to talk about all the old westerns but they won't allow him to let that forum go that way. I won't go on anymore, I like the guy and I like the other forum. I've never heard Ethan or any of them say a harsh word about him. If he was the demon you make him out to be he wouldn't be starting his 7th year over there.

When I met him we became friends and I ended up joining that forum and have made lots of friends over there. I post over here and the first thing I get are negative comments about him. I guess that's it for now.

I haven't been back in awhile simply because after my last post some comments were made about someone I know that were upsetting and uncalled for. So I will make this comment and am not sure if I will be back.

Apparently many of you don't understand about the list of films that are considered missing or lost. I have a good friend that works in the movie section of the Library of Congress and chatted with him yesterday. He's been there quiet a while and is actually getting ready to retire. We went into some detail about the lost films of John Wayne and he gave me some insight about what is and is not a viable copy of a film.

Let's take Adventure's End from 1937. Back in 1975 Universal Pictures gave their composite master positive to AFI - American Film Institute for verification (their records indicate the master is in fair condition) and transfer to the Library of Congress. After AFI viewed the film they turned it over to the LOC. Since then (38 years ago) it has been in the hands of the Library of Congress and will remain so in perpetuity. Actually a composite master positive is not even a type of media that can be viewed except by using it to make a digital copy and then viewing the copy. My friend said their records show it has been at the Library since 1975 and will remain there unless requested by the copyright holder. It's not something that can be made available to the public or to anyone just walking in the door wanting to see the film.

The LOC would have to make a digital copy (reference copy) of the composite master and then make it available to the person requesting it but to request it is almost impossible. You have to be a licensed researcher and have a letter from your organization stating that you need to view the film for something that will eventually be made available to the public like a book or a documentary. The film can only be viewed and take notes but the film can not be copied and they won't allow recording equipment in the room you'd use to view the film. A college student could also have the same access if the head of the university verified that it is imperative to the student that they see the film for their education and again be making something that will eventually be made available to the public just like the researcher.

He also told me in the 25+ years he's been at the LOC maybe a handful of films were requested because there are so many hoops to jump through. The only other way is for Universal to request the film back and make a dupe from the master for reproduction and he's never seen that done. Typically the masters are not in very good shape.

We've both talked to the studios on the phone and get the same answer every time. The masters are in poor shape and the bottom line won't allow it. The last one I talked to was Columbia about That's My Boy and The Deceiver. It's not in the cards because the money is not there. They couldn't sell enough copies to make up for the cost of reproduction and mass marketing. There are just not as many fans around as there were 30 years ago after John Wayne died.

Lenny

Especially since Seagal is only a reserve DEPUTY and not allowed to make arrests or take part in any actual police work. It was just a TV show and may be in trouble for doing some things beyond what he was allowed to actually do. On top of that there were some accusations of sexual misconduct against Seagal. Plus the last word is that there will not be any Season 2.