Festival of the West

This past Sunday, my wife and I attended the 19th Annual Scottsdale Festival of the West at a place called WestWorld in North Scottsdale, well it used to be North Scottsdale, but now it's more like mid-Scottsdale since they annexed the area clear up to Carefree-Cave Creek. It's north of Old Town, though, just off Highway 101. This year they were celebrating Wyatt Earp History as portrayed by Randolph Scott (1939) in "Frontier Marshal"; Richard Dix (1942) "Tombstone The Town Too Tough to Die"; Henry Fonda (l946) "My Darling Clementine"; Hugh O'Brian (1955) Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp"; Will Geer (1950) "Winchester 73"; Bruce Box Leitner (1983); Kurt Russell (1993); Tombstone"; Joel McCrae (1955) "Wichita"; Kevin Costner (1994) "Wyatt Earp", and Burt Lancaster (1957) Gunfight at the O.K. Corral".

Western Authors featured were Gayle Martin, author of "The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral" and "Billy The Kid". She was in a booth signing her books. Dixie Northcott, author of "Trekking Home". Passed away in Nov 2008. Cleo W. Robinson, Jr., "Trails and Tales of Sanderson Texas". Alice Thompson, "American Caravan".

Celebrities in attendance: Peter Brown, Don Collier, Ben Cooper, Michael Dante, Richard Eyer, Ed Faulkner, Robert Fuller, Ty Hardin, Robert Horton, Whitey Hughes, Lincoln Lageson, Charlie LeSueur, Wyatt McCrea, David Matuszak, Mike Moroff, Denny Miller, Tom Reese, Rusty Richards, Cheryl Roberts Barnett, Paul Savage, Stella Stevens, Buck Taylor, Clint Walker, Beverly Washburn, and Johnny Western.

There were several Old West wagons and Tepees, horses, Percherons, horse races. Hole in the Wall Poetry and Musicians, plenty of Western Music and Musicians, all sorts of food sales, and around 250-300 tables and booths selling everything Western you could think of, boots, leather, furs, jewelry, guns, etc.

The reason I went was to attend the Writer's Seminar, but the schedule never listed any particular time for the events, since everything was taking place at the same time, all day everyday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. So, we were there a couple hours, saw something of everything, ate a sandwich and came home. It was a nice outing, and next year I plan to participate more, maybe.