Bob Boze Bell Event

After a delay, Bob Boze Bell was the main attraction at the luncheon put on by the Lion's Club of Sun City on Saturday, November 1, 2014. It was the annual "Legends of the West" event. For those who may not have heard of Mr. Bell, he and others bought the nationwide magazine True West in 1999 and he is a true Legend of the West. Artist, Illustrator, Author, Publisher, Editor, Mr. Bell has written and illustrated ground-breaking books on Wyatt Earp, Billy the Kid and Doc Holliday and his series on Western gunfights, Classic Gunfights. His artistic works include gouache, scratchboard, oil and watercolor of cowboys, Indians, Figures, and horses of the West. His artwork has appeared in Playboy, Wild West, National Lampoon, Arizona Highways and others. He is featured on Encore's Western Channel daily and has appeared on the History Channel, Discovery Channel and the Westerns Channel. Mr. Bell has illustrated for Disney's production of A.K.A. Billy the Kid, and War in Lincoln County by Northport pictures, Discovery Channel's Outlaws and Lawmen, and the PBS production entitled Alias Billy the Kid.

He entertained the audience for about 15-20 minutes after lunch, talking about growing up in Kingman, Arizona, and facts and non-facts of certain biographies of Western legends like Wyatt Earp and Billy the Kid. His interest in western history goes back to his younger days of buying True West at the local drugstore and reading and collecting stories of the major outlaws and lawmen of the Old West. He talked about buying the magazine and the early troubles he and his partners had with it, losing thousands of dollars a month until he found someone who actually knew about publishing a national magazine and turning it around to a profit-making deal.

The audience gave him a big hand and a couple of questions were asked before he put out a few books he had brought to sell. They sold quickly and he was out of there before we knew it. He must have been pressed for time.

The bio above came from the program, the cover of which is below.