Through his photos, award winning photographer Myron Beck (Los Angeles, CA) inspires us to dream and embrace the beauty that surrounds us in the people we see, the environments in which we thrive and the diverse cultures that enrich our lives.

www.myronbeck.com
 

News and Updates
at High Noon
Two upcoming auctions celebrating the joy and legacy that Roy and Dale have spread throughout the world!

June 26, 2010 - Denver, CO - The Roy Rogers Personal Firearms Collection will be sold at Brian Lebel's Old West Auction (www.DenverOldWest.com). Roy's personal firearms collection will be sold including his very first belt and double holster rig, made by Ed Gilmore of North Hollywood, CA in 1938. Artifacts supporting Roy's avid sports  (hunting) interests will be offered along with his classic 1964 Lincoln Continental convertible. The 300+ lot auction includes other fine, Cowboy, Indian and Western art and artifacts and pairs with a 3-day, 200-dealer, antique and contemporary show.  www.DenverOldWest.com


July 14-15th, 2010 - Manhattan - High Noon & Christie's Roy Rogers & Dale Evans Museum Sale - The definitive and final sale of all other property including the most important and iconic pieces from the museum will be sold via a partnership with High Noon and Christie's New York City.

That sale will include silver parade saddles, Roy's autographed sports memorabilia, costuming (Nudie's clothing, hats, boots, traveling trunks), personal photos, fishing gear, badges, toys, trophies and awards. Highlights include the family dining table hand made by George Montgomery, Dale Evans' charm bracelet chronicling 40 years, legendary silver dollar and longhorn adorned Nudies Of North Hollywood convertible Bonneville that Roy and Dale used in special appearances, the famous Nellybelle jeep from the 1950s TV Show and, arguably, the most famous horse of all time, Trigger. (www.highnoon.com)  (www.christies.com) or call High Noon (310) 202-9010 for more information and updated information and photos.

Got Antiques?
Well, there's power in numbers and it's time to "Herd the Cats."

It's not news to anyone in the antiques trade that a growing need to ensure that Gen X'ers, Gen Y'ers and Millenials develop an interest, better yet, a passion for antiques so their value is sustained in future markets. Targeting these buyers, marketing and yes, mentoring these younger folks is critical.

In a recent letter by Americana collector, Dave Krashes published in Armacost Antiques Show eNewsletter: Early Edition, Krashes calls for a nationwide movement he calls Every Collector Add a Collector.

What Krashes proposes is that collectors, dealers, auctioneers and show promoters, regardless of genre, come together to form a trade association focused on a strong, one-dimensional marketing program aimed at promoting antiquing and mentoring new collectors. It doesn't really matter where the interest of the new buyers lie, once they develop an appreciation for the heritage, the craftsmanship and the quality of antiques, their appreciation will spread across the many genres.

While pulling together a nation of independent antique business people like ourselves (and you) is a bit like herding cats we at High Noon applaud and support this effort. Dave Krashes is hoping to arrange an initial meeting of the minds this spring and has volunteered to bring the Friskies. We at High Noon are on board with you and we'll bring the Whiskas!

For the full story:

http://blog.armacostantiquesshows.com/2010/01/herding-cats.html

A Call for All Texans for the
Chisholm and Western Trail Celebration

The largest celebration honoring the American Cowboys and Cowgirls who forged the Chisholm and Western Trails from 1867 to 1888 is being planned for Spring of 2011 in Ft. Worth Texas. These remarkable individuals faced adversities we cannot comprehend but forge on they did, traveling the thousands of miles from the Rio Grande in Texas to the stockyards and railheads in Abilene, Kansas.

It is estimated that over the course of these 20 years, close to 20 million head of cattle were driven across the Western and Chisholm Trails and the hundreds of feeder trails scattered across Texas. In 2010, Congress voted to designate the Chisholm and Western Trails as National Historic Trails, finally giving honor to the thousands of individuals who made these two cattle trails legendary and unequalled anywhere in the world.

To honor this national historic designation, the largest parade and celebration in the history of Texas is underway. Being organized by the Western and Chisholm Trails Society and spearheaded by the passion of its President, Richard Linnertz, a call for support and information is being made to all Texans who have historic knowledge of the role their town played and the cowboys and cowgirls who were part of it. From stories passed down through your families or whether the dust is still settling from the thousands of head that stampeded through your town, the organizers of this grand celebration want you involved and need your support.

As Richard Linnertz so eloquently puts it, "Do not pass up the chance to let the world know that Texas is legendary. Become part of the largest celebration in the history of this great state."

For information on how to become involved in the 2011 Western and Chisholm Trails Celebration, contact Richard Linnertz at (817) 838-5882 or email: Richard.linnertys@yahoo.com

Rendezvous at Boulder Pass - Hollywood's Fantasyland
A new book by Jerry England is a primer on the Iverson Movie Ranch

Photographs, movie stills, lobby cards, and screenshots capture the Iverson Ranch as it looks today and as it appeared during a half century of movie-making between 1912 and the late 1960s.

In Chatsworth's backyard, there remains a fantasyland that was forever made famous by Hollywood...  

A place where Superman once captured the evil Luthor in his hidden Stoney Point cave, where Batman wrestled a criminal on top of a speeding locomotive, where Tarzan the Ape Man found an ancient elephant graveyard, and where John Wayne's fighting Seabees pushed a Japanese tank off the same cliff that Nyoka used to escape Vultura's killer ape.  

The place is Boulder Pass. It was the jungles of India and Africa, the sands of the Sahara, the Khyber Pass between Pakistan and Afghanistan, the plains of Montana, and the High Sierras and the Rocky Mountains all rolled into one. It was the scene of stagecoach holdups, posses chasing outlaws on owlhoot (outlaw) trails, Indians attacking white settlers in remote cabins, flying rocket men, and unearthly spaceship landings. It was a land for make-believe. It could be anything a Hollywood director fancied.

Boulder Pass is a fictitious name borrowed from an old B-Western movie. The real place is the Santa Susana Pass in Chatsworth, California. For nearly three-quarters of a century, the Santa Susana Pass was home to the granddaddy of all movie location ranches - the Iverson Ranch. It was also the home of several other filming locations, including the Brandeis Ranch, Corriganville, Burro Flats, Bell Location Ranch, Chatsworth Lake, Roy Rogers' Double R Bar Ranch, Spahn Ranch, Southern Pacific Railroad's tunnels, and the Chatsworth train depot.

eBook available now: pdf on dvd, 362 pages, color and B&W, 2.17 GB, © 2010 Echo Press, available for $19.95 (includes S&H) at http://www.cowboyup.com/

Printed edition - $39.95 - coming soon.

This month, Smoke Signals talks with Ted Birbilis and Sandy Raulston, whose Roadside America and American Trading Company bring unique and distinctive treats.

Ted Birbilis and
Sandy Raulston


When you step into the Roadside America booth at the High Noon show, walls dripping in fine Native American textiles and exquisite early California antiques, you wouldn't suspect that 28 years ago, Ted was selling advertising and toys at the Dallas Fair Park Show where he met Sandy who was peddling early Americana and painted furniture just a few stalls down from Danny Neill. The stories are always so interesting and the evolution of lives inspiring. But the name Roadside America is most befitting of the 28 years Ted and Sandy have shared a life together and built a thriving business collecting, buying and selling along the two-lane blacktops that criss-cross this country. "In the early years," Ted recalls, "we'd run the roads buying from local collectors and doing shows like Round Top when there were only 25 dealers."

Yes, they've done their time at Brimfield and shows across the country, from Nashville to the Rose Bowl, along the way, refining their direction and their passion. Spending the majority of their time in the East, most snowbirds went to Florida but they chose Southern California finally landing in Los Angeles where they established themselves as experts in the genres of Native American, and California antiques. "As anyone in this business knows," says Ted, "you have to continually re-invent yourself, be a chameleon, to survive." And survive they have, from roadside collectors to a thriving Los Angeles business where they developed A-list clientele to producers of the elegant Golden California Antiques Show.

Well, anyone who knows Ted and Sandy, won't be surprised to hear that moss won't be growing under their feet anytime soon! Santa Fe has always been in their hearts, particularly Sandy's heart, who has repeatedly stated, "Someday, we're getting out of LA and moving to Santa Fe." Well, that day has come and a very exciting one it is.

In a move that seemed destined to be, Ted and Sandy have pulled up their LA stakes and have moved to Santa Fe where, in late April, they will open the doors to their new gallery - The Americana Trading Company - located in the heart of Santa Fe's new trendy arts and entertainment district. Featured in a January issue of the Sunday New York Times travel section, Santa Fe's Railyard District is where you can find them now.

The Americana Trading Company is a very exciting partnership between Ted and Sandy and Eliot and Toni Michael of Rumble Seat Music, Ithaca, New York. The gallery will be an entirely new experience, fresh and exciting, incorporating the finest American Indian and Southwest art and furnishings and fabulous vintage guitars and exquisite decoratives and jewelry.

Yup, the chameleons are on the move again and we can't wait to see the magic they create when the doors to The Americana Trading Company open. Watch out Santa Fe - here come Ted and Sandy!

Ted Birbilis & Sandy Raulston
The Americana Trading Company
340 Read Street (corner of Guadalupe & Read)
Santa Fe, NM
tednsandy@earhtlink.net

This month, Smoke Signals makes room for a little bit of this and a little bit of that.

Cowboy Poetry

The Diner
by amy elizabeth

Drivin' through the mountains in the desert Southwest,
A lil' bit tired and a long way off from lookin' my best.
I stopped at a diner settin' 'longside the road,
To graze on some fixin's before the day grew too old.

I parked my outfit right in front of the place,
Brushed myself off and wiped the sweat from my face.
I had twenty bucks in my pocket an' a half tank of fuel,
Haulin' four head behind, three horses, an' one ol' mule.

I reckon it was the owner that smiled an' welcomed me in,
An' most everyone else was most likely a friend or next of kin.
I settled at a table keepin' to myself, 'cause that was just my way,
But not so far that I couldn't hear what all the other folks had to say.

Some were troubled, their patience wearin' a bit thin,
Others seemed grateful for all the wonderful places they've been.
They talked of different jobs an' all the things they've done,
But there was no mention of cowboyin', guess I was the only one.

At one time or another I've surely thought 'bout quitin'
But other than steady pay, no town jobs were quite rightly fittin'.
Always endin' up doin' what I do, prob'ly till the day I die,
An' if you don't understand, let me tell you all the reasons why.

I've called home almost everywhere across the Great Plains,
Where thousands of steer stretched over miles and miles of terrain.
The summer's heat an' winter snows, the bunkhouses an' shacks,
Boilin' coffee grinds, an' makin' do with whatever fit in our packs.

My boots been soaked with rain, an' from my hat a bothersome drip,
Watchin' the horse in front with the water rollin' off the point of each hip.
At sundown my bones went to achin' an' my butt was draggin'
From movin' cattle, shippin', or just spendin' the whole day brandin'.

I'd be willin' to bet, 'cause I don't think there's a fella around,
Who sleeps better than a cowboy beneath the stars on the open ground.
Then I got to thinkin' 'bout the good ol' boys, an' maybe it was just a hunch,
But I was sure hopin' we wasn't the last of that ol' cow punchin' grateful bunch.

Cowboyin's hard work, long hours an' broken bones,
It's about a good cow horse an' saddle maybe bein' all he owns.
But wealth ain't never yet measured what a man's life is worth,
Some simply find their riches ridin' the plains on God's green earth.  

I may have spent my last twenty bucks that day,
But I left that diner knowin' there was somethin' I needed to say,
I thanked the Lord for the blessings that come my way with each new dawn,
An' prayed there would never come a day when cowboyin' was forever gone.


The Diner ©2009
amyichi@yahoo.com

     
NOW thru April 3, 2010  Where The Legend Lives: Masterpieces of the Permanent Collection  The Museum Of Western Art, Kerrville, TX
NOW thru May 2, 2010  Kenneth M. Freeman Legacy Exhibition - Artists At Work  Booth Museum, Cartersville, GA
NOW thru May 16, 2010  Human/Nature: Artists As Explorers in the Early American West  Rockwell Museum, Corning, NY
NOW thru May 16, 2010  The Photographs of Edward Sherriff Curtis  Rockwell Museum, Corning, NY
NOW thru May 30, 2010  The Art of Native American Basketry: A Living Tradition Exhibit  Autry National Center, Los Angeles, CA