Sunday, July 28, 2019

The Arizona Cowboy

There's lots of history in Willcox Arizona and E. Pierre Brehm will tell you all about it.  He's the elderly gentleman, slowed from age and arthritis, who is the official Willcox Tour Guide.  Call him any time and he will set up a tour for you for FREE.  He's retired, you know.

Thankfully E. Pierre opened the Rex Allen Museum for me on my overheated-convection-oven trip to Willcox last week.  No one in their right mind goes there mid summer.  The building has air conditioning, so I spent some time walking around looking at all the stuff from the 50's and 60's western music scene.
You can't miss the windmill courtyard.  Rex was born not far from here in Mud Springs Canyon.  As he grew up, he played guitar with his fiddle-playing dad.  Being a real life cowboy, the rodeo life was for him until he learned how hard it was.  He wandered East to Chicago to become Cactus Rex as part of a vaudeville act.
Along with Roy Rogers and Gene Autry, he became one of the singing cowboys in the early 50's, riding his horse KoKo.  By 1954, he was the LAST of the singing cowboys and moved over to a new show Frontier Doctor.  Unfortunately, that didn't last long.
The little town of Willcox was pretty proud of their Arizona Cowboy, beginning the tradition of Rex Allen Days.  What you probably don't know is he had a badly crossed eye which caused him to be very timid and shy.  Surgeries were never able to correct it.  
I have to say this is the most fabulous gunbelt I've ever seen.  I watched in awe every Saturday morning as he rounded up the bad guys and put them in jail.  
Rex Allen was the first to have THAT voice.  Like Sam Elliot or Mike Rowe, you would recognize it anywhere.  Disney recognized it too and he became the voice of their wildlife films and the Carousel of Progress at the World's Fair.  Oh I remember it well!!  
He even had his own show for awhile, featuring the Sons of The Pioneers, writing and singing his own songs.  
He was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and inducted into the Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma.  He was also the very first to win the Golden Boot award.  No, I never heard of it before either, but it's from Hollywood to anyone in the business who made significant contributions to the Western Genre of film.  
At any rate, he was a good old boy who came back to Willcox for every Rex Allen Days event, including the burial of his beloved horse KoKo.  The town had this statue built across the street under the big oak tree to remember their hero of the film industry.
Unfortunately KoKo wasn't buried here until he had been moved a couple of times, but alas, his bones are now below this memorial.  Rex cried, as would I.  As you walk around, you may even encounter Rex himself.  They say his family spread his ashes in this park so he would forever be with his beloved horse.  
It's also interesting to note that the town of Willcox is very proud of their cowboy heritage.  In the back room is their own Cowboy Hall of Fame.  The images you see, and there are MANY, are of the local cowboys who made this town possible.  

It was fascinating to me to walk through here, as many of these gentlemen and ladies reminded me of the folks I grew up with on the ranch.  Just good normal cowboy folk.
I thanked E. Pierre for his time and dropped an additional $20 in the box.  It seems both museums here are having a hard time staying afloat.  Since then, I've learned about Apple Annie's Country Store in Willcox, as well as the Pioneer Cemetery, resting place of Warren Earp.  

I think a phone call and an official tour of Willcox should definitely be planned.  There's more history here than meets the eye.





13 comments:

  1. Like Nick always says you miss too much on the Interstates. You have to take the back roads where you learn a lot of history.
    My folks didn't get a TV until the last season Roy Rogers was on so I didn't know anything about Rex.
    Be Safe and Enjoy your guided tour.

    It's about time.

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    1. We got a little black and white TV in I think 1957 or 58. We always got to watch Disney's wildlife shows on Sunday night.

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  2. Old cactus Rex is 89 years old. Did he tell you he adopted a borrow he talks about it on the YouTube channel
    But also interesting to note
    The Sons of the Pioneers were the first Country and Western group to sing at Carnegie Hall, and the first to perform at the lavish nightclubs in Las Vegas.[14] The group has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6845 Hollywood Blvd. for recording.

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sons_of_the_Pioneers

    What's interesting to know is you noticed it is called country and western not country western music back then

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    1. Little more interesting history as well

      https://www.phoenixmag.com/2014/07/01/arizona-country-roads/

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    2. I never looked up the Sons of the Pioneers. I think my mom owned every record they made. Rex certainly was a humble guy. He really didn't know why people would want to keep his old stuff.

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  3. Sounds like and interesting tour, I remember a bit of Rex Allen, but more of Roy Rogers, Dale Evans and Gene Autry. back in the day . I have heard Apple Annies has some awesome pies.

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    1. Unfortunately apple pie isn't on my diet menu, but I'm going anyway.

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  4. I did not know that Willcox is that small. That's a great museum.

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    1. It's big in acres, but small in the number of people. It is a really nice museum. I hope they can stay open.

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  5. One of these years we are going to have to take our time going through Southeastern Arizona...normally we are just zipping through.

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    1. It really has some interesting stuff to check out, although most are rather far apart. Definitely go in the winter ... as in Jan-Mar.

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  6. I had the pleasure of knowing Clayton Moore personally. And, he too, had a very distinctive voice. One time back in the mid 60s, I was sitting with him along with two others in the Stagecoach restaurant in Shakopee, MN. All of us were dressed western. A couple walked by as Clayton was talking. They stopped and stared, then walked on. Clayton laughed and said, "That happens all of the time. You just know that tonight they'll wake up and exclaim, 'That had to be the Lone Ranger!'" Clayton was a celebrity that could go out in public without being recognized due to the mask. He was a hell of a nice guy.

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    1. Wow ... now THAT would have been something to write about. The Lone Range and Hopalong Cassidy were always on my list of must watch shows. Can't tell you how many times I pretended to be him on the ranch! LOL

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