Duke on the Mountain

A funny story that was told to me by the ranch manager on my last trip to Duke’s old 26 Bar Ranch located near Eager and Springerville, Arizona, and it goes something like this.

Duke and his partner and friend Louis Johnson had just completed making the deal on the purchase of the 2 6 Bar Ranch, and Duke said,” Hell I haven’t seen any of the high country up on the mountain yet. Have someone saddle me up a good horse, and get me a rifle, and I’ll ride on up the mountain and spend some time up there and just see what it looks like.”

Duke had been riding almost all day up in the high country, and in the late afternoon a thunderstorm came up, and before long buckets of rain began coming down. Duke looked around for someplace to get in out of the storm, and he finally found a line shack up on the mountain. After taking care of his horse, he went on in to get out of the rain. There were several cowboys already inside, taking advantage of the shelter to get out the rain themselves.

Duke had about two or three days of beard growth, and he did not have his hair piece on (because sometimes when he took his hat off, the hair piece came off with it!). The cowboys were talking about 

the ranch being sold, and without his hair piece and with his few days of beard growth, they did not know who he was, and just thought he was a hunter getting out of the rain as well.

One of the cowboys was talking about the sale of the ranch, and said, “I guess the ranch has been sold to some “Hollywood yahoo, S.O.B.” and I sure hope he knows how to ride a horse, and we all have to go down to the ranch headquarters and meet him in the morning.” The rain finally quit, and Duke said goodbye to the cowboys and went on back down the mountain.

The next morning at the ranch headquarters, all the cowboys and the people that worked at the ranch were there to meet the new owners. When they were all gathered, the ranch foreman stood up and said, “I want you to meet one of the new owners of the 26 Bar Ranch – John Wayne.”

Duke stood up and said, “I guess I am that Hollywood yahoo S.O.B, that you were talking about up on the mountain!” Everyone had a big laugh, and much later the cowboys said that Duke was the best boss they ever had! And from that day on, that line shack has been known as “John Wayne’s S.O.B. line shack!”

One thing about Duke, he could take it and dish it out as well!

Chili Bill

Trip with Duke to the 26 Bar Ranch

This took place in the summer of 1970. I got a call from Duke’s secretary that he wanted to have me fly him over to Springerville, Eager, Arizona to his 26 Bar Ranch. I told her that I would send one of my pilots to pick him up and take him over to the ranch because I had a prior commitment with William Randolph Hearst, Jr. and his wife.

The next day the phone rang at my Paso Robles airport office, and my secretary came running into my office that was in the back of my big hanger and said, “John Wayne is on the phone, and he wants to talk to you!” As she turned and started walking back to her desk, it hit just who it was that she had talked to. She stopped dead in her tracks and exclaimed, “I just talked to John Wayne!”

I picked up my phone and said, “This is Bill Brooks,” and a voice on the phone said, “This is Duke, and I need you to fly me over to my ranch at Eagar, Arizona for the big parade that they’re going to have, and I am supposed to be the grand marshal!” I explained to him, “I’m supposed to take Bill Hearst, Jr. and his wife Austine to the Santa Monica airport so he can og on over to Beverly Hills for his annual checkup before they go back to New York on that weekend.”

Duke would not be put off though, and he said to me, “Come on, send one of your pilots to take Bill Hearst for his doctor appointment. I know how much you like this cowboy type of thing, and I want you to help me to get ready for the parade, and help me find a large enough horse for me to ride so I don’t look like I’m riding a pony!”

Then he said, “Bring Martha with you. She’s good at this type of thing, and you two can stay at the guesthouse at the ranch. Louis and I will be staying at the Holiday Inn at Springerville.”

Now, this was not just anyone – it was John Wayne! And after all, William Randolph Hearst, Jr. was only a multi-billionaire, and I had been flying him and his family around for some time now. So I told Duke, “Okay, I’ll make arraignments for the Hearst’s.” Then he told me, “We have to stop off at Stanfield and make sure that Louis [Johnson] has everything that we’re going to need at the party the night after the parade.” (Louis Johnson was not particularly happy about flying in a small aircraft, so he was taking his pick-up truck full of things for the party).

Early the next morning we were supposed to go over to Duke’s ranch, so I flew on down to the Orange County airport to Duke up. As always, Duke was on time and waiting for me.

We took off from Orange County, and headed for Stanfield, Arizona, which was about a one-hour flight. After getting Louis started north with his pick-up full of supplies for the party that evening, we flew on up to the Springerville airport, which was about another one-hour flight. During the entire flight we talked about the good old days in the late 1940’s, when Duke and John Ford made all those great Horse Soldier movies.

After arriving at the Springerville airport, which in those days was just a small dirt airstrip, the ranch foreman and one of the cowboys were there waiting for us with two pick-up trucks. Then we drove on into Springerville and the Holiday Inn to leave off Duke’s things at the hotel. As always, the word had gotten around the two little towns of Springerville and Eagar that Duke was in town, and there was a large group of people waiting at the hotel to see Duke!

After Duke spent some time talking to all the people that had come to see him, we drove on out to the 26 Bar Ranch which is about five miles out of town. At this time, the foreman of the ranch and his family lived in the main house at the 26 Bar and the main house would be full of guests for the big weekend.

While Duke was talking to all of the people that were going to be staying at the ranch, the foreman’s wife took us over to the guesthouse that was just a stone’s throw from the main ranch house. And although Duke had promised that we had a bedroom in the guesthouse (that was later called the Gene Autry bedroom), we still had to share the guesthouse with two other couples that were there for the big weekend also.

The reason the room we used was later called the Gene Autry bedroom was because in the old days before Duke had become a big star, and was still making all of those quickie westerns, Herb Yates, the president of Duke’s studio – Republic Pictures, was trying to turn Duke into a singing cowboy. But Duke got Yates to hire a man that he had heard singing on the Barndance radio show in Chicago.  Duke wanted to get out of this singing cowboy thing and try to get some better roles, and told Yates that the fellow would make a good singing cowboy.

The fellow that Duke eventually got Yates to listen to was Gene Autry, so Gene Autry had John Wayne to thank for making his first million dollars. Duke and Gene stayed very good friends for all those years, and Gene Autry would visit the ranch many times and stay in the guesthouse in what is now called the Gene Autry bedroom.

At any rate, the next day, the day of the parade, the cowboys had found Duke a large horse to ride, 16 ½ hands tall, so Duke would look very good on such a tall horse as grand marshal of the parade. As Duke rode out at the head of the parade, many people would run out to him and ask for his autograph, of just to talk to him. He would tell them all to meet him after the parade at the Holiday Inn where he was staying, and that he would spend some time with them – and that is just exactly what he did.

He went back to the hotel after the parade, and stayed a very long time with all of the people that had come out to see him and talk with him, and Duke did not leave until had given out autograph cards to anyone that wanted one, and had talked with anyone what wanted to talk with him. That was the way John Wayne was. Duke never forgot the people that had made him a larger-than-life personality and movie star.

That evening after the parade, there was a big beef barbecue at the 26 Bar Ranch, and anyone from Springerville or Eagar that wanted to come could come. Of course there was “mucho Suaza Commemorativo Tequila.” But I had to behave myself because I knew that I had over a two-hour flight back to the Orange County airport the next day.

After Duke’s passing in 1979, the Orange County airport was renamed, “John Wayne International Airport.”

It is hard to believe that I now have a house just 50 years behind the guesthouse that I had stayed in almost 40 years ago.

Chili Bill

I first heard of Bill Brooks passing when I made one of my all too infrequent visits to the John Wayne Message Board, and read a posting by my friend “Chester,” telling of Bill’s passing. To say I was both shocked and saddened is an understatement. I had not heard from Bill for several months, but that wasn’t all that unusual as our email conversations were few and far between. I had last heard from him in January 2013, just after New Years. He had sent me a package containing a couple of DVD’s he had made of John Wayne’s 26 Bar ranch (which I hope to get posted here in the near future), as well as a small container of dirt from the ranch (a long story that I’m saving for later).

So to hear that he had passed was, as I said, both a shock and very sad news to me. For whatever reason, I thought I would do my part to honor Bill by putting up some of his stories about John Wayne. (As many of you know, Bill was John Wayne’s pilot for several years). I went to his websites (he had two of them up at the time of his passing), and discovered that both had been taken down! Of the two websites, one was a forum based site where members could visit and talk about John Wayne, and Bill could share his many stories. Although I did not do much visiting there, I did enjoy going and reading Bill’s stories. Bill’s other website contained a lot of stories and photos of and about John Wayne and his 26 Bar Ranch. Unfortunately, as I said, both websites were gone. Fortunately, however, my “Big Brother” and best friend, Jess, had the foresight a few years ago to make a copy of Bill’s “Duke Stories” website, and put everything on a data CD. And I was lucky enough to get a copy of that CD. From it I have been able to gather all of Bill’s stories and photos, and I will be presenting them all here on The New Frontier website, on this page which I am dedicating to Bill. I’ll miss him, and I know many others will as well. He touched a lot of lives, and many of us considered him to be our friend. I hope I can do him justice here.

In the way of a “disclaimer” of sorts, I will say that I tried to contact Bill’s son to see if he had any objection to this project, but I never did hear back from him. It has been several months now since I tried to contact him through his Facebook page, so I decided to go ahead and proceed with this project. I would like to start it off by re-posting “Chester’s” JWMB post: “In Memory of Chili Bill.”

In Memory of Chili Bill

It is with sadness that I report the passing of William T Brooks III, known to most of us here on the JWMB as "Chili Bill", on February 16, 2013. It appears that he died at the 26 Bar Ranch. The obituary I found was woefully small, considering the very rich life Bill led.

I had a report in March of his death, but have had trouble confirming it, and didn't want to announce it here without that confirmation.

I had tried calling Bill in early March, just to check in, and his number was disconnected, which was my first clue that something must have happened. Then I saw a note on a FB friend's wall, a woman from Germany who had visited Bill at the 26 Bar Ranch. She had heard the news from a grandson, but other than the fact that Bill had died, there were no other details. Following that, the first thing I did was to search the internet for an obituary. I searched high and low and could find nothing, which was very surprising.

My very first contact with Bill, back in 2004, was through his son. I was unable to make that connection again (couldn't find a phone number, though I called more than one Brooks in the Phoenix area in an attempt to get information). I was unsuccessful in every direction, and again, wanted some confirmation before sharing here.

Recently, I got a PM from one of our members here, asking about Chili Bill. I told him what little I knew, but decided to try another search for an obituary, which I did find (linked above). That obit wasn't posted until the end of April, and I have to admit being pretty busy in the interim between March and now, and I haven't been dogging the Internet every day looking for it. According to the other member, with whom I was exchanging PMs, there was also an 'announcement' on the "John Wayne & His 26 Bar Hereford Ranch in Eagar AZ" Facebook page on May 17th. In March, when I look on any FB pages associated with Chili Bill, all I could find were his most 'recent' posts from January, and nothing more. Of course, thinking he had passed, I didn't go back to those pages again. Thanks to our astute member for pointing that out.

So . . . now that I have those scanty details out of the way, I'd like to share a little of Bill's history here on the JWMB.

Back in 2004, there was a post on our message board, in the Trading Post, from a guy named William T Brooks, wanting to sell a pistol and gun belt that had belonged to John Wayne. I found a phone number for someone by that name in Arizona, and called. It turned out Bill's son (William T Brooks IV) had made the post for his dad. I got Chili Bill's phone number, to find out more about the pistol and gun belt. I learned he had served as an extra in several movies in the 40's, including The Angel and the Badman! Bill had some great stories to tell about John Wayne, and I encouraged him to share them here, with other Duke fans. At the time, he was still mourning the loss of his life's love, his wife Martha, and was ready to just get rid of his stuff and join her. Joining this message board gave him a new lease on life - he really enjoyed sharing his stories! Then he got involved in the 26 Bar Ranch and continued sharing about Duke and his life.

In between being a teen-aged extra in movies and eventually living at the 26 Bar Ranch, William Brooks had an amazingly full life, with many experiences. Among them were being in Boy Scouts and having Barry Goldwater as his Scoutmaster, owning a business (actually, more than one in his lifetime) that eventually led him to reconnecting with John Wayne many years after being an extra in one of his movies, earning a black belt in karate, having a cooking show on local Arizona TV, flying a B52 in the war, being an instructor for NASA, . . . more than I can remember!

He and his wife Martha had children (at least one son and one daughter, but I think there were more) and grandchildren, and possibly great-grandchildren. Bill lived alone at the 26 Bar, and I do not know any of the details of his death, except that he did die. He died in a place that he loved, surrounded by his many items of Duke memorabilia. He was able to give many Duke fans, from around the world, a tour of the ranch and share his stories (it was a privilege to be a part of that back in 2007). He will be sorely missed!

May William T "Chili Bill" Brooks rest in peace!

(signed) Chester and Mrs. C