Festival of the West, Scottsdale, AZ






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	Bruce attended the Festival of the West in Scottsdale, Arizona from March 16-18, 2001. He has played in quite a few westerns like "I married Wyatt Earp, When the West was won, Red River, and Return to Tombstone". There were also a few other Hollywood Actors there with him like Marty Kove from Karate Kid, Peter Brown, Alex Cord and more). He was scheduled to get the Cowboy Spirit Award Saturday afternoon and I had planned to go and see him there. Scottsdale is just 30 minutes from where I live and I was excited to have a chance to see Bruce for the first time. They had a mounted shooting event there for the Celebrities and Bruce won all three days, which got him a belt buckle as an award on Sunday. But first things first. I had no idea what to expect when I got there. I did not know if I would even be able to see him up close, not to mention say hello. I met two other Bruce fans there and we cheered him on during the Saturday mounted shooting event. After that we went to the tent where he would sign autographs and waited around for him to show up. I was very nervous because I had never seen or met a Hollywood Celebrity in person and I had been a fan of Bruce since I was 15 years old watching Scarecrow and Mrs. King in it’s original run in Germany. So this was really a dream come true. Once he arrived and signed a few autographs for other people one of the girls went with me to the table and I bought a picture of him that he signed (you can see that one all the way on the bottom) and his first Book "Final Frontier". She also took the picture with him and me below. (he signed it on Sunday when I went back for the last day of the Festival)

He was very nice and easy going but I only said a few words because I could not think of anything to say I was so nervous. I can’t even remember half of what I said ;-).

One hour after the Autograph session the Award Ceremony for the "Cowboy Spirit Award" took place, which was quite an honor and he was very proud and happy to receive it.

After the award show there was a Q&A Panel, where all the Stars answered several questions. We had a really good spot upfront and a good view of Bruce and all the others.

Bruce during the Q&A Panel

The Celebrities had so much fun at the Festival that they decided to stay an extra day. And since I already had my picture taken with Bruce, but really had not said a lot or asked any questions I decided to go back on Sunday to see him again. They had another mounted shooting even and the challenge was that the person who had the best results from all three days together would win the overall event! As mentioned before Bruce won all three events and therefore had the overall best results and won the special Western Belt Buckle.

Bruce just received his Award for winning all three days in a row

After Bruce received his Belt Buckle I went back to the Autograph area and waited with another Fan for him to come to the signing table. There were fewer people there on Sunday mainly because the "Cowboy Spirit Award" was handed out on Saturday and the Q&A Panel was on Saturday also. He came to the table fairly soon after the shooting event but he was very hot and was sweating. There was one Lady in front of us in line for an autograph and he signed all the things she had brought for him to sign. I was very nervous because I knew he saw us already and I was worried that he would think "those two again". After he was done signing her things he turned around and said to one of the assistances that he would be back soon. He said he wanted to get a belt for his new buckle and I think he also wanted to take that time to cool off, because he looked very uncomfortable.

It took about 20 minutes before he came back and I used that time to get an autograph from Alex Cord (Airwolf) and Peter Brown on one of the pictures I had taken the day before (below) and Marty Kove also signed it later that day. Since I was not really familiar with their movies and series I did not know what to talk to them about and just made some small talk. There not a lot of people in the autograph area at that time, so we stood there and felt a little silly, but did not want to leave either, because there wasn’t really anything else to do.

When Bruce came back he was smiling his "Lee Stetson" smile and I noticed right away that he felt much better and must have cooled off while he was buying his belt. He was wearing the new Buckle and kind of joked around showing it off, and we took a picture of that. Since we were still the only two at the signing table I started to feel nervous again and when he sat down I said "Hi, it’s us again" and he smiled and said "that’s OK". I told him that I had forgotten to mention the day before how impressed I was with his pronunciation of the German Language in the Scarecrow and Mrs. King episode "Our Man at Tegernsee". I told him that it sounded like he knew German and asked if he did. He said no, that he does not really speak it, that he had it in high school for 1 year but it really did not help a lot. He also said that he usually after a while adapts to the place or country he is in and tries to speak as they do. I told him that usually in US movies when there is an American actor playing a German I have a really hard time to understand what they are supposedly saying in German, or sometimes I even have to read the English subtitle to understand it at all. He was very surprised at that and asked me if I had seen any of the World War 2 movies and could tell there too and I said yes, that I always know who is the German that plays a German and who’s an American that plays a German.

I told him that I am from Germany but live in Phoenix now and he answered "Yes I know". I was very perplexed because I had not told him anything the day before and I asked how he knew that. He smiled and told me that I had told him on Saturday and I answered that I did not tell him anything like that. Still puzzled how he could have known I live in Phoenix, I realized that I had shown him my entrance ticket stub that had my address on it so he could spell my name correct when he signed my picture. When I told him that he must have seen it there he just leaned back in his chair and laughed. That was very funny.

We talked a little bit more about movies and then a line started to form behind us again and I told him that it was a pleasure meeting him. He looked at me and smiled his Lee Stetson smile again and said "It was nice meeting you too, Kerstin!"

Hey, who can blame me for being an even bigger fan after that experience than I was before (if that’s at all possible). He was so nice and funny, down to earth and just great to interact with that it made my first meeting something I’ll never forget. Little did I know that day that there would be more memorable moments meeting Bruce in the year 2001….