Peter Brown Gets The Boot

PETER GETS THE BOOT

2002 Golden Boot Awards

I attended the Golden Boot Awards for the first time in 2002 for very good reason. Peter was finally getting his well-deserved and long-overdue Boot. I was honored that Peter arranged for me to sit at his table with the other Warners stars who were my heroes in the golden age of Westerns. Below are a few of my photos from the event. [I'm hoping Peter has some other friends who took photos because I'm a notoriously poor photographer. I can tell you that his date LoriDawn had beautiful red hair but -- although my photos may suggest otherwise -- she did not have red eyes.]

The celebrities entered the Beverly Hilton Hotel on the traditional red carpet.
Peter was with his best friend, LoriDawn Messuri.

Each celebrity was assigned a volunteer who was supposed to get them wherever they
were supposed to be. The gal in the photo above [I believe her name was Kim] was assigned to Peter. Most of the volunteers found that riding herd on celebrities was not an easy task and Kim was no exception. Her first assignment was to get Peter to the press room but he was constantly waylaid by fans wanting autographs, photographers and friends.

They finally did make it to the press room where Peter did his little mini-conference, posed for some photos and chatted with some of the other celebrities. In the photo below on the right are Andy Prine and his wife.

LoriDawn brought a boutonnière for Peter but decided
this was a year when his American Flag handkerchief
was more appropriate.

After the press had at them, all the celebrities were scheduled to go to the Grand Ballroom where there were dozens of donated items subject to silent auction. A lot of the celebrities didn't show up - Peter and Will Hutchins did. The offerings included jewelry, paintings, vacation trips, memorabilia, clothing, etc. All the money went to the Motion Picture & Television Fund which provides a wide range of medical care to its members. The big ticket items were auctioned off during an intermission in the awards ceremony. The item I wanted was a matted and framed poster-sized photo of all the Warners cowboys with autograph cards. But bidding quickly went to $3000, leaving me in the dust.

The Dinner and Awards Ceremony took place at 6:30 in the International Ballroom. I was told at the door to put away my camera as no photos were allowed inside. I did get it out a few times, hence the photos below. I'm hoping others will send me some they took. Dale Robertson was the Master of Ceremonies. The Honorees [in addition to Peter of course] included Bruce Dern, Peter Fonda, David Huddleston, Whitey Hughes, Stuart Whitman, Marsha Hunt, Ruta Lee, Donna Martell, Marion Shilling, Ruth Terry, Gloria Winters, Earl Bellamy, Ted Post, Bill Whitney, Robert Colbert, Will Hutchins, William T. Orr and Roy Huggins. An Honorary Golden Boot Award was given to the Colt Mfg Co. The Best of the West award for New Film/Television productions went to American Outlaws. Other nominees were Dust, The Journeyman, The Lone Hero, Night of the Wolf, Texas Rangers. [Not a big year for Western movies.] The period covered was May 1, 2001 through April 30, 2002. [Patrick Stewart's King of Texas should be eligible next year.]

The presenters included Bridget Fonda, Laura Dern, Ernest Borgnine, Dana Delany, Clint Walker, Robert Conrad, Kris Kristofferson, Andrew Prine and Phil Spangenberger. Bruce Boxleitner & his wife/SAG President Melissa Gilbert read letters of congratulations from Clint Eastwood, Charleton Heston and Nancy Reagan.

The committee put together a montage of clips for each awardee. I remember David Huddleston's and Bruce Dern's as being particularly good. The clips for the Warner's stars were somewhat confusing. Peter's montage included more guest spots on Colt .45 and Cheyenne than clips from Lawman but the montage didn't make clear which was which. They decided to include only clips from Warners productions for the actors which meant there was nothing of Peter's role in Laredo or his guest shots on Wagon Train, Virginian etc. Also nothing from Will Hutchin's Western movie The Shooting. But the montage from Warner's producer William Orr included westerns from other studios. They also tried to suggest by way of using the Maverick theme for his walk-on and using only Maverick clips for his montage, that Robert Colbert was the costar of Maverick. In actuality, his character only lasted two episodes in a failed attempt to replace James Garner with someone who resembled him. He guested on all the Warner's westerns however.

Marty Kove

Will Hutchins

Laura and Bruce Dern

Laura Dern presented the award to her father Bruce after telling a cute story about a playmate who was told he could no longer play at her house because her father had killed John Wayne. At eight, she just couldn't believe her daddy had killed this John guy. But that week the cover of Life magazine confirmed the accusation. Bruce had indeed killed John Wayne (in The Cowboys).

And then - one of the best speeches of the night - Peter's
[Complete on the next page]
Peter giving his acceptance speech