PDF TwoBuck Chuck The Marlboro Man The New Old West Frank Bergon Books

Product details Hardcover 264 pages Publisher University of Nevada Press; 1 edition (March 6, 2019) Language English ISBN-10 1948908069

TwoBuck Chuck The Marlboro Man The New Old West Frank Bergon Books Reviews

• Wow! What a pleasure to read about Darrell, The Marlboro Man and what it means to myself.
  After reading the book, now I know my former father-in-law was telling the truth about working with Darrell before he became famous. My father-in-law was a tough strong Mexican from the Southern tip of Texas known as big John. He worked as a reserve sheriff and at Noble's for 25 years, Darrell worked at Nobles for 12.
  Darrell smoked Pall Mall unfiltered and big John smoked Camel unfiltered. Along with almost everyone else that smoked anything available including dry cow paddies if all else fails.
  After Darrell became famous, he paid a visit to his old cow poke buddies in the bunkhouse at Nobles.
  Out of his truck came two cases of Marlboro's, tossed them on the table and said; to all you SOB's, here's your payback with interest for the times I *bummed cigs (*code word - ran out)
  Reading this essay was special for the very reason that most of my life has been spent just a few miles from Nobles feedlot not knowing a lot about the history except from my in-law and from the old timers . Now, only dry weeds slightly bend in a hazy breeze, the huge feed bins stand rusty and decayed, just rattlers, jack rabbits and coyotes roam.
  It also brought back the shared memories of my youth. We've been fortunate enough to keep our small family owned ranch going almost 50 years. Just like Darrell, I milked cows by hand, feed calves (before school & after), branded cattle, casterated, dehorned, dewormed, doctored, pulled calves, irrigated pasture. I agree with Darrell, some of those chores I hated to do, but I look back during a era we didn't think about it, we just did it. We started with one holstein cow, eventually married her with actor/rodeo star Ben Johnson's bull.
  In 1998, the beef prices collapsed and it nearly killed my dad seeing his pure-bred limousine first calf heifers going for beef prices. Much of it was due to the so called BS "mad cow disease" At that point we decided it was time to pull the plug, cut our losses, then lick our wounds. I sit back, close my eyes and remember those days, maybe with rose colored fondness.
  Since 1998, we moved on to other crops, but every year we can't resist to pay the state and retain our family cattle brand with pride. BAR OVER B - OPEN A
  Hope you enjoy the book,
  Thanks for letting me share my own experiences,
  Brad
  Kerman, CA
• This book is a particularly interesting tale of the 1950’s era, multi ethnic population in California’s San Joaquin Valley who got along with each other without the polarized racial politics of today. Both Fred Franzia aka “Two Buck Chuck” and Darrell Winfield of Marlboro fame emerged from that culture and became larger than life characters on the national stage. Their entertaining stories are well told in this quick read.
• I have to say this is Franks best work so far ( and I loved all the others before this one) I just can’t put it down and even read it on my lunch hour at work. Congratulations on your best book so far.
• Loved this book. Being from the San Joaquin Valley it really hit home for me. The details and history was amazing. I even read some sections twice. I would recommend it to anyone.
• This collection of character sketches about people with San Joaquin Valley connections held my interest throughout. Frank Bergon lets them tell their own stories, for the most part, and profiles people with diverse ethnic backgrounds – Basque, Okie, Native American, African American, Chicano, and Korean, to paint a complex, sometimes contradictory portrait of the Valley in the past and at present. Bookending these mini-biographies are longer pieces about Fred Franzia, the winemaker who produces, amongst other things, Charles Shaw wines, aka Two-Buck Chuck, and Darrell Winfield, the most famous of the models used by Marlboro. In the course of the book Bergon brings in excellent information about Valley agriculture, water, land ownership and many other important topics. A very good read. I received this book from the publisher as part of LibraryThing's Early Reviewer program, in exchange for an honest review.
• With these finely wrought essays Frank Bergon has stepped into the very tall boots of his Stanford mentor, Wallace Stegnar, as spokesman for the post-Postmodern American West. The showdown this time is the High Noon of California's Central Valley where New West meets Old again the central dichotomy of Bergon's Nevada ("Shoshone Mike", "Wild Game") to California ("Jesse's Ghost") fiction. These essaies, like the silver smithing of an antique Squash Blossom necklace set with the finest Battle Mountain turquoise, are the stories of our complex lives as Westerners. The characters of these stories---from Two-Buck Chuck (vinter-tycoon Fred Franzia) to The Marlboro Man ((Darrell Winfield, a real cowboy who didn't hunt or shoot and survived lung cancer) frame both the life and times of Frank Bergon himself, as well as that of the American West from post-war twentieth century to the present day. Bergon was born in Ely, Nevada, the progeny of Basque sheepherding immigrants and raised in the San Joaquin Valley as a rancher's son on a personal level, he knows of what he speaks. As a novelist with "Jesse's Ghost" which is the first part of the Central Valley triptych, it is this writer's most humble opinion that he exceeds Stegnar. Out here in Nevada we deplorables would call him "the real deal". This home grown boy who went on to Stanford and Harvard to teach at Vassar College in the East is like an inverted Owen Wister he takes the myth for us and makes it real. Aupa, Tony! Dr. Gretchen Skivington Great Basin College Elko, Nevada
• If you want to understand how those of us from rural America think and feel today, you have to read this book!