After the release of Red River in 1948, the Red River D belt buckles were made. John Wayne wore his buckle off screen in a number of his Westerns, including here in the 1959 Howard Hawks film, Rio Bravo. (photo courtesy of Joseph Musso)



“Stagecoach made John Wayne a star, but Red River made him a legend.” —Edward Bohler


“Dad loved folding knives, and I’m sure I never saw him when he didn’t have one in his pocket,” Ethan Wayne, president of Wayne Enterprises and the youngest son of John “Duke” Wayne, told me. The remark occurred during a telephone chat we had in reference to W.R. Case & Sons’ salute to Ethan’s father and his Red River D cattle brand featured in the 1948 Western movie classic, Red River.

I asked Ed Jessup, Case’s vice president of marketing and sales, what had inspired the Red River D pocketknife. He explained that in the past Case has worked with a number of licensers, and that John Wayne is right at the top of any list of licensers.
“We asked a lot of questions, and we met several times with Mr. [Ethan] Wayne before we came to an agreement,” Mr. Jessup said. Mr. Wayne added, “Case has a long history of making excellent knives, and, naturally, we look for projects that make sense. This one does.”

John Wayne was portrayed using a pocketknife in several films, including She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, Big Jake and True Grit. He also used fixed-blades in a number of his movies, including Red River. (See the two-part story, “Duke’s Movie Knives,” by Joseph Musso, in the July and August 2007 issues of BLADE®.)

Story of the Red River D
Filmed in 1946, Red River was not released until 1948. It opens with a title card reading, “Among the annals of the great state of Texas may be found the first drive on the famous Chisholm Trail, a story of one of the great cattle herds of the world, of a man and a boy—Thomas Dunson and Matthew Garth, the story of the Red River D.” The movie stars John Wayne as Dunson and Montgomery Clift as Garth, with Joanne Dru and Walter Brennan in supporting roles. Others in the cast include Harry Carey Sr., Harry Carey Jr., Paul Fix, John Ireland, Shelly Winters and Hank Worden.

The story begins in 1851. On their way to Texas, Dunson and his sidekick, Nadine Groot, played by Brennan, survive an Indian attack, as does a young boy, Garth, who is played as an adult by Clift. (In one scene, Groot throws Dunson a knife to dispatch one attacking warrior.) From there, the trio moves south to Texas. Years go by. When Garth returns from the Civil War, he finds plenty of cattle bearing the Red River D brand but little money in Texas to buy them. Dunson determines to drive his herd to Missouri, and he, Garth and the drovers encounter many perils along the way.

When the trail hands begin to grumble and rebel, Dunson takes harsh—even cruel—measures in retaliation. Finally, Garth can stand it no longer and seizes leadership of the drive, with the full approval of the cowboys, and leaves Dunson behind. Dunson promises Garth that he will catch up with him, and when he does, “I’ll kill ya’, Matt,” Dunson vows. Garth and the drive head for Kansas instead of Missouri, having learned there are railroads there. Dunson gathers a gang and follows. Along the way, both Garth and Dunson encounter a wagon train and a beautiful woman named Tess Millay, one of the settlers, ably portrayed by Dru.

When the herd reaches Abilene, Garth receives top dollar for the cattle, but shortly thereafter Dunson arrives. When Garth refuses to draw his gun on his stepfather, a fistfight ensues that is interrupted by Miss Millay, who, with the aid of a gun, points out that the two brawlers actually love each other. Sitting in the dusty street, Dunson tells Garth, “You’d better marry that girl, Matt.” Garth agrees and then asks Dunson when he’s going to stop telling people what to do. That’s when Dunson draws the Red River D brand in the dirt and adds an “M” for “Matt,” telling Garth, “You’ve earned it.”

Red River has weathered 60 years of viewing, and I asked Western authority Bill O’Neil his opinion of the movie. “Red River is one of the finest Westerns ever released,” he opined. “A herd of 6,000 cattle was used—no computer-generated scenes here—and the trail-driving sequences have never been surpassed!” A retired college history professor, Mr. O’Neil is the author of such works as Best of the West, Cheyenne, The Encyclopedia of Western Gunfighters and The Wild West.

I had the opportunity of talking briefly with Harry Carey Jr., one of the few surviving cast members of Red River. (Mr. Carey celebrated his 87th birthday this past May.) It was his first of many films with Wayne. I asked Mr. Carey if he had any vivid memories of the classic film. “It was special to me,” he said, “because that movie was the only one in which both my father and I appeared, although we were never on-screen together.” The senior Carey was a Western star of the first magnitude, a hero of John Wayne’s who appeared in countless films for almost four decades. Sadly, Red River was his last.

The Belt Buckles
At the conclusion of filming Red River, director Howard Winchester Hawks had a Nogales, Mexico, silversmith make belt buckles with the Red River D brand in silver and gold. In the lower left-hand corner were the recipient’s initials. Out of respect for the director, John Wayne gave his “JW” buckle to Hawks who, in return, gave “The Duke” his buckle. Wayne wore the HWH buckle both off screen and in subsequent Westerns, including Rio Bravo, El Dorado, The Sons of Katie Elder, Rio Lobo and North to Alaska.

In 1979, after Wayne’s death, Wayne’s son, Michael, loaned the original buckle to the late Edward H. Bohlin’s shop in Hollywood, California, so that authorized Red River D buckles could be made, with a portion of the proceeds to go to the John Wayne Cancer Institute. Regrettably, the original buckle was stolen and has never been recovered. The Bohlin Co. of Dallas, Texas, currently offers authorized reproductions of the buckle for $2,950 each (Bohlin Co., 800.823.8340 www.bohlinmade.com). Several years ago, a very few custom Red River D buckles were made by ABS master smith Joe Keeslar, past president of the American Bladesmith Society, working in conjunction with a Kentucky silversmith. Keeslar has stated without hesitation that he has no intention of making any more, but these are masterpieces.

Red River D Knife
The Case Red River D pocketknife is a 52131 SS canoe pattern with burnt stag handle slabs, and the shield bears the Red River D brand. The blades are stainless steel with the larger blade embellished with John Wayne’s signature. The bolsters and pins are nickel silver and the knife is 3 7/8 inches closed. The piece comes in a shadow box, with a Case medallion, a certificate of authenticity, and a picture of The Duke. The manufacturer’s suggested retail price: $295.

According to Case officials, the knives were supposed to be available for public consumption before you read these words. And, in a limited edition of 500, they won’t last long. As the Case catalog notes, “Saddle-up, this set will be gone before sunrise.”

The Red River D pocketknife is not the only John Wayne knife in the Case line. The “Duke” series features seven pocketknives—a large gunstock, tiny trapper, small Texas toothpick, medium stockman, muskrat, trapper and folding hunter. All have wooden scales with “Duke” reversed out in wood on a black banner on one side. The silhouette of the big screen icon appears on the master blade of each knife.

When I asked Mr. Jessup if there might be more John Wayne commemoratives from Case in the future, he replied, “You haven’t seen anything yet!”

Author’s note: I am deeply grateful to Joseph Musso, a Hollywood artist and designer, and also a James Bowie authority, for his invaluable help in preparing this article, as well as for supplying photographs from his extensive collection of John Wayne memorabilia.

For more information on the Case Red River D knife, contact Case, attn: F. Feightner, Dept. BL9, Owens Way, Bradford, PA 16701 800.523.6350 www.wrcase.com.

This story originally appeared in the September 2008 BLADE.