urbanmoto November 2006 23 Steve McQueen: The Last Mile by Barbara McQueen with Marshall Terrill Dalton Watson Publishers Excerpt, Page 81 “Yes, honey.” Much to my relief, Steve felt once the bike was dis- I DON’T KNOW WHAT assembled, the day’s lesson was Steve’s I.Q. was, but he had a over. He said he’d show me the natural aptitude for motors and next day how to put it back to- guns. He could fix anything, tear gether again. But we never got it apart and put it together again that far. He left the parts in the without having to look at a man- garage for several days and we ual. Some people are gifted that forgot about it. One of Steve’s way and Steve tried to pass on buddies got tired of looking at his wisdom and knowledge to it and put the bike back together me. He didn’t get very far when again, and then I was really off it came to engines. the hook. One day at Trancas, he came I had much better luck with home with a pair of overalls weapons. Steve’s military training and told me to put them on. in the late 1940s stuck with him “Barbi, I’m going to teach you for the rest of his life and he was how to build a motorcycle,” he very proficient with weapons of said. “Okay,” I said, not giving all kind – pistols, handguns, ri- it much thought. I knew I would fles and shotguns. He knew how never have to rebuild the bike. to field strip a weapon blind- folded and expected me to do it An Inside Look at McQueen’s Last Years I put on my overalls and watched as well. We even had an escape by Jill Rohenberg Steve take the motor apart. He plan in case an intruder broke Three years after Barbara Mc- whom you love and who was once her relationship with her famous methodically took each piece into the house. The plan called Queen, now a real estate investor so vital, is heartbreaking, which is husband, and the stories behind off the bike, explaining the for me to roll out of bed, drop in Montana, met Steve McQueen, why I have purposely chosen not the hundreds of candid pictures function of the part, why it was to the floor, take a .45 apart, put the two hatched a plan to put to- to write about that chapter in his that she took. As I read the book, engineered that way and how it the bullets back in and have the gether a book of Barbara’s photo- life. Steve was a private man and I felt like I was sitting around the helped the motorcycle to run. I weapon ready to fire. Of course, graphs chronicling their adventures wanted that part of his life kept fire with them and the ghost of realized after about 10 minutes, it would have been much easier together, which would be accom- quiet for a reason. Besides, he McQueen as they regaled me with I didn’t have an aptitude for this and safer just to keep the safety panied by her husband’s text. They should be remembered for his life, colorful stories of the past. kind of thing, and then my eyes on, but Steve wanted me to be would call it The Long Haul and not his death. He was the most in- “I believe both men and women glazed over. My days as a grease ready for a combat situation. it would cover their years together teresting man I ever knew, and my will love this photo book because monkey were over before they from 1977-1980. “When Steve was first love.” most accounts on McQueen have started. Being the dutiful part- Guess that’s why he kicked ass later diagnosed with cancer and Steve McQueen: The Last Mile, usually been from a man’s point ner I was, I nodded my head in all of his movies. checked into Cedars-Sinai Hospital with photographs by Barbara Mc- of view,” Terrill says of the book. every once in a while and said for a blood test, we both noticed Queen and text by McQueen bi- “This is a very unique and behind- the hospital had long corridors and ographer Marshall Terrill is a treat the-scene look at McQueen’s years way across Colorado, are portraits limited collector’s edition, is signed hallways. As I rolled him along in for McQueen fans and a powerful out of the spotlight.” of a time when McQueen was the by Barbara McQueen and Marshall a wheelchair, a funny thought hit tribute to one of the great film leg- Though McQueen continued man—and not the film icon. Terrill and is only available directly him,” she writes in the introduc- ends and gearheads of all time. It’s to act from 1977-1980 (An En- “The Steve McQueen I knew from Dalton Watson <www.dal- tion to Steve McQueen: The Last Mile, the book that Barbara and Steve emy of the People, Tom Horn, was anything but a movie star, tonwatson.com>. Priced at $95, to be published by automotive McQueen had first talked about in and The Hunter), many of his days and wanted to be a regular person it also includes a compact disc of publisher Dalton Watson on No- 1980, finally come to fruition. And were spent with Barbara, either on again,” writes Barbara McQueen in McQueen going over his script vember 10. it’s a beautifully designed book and visits to their getaways in Idaho, the book’s introduction. “I want to notes as he prepares to film Tom “Barbara, the long hall...get it? one any McQueen fan will want to Montana, Mexico, or just enjoying express that love for him through Horn. Once the limited editions are The long hall?” Steve said with a add to their collection of all things each other’s company. The photos, my pictures and stories which sold out, the publisher plans to sell half-smile. “I wish I could have seen McQueen. Barbara McQueen’s of McQueen on one of his many document a special time in both of a mass market version of the book the humor,” she writes. “His death amazingly candid photos of her bikes, catching a nap against a bale our lives. So this book will only be in 2007. was a long and drawn-out ordeal. late husband and Terrill’s engaging of straw on a sunny day, or enjoy- sweet, kind and nice. It’s from my To see someone ravaged by cancer, text weave together Barbara’s per- ing a beer outside his Ford truck heart to his.” s o n a l with Bar- Steve McQueen: The h i s - bara as they Last Mile, which is a t o r y , made their Cover Girl Barbara McQueen 24 November 2006 urbanmoto McQueen is Still the Man words by Jill Rothenberg photos courtesy of Barbara McQueen sinore, around the track at Indian always the guy you’d most like to tended to those outside the mo- and the kids just surrounded him. Peaks, or tooling around the back- join for a weekend ride, a bull ses- torcycle community as well. In his It was probably a hundred degrees roads of Montana and Idaho on sion, and a few beers. hardscrabble youth, growing up and I couldn’t take it. But he took a his beloved Indian Chief with third A friend of mine, a longtime rid- without a father and a largely ab- lot of time with them.” wife Barbara McQueen. er from Boston, vividly remembers sent mother, McQueen was left to When he got famous, he always “There are four million people racing a dirt bike as a kid and being find his own way on the streets. A made sure to answer letters and left who ride motorcycles in the Unit- captivated by McQueen, especially month shy of his fifteenth birthday, them $200,000 in his will. Today, ed States,” says filmmaker Bruce in On Any Sunday, The Great Es- he was sent to the Boys Republic in a large addition to the recreation Brown in the opening voiceover in cape, Bullitt, and The Magnificent Chino, California, a reform school building at the school is named in On Any Sunday as a pack of little Seven. “You sensed that the guy which he grew to admire and later his honor. boys pretend to vroom their old- was entirely capable—but that he supported. As generous as he could be at school stingray bikes over a bank also had humility and substance,” of dirt in the movie’s opening shot. he says. “We all wanted to be like “One of those people is Steve Mc- him.” He also recalls McQueen’s Queen.” respect for racing and for the pros That McQueen saw himself who did it. “Flat track is real iron- as a regular gearhead even as his man shit. And McQueen had a candid shot of Steve on the set of tough-guy-with-a-heart vulnerabil- lot of admiration for the purity The Hunter ity, don’t fuck with me attitude, and of racers’ competitive spirit. Here magnetic screen presence made were these guys driving in a van Lined up at the 1971 Elsinore him one of the great film stars of for twenty-four hours straight to Grand Prix with fifteen hundred all time, continues to endear him get to a race, usually with a broken other riders in the classic motorcy- to legions of riders everywhere.