Rudy Robbins - Moving To Bandera, Texas

Moving To Bandera, Texas

After military service, Robbins moved to Bandera, a small community west of San Antonio which calls itself "The Cowboy Capital of the World". He worked there for a time as a wrangler at the Dixie Dude Ranch until he was offered a speaking but unnamed role as one of the Tennessee Volunteers in John Wayne's epic The Alamo, which was filmed not in San Antonio but near Brackettville in Kinney County in south central Texas. In The Alamo, Robbins was involved in a short dialogue repeated several times during the film: a fellow-Tennessean would review a developing situation and ask Robbins, "Do this mean what I think it do?" Robbins would reply, "It do." Thereafter, John Wayne called Robbins by the nickname "It Do"; one of Robbins' treasured possessions is a souvenir Alamo mug addressed to "It Do" from "Duke", Wayne's nickname.

After The Alamo, Robbins went to Hollywood but returned semi-permanently to Bandera in 1971 though he was on tour for many of the following years.