Almost, the rest of the story:
The provenance of this original above rig at least in my opinion is absolute and used in HONDO and THE SEARCHERS.
On page 136 of John Bianchi's book there is a picture of the supposed "original" Duke rig:
It's an original but with its sewed around toe, not "THE" original.
I was a Bianchi holster dealer and asked John Bianchi prior to his book about the 1st one. He told me that to the best of anyone's knowledge, it was that Bob Brown* made the original, the unsewn toe of which shown above was his style and he used a standard square 'Anchor' brand cast buckle, followed by copies from Alfonso, and El Paso made the final one to be used for a MOVIE, 'The Shootist', which as noted above could not be used by the Duke. Later Bianchi did one in the late 1970's at the request of the Duke who of course didn't know at the time he'd never get to use it in a movie.
*Wm. Brown Holster Co., Tombstone, Arizona says John Wayne's gun belt was actually a non-functional money belt, originally made by the artist Bob Brown of Hollywood. John Wayne is listed #71 for boot tops, holster and belt on Brown's celebrity customer list here:
http://www.geostan.ca/brown.html
John Bianchi was friends with the Duke and was given the job to make the "final" Duke rig for the Duke followed up by the original commemorative rigs* Bianchi made that were very close to that final rig. And as said, too late to be used in any movie.
*They were not an "exact" copy on purpose, according to Bianchi. Some differences were minor construction details for mass production efficiency. In reading Wayne's letters to Bianchi again about Wayne wanting less cartridge loops I remembered another difference from Wayne's original and the Comm Sets. The sets all have the Bianchi standard # of cartridge loops, 24 on the smaller sizes and 30 on the waste sizes 36" and above.
According to John's daughter, our salesperson that visited us periodically as a Bianchi dealer, the commemorative sets would have the Bianchi designed Gunfighter buckle. They are an actual rendition of a 19th century style buckle that are wider than the anchor buckle. I have one original which is sterling silver plate with a brazed on loop and tongue. After a short time of selling those with his belts, they were too expensive so he switched by the time the comm. sets were produced, to a cast, nickel plated brass copy of the same size with his name cast in, a regular catalog item to this day.
