Paul Newman & Katharine Ross

It was back on October 24th, 1969 that much of America became familiar with Robert Leroy Parker and Harry Alonzo Longbaugh in the persons of Paul Newman and Robert Redford.

That was on that date 40 years ago that 20th Century -Fox Released Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid. It was one of the most popular films of that time and remains one of the most popular westerns of all time.

It tells the story of Parker-Butch Cassidy, and Longbaugh-Sundance, and their lighthearted train and bank robbing adventures. Throughout their escapades they are accompanied by the Kid’s beautiful girlfriend, Etta Place (the gorgeous Katharine Ross).

Like most westerns that are any good, it’s a mixture of both fiction and fact.

Although it’s considered a classic today, the film  received decidedly mixed reviews at the time of it’s release.

Time magazine said, ”Every character, every scene, is marred by the film’s double view, which oscillates between sympathy and farce. As Butch and the Kid, respectively, Paul Newman and Robert Redford are afflicted with cinematic schizophrenia. One moment they are sinewy, battered remnants of a discarded tradition. The next they are low comedians whose chaffing relationship—and dialogue—could have been lifted from a Batman and Robin episode.”

New York liked the film far better. “Mr. Goldman ( screenwriter) makes the stuff of legend human, telling the tale of two men who run their crooked route with gusto and guts…. And not the least of the pleasures is the emergence of Redford as the fine actor he is in a role worthy of his talents, which include keeping Newman from making the entire movie his own.”

Butch Cassidy was nominated for seven Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Sound; it won for Original Screenplay, Cinematography, Score and Song (”Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head”).

The brits liked it a lot more. Over there, it received British Academy Awards for Best Film, Actor (Robert Redford), Actress (Katharine Ross), Cinematography, Direction, Music, Editing, Screenplay, and Soundtrack. Newman was also nominated for Best Actor.

Butch is the #73 Greatest Movie of All Time by the American Film Institute and #7 on its 2008 list of the greatest Westerns. It’s also listed on the National Film Registry and will be preserved in the Library of Congress.

I owe a lot to the film. Had I not seen it, I would have never heard of the mysterious Etta Place and would never have written my novel, Etta. Although my Etta is almost totally different from the one in the movie, I can’t deny that Katharine Ross was my original inspiration (and quite a heart throb at the time for a 17 -year old).

Let’s share our memories of Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid. Where did you see it (for me it was the Town Theatre in New Rochelle, New York)? When? Is it one of your favorites or are you more like the Time Magazine guy?

Write back. And happy 40 to Butch & Sundance (and Etta)!

Best,

GK

Sundance, seated left, Butch, seated right

Hi, Everyone!

It’s been a while since I’ve  posted because my Mac died. I had to get another one, etc.

But I’m still here and I’m so glad that this new blog is now starting to get replies.

Lots of folks out there are interested in the life and times of Etta Place, The Sundance Kid, The Hole in the Wall Gang, Butch Cassidy , et al.

And as far as whether or not the body of William Henry Long is really that of Harry Longbaugh (or Longabaugh), Sundance himself, seems open to debate.

Justin writes, “Well you see, a man always has a longing for home or what he considers home. Your idea sits rather well with me and i find it completely believable. Can’t hardly wait to find out the results. Did they return this man to his place of rest ?”

Get back to you on that.

Gaylen wrote me a long mail filled with info about Mr. Long, whom he says is his grandfather. He’s pretty well convinced that Bill was indeed Sundance…and if he keeps records with the degree of detail that he sent me, he should prove that he’s right in no time.

Jackie just wrote to say she likes my novel, Etta. Thanks so very much, Jackie.

And speaking of Etta, the book’s website has a new address in addition to the old one: www.ettathenovel.com

On it you’ll find bios and information about all the Wild Bunch era figures like Kid Curry, Charlie Siringo and Laura Bullion and others like Eleanor Roosevelt (yes, she’s in there), Buffalo Bill and Fred Harvey, the guy who invented the chain restaurant! It’s chock full of old photographs of the characters, it even tells you were I (ahem) deviated from history AND…I sing on it!

If you’re a Butch and Sundance (and Etta) fan, you don’t have to buy the book to enjoy the site (but you can).

Best,

GK

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid would say yee-ha!

Bernie is exactly the kid of bastard they would love to take off: rich, greedy and full of himself. The kind of guy who, back in the day have spent most of his time trying to figure out the best way to cheat farmers and Indians out of the land they worked for a lifetime. They would have taken his watch and his wallet and done it with relish.

Butch and Sundance didn’t much care for judges: but if they were around today I think they would take one look at Bernie and another at his victims and figure that the wise jurist was exactly correct in the imposing of the seven score and ten.

I heard a woman on the radio today who said she lost everything in ol’ Bern’s scheme. Money, pension, home, the work product of a lifetime.

I wish Butch was still here to do what he was said to often do for poor widows: put a few dollars in their hands and tell them not to worry.

Paul Newman & Katharine Ross.

Judging by the amount of radio interviews I’ve been doing, people really care about the Sundance Kid.

Ever since news got out that Utah filmmaker Marilyn Grace and physical anthropologist John McCullough had unearthed the remains of one William Henry Long, wireless hosts from coast to coast have been asking me for my opinion. I guess they figure it’s worth something because of all the research I did for ETTA.

Do I think, they ask, that this Bill Long could actually be the Kid? What do I think of the photo comparisons between the two men? Can DNA evidence prove that they’re one and the same?

I answer the questions as well as I can – after all I’ve got a novel to sell – but I don’t flatter myself that all this interest is a tribute to me or ETTA or even the intrepid souls digging up that body in Duchesne, Utah.

It’s actually a tribute to George Roy Hill, William Goldman, Paul Newman and Robert Redford: the team responsible for the great film, Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid.

Does anyone really think that there would be enough interest in Sundance for radio guys to call me if it hadn’t been for this classic movie? Believe me, nobody outside of western nuts would care if Grace and McCullough had found Marion Hedgepeth (who?).

It was Hill’s direction, Goldman’s script and the star power of Redford and Newman that made the two outlaws real to us. For most people Paul and Bob are Butch and Sundance and will be forever more. Photos of the real guy or not, most people will picture Redford when the DNA results are finally announced.

Truth may be stranger than fiction, but it’s nowhere near as powerful. Two screen legends were responsible for creating a western legend so strong that it’s lasted 40 years…and can still get radio types from Minneapolis to Portland to call an author in Philadelphia just to see if he’s got anything new to say about it.

Harry Longbaugh & Etta Place, New York, 1902

As a nation we seem to love outlaws and hate terrorists.

Outlaws are rebellious and romantic. They tweak the system (whatever that is), and stick it to the Man (whoever he is).

Terrorists are after our way of life; they’re not afraid of killing innocents; they can strike at any time, willing even to give their lives for a cause we view as “fanatical.”

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (and their companions like Etta Place and Ben Kilpatrick) fit our notions of the outlaw perfectly. As far as was possible in such a lawless atmosphere, they truly were Robin Hoods of the West. Butch was not known to have ever killed anyone during a criminal career that spanned more than two decades. There are many stories about him giving money and help to poor people who needed it, including riding his horse over two states to bring back medicine for a sick woman he didn’t even know. Etta was known for being polite and articulate at all times, even when robbing banks and trains.

But I wonder: if you’re the one facing the business end of the gun, what difference does the motive make? If terrorism is defined as striking fear into the victim to further your own agenda, than who cares how evil or good your assailant is the rest of the time? I don’t know about you, but if someone sticks a gun in my ribs and demands my wallet, I really am not concerned about how much of my hard-earned money he puts in the collection plate on Sunday.

As entertaining as it might have been in the movie, Butch and Sundance actually did blow up that train car on June 2, 1899. The mail clerk, a fella by the name of Woodcock, was probably scared to death when it happened and if you’d asked him if the boys were “terrorists” at that moment, he’d probably have said yes.

Authors like me aren’t blameless. In Etta, I certainly use our hero-worshipping of the outlaw to my advantage. I exploit all its romance and adventure to try and tell a good story.

But sometimes I think we’ve lost our power to tell the difference between truth and fiction. Who knows how many people have stocked up on guns because they spent their childhood watching some character played  by John Wayne extoll the virtues of an American code; a code that never existed in an Old West where most adversaries weren’t killed in fair and square showdowns, but shot in the back.

In the real world, violence is violence; and if you’re on its recieving end, the label given to the perpetrator doesn’t matter much.

Harry Longbaugh in 1902 & William Long-when?

Legend says that Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid were both killed by Bolivian federales in 1908; and up until now there’s been plenty of evidence to back that upBut now, documentary film maker Marilyn Grace and  forensic anthropologist Dr. John McCullough, say they may have found the body of Harry Longbaugh, the Sundance Kid, in a grave in Duchesne, Utah.Three months ago, they dug up a grave in the Duchesne City Cemetery.

According to the headstone, the remains are those of William Henry Long, a rancher long dead. Local people claim Long had a shady past and was rumored to have been an outlaw. He lived with a woman with six kids from around 1894 until he died in 1936. If he wasHarry, that would have made him 69 years old when he headed for the last roundup. Because of all the research I had to do for my novel, Etta (Ballantine Books), I was skeptical. All of the evidence seemed to point to Bolivia as the place of death for both of my heroes.But the photo above made me wonder. I’ve been looking at the gent on the left for the past decade (it’s a detail of the double portrait with Etta Place that serves as the frontispiece for Etta), and I think the two shots are remarkably similar, down to the cleft on the chin. And the name, William Henry Long, is similar enough to Harry Longbaugh so that that Sundance couldn’t easily get tripped up.

My biggest problem is that from what I know about old photos, the pictures seem to have been taken around the same period of time – the early 1900’s. Grace and McCullough say they will be trying a DNA match with one of Harry Longbaugh’s descendants to prove their theory.

It’ll be interesting to see what comes up, especially since the last page of my book leaves Harry’s fate open to question.

Maybe I was right.