(First in a series on Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, in real life, in the movies, and in my magic-realist fiction. Not much about language in the series.)
A few photos, two from real life and one from the 1969 movie, with additional movie images in a link.
First, brief background:
Harry Alonzo Longabaugh (1867 – November 7, 1908), better known as the Sundance Kid, was an outlaw and member of Butch Cassidy’s Wild Bunch in the American Old West. Longabaugh likely met Butch Cassidy (real name Robert Leroy Parker) after Parker was released from prison around 1896. Together with the other members of “The Wild Bunch” gang, they performed the longest string of successful train and bank robberies in American history.
After pursuing a career in crime for several years in the United States, the pressures of being pursued, notably by the Pinkerton Detective Agency, forced Longabaugh, his girlfriend Etta Place, and Cassidy to abandon the United States. The trio fled first to Argentina and then to Bolivia, where Parker and Longabaugh were reportedly killed in a shootout in November 1908. (Wikipedia link)
Robert Leroy Parker (April 13, 1866 – November 7, 1908), better known as Butch Cassidy, was a notorious American train robber, bank robber, and leader of the Wild Bunch gang in the American Old West. (Wikipedia link)
The famous posed picture of (some of) the Wild Bunch:
(#1)
Front row left to right: Harry A. Longabaugh, alias the Sundance Kid, Ben Kilpatrick, alias the Tall Texan, Robert Leroy Parker, alias Butch Cassidy; Standing: Will Carver, alias News Carver, & Harvey Logan, alias Kid Curry; Fort Worth, Texas, 1900
(There are other photos of some of these men, mostly unposed shots in which they’re very hard to make out. But here they are in sharp focus, proud and tough, in their best clothes.)
Then there’s Etta Place. From Wikipedia:
Etta Place (born circa 1878, date of death unknown) was a companion of the American outlaws Butch Cassidy (real name Robert LeRoy Parker) and the Sundance Kid (Harry Alonzo Longabaugh), both members of the outlaw gang known as the Wild Bunch. Principally the companion of Longabaugh, little is known about her; both her origin and her fate [she simply disappeared] remain shrouded in mystery.
Sundance and Etta:
(#2)
Then the movie. From Wikipedia:
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is a 1969 American Western film directed by George Roy Hill and written by William Goldman (who won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for the film). Based loosely on fact, the film tells the story of Wild West outlaws Robert LeRoy Parker, known as Butch Cassidy (Paul Newman), and his partner Harry Longabaugh, the “Sundance Kid” (Robert Redford), who are on the run from a crack US posse after a string of train robberies. The pair and Sundance’s lover, Etta Place (Katharine Ross), flee to Bolivia in search of a more successful criminal career, where they meet their end.
The leads — as Butch, Etta, and Sundance — from the movie:
(#3)
Photos of Newman and Redford together in the movie in my posting “Male beauty” of 3/10/16 (with a section about Redford).
Bonus: my 6/3/12 posting “Balloons”, about the phrase “Who ARE those guys?” from the movie.
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