Cisco Kid

I used to have a television that occasionally got a weak signal station from Fort Erie, Ontario over here in Buffalo. And I got to relive a little childhood seeing episodes of Cisco Kid and the Lone Ranger.

Unlike the Ranger all of Cisco's stuff was in color. Great foresight because a whole lot of westerns that were done in black and white can't be given away now.

Cisco was quite the guy. A gentleman always, a righter of wrongs, and an amazingly tolerant guy to keep Pancho around. Unlike Tonto who was really useful to the Lone Ranger, I think Cisco kept Pancho around for laughs. He was slow on the uptake, but devoted to Cisco, and someone you didn't have to worry about betraying you.

I thought and still Cisco was great. Many friends in my age group and slightly older who are of Latino background told me how much Cisco meant to them as a role model. He was such a good guy, I wonder what he did that made him an outlaw in the first place.

O Henry spent much time in border towns on the American side and in old Mexico himself. In writing The Caballero's Way and introducing us to Cisco, he gave us another universal hero. Cisco will be syndication 100 years from now.

Duncan Renaldo and Leo Carrillo were a couple of Hollywood veterans with substantial credits. But they will always be known as the Cisco Kid and Pancho.

By the way, did Pancho have a last name?

The cries, "Hey, Poncho! Hey, Cisco" are something none of us who grew up with this TV western will ever get out of heads and why should we?

This western, I believe, is the second one I ever recall watching (after "The Range Rider") and the first recall with great fondness and a knowledge that a lot of people also liked this show. They had to, to have it run six years.

To be honest, I remember the Cisco Kid's partner, "Pancho" (Leo Carillo) more than I remember him, although Duncan Renaldo is not forgettable. He was a charismatic good guy, a real straight arrow and a great role model for small kids. I was the perfect age (6-12) to enjoy these episodes of a western that was made more for us in mind than adults.

Pancho, if I recall, mainly provided comedy relief...and that was fine with us kids. We loved him. You couldn't ask for a more loyal sidekick, even if he wasn't the most brilliant person.

Before the revolution brought about by the "adult" Westerns or 1955+ (Gunsmoke, Maverick, etc, the one's as a young boy I liked best) there were the kiddie Westerns: Wild Bill Hickock, The Range Rider, Buffalo Bill Jnr, The Lone Ranger and The Cisco Kid. Based (supposedly) on an O. Henry story, there was probably more kinship with Don Quixote and Sancho Panza - and formulaic B-Westerns of the '30s and '40s. One thing set this apart from others of their ilk: I met Duncan Reynaldo! I was a very young boy but I still treasure the memory of this friendly kind gentleman.

The Cisco Kid was originally introduced in O. Henry's "The Caballero's Way".

However,in the book he was a dangerous desperado, not the "Robin Hood" type character created in the TV series, etc.

This comment is in answer to a request by another commenter.

He could not find out where the Cisco Kid character came from.

He could not find it in his collection of O. Henry works.

I hope this has been of some help to him.

I find it really difficult to make this simple comment 10 lines.

If you would like to research it yourself, you can do so on-line.

Simply type in O'Henry.

Look up his biography, and short stories.

There you will find "The Caballero's Way" listed.

Who can forget these two cavalier Mexican heroes, The Cisco Kid, played by the dashingly handsome Duncan Renaldo and Pancho, his loyal sidekick, played wonderfully by Leo Carillo. When I was a boy, the "Cisco Kid" was a weekly series and I never missed it. Both of these actors are long buried and mostly forgotten. The message they delivered to their young audiences each week was the same message delivered by so many other oater serials of the day; always stand up for the rights of the underdog. If your friends and neighbors need help, it's up to you and other good people to come to their assistance. After all, it's the honorable thing to do. Although Renaldo and Carillo faded into relative obscurity in the years following their T.V. series, I'm sure they went to their final rewards feeling a large measure of satisfaction for the positive affect that their little t.v. program had on the lives of so many youngsters during their formative years.