Posted in 1957, Nicholas Ray, The Real West on April 3, 2012| Leave a Comment »
The shot above is from Nicholas Ray’s The True Story Of Jesse James (1957). Robert Wagner, as Jesse, is about to straighten the “Home Sweet Home” picture, giving Ford (Frank Gorshin) the chance to earn the $5,000 reward. This sadly neglected film was covered in this blog as part of a Nick Ray blogathon. It may be the best post I’ve stuck up here yet.
Below: Jesse and Frank James.
Posted in 1958, The Real West on June 26, 2011| 2 Comments »
Interesting story from CNN —
Billy the Kid photograph fetches $2.3 million at auction.
By Leslie Tripp, CNN
(CNN) — A 130-year-old photo, billed as the only authenticated picture of legendary outlaw Billy the Kid, sold for $2.3 million at a Denver auction Saturday night.
The Kid reportedly paid 25 cents to have the photo taken in Fort Sumner, New Mexico.
The Old West Show & Auction had estimated the tintype — an early photographic technique that used metal plates — to bring in between $300,000 and $400,000.
“When the bidding ended, the whole room erupted in clapping and people leapt to their feet,” said Melissa McCracken, spokeswoman for the auction. “I’ve never experienced anything like this before.”
The winning bidder was billionaire William Koch who founded Oxbow Carbon, with reported sales of $4 billion annually. Koch comes from a well-known family whose last name has made headlines in the past year for their political involvement.
David Koch is William’s twin. David and another brother, Charles, operate Koch Industries and are prominent conservative activists. Koch Industries is a large, privately owned conglomerate with interests ranging from petroleum to plastics to paper.
The Denver auction started with five bidders. Within two minutes, the bids shot up to a million dollars.
“The bidding was absolutely crazy,” McCracken said.
The outlaw was born Henry McCarty but was also known as William H. Bonney and Henry Antrim. Popular history has him gunning down 21 men, but many historians say the number was closer to nine. He later died at the hands of another sheriff when he was only 21.
The big photo above is Paul Newman as Billy in Arthur Penn’s The Left Handed Gun (1958). That whole picture cost less than $2.3 million.
Posted in 1953, Dorothy Malone, The Real West on March 10, 2011| 1 Comment »
Going into my research on Jack Slade (1953), I knew there was an actual Jack Slade. But I was unaware of just how close the reel Slade came to the real one.
The film gets many of the basics right. The names are for the most part correct: Joseph “Jack” Slade was married to a Virginia Dale, though it doesn’t sound like she’d ever be mistaken for Dorothy Malone, and he locked horns with a guy named Jules (played by Barton MacLane).
A few more examples. As in the picture, the young Slade killed a man with a rock. He worked as a superintendent for a stage line whose horses were being stolen out from under them. And he had a drinking problem.
You’ll find the story of the real Slade here. Sounds like he was quite a character, and like in the film, not to be tangled with. The picture deviates from the facts in one significant way: the ending. Turns out the real Jack Slade was hung by vigilantes on March 10, 1864 — as of today, 147 years ago.
50 Westerns From The 50s.