Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid Ride Again in Durango

[Bob Boze Bell]

August 18, 2012

   Big rainstorm yesterday afternoon in Durango. Wiped out our celebrity fast draw competition but it was fun hanging in the True West Railfest tent and listening to the rain beat down on the canvas. Cleared off about about three and we Zonies enjoyed the cool afternoon (this is bliss for a desert rat).

 

   Last night I had the pleasure of meeting actor Charles Diercup, who played Flat Nose Curry in "Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid." We aired the film outside the Durango depot at 8:30 as part of our True West Railfest festivities. I introduced the film and Charlie. We watched the film at the back of the amphitheater and he told me several funny stories about the making of the film, which we'll use in True West.

At six, Ken Amorosano, Sheri Riley and myself joined Paul Andrew Hutton and his son Paul Andy at Seasons Restaurant for a fine meal and then we retired to the Office Bar next to the Strater Hotel to tell more lies.

Big day today on the special presidential train. The Westerns Channel is here and we're filming new True West Moments on the ride up to Cascade and back.

"You keep thinkin' Butch. That's what you're good at."

—The Sundance Kid (Redford) to Butch Cassidy (Paul Newman)

[Wolfgang]

Sounds like a really great fun time . . . .   :)    Sorry I can't be there.  :(

I love the area . . . .

http://www.drburkholter.com/cf7.html    

[Jim Holden]

Katherine Ross -a sight to make a young man forget "Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head". Still love the train scene, "Think You Used Enought Dynamite There Butch?". LOL!

[Margaret-Anne Moore]

I believe my mother and I ate at the Strater when I was in college.  It is nice to see Charles.  If I'm not mistaken, he appeared in one of my very favorite movies:  The Sting!  Long live Scott Joplin and we will all miss Marvin!

[Jim Pettengill]

Some little known info about the train scene:

 

The studio made three special cars.  Two were made of balsa wood for the dynamite scene - the second was a backup in case the first take wasn't good enough.  The first take was great, so the second car is now in the Durango and Silverton museum, in use as a theater for videos.

 

The posse car ("Who are those guys?") was made from regular wood, and was made extra tall so that a mounted horse and rider could ride through it.  To film the scene, the riders rode up a ramp. through the car, and out the visible side.  After filming, the car was given to the county sheriff, who used it for storage on his ranch.  For a few years in the early 2000s it was at the Ridgway, Colorado Railroad Museum, then sold to a member when the museum needed more room for authentic narrow gauge railcars.  After a few more years as a tack shed, it was recently moved the the Museum of the Mountain West in Montrose,Colorado, where it is awaiting restoration.  The Union Pacific actually used posse cars to hunt the Wild Bunch and other train robbers.  Google Union Pacific posse car and you'll find good photos of the originals.

 

Jim Pettengill

Vice-president, Ridgway Railroad Museum

[Bob Boze Bell]

Jim,

   I needed you yesterday on the Durango and Silverton Line as we were filming new True West Moments and I needed extra facts (how much did the building of the rails cost per mile? How expensive was the Highline grade?) and I knew you would have been a perfect resource on the ground. Next year plan on being there on my dime.

[Marshal Harting]

While it all looks great and a lot of fun, in the interest of actual history , Butch and Sundance were never in Durango.

[Margaret-Anne Moore]

When I was in college, my mother and I took a trip to New Mexico and Colorado.  We rode the Silverton Train and she held a a special treat for me--she did not tell me that the train had been used in motion pictures, and this was before Butch and Sundance.  I understand it was used in Around the World in the 1950s.

[Bob Boze Bell]

Not sure you can say Butch and Sundance were never in Durango. Butch allegedly robbed the bank in Telluride, which is just over the mountain, and I believe Sundance worked on a ranch in the Cortez area.

[Marshal Harting]

Telluride was robbed end of June 1889. Butch was documented in Fremont Co, WY before the 1st of June 1889. He could not have done it.

[Margaret-Anne Moore]

I just remembered, that besides being in The Sting, Charles appeared in one of my very favorite episodes of Star Trek--Wolf in the Fold--where the Enterprise crew discovered the entity that was able to take human form from time to time and that was actually what we on Earth called Jack the Ripper.