Visiting the Mystery of Etta Place
I had the honor of portraying Etta Place in a PBS Movie of the week called Gunfighters of the Southwest/Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid.
I was working in California at the time when I got a call from a cast director in New Mexico, Teresa Neptune with Rainbow Casting Service. Teresa is very well known for casting many of the major films/TV series which were filmed in New Mexico at this time, such as; The Cowboy Way, Buffalo Girls, Lazarus Man, The Hi-Lo Country, All the Pretty Horses and many more. She asked if I was interested in working on this project and if so please be here on this date. She had casted me for several other projects in the past and knew that I was dependable, knowledgeable, always willing to help out and I could handle horses and ride very well. So in a few days I was working on Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid!
Click the link to see parts of the film http://vimeo.com/6002810
Posted by Tony Hays
The story of Etta Place is rather more mysterious because it would appear that she chose to disappear, not long after the reported deaths of her lover, Harry Longabaugh and his friend, Robert Leroy Parker, better known to posterity as the Sundance Kid and Butch Cassidy. What makes it doubly mysterious is that we don't even know her real name or from whence she came. Katherine Ross did a wonderful job fixing her image in the public consciousness in the 1969 movie "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," elevating her to near iconic status. But all that did was birth a generation of Etta Place fans.
I would never claim to be a true Etta Place aficionado; I happened on the conundrum she poses quite by accident. In fact, I was a little surprised that the world had simply swallowed Etta up. But I quickly learned that except for about 12 years at the most, Etta Place didn't exist.
The majority of the experts agree that Butch and Sundance probably met Etta at a bordello around 1900. The Pinkerton Agency, which had a strong interest in Etta, described her as attractive, speaking with an educated tone. Estimates of her birth year range from 1878 to 1882 or 1883. Rumors suggest that she was a cousin of Longabaugh's since Longabaugh's mother was a Place. General consensus holds that Sundance met Etta at Fannie Porter's bordello in San Antonio about 1900. By 1909, Etta had ridden off into the sunset, while Sundance and Butch were said to be dead in South America. Indeed there are those researchers who say that Etta died in South America as well. Acquaintances, what few there were, called Etta beautiful and said that she spoke with a refined accent. Without ever saying anything explicit, she indicated that she hailed from the East Coast. Pinkerton Detective Agency reports supported this as well. Only a handful of people knew her well enough as Etta Place to offer descriptions – Annie Bassett, Josie Bassett, and Laura Bullion among these. This trio of young ladies were the girlfriends of various members of the Wild Bunch, the outlaw gang of which Butch and Sundance were a big part.
Etta (or Ethel) Place might not have been her real name, which could add to the mystery...Who was Etta Place and where did she go?
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