

According to William Goldman, when he first wrote the script and sent it out for consideration, only one studio wanted to buy it, and that was with the proviso that the two lead characters did not flee to South America. When Goldman protested that that was what had happened, the studio head responded, “I don’t give a shit. All I know is John Wayne don’t run away.” Goldman rewrote the script, “didn’t change it more than a few pages, and subsequently found that every studio wanted it.”
William Goldman said that many young people saw the super posse in ‘Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,’ as a metaphor for the government and authority during the years of anti-war protests. He said his students said the similarity lay in the relentlessness by which both “would hunt you down.”
There are many interesting, historical bits to discover in the Bunny Yeager Archive at the University of Miami Special Collections. Bunny Yeager was clearly the “world’s prettiest photographer,” and was into “finding regular girls around Miami,” in the 1960s. She had famously photographed Bettie Page in several exotic locations across Florida too.
Debbie Evans is considered one of Hollywood’s top stunt women. The writing was on the wall from the age of six when she started riding motorcycles in her hometown of Lakewood, California. By the age of nine she started competing in the sport of motorcycle trials. Her father, David Evans competed in motorcycle observed trials and she grew up attending motorcycle competitions and learned her riding and trials skills from her father. He is an icon himself, having been featured in the seminal motorcycle documentary movie, “On Any Sunday.”
Continue readingBo Diddley was a singer and guitarist who invented his own name, his own guitars, his own beat and, and with a handful of other musical pioneers, rock ’n’ roll itself. In the 1950s, as a founder of rock ’n’ roll, Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis and a few others reshaped the sound of popular music worldwide, building on the template of blues, Southern gospel, R&B and postwar American vernacular culture.
Continue readingIn 1972, Kenny Roberts was a youthful 21 years old AMA Rookie of the Year. An immensely talented and thoroughly analytical rider, Roberts was already three years into his professional racing career, and two years into a factory Yamaha contract. However, he was still not much known outside of the USA. Roberts went on to finish 2nd in the AMA Grand National Championship that year, his first season as an expert class rider.
The classic anti-establishment movie “Cool Hand Luke,” was based on a novel written by the American author, Donn Pearce. In the novel, Pearce writes about the personal experiences he went through during his own time spent on a Florida Department of Corrections chain gang, and those of stories of legendary prisoners retold over and over. Pearce was particularly raptured when he heard stories of one prisoner whose legend eclipsed all others, named Luke (Lucas) Jackson, which later became the main character of the film.
Continue reading“Rita Moreno knew how to make her cheating boyfriend jealous long before the age of social media. The task is simple; just a three-step process. First, date screen legend Marlon Brando. Second, find evidence of his affair (what would be the first of many). Third, get asked on a date by Elvis Presley and accept. While this seems like a page of Old Hollywood fan fiction, this was, in fact, Moreno’s life.” –From the pages of Vanity Fair.
Continue readingIn 1949, Bettie Page moved to New York with aspirations of becoming an actress. It was there she met one of America’s first ‘fetish’ photographers, Irving Klaw. From 1952 to 1957, Page worked as a model for Klaw for both his photographs and films, earning her the media nickname, “The Queen of Bondage.”