TODAY IN 1967..... =============== .....the movie Bonnie and Clyde, a story of Texans filmed largely in Texas, was first seen at the Montreal Film Festival. My job with the Frisco Enterprise in 1966 took me to Pilot Point each Wednesday where I dropped off copies of the Signal-Citizen. It was in the fall of 1966 that I took my wife Nikki and our toddler first child Katy to see Faye Dunaway signing autographs and then going over to the filming of a bank robbery scene set in front of a bank building that Bonnie and Clyde actually robbed. Bonnie and Clyde garnered 10 Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Warren Beatty), Best Actress (Dunaway), Best Supporting Actor (Gene Hackman, Michael J. Pollard) and Best Story and Screenplay. Taking home Oscars were Estelle Parsons for Best Supporting Actress and Burnett Guffey for Best Cinematography. Bonnie and Clyde is a milestone in the history of American movies, a work of truth and brilliance, reported Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times (9/25/67). This movie fostered an interest in the admired and feared Texas outlaws. From research and interviews with historians and authors, it is obvious that, at times, the movie departed greatly from the facts. Bonnie Parkers role in the Barrow Gang has long been a source of controversy. Gang members W.D. Jones and Ralph Fults testified they never saw Bonnie fire a gun, and described her role as logistical. Writing with Phillip Steele in The Family Story of Bonnie and Clyde, Marie Barrow, Clydes youngest sister, said: Bonnie never fired a shot. She just followed my brother no matter where he went. In his interview with Playboy magazine, W.D. Jones: As far as I know, Bonnie never packed a gun. Maybe shed help carry what we had in the car into a tourist-court room. But during the five big gun battles I was with them, she never fired a gun. But Ill say she was a hell of a loader. On Sept. 25, 1926, less than a week before her 16th birthday, Parker married Roy Thornton. The marriage was short-lived, and in January 1929 they separated but never divorced. Parker was wearing Thorntons wedding ring when she died. His reaction to his wifes death was, Im glad they went out like they did. Its much better than being caught. On March 5, 1933, Thornton was sentenced to five years in prison for burglary. He was gunned down by guards on Oct. 3, 1937, during an escape attempt from Eastham Farm prison. They knew they would die, but they would die together. It was a love story that shamed Romeo and Juliet, said L.J. Boots Hinton spokesman for the Bonnie & Clyde Ambush Museum in Gibsland, La., 39 miles east of Bossier City just off I-20. Hinton is the son of Deputy Sheriff Ted Hinton, a Texan who was one of the lawmen who participated in the actual ambush.Warner Bros.-Seven Arts Bonnie and Clyde was a huge winner at the box office, grossing $22.8 million, good for No. 4 on the list of the top moneymaking films of 1967. First-time movie producer Warren Beatty reaped a huge payday, earning a whopping 40 percent of the films gross. Much of Bonnie and Clyde was filmed on location in Texas. Filming locales included Dallas, Rowlett, Pilot Point, Denton, Garland, Lemon Lake, Waxahachie, Maypearl, Venus, Red Oak, Midlothian, Ponder (where the bank in the movie was actually robbed) and along the Trinity River.
Posted on: Mon, 04 Aug 2014 17:03:20 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015