New Bonnie and Clyde mini series on the History Channel

[V.C. Brunswick]

Thanks for posting that, Rusty.

This tendency of ours to glamorize criminality and gunplay really needs a reality check. I say "ours" because I include myself in that number. I'm fascinated by Prohibition and Depression era gangsters and robbers (and more recent ones), too, just as youngsters these days glorify their swaggering "ganstas." But it's a miserable life, and often a short one. And the characters are usually quite stupid, too. Those rare smart crooks are the ones you never hear about.

I've always believed that one should be good at what one does. But I too have noticed that crime is the one area of human endeavor where the vast majority of its practitioners are not very good at what one would presume to be their chosen "craft."

 

[RBH]

....
The actual subject were, well, to call them "plain" or "homely" would be generous. I think the casting director could have easily found talented, ordinary-looking actors for the roles, but the choice of these two immediately shouted "extra cheesy" to me.

While I do not know... most books I have read about the duo have stated that Bonnie was ''pretty''.
I will not comment on Clyde.

 

[Zombie_61]

While I do not know... most books I have read about the duo have stated that Bonnie was ''pretty''...

I've also read numerous accounts in which she was described as "pretty" or "attractive", though she might not be considered so by modern definitions of "beauty". Also, I'm sure the difficult and stressful life she led being constantly on the run with Clyde during the last two years of her life (approximately) weren't favorable to her appearance.

 

[tonyb]

^^^^^

Yeah, a hard life can be hard on a person's looks. I see some decidedly haggard looking street-walking types and it occurs to me that many of these unfortunate souls were at least reasonably attractive young women not so many years ago.

Not that this has any direct bearing on the subject at hand. Still, though, there's usually something to find appealing in most anyone's looks. It is all in the eye of the beholder, after all.

 

[KILO NOVEMBER]

I somehow got two versions of the photos uploaded, but, QED.

As for the numerous accounts, how many of these originated in newspaper accounts? While their careers were after the hey day of "yellow journalism", accounts of attractive villains certainly sold more papers than accounts of plain villains.

 

[Stearmen]

Here are a couple of better photos of the two. Maybe, a little above average in the looks department. I know, Bonnie was short even for the times, she was under 5 feet. But she could weald a sawed of BAR, spraying the area with big thirty-aught-six rounds!

 

[Zombie_61]

Here are a couple of better photos of the two...

Just to be clear, in the first photo that is William Daniel "W.D." Jones with Bonnie, not Clyde Barrow. W.D. Jones was part of the "Barrow Gang" from December, 1932, to September, 1933, and he was one of two people the fictional character "C.W. Moss" was primarily based on in the 1967 Bonnie and Clyde movie.

 

[Zombie_61]

Well, that didn't take long. Barely ten minutes into it, and they're already playing fast and loose with the facts. lol

 

[Gregg Axley]

Poetic License.
I didn't record it until I get the reviews from the FL.
It will come on again I'm sure.

 

[Zombie_61]

Poetic License.

Yep, and they're using quite a lot of it.

 

[Kirk H.]

Yep, and they're using quite a lot of it.

You can say that again......

 

[Zombie_61]

...the phrase "based on", the mention of P.J. Lane (a fictional character, as far as I know), and the omission of W.D. Jones (who ran with the Barrow gang for approximately eight and a half months) lead me to believe it won't be entirely factual. And the comments about Parker being "intent on becoming famous," and how she "pushed Barrow to commit riskier, more dangerous crimes to generate bigger headlines and make them the most famous criminals of the modern era," make me think the production will play up on the "romanticized" image of the couple that was so prevalent in newspaper articles published during their days on the run (an image that couldn't have been further from the truth)...

*sigh* I wish I'd have been wrong when I wrote this way back in post #6. So far it's not quite as bad as I thought it would be, but it's at least as much fiction as fact.

 

[Formeruser012523]

Yeeeeah.

:doh:

 

[2jakes]

Clyde C. Barrow"s letter to Ford Co.

+1 on the cars in this series !

 

[emigran]

The cars a re great and the hats aren't bad either... BUT...way too much pretty and stylized gloss... And the COMMERCIALS make me nuts... don't think I'll even watch part two... I already know how it ends...

 

[p51]

I liked it. But it seems odd that they never addressed Clyde having a thing for guys?

Can't wait for part 2, I am sure I saw a very rare Colt Monitor machine gun being used in the preview!

 

[Zombie_61]

I liked it. But it seems odd that they never addressed Clyde having a thing for guys?

That's probably because he didn't. Most experts cite a book called The Dillinger Days, first published in 1963, as the initial source for the rumors of the Barrow gang's "aberrant" sexuality because author *John Toland claimed Barrow and W.D. Jones were gay and that Parker was a nymphomaniac. These rumors were further fueled when the original scriptwriters for the 1967 Bonnie and Clyde movie wrote Barrow as being bisexual. Members of the Parker and Barrow families and W.D. Jones have all stated there was absolutely no truth to the rumors, and experts have discredited Toland's claims as having no historical basis and being nothing more than unsubstantiated literary license.


*It should be noted that Toland's forte as a Pulitzer Prize winning author was historical chronicles of World War II, and that The Dillinger Days was his only book in the "true crime" genre.

 

[Stearmen]

That's probably because he didn't. Most experts cite a book called The Dillinger Days, first published in 1963, as the initial source for the rumors of the Barrow gang's "aberrant" sexuality because author *John Toland claimed Barrow and W.D. Jones were gay and that Parker was a nymphomaniac. These rumors were further fueled when the original scriptwriters for the 1967 Bonnie and Clyde movie wrote Barrow as being bisexual. Members of the Parker and Barrow families and W.D. Jones have all stated there was absolutely no truth to the rumors, and experts have discredited Toland's claims as having no historical basis and being nothing more than unsubstantiated literary license.


*It should be noted that Toland's forte as a Pulitzer Prize winning author was historical chronicles of World War II, and that The Dillinger Days was his only book in the "true crime" genre.

Some of this comes from the fact that Clyde was raped by another inmate while in prison. This was later sensationalized, even though he had no say in the brutal rapes. There is little doubt that Clyde later beat the prisoner to death with a pipe, he was not convicted, a prisoner who was serving a life sentence took the fall. So no, he was not Gay.

 

[Stearmen]

There has been a lot of debate on whether Clyde ever owned a Tommy Gun or even shot one. One fact that is certain, there were no Tommy Guns present on either side at the final ambush.

 

[RBH]

This is a good site.

http://texashideout.tripod.com/posse.html