h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Clearly you have writing talent to go along with photo restoration talent. I'm always fascinated by the little byways of history, and tracing the fate of four tintypes is just such a byway.

I'm actually sort of surprised at how much we know about those images. Someone must have been paying attention

It's sobering to wonder whether any of the photos I take from day to day will survive for 100 years. In a way, I doubt it; they're all electronic these days, and as technology marches on, they'll become inaccessible. Already there are tape recordings from the 1960s no one can hear (I know, because I worked in an archive that had a few) because the playback machinery no longer exists.

Then again, perhaps the ones I've unleashed on the net will survive somewhere, somehow, in whatever changed form...

I'm equally fascinated. That's an enthralling story, thank you very much for telling it so well.

H&K
Z

ps how did you get on with that civil war letter, or is it still ongoing?

H&K
Z

You wouldn't _believe_ the amount of research that has been done on that boy; I didn't use the term Kidology frivolously. There are a lot of grown men who are, in some sense, in love with Billy, and weirdly possessive about him. If you get close enough, you get sucked in -- it's only half a joke for me to think like a mother about him.

He is definitely a prepotent archetype, and I have already started looking into examining his psychological profile. Starting with the fact that he had a very strong mother who was in business, dealt real estate, got involved in local politics ... and died very suddenly of TB when Henry was 14, leaving him with an absent/indifferent step-father.

Peter Pan with guns...

Unfortunately, photographs have declined in value in inverse proportion to the ease with which they can be shot. Now that even cameras are disposable -- and I used one for the first time while I was in NM because I was afraid to commit my Elan IIe to the tender mercies of Delta Airways -- it's hard to think how to make one's own work special.

Ah yes, that letter. I was well along with the cleanup when I discovered that I had screwed up. First I had to scan it sideways because it was the kind of paper that opened up like a booklet. Then I had to resize the "canvas" and rotate the image. And in the process of doing that I inadvertently clipped the bottom sentence.

I didn't see this until I got to the bottom of page 2.

I have to scan it again >sigh<.

Lil

What's a 'remuda' & a 'querida'?

Otherwise, I quite enjoyed it - Australians seem to have a similar fascination with Ned Kelly - strange isn't it, outlaws & bushrangers becoming folk heroes.

;^)#

How about some pity in reverse? Who the heck was Ned Kelly?

Same deal different country
http://www.ncs.net.au/nedkelly/html/glenrowan.htm

;^)#

querida: sweetie-pie, honey, lover, shapoopy. Spanish word off the verb 'to need', with a feminine suffix.

remuda: small herd or group. Specifically, the selection of horses a group of cowboys takes with them on a job. Also of Spanish origin.

I guess I should edit in the definitions in parantheses. Billy was fluent in Spanish, though, even though he was purebred Irish. The Hispanic population called him El Chivato which is a really multi-level and punnish term. It means young goat, scapegrace, scapegoat, and he was all of those.

Lil

I think it says something very interesting about civilization. England has Robin Hood, but he was a communist .

Lil

Until Ichecked out the website you supplied the URL for, my only knowledge of Ned Kelly was Mick Jagger, which you probably didn't want to know

But you're right, there is a lot of similarity, right down to the fact that their stories played out during the same handful of years. One major variation, though, is that Kelly was preeminent in his family, who stood with him. Billy was an underage and underweight orphan who learned to shoot because he wasn't strong enough to fight. Ned looks like he was a burly sort of chap. Was he actually hung?

Lil

You are right on both counts.


I didn't want to hear about Mick Jagger
& he was senenced to death by hanging & was hung (Kelly that is, not Jagger)

Kelly's last words were, reputedly, 'Such is life'.

;^)#

Billy's last words were,"Quien es?" (who's that), and then he was killed almost instantly by a bullet in the heart.

One presumes that a genuine sociopath wouldn't stop to ask.

Lil

p.s. got any thoughts about hanging mj?

I thought MJ was already dead - the last Stones video clip I saw he certainly looked like he'd been deceased for a while

;^)#

There seems to be alot of photos of Ned Kelly despite him wearing his trademark "Iron Mask". After his death I think people souvenired parts of his body. I have heard that his scrotum was allegely turned into a tobacco pouch, which is yet another reason not to smoke. Lets not be too hard on Mick Jagger, it was an all expenses paid holiday in Australia and he brought Marianne Faithfull with him, besides I seem to remember Bob Dylan turning up in a Billy the Kid film.

This is an abridged list of actors who have played Billy in Billy the Kid films:
-> Roy Rogers, Billy the Kid Returns (1938)
->Buster Crabbe did a whole series of Billy the Kid movies between 1941 and 1943
-> Joel McCrea, Four Faces West (1948) - based on Billy
-> Audie Murphy, The Kid From Texas (1950)
-> Don Barry, I Shot Billy the Kid (1950)
-> Scott Brady in The Law vs. Billy the Kid (1954)
-> James Dean was scheduled to play Billy but got killed, and his place was taken by Paul Newman (Left-Handed Gun, 1957).
-> Marlon Brando, One-Eyed Jacks (1961) - based on Billy
-> Jack Taylor, Fuera de la Ley (1962)
-> Michael J. Pollard, Dirty Little Billy (1972)
-> Kris Kristofferson, Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (1973)
-> Emilio Estevez, Young Guns I & II (1988, 1990)

And the following actors have played Billy on TV:
Paul Newman (again), Joel Grey, Robert Conrad, Robert Vaughan, Dennis Hopper, Clu Galager, and Val Kilmer, among others.

Lash LaRue played guess who in Son of Billy the Kid.

Source: The Illustrated Life and Times of Billy the Kid by Bob Boze Bell; 2nd Ed.

Lil

Also Lil
I think there was a Billy the Kid vampire movie but that was a bit far fetched. I don't think there were any vampires in that area around that time.

No, they had their hands full with werewolves.

Billy the Kid vs. Dracula

Chuck Courtney as Billy

See http://us.imdb.com/Title?0060168

I feel fortunate in that I have never seen this movie.

OK, I have looked up the above URL.
*holds head* I think I have a migraine coming on.

Seriously, all of this goes to underscore the question:
What is it about Billy the Kid?

Lil

Oh, sorry about the headache. In that case, you probably don't want to visit http://www.gaucho.net/Posters/0109-billy_the_kid_contra_dracula.html . Or http://www.voyagerco.com/catalog/dracula.cd/indepth/film.billykid.html .