Michael Thessen
While historians debate of the fate of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, the capital story of Etta Place is significant as any event that defines the Old West. Mistress to Sundance and matron to Butch, Etta was a notorious desperada, beautiful and well-read, an excellent horse-rider, and an expert markswoman. In 1901, on the lam from Pinkertons’, the family of three fled to Argentina where Detective Frank Dimaio tracked them to their ranch near the small village of Cholila. In 1908, Dimaio reported: ’I know nothing of Etta Place, but believe she met the Sundance Kid in a house of ill-fame and became his common law wife. She returned to the United States while the Kid and Butch stayed in South America and were apparently killed in Bolivia by Soldaleros-although some believe they escaped.’ Based on the oral history of Sadie Albin-aka Etta Place-Pinkerton Waltz is the irrefutable saga of the family of three settling in anonymity on their cattle ranch in the ghost town of Greenhorn, Colorado in 1910. In 1966, when Sadie’s husband Eli (the Sundance Kid) passes away, she befriends Mary Iris, a cub newspaper reporter. Separated by generations, they develop an unfailing relationship and Sadie reveals her true identity. Pinkerton Waltz is a journalistic reconstruction of Sadie’s lucid memories of the family of three. Sadie begins, 'Dead outlaws make great legends. You bet. Better to get it from the horse’s mouth than some horse’s ass.' Pinkerton Waltz peeks under the bedclothes at Fanny Porter’s Sporting House in San Antonio, where, at fifteen, Etta’s infamy began. On Sadie’s 94th birthday, she recalls riding with the Wild Bunch-robbing banks and holding-up trains-and dancing with Pinkertons’ along The Outlaw Trail. For half a century, Sadie lived an epic life to escape Etta’s legendary past. Eli is mentored by Ernest Blumsenschein, co-founder of the Taos Artists Colony; Joseph (Butch Cassidy) promotes a barnyard-boxing match between The Manassa Mauler and a victorious mountain man; the family of three bottle moonshine in a still hidden beneath the bear cage at the Greenhorn Zoo. Pinkerton Waltz celebrates an ancient Chinaman named Boc Yow and laments the demise of the American cowboy. In the beginning, Etta dances a jitterbug to bring finality to a frenetic folklore. In the end, Sadie whispers the truth, soothing as a cradlesong. www.pinkertonwaltz.com
