The Cisco Kid

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First issue of The Cisco Kid

The Cisco Kid refers to a character found in numerous film, radio, television and comic book series based on the fictional Western character created by O. Henry in his 1907 short story "The Caballero's Way", published in the collection Heart of the West. In movies and television, the Kid was depicted as a heroic Mexican caballero, even though he was originally a cruel outlaw and not Hispanic.[vague]

Contents

[edit] "The Caballero's Way" (short story)

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In O. Henry's darkly humorous original story, the Cisco Kid bears little resemblance to later adaptations. The character is a twenty-five year old bandit in the Texas-Mexico border country. He kills for sport, and is responsible for at least eighteen deaths. His real name is Goodall; no first name is given in the story. The Kid's mixed-ancestry girlfriend, Tonia, fears him while pretending to be devoted. When she falls in love with a Texas Ranger, she plans to betray the Kid to her lover. However, the Kid overhears their plan, and tricks the Ranger into shooting Tonia to death. The character of Pancho is not in the story.

[edit] Movies

Numerous movies featured the character, beginning in the silent film era with William R. Dunn portraying the Kid in The Caballero's Way (1914), followed by The Border Terror (1919).

For his portrayal of the Kid in the early sound film In Old Arizona (1928), Warner Baxter won the second Best Actor Oscar. This film was directed by Irving Cummings and Raoul Walsh, who was originally slated to play the lead until a jackrabbit jumping through a windshield cost him an eye while on location.[1]

The movie series with Cesar Romero in the title role began with The Cisco Kid and the Lady (1939). Duncan Renaldo took over the reins in 1945 with The Cisco Kid Returns. Gilbert Roland played the character in a half-dozen 1946-1947 movies, beginning with The Gay Cavalier (1946).

[edit] References in movies

In the movie Stand by Me, Chris asks Gordie about the Cisco Kid when referring to a pistol.

In the 1990 David Lynch film Wild at Heart, Sailor references the Cisco Kid and Pancho when he imparts advice to his young son, "If ever somethin' don't feel right to you, remember what Pancho said to The Cisco Kid... 'Let's went, before we are dancing at the end of a rope, without music.'"

[edit] List of movies

[edit] Radio

The Cisco Kid came to radio October 2, 1942, with Jackson Beck in the title role and Louis Sorin as Pancho. With Vicki Vola and Bryna Raeburn in supporting roles and Michael Rye announcing, this series continued on Mutual until 1945. It was followed by another Mutual series in 1946, starring Jack Mather and Harry Lang, who continued to head the cast in the syndicated radio series of more than 600 episodes from 1947 to 1956.

The Cisco Kid's movie sidekick, Gordito ("Fatty"), was portrayed by Chris-Pin Martin, followed by Pancho, played by Martin Garralaga and later by Leo Carrillo for the 1950s TV series.[vague]

The Radio episodes ended with one or the other of them making a corny joke about the adventure they had just completed. They would laugh, saying, "'oh, Pancho!" "'oh, Cisco!", before galloping off, while laughing. [2]

[edit] Episode Guide

Number Title Airdate Length Notes
001 Disappearing Bullet 520722 27m00s Man gets swindled at cards and looses everything he has to a crooked dealer and ends up being accused of Murder.
002 The Meanest Man in Arizona 520724 27m58s
003 The Man Trapped in the Cave 520729 27m23s

[edit] Television series and movies

Renaldo returned to the role for the popular 156-episode Ziv Television series The Cisco Kid (1950–1956), notable as the first TV series filmed in color.[3]

After a long absence, the character galloped back onto TV screens in the 1994 made-for-TV movie The Cisco Kid, starring Jimmy Smits, with Cheech Marin as Pancho.

The TV episodes and the 1994 movie ended with one or the other of them making a corny joke about the adventure they had just completed. They would laugh, saying, "'ey, Pancho!" "'ey, Cisco!", before galloping off, while laughing, into the sunset. Spanish-styled Western theme music was heard as the credits rolled.

[edit] References in television

In a 1949 episode of The Lone Ranger, "Pete and Pedro," Pedro was a Mexican character who spoke just like the Cisco Kid and Pancho and displayed some of their characteristics.

The television series Hill Street Blues briefly featured a recurring character named Alan Bradford (portrayed by Martin Ferrero). In Bradford's first appearance, episode #58, "Here's Adventure, Here's Romance" (the announcer's first lines in the opening of the Cisco Kid television series), he was arrested while wearing western garb and stealing a horse. In an unusual twist, his delusion was not that he was the fictional Cisco Kid, but that he was the real-life actor Duncan Renaldo playing the Cisco Kid. He misidentified Hill Street supporting character Ray Calletano (portrayed by René Enríquez) as Cisco Kid actor Leo Carrillo, who'd played Pancho.

In the season five finale of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, it is revealed that Nick Stokes' father's nickname for him is "Pancho", and he in turn calls his father "Cisco". His boss, Gil Grissom, later uses the "Pancho" nickname to calm Nick down while they are trying to rescue him from a coffin that has been rigged with explosives.

[edit] Comics

  • Cisco Kid Comics, a one-shot comic book by Baily Publishing, appeared on newsstands in 1944.
  • Dell Comics published 41 issues of The Cisco Kid from 1950 to 1958.
  • Jose Luis Salinas and Rod Reed drew the Cisco Kid comic strip, syndicated from 1951 to 1967.
  • Moonstone Books has, as of 2009, published six graphic novels about the Kid.[4]

[edit] Literature

  • Nash Candelaria's 1988 short-story collection is entitled The Day the Cisco Kid Shot John Wayne.
  • In Stephen King's short story "The Raft", Pancho and Cisco are the nicknames used by the two ill-fated friends stranded on the raft.

[edit] Music

Mark Lindsay: the title character of the song "Arizona" (from the album Arizona 1970) posts a poster of Poncho and Cisco.

War: the song "The Cisco Kid" (The World Is a Ghetto 1972) reached number 2 on the US pop charts; the song also appears on their 2008 Greatest Hits Live: "Cisco Kid was a friend of mine / He drank whiskey / Pancho'd drink the wine."

Fat Larry's Band: The semi-humorous song "Hey Pancho it's Disco" (Lookin' for Love 1979) takes Pancho's perspective as he copes with Cisco changing his name to 'Disco'.

Sublime: "Cisco Kid" (Robbin' the Hood 1994) samples sounds from the radio show.

Deep Purple: "Hey Cisco" (Purpendicular 1996) is loosely based on the radio show's characters.

Rage Against the Machine: "Without A Face" (Evil Empire 1996) references the Kid.

Don Williams: in "Pancho" (I Turn the Page 1998), the Kid mournfully reflects on their friendship that has ended.

  • This song was covered in 2006 by the band Tortoise on their album Brave and bold.

[edit] Miscellaneous information

"Cisco" and "Pancho" are both nicknames given to men whose name is Francisco, which is Spanish for "Francis." The real name of the famous Mexican revolutionary general Pancho Villa was Francisco, but it is not clear whether either Cisco or Pancho were originally named after Villa.

[edit] References

  1. ^ p.19 Osbourne, Robert C. Academy Awards Illustrated 1969 Abe Books
  2. ^ At 26:49 on OTRWesterns.com you will hear the exact quote from the radio series.
  3. ^ "'Cisco Kid' for TV Via Pact With Ziv", Billboard, Sept. 24, 1949, p. 47. Commercial color television broadcasting began in 1951, but a non-network program such as The Cisco Kid could not have been shown in color on local stations before 1954.
  4. ^ Moonstone Books, accessed 12 August 2009.

[edit] Listen to

[edit] External links
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cisco_Kid"