The Cisco Kid
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Cisco Kid was a film, radio, television and comic book series based on the fictional Western character created by O. Henry in his short story "The Caballero's Way," published in 1907 in the collection Heart of the West. Films and television depicted the Cisco Kid as a heroic Mexican caballero, although in O. Henry's original story, he was a non-Hispanic character and a cruel outlaw.
Numerous movies featured the character, beginning in the silent film era with William R. Dunn portraying the Cisco Kid in The Caballero's Way (1914), followed by The Border Terror (1919). Warner Baxter won an Oscar for his portrayal of the Cisco Kid in the early sound film In Old Arizona (1928), 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.
The movie series with Cesar Romero in the title role began with The Cisco Kid and the Lady (1939), and Duncan Renaldo took over the reins in 1945 with The Cisco Kid Returns. Beginning with The Gay Cavalier (1946), Gilbert Roland played the character in a half-dozen 1946-1947 movies.
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[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.
[edit] Television
Renaldo returned to the role for the popular 156-episode Ziv Television series (1950-1956), notable as one of the first TV series filmed in color. His sidekick, Pancho was played by Leo Carillo. The last few seasons of Adventures of Superman, starring George Reeves as the Man of Steel, were also filmed in color in anticipation of future color broadcasts.
After a long absence, the character galloped back onto TV screens with The Cisco Kid, a 1994 TV movie starring Jimmy Smits.
The Cisco Kid's cinematic sidekick, Gordito ("Fatty"), was portrayed by Chris-Pin Martin, followed by Pancho, played by Martin Garralaga and later by Leo Carrillo. For the 1994 TV film, Pancho was played by Cheech Marin. 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, "Oh, Pancho!" "Oh, Cisco!", before galloping off, while laughing, into the sunset. Spanish-styled Western theme music was heard as the credits rolled.
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" (title drawn from a lyric in the theme of the Cisco Kid television series), he was arrested while wearing western garb and disrupting traffic. 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 TV series, The Lone Ranger, in a 1949 episode called Pete and Pedro, Pedro was a Mexican character who spoke just like the Cisco Kid and Pancho, portraying some of their characteristics in the episode.
[edit] Fiction and comics
- In Stephen King's short story "The Raft," Pancho and Cisco are used as the nicknames between the two ill-fated friends stranded on the raft.
- 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.
- In the season five finale of the television series 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.
- Moonstone Books has, as of 2006, published two miniseries about Cisco Kid.
- In Stand by Me (stephen King) chris asks gordie about the cisco kid when referring to a pistol.
- Nash Candelaria's 1988 short-story collection is entitled The Day the Cisco Kid Shot John Wayne
[edit] Music
The group War has a song "The Cisco Kid" on the album The World Is a Ghetto (1972):
- Cisco Kid was a friend of mine
- He drank whiskey
- Pancho'd drink the wine
It was their biggest ever chart hit, reaching number 2 on the US pop charts.
The song "Cisco Kid" by Cypress Hill, Method Man, and Redman also samples the song by War.
Deep Purple's "Hey Cisco" (from its 1996 album Purpendicular) is loosely based on the radio show's characters.
Sublime's song "Cisco Kid" includes sample sounds from the radio show.
The song "Without A Face" by Rage Against The Machine also references to The Cisco Kid.
The song "Hey Pancho it's Disco" by Fat Larry's Band, is a semi-humorous disco song from 1979. The song is taken from Panchos perspective as he copes with Cisco changing his name to 'Disco'.
[edit] Film
- In Old Arizona (1928)
- The Arizona Kid (1930)
- The Slippery Pearls (1931)
- The Cisco Kid (1931)
- The Cisco Kid and the Lady (1939)
- Return of the Cisco Kid (1939)
- Lucky Cisco Kid (1940)
- Viva Cisco Kid (1940)
- The Gay Caballero (1940)
- Romance of the Rio Grande (1941)
- Ride on Vaquero (1941)
- The Cisco Kid Returns (1945)
- The Cisco Kid In Old New Mexico (1945)
- South of the Rio Grande (1945)
- The Gay Cavalier (1946)
- South of Monterey (1946)
- Beauty and the Bandit (1946)
- Riding the California Trail (1947)
- Robin Hood of Monterey (1947)
- King of the Bandits (1947)
- Valiant Hombre (1948)
- The Gay Amigo (1949)
- The Daring Caballero (1949)
- Satan's Cradle (1949)
- The Girl From San Lorenzo (1950)
- The Cisco Kid (1950)
- The Cisco Kid (1994 television movie)
[edit] Listen to
[edit] External links
The Cisco Kid Episode Guide
