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In 1983 Kansas City Star reporter Paul Wenske flew into LA to interview me…
A few weeks later he would write a front page story with a headline likening me to Butch Cassidy. It would be my all-time favorite newspaper story about my life.
Over the years leading up to that story I had already been in the paper hundreds of times. Many during my 1974/1975 case when I was an agent for Kansas Attorney General Vern Miller. I had begun my public life with a family story in the early 1960’s when my brothers, Jack, Jeff and I appeared on the front page for Christmas riding a horse driven sleigh with my Grandpa Bennie.
Uh, that was a little different.
I was watching the 1969 movie BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID a few nights ago. I think I’ve seen that movie maybe a million times. In fact,. that was a screenplay we studied in acting/writing classes in LA when I got there in 1981. It’s considered one of the best written screen plays ever.
It’s the film that put my future life in my head; two outlaws robbing other bad guys and banks.
Hey, at least I didn’t rob any banks!
The story plays out in my book THE KING OF STING. On the back of the book is it mentions the BUTCH CASSIDY story with quotes below from comedian Lewis Black and the guy who wrote more than 200 stories on me, Hearne Christopher. He beat out Tommy Chong‘s quote and was picked by the books publishers:
"A great read. It’s the life I would have lived if I didn’t care about my reputation," it reads.
So yeah, that one hit home.
Wenske’s interview took about a week and Paul spoke to many others in LA about me, my life and the death of my partner Don Woodbeck. That also garnered many front page stories across the country, even one in the New York Times. However, it was Wenske’s story that was the best of them all.
It started off at the Polo Lounge in Beverly Hills and Wenske some of the celebrities that we sat near or spoke to. Names like Arnold Palmer. Paul mentioned my conversation with Jack Lemon and my eating lunch with Warren Beatty, Orson Welles and my then fiancee Terri Gatewood. I had a brief friendship with Welles and Beatty tried to bed my gal, Terri, the thug. Ha.
Mostly it was a tale of two men who buddied up and became sting artists off and on for more than a decade. And how my life in LA was going and the violent death of Woodbeck. In fact, Wenske ended the Star piece kinda like Paul Newman and Robert Redford‘s film ended.
The big difference is – unlike Newman and Redford – I lived to tell the story.
Woodbeck died as they did. Every time I see that film, it brings back all the adventures, prison memories, Woodbeck, our crew (gang), lost loves, trials, and of course Paul Wenske’s story.
Paul was a very nice person and worked for weeks in LA and Kansas City putting together the lengthy article. Later he would attempt to write a book on Woodbeck and I, but it didn’t work out. It would be 25 more years before a book would be written and published.
The Star had several writers cover my ups and downs. In the early days it was Art Brisbane, Wenske and Roy Wenzl. Over the past 20 years the main writers were Jeff Flanagan, Joyce Smith, and of course Hearne.
You get to know each other pretty well over time. I had several people in LA cover my escapades including Variety‘s Army Archerd and Sal Manna. All pretty good people. Because of them I received more attention from among people in this area than any other outlaw since maybe John Dillinger or Jesse James.
Maybe because we haven’t had many colorful outlaws, if any, since then.
We’ve had Mafia guys, but that’s different.
People always say, "Why him, he was a crook, a bad guy, a criminal?" Well, maybe. It happens because the story takes place over many decades and changes in tone over the years. It also happens cause the Outlaw usually does some good things as well, that’s why he is an Outlaw and not a villain. At least not all the time.
I liked being compared to my childhood hero Butch Cassidy, he was the smart one abnd Sundance was fast on the draw, like Woodbeck.
Strokin’ the Mule
Time to switch hands Glaze…..
ZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
ZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Craig is to Butch Cassidy as Alonzo Washington is to Batman!! As Alvin Brooks is to MLK. You can draw a comparison between them, but you have to have a vivid imagination and a really big crayon to make that childish leap.
Sting optioned for a movie? In the words of John Green, NYT bestselling author,
Back in the “bad” old days
Man I remember when Beatty and I would tear down La Cienega Blvd in a early model Dodge Dart with whoever we picked up that night at the King King club. We’d go back to Rikki (Rocket, the Poison drummer, voted one of the top 17 glam metal drummers of 1986 by Fortune magazine)’s apartment to play poker and at the time we ran a pretty good ‘sting’ on Bob Duff (Hillary aka Lizzie McGuires dad) who at the time ran a chain of convenience stores. Wed split the take and take a dip at the Pool Club without even taking our suits off. this was an early predecessor to the Polo club you mentioned. Sting himself (well I know him as just Gordon) was always trying to bag my finance, who we all called “the thug” because of her unfortunate 5 o’clock shadow and her ability to weild a club. There were always haters then sure, but even then the Thrifty Nickel used to write about my exploits as one of Prairie Villages most feared desperados (Waid Smithers of Waid’s cafeteria being another, he was a real heavy hitter in his day, also tried to shag The Thug a few times much to my chagrin). I cant believe i lived to blog the story, those were wild days. I outlived a lot of greats like Sir Laurence Olivier, Tupak Shakur, Teddy Roosevelt. Haters can hate all they like, it wont get them happiness. I buy lobster sometimes on the plaza. Hey it isn’t cheap but its what the lady’s like.
Ok, TOby is pretty fuckin funny.
🙂
Toby, how did we never cross paths??
I SOLD Warren that Dart!! Remember Ralph
Writers write…
…masturbators relieve themselves in “prose”. The comments are FAR better than the article. I love this bar.
hmmm
Well Paul that is interesting seeing as Ralph and I were close for many years. It is unfortunate that he got shot in that epic sting in Branson but as Billy Joe says only the good die young. That Dart didnt last as long as I would like but it certainlty did hit the “bulls’ eye” quite a few times if you catch my drift. I hear you about feeling gay because of the relationship. As i posted here on KCC (one of the top 978k blog posts of last month according to Alexa) women these days are more of a take no prisoners type these days than the girls you and I took to senior prom. And I actually did take two girls that year, boy you should have seen the look on my buddys face! Other details of yours I am not sure about, especiallyt he Palos Verdes bit. It seems like maybe you are just inventing details about some imaginary Beverly HIlls hey day just to wind me up. Hey I get it. A lot of people wish they had been in the same room as Boz Scaggs like I have on several occasions, but not every one can get a write up or several hundred quotes like me in the Nickel. I should know I have more column inches in local publications than the late great Skip Sleyster. I am also sorry Alexis didnt listen to the gender advice from the great Steve Brule. I could tell you some stories about him too but that is for another day.
Toby you LOSER!!
Dont tell me that wasnt real. I LIVED IT! Boz Scaggs was a friend of mine, I KNOW Boz Scaggs….. YOU, TOBY.. are NO friend of The Boz.
I WAS Beverly Hills, I dont NEED to invent things, LOSER. And I happen to LOVE Skip, dont be making fun of him. I’ve read some of his articles TWICE. I can drive you right to PV where I REALLY DID LIVE and where I watched Ponch do 5 lines of baking soda thinking it was coke.
I dont feel bad about Alexis, she tricked me.
I have to go now, The Captain is in town, just called me and wants to have a drink. Oh, and for you LOSERS like TOby, if thats your REAL name, yes, youre right…. thats THE Captain of Captain and Tenile fame!
Be at Cafe Trio in one hour and we’ll both kick your ass, Toby. I’ll be the big guy at the bar in sunglasses. And when you look at me, I’ll answer your first and most obvious question right HERE, right now… YES…. its ALLLL me and ALLLL natural, baby! Thats a warning, bring your dinner and 20 or 30 friends if youre gunnin for me!
I apologize if you were not really making fun of me and I took it the wrong way. I have a lot of bad flash backs. I’m sure youre a really nice guy.
skip was the original king of sting
I bought a pair of flannel sheets at his flea market. Blue, green, and maroon. I was fresh out of the joint and living in a basement apartment in midtown. So i make my bed with the new sheets. Slept like a fuckin bey bey. Next morning I go stand at the sink to brush my pearly whites. I look in the mirror….Jesus tits….my entire face, chest and arms are covered in purplish blue bruises. I freaked the fuck out. Im thinking, ” damn, Im a month out of the joint and clearly about to die from some kind of major hemmorage. ” Turns out it was the die from those shitty pakistani child labor made sheets. Scared me straight, no Seacrest. true story. seriously.
I figure Skip knew he was pushing some jinky merchandise. It was the fancy packaging that got me… no liberace on the package reference.
IF ONLY STANFORDS HAD SUCH GREAT COMEDY!
Congrats on being so clever, guys….. Glaze would be humiliated if he undersood your cerebral schtick 🙂
Craig Glaze; I have a great sugestion for getting your crap to the big screen; Sell it as a comedy! It worked for Max Bialystock, he finally procuced a hit, even if he did ultimately cool his heels, ala The Glaze, in jail. Mere coincidence?
I have even come up with a great title for y’all…. Instead of the CREAM OF BLING or whatever the current uninspiring name is, try THE PRODUCER ……….. This new title has a couple of ironic sublimital messages. One subtly points to The Glaze’s incredible facial likeness to Zero Mostel, which would unconsciously push the droves to the drive-ins, and ultimately triple the box office to about thirty heads total. Tthe second is to acknowledge obtusely, what The Glaze was NOT when (if?) he actually resided in the city limits of Hollywood 🙂
You guys are killin me…
🙂
As advertised…. drug addict, coke binger glazer finally wakes up….. showing up 2 days later, not saying a word about his pathetic picks in football… instaed he starts… telling lies….balthering on…. full of shit….. living in a fantasy world.
hearne, please dump this loser
I always wondered
why Hearne kept writing about this twerp. He was a wannabe punk in junior high and a wannabe punk in high school. Apparently still is.
HOly shit…this is gettin really crazy now
wilson’s hotter than hell…glaze is taking it from all sides….toby is about to get his ass kicked…glazes
enemies are out in full force for no reason (if you don’t like it…don’t read it)…you can screw with all thos
people…but don’t mess with sly….good guy….
wislon…did you get your bar?
all calm down…you ‘d think you were arguing over ku/mu (lol)………….
I actually just finished reading Glazer’s book and if I am ever at Stanford’s, I might have to lift a fork or something to recoup the 99 cents I spent on that literary masterpiece. Oh, check that. I won’t steal it, I’ll stop downtown and pick up a couple of crackheads, give them corny nicknames and we’ll call it a ‘sting’ to make it a little more romantic, huh?
i think i shat myself
Please calm down. If you don’t like what glaze or hearne write don’t read it. Just like I stay calm and don’t respond or call hearne and glaze liars about the number of readers.
Ooooops I did it again. Glaze stick to woodside trannies like Me.
harley is a butt plug
Harley go fuck your self you fucking idiot…. please stfu…. drop the cliches….. geeeeez your a fucked asshole. Hearne is OK, but this glazer person is 100% loser, just pathetic, and all you lill ass lickers are just annoying.
felix and the fake harley
you’re both losers. On this site..angry..pissed…writing bullshit at midnight! What the hell. Your anger and bullshit is
coming out a midnight. Nothing better to do. Maybe get some pussy to work your losers.
Yes..i will call out the writers on here about the readers…thats a discussion…i use intelligent info asking to
see if what they say is true. I asked them to prove their claims. They won’t. So I move on. No big deal.
What am i going to do…fight them over it.
So felix and fake harley…get a life…or maybe be nice to glaze and he’ll go take you out one night and
get you laid. That would be a first for you two losers on this website at MIDNIGHT…
now go jack yourself off…
My Life And Media Record Speak For Everything
I don’t need to defend. My book was well received by all, including that loser Clint Eastwood and the Eisners and Lorenz and CAA, I think they know a little bit more than you haters, who by the way never read the book or much of anything else. Well they read porn in thier cubes at work, where they go online and belittle everyone from Tom Bady to me…..bye.
I love Tom Bady, he’s a good friend
and Craig, I have read your book, not a bad read.
My living room/library has bookcases lined with about 400 First Editions and various other books on a wide range of topics. Most all of which, read. And my only porn addiction is what friends refer to as BOAT PORN, when Im tucked away in the corner silently boat shopping.
But I agree, you take it prison style on here…… but some of these guys are a match and youre GAS for their never ending supply of fuel(hot air).
Let’s be honest…
Making fun of Craig is pretty easy. He’s already so close to self-parody in these posts that all you have to do is change a few names, dates and places and voila, instant satire.
What’s really sad about these posts
PaulWilsonKC loves boat porn?
Oh I thought I was the only devotee of CaptainStabbin.com
Oh what a stanford’s waitress will do for $500…
tiad says
Welcome to the gradiose delusion….
Toby, you raise a good point
but sometimes easy takes the fun out of it.
OH… what am I saying…. I cant WAIT for the next story!!
balbonis, its an ANALOGY to porn because I spend so much time sequestered away looking at boats!! No CaptainStabbin, Captian n Tenile or Captain Kangaroo, even though the latter two are close friends.
It reminds me of the time at the Viper Room…….. I I valeted my highly customized AMC Pacer I just leased from Beverly Hills Ferrari/Pacer…. and………
Never mind, I’ve got stuff to do at the office. I’ll wait and finish this at midnight, for Harley.
Paul,
Did you buy Jardine’s?
glaze…whens movie coming out
eastwood has 2 movies…so he’s busy thru 2014..including a baseball movie with timberlake…
when is your movie coming to production? Is it still being considered…looks like other
projects are taking your spot…anything new.