1890's Rambler from the movie "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid"

[jimbo53]

Tried to find info on the bike used in the movie, but not much on the internet. What I did find was a uncorroborated statement that it is a Rambler. Any confirmation pro or con on this? Also that Paul Newman did all the stunt riding except the crash into the fence scene. A stunt double performed that.

Also tried to find out where the iconic bike is now and any history as to what happened to it after the movie. Found out it was auctioned by Southey's of LA in 1971. This was excerpted from the New York Times:

"One of the keenest competitions was for the bicycle that Paul Newman rode in “Butch Cassidy and the Sun dance Kid” in a scene that also featured Mr. Bacharach's song, “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head,” for which he won an Academy Award.

Mr. Bacharach, with his wife, Angie Dickinson, bid from a gallery, out of sight of most of the audience. Bids quickly got above $1,000 as Miss Dickinson several times prodded her husband to bid. But Mr. Bacharach decided to stop at $3,000 and lost to the television producing team of David Winters and Bert Rose, who said they bought the bicycle as a gift for Mr. Newman's wife, Joanne Wood ward. They paid $3,100."

Anybody able to add anything to this?

 

[bike]

top pic seems to be of a different bike-

 

[jimbo53]

top pic seems to be of a different bike-

Wouldn’t be surprised if they had more than one bike for the production, and would probably have had a hard time finding exact period correct bikes of same model and manufacture. Remember reading they used 3 different Captain America bikes in “Easy Rider” and several different Mustangs for “Bullitt” and “Gone in 60 Seconds”

 

[bricycle]

First bike pic has an extended fork tube(neck).
All three have a coaster brake.

 

[jimbo53]

First bike pic has an extended fork tube(neck).
All three have a coaster brake.

Wonder if that extended fork tube was created for Paul to do that side stand trick shown. I’ve looked at a bunch of other stills of the bike from the movie and this is the only shot with that extended fork tube. Here are 2 other shots of the bike from the movie.
Would bikes of this era be fixed drive and not coaster hub? Not very well educated on these turn of the century bikes, so appreciate the knowledge base here.

 

[bricycle]

believe 1 or 2 coasters came out in 1899 some more after 1901-2
first pic MAY be a different bike as well the fork head seems taller in second two pics.
>> could be he broke the top tube front weld and we are seeing the top tube edging past the frame fork head?(why he is wearing that silly grin)

 

[jimbo53]

Here’s the clip of the bicycle scene. Looks like the side stand trick wasn’t in the final cut. Gotta give Paul Newman props for his riding skill and Katherine Ross for her balancing skills and not getting her toes cut off in the front spokes!

 

[DonChristie]

What a classic! Paul was the man!

 

[ccmerz]

Bike looks British to me.....

 

[gkeep]

Some of the shots he seems to be wearing hi-top converse Allstars painted black, others pull on leather boots.

Those scenes were shot at the town of Grafton outside the south entrance to Zion National Park. A friend of mine's family were original founders of Grafton in the late 1850s. We stopped there about 10 years ago. The old cemetery holds some of his Gibson ancestors. Cool place to check out if you ever get to Zion. Bring your bowler hat, TOC bike and plenty of camera memory, it's very iconic southwest scenery.
https://www.google.com/maps/@37.1674014,-113.081274,91m/data=!3m1!1e3.