Veteran cross-country skiers know, making skate or classic laps along an expertly groomed track can be one of winter’s greatest pleasures. It’s a fantastic workout, a great way to get out into nature during the winter and—no offense to Utah’s mountain resorts—much easier on your wallet than alpine skiing. Think you might be interested in giving this all-ages sport a go? Following are a few ways both newbies and experienced Nordic skiers can prep for the coming skinny-skiing season.
Getting Fit
“In cross-country skiing, and almost every other sport, the core is super important,” says Laurie Humbert, a member of the 1994 U.S. Biathlon team, Nordic ski coach and co-lead of The Utah Nordic Alliance’s (TUNA) adult dryland training sessions. “The action of all the distal muscles (muscles in your limbs) originate from your core.” And by core, Humbert is talking about more than your abs. “The core runs from the bottom of your neck to your hips, front and back.”
Specific exercises Humbert recommends to strengthen your midsection include…
Planks—sustaining the top of a pushup position. Try adding leg circles and doing side planks as well.
Pilates 100s—lifting your shoulders and legs off the ground while moving your arms up and down with your breath.
Super-mans—lifting and holding your arms and legs off the ground from a prone position.
Bridge poses—using your feet to lift your lower body off the ground while lying on your back.
Though cross-country skiing is a practice in simultaneous arm-and-leg action, most of the activity’s power comes from the legs. Get your lower half in ski-shape by doing…
Lunges and walking lunges— to both strengthen the quads and open the hip flexors.
Lateral exercises—like side lunges and side shuffles.
Ski bounding—energetic, continuous leaping up a grassy hill, with or without ski poles.
In addition to leading fall dryland sessions, Humbert stays fit throughout the winter by leading weekly on-snow workouts at Mountain Dell. Visit utahnordic.org for details and to register.
Northern Utah Nordic Centers
Big Mountain Pass Road (S.R. 65), Parley’s Canyon, 5 km groomed two to here times per week by TUNA, free admission, no dogs, utahnordic.org/sr-65.
Jeremy Ranch Nordic Center, Park City, rentals and private lessons, day pass required, no dogs, thejeremy.com/nordic.
Mountain Dell, Parley’s Canyon, 10 km groomed daily by TUNA, pay for a day pass at the fee post or via Venmo or Paypal, no dogs, utahnordic.org.
North Fork Park, Weber County, 20 to 30 km of grooming for classic and skate skiing, snowshoeing and fat biking by Ogden Nordic, lessons, day pas required, leashed dogs allowed, ogdennordic.com.
Round Valley, Park City, 25 km of multiuse track, open to skiers, snowbikes, hikers, and off-leash dogs, free admission, mountaintrails.org.
Solitude Mountain Resort Nordic Center, 20 km groomed track, lessons, rentals, full-day or half-day pass required, no dogs, solitudemountain.com.
Soldier Hollow Nordic Center, Midway, 30 km groomed track, lessons, rentals, biathlon programs, no dogs, utaholympiclegacy.org.
Spruces Campground, in Big Cottonwood Canyon, 5 km track groomed several times per week by the U.S. Forest Service, free admission, no dogs.
Sundance Resort Nordic Center, Provo Canyon, 15 km of grooming, rentals and lessons, full-day or half-day pass required, no dogs, sundanceresort.com.
White Pine Touring Nordic Center, Park City, more than 15 km of groomed loops, rentals, lessons, kid-trailer rentals, full day or after-3 p.m. pass required, no dogs, whitepinetouring.com
Gearing Up
Functional, cool-looking gear and duds for hitting the track.
Leki PRC 650 ski poles. These sturdy-but-light carbon poles feature The Nordic Shark, a grip/strap system with quick-release pole straps allowing quick detachment from your poles to answer a phone call, pick up after your dog, or high-five your buddy after climbing a slope.
Smith Bobcat sunglasses. Google-like coverage with the airflow and light weight of sunglasses is what you’ll get with these stylish shades. Each pair comes with a dark lens for bluebird days and a clear one for when it’s not so sunny.
Swix Dynamic pants. Since cross-country skiing is such a cardiovascular-heavy sport, breathability is key in clothing. These pants have breathable, wind-proof and water-resistant front panels; comfortable, multi-directional stretch; and zippered leg openings, making them easy to get in and out of.
Colorful, tart and a seasonal must-have, cranberries are the perfect complement to holiday menus. Roast turkey, duck and goose all benefit from the mouth-puckering acidity of cranberries. But it’s time to give them a tasty twist. These easy-to-make variations on the classic sauce will have you and your guests asking for more. (P.S. Think beyond Thanksgiving sides. Whole raw cranberries freeze beautifully for a month, so try later with duck, rack of lamb, or grilled chicken and jack cheese.)
Put a Spin on Cranberry Sauce
THE BASIC CRANBERRY SAUCE (Makes about 2 1/2 cups)
1 cup water
¾ cup sugar
1 12-oz. package of cranberries
Bring sugar and water to a boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Add cranberries, bring back to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes or until berries start to burst. Cool.
1) Cranberry-Apple Sauce
Substitute the juice of half an orange for the 4 Tbsp. water. Zest the orange and finely dice. Chop 1 tart apple into cranberry-sized pieces and add the apple and zest to sugar water with the cranberries. Proceed with the basic recipe. Season with ground cinnamon to taste after removing sauce from the heat. Garnish with apple fan.
2) Spiced Cranberry Sauce
Add to basic sauce after removing from the heat: ½ tsp. ground cinnamon 1∕8 tsp. ground allspice 1∕8 tsp. ground cloves 1∕8 tsp. ground nutmeg 1 ½ tsp. grated, peeled fresh ginger Garnish with crystallized ginger.
3) Chili Cranberry Sauce
Substitute 1/4 cup white wine for 1/4 cup of the water. Seed and chop a ripe, mild chili pepper (an Anaheim or poblano; or substitute 1/2 ripe red bell pepper and 1/2 ripe jalapeño pepper) and add to water with the berries. Proceed with basic recipe. Garnish with fresh red pepper.
4) Cranberry-Port Sauce
Skip the water. Cook cranberries, 3/4 cup sugar, 3/4 cup orange juice and 2 Tbsp. grated orange rind together until just a few berries burst. Add 1/2 cup ruby port and cook another 2-3 minutes, until most of the berries have burst. Garnish with orange rind.
Many of us have memories of perfectly can-shaped cranberry jelly on the holiday table. That’s great, but if you’re looking for a way to jazz the jelly up a bit, here are a few ideas:
Serve the jelly in slices.
Add texture by sprinkling the jelly slices with chipped, toasted pecans.
Chill the jelly thoroughly, slice and shape with small cookie cutters.
Mash the jelly so that it resembles jam and garnish with orange zest.
KICK THE CAN
Many of us have memories of perfectly can-shaped cranberry jelly on the holiday table. That’s great, but if you’re looking for a way to jazz the jelly up a bit, here are a few ideas:
Serve the jelly in slices.
Add texture by sprinkling the jelly slices with chipped, toasted pecans.
Chill the jelly thoroughly, slice and shape with small cookie cutters.
Mash the jelly so that it resembles jam and garnish with orange zest.
Four Twists on Mashed Potatoes
Basic Mashed Potatoes
Serves 6
2 lbs. potatoes
1 tsp. salt
1 cup milk or half-and-half
6 Tbsp. butter
1 egg
salt and pepper
Peel and quarter potatoes. Put them in a large pot with enough cold water to cover them. Add salt and bring water to a boil. Lower heat to medium and simmer potatoes until they are tender when pierced with a fork (15-20 minutes). Drain the potatoes, add the butter and mash with a ricer or electric mixer. Add the egg and beat it into the potatoes with a wooden spoon. Add milk or cream and continue to mash until fluffy.
Roasted Tomato Potatoes
Fold 3 oven-roasted tomatoes, coarsely chopped, into hot mashed potatoes.
Blue Potatoes
Fold ½ cup crumbled blue cheese into hot potatoes. Top each serving with bacon bits.
Pakora Potatoes
Fold 1 tsp. Turmeric, ½ tsp. curry and 1 cup of frozen peas into hot mashed potatoes.
Pesto Potatoes
Fold ½ cup basil pesto into hot mashed potatoes. Garnish with toasted pine nuts.
Add-ons and Stir-ins for Cornbread
Jalapeno + Scallions + Cheese
Mince 3 seeded jalapenos. Grate 6 oz. sharp cheddar cheese. Slice scallions to make 1/3 cup . Stir all ingredients into the batter at the end. Sprinkle with cotija cheese crumbles when baked.
Lemon + Blueberry
Add 1/4 cup sugar to the batter. Zest one lemon. Gently stir 1 cup blueberries with 1 tsp. flour, add lemon zest and berries to the batter. Sprinkle the batter lightly with sugar and bake.
Cranberries + Pecans
Stir 1 cup chopped cranberries with 1 tsp. flour. Chop 1/2 cup pecans and fold berries and nuts into the batter after mixing wet and dry ingredients.
Caramelized Onion
Slice one medium onion. Melt 3 Tbsp. butter in an iron skillet and arrange the onion slices in the pan. Cook slowly over medium-low heat until the onions brown. Pour in batter and bake. Invert to serve.
Tips:
-Preheat your oven and your skillet—grease the skillet and put it in the oven while you mix the batter.
-Use stoneground meal for better flavor and texture.
Mary’s Fave Cornbread Recipe
2 cups stoneground cornmeal
1 tsp. salt
2 tsps. baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup buttermilk
2 eggs
1 cup creamed corn
2 Tbsp. butter
Preheat oven to 425 and place a 10” skillet in the oven. Combine the buttermilk, eggs and creamed corn. Combine the dry ingredients and add to the egg mixture. Stir to combine. If the batter is too thick, add a bit more buttermilk. Put the butter in the hot pan and tilt it to coat evenly. Pour in the batter and bake until the top springs back to the touch—about 25 minutes.
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“I’m 26, I’m Single, I’m a schoolteacher, and that’s the bottom of the pit.” The line, spoken by actor Katharine Ross as Etta Place in the 1969 film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, stood out. After all, I too am a 26-year-old unmarried woman and I cringed at the line. Sure. That might have been true for many women on the frontier in the 1890s. But it wasn’t just dismissiveness, it was the overt neglect by screenwriter William Goldman to develop Etta’s character at all. (Goldman won an Oscar for the script, BTW.) Goldman and the producers had spent eight years researching the origins of Butch and Sundance, tracking down childhood homes and first-hand accounts so they could tell the story. So what of Etta Place? If she was indeed a trusted member of The Wild Bunch and an accomplice to Sundance and Butch during their escape to South America, as the film depicts, surely she was more than a doe-eyed love interest. I wanted to learn more about this woman. I wanted to know: How did this school teacher become one of only five women in The Wild Bunch? What led her to a life on the run? Unlike Goldman, I wanted to find the real Etta Place.
Robert Redford, Katharine Ross, and Paul Newman in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Photo courtesy of the Everett Collection.
Despite Etta’s noteworthy role in the bandit group, her life before is obscure. Only one known photo of her remains, taken by the famous portraitist De Young in 1901 after her wedding to Harry Longabaugh in New York.
Ms. Place: She was born around 1878 in either Castle Gate or Price here in Utah, but other accounts place her birth in Texas or Pennsylvania. She was well-spoken, arrestingly beautiful and may have been educated on the East Coast. Skilled on horseback and an even better shot with a rifle, historians believe she first joined The Wild Bunch at their Hole-in-the-Wall hideout around 1896. And from the De Young portrait we know she was married to Sundance around 1900. After that photo was taken Sundance, Etta and Butch boarded the SS Herminius in New York bound for Argentina under the names Mr. and Mrs. Harry Place and James Ryan, according to the ship’s 1901 registry.
How Etta came to meet two of the Wild West’s most infamous outlaws remains a mystery, as does her fate after fleeing to South America. Throughout my hunt for the truth, three central theories about her origin emerged.
Theory No. 1: The Calculating Courtesan
Etta might’ve first encountered Sundance Kid and the Wild Bunch gang during their many (many) visits to Texan bordellos. High-class ladies of the night worked at Fannie Porter’s brothel in San Antonio, where it’s possible Etta Place took up residence as a young woman. Porter offered her girls’ hospitality to high-paying customers, including outlaws flush with ill-gotten cash. Fannie Porter’s was a rendezvous for The Hole-in-the-Wall gang after fleeing the scene of various train robberies and stick-ups.
Front row left to right: Harry Longabaugh, alias the Sundance Kid, Ben Kilpatrick, alias the Tall Texan, Robert Leroy Parker, alias Butch Cassidy. Standing: Will Carver, alias News Carver, and Harvey Logan, alias Kid Curry; Fort Worth, Texas, 1900. Photo credit Wikepedia Commons.
Etta married Sundance in 1900 and joined The Wild Bunch in their escapades, assisting them with getaway horses and posing as a distraction. Although no marriage license exists, a Pinkerton Agency memorandum from July 29, 1902 states Mrs. Place “is said to be [Sundance’s] wife and to be from Texas.” The Pinkerton Agency, a private security force paid by the railroads to protect trains from robbers and hunt outlaws, was always one step behind the outlaws. After getting ahold of Sundance and Etta’s 1901 De Young portrait in New York, agent William A. Pinkerton complained in a letter to his brother “It shows how daring these men are, and while you are looking for them in the wilderness and mountains they are in the middle of society.”
Although it’s unclear if Etta was truly a high-priced prostitute, she almost certainly was not a schoolteacher. This piece of revisionism as depicted by the film, can be attributed to screenwriter Goldman who didn’t want to portray his ingenue as a prostitute. “To me, she had to be a schoolteacher,” Goldman recalls in his book Adventures in the Screen Trade. And so our Etta went from soiled dove to eye-batting school teacher on the silver screen.
Theory No. 2: The Noblewoman
Accounts depict her as a woman of class and education. So it’s not far-fetched to believe that Etta might’ve come from a well-off family. Biographer Ed Kirby notes in his book Rise and Fall of the Sundance Kid that Etta was the daughter of George Capel, the son of the sixth Earl of Sussex. (The surname “Capel” just so happens to be an anagram of “Place,” coincidence?) Kirby believed Etta’s mother was actress Jane Place, who happened to be a sister to Anne G. Place Longabaugh—none other than the Sundance Kid’s mother. Was Etta actually related to Sundance? An article from a Sept. 29, 1991 issue of St. George newspaper The Daily Spectrum corroborates the theory, writing “Etta Place was in fact, Sundance’s cousin, not his lover as popularized in the movie.”
Theory No. 3: The Rancher Turned Rustler
The most popular theory, supported by timeline comparisons, lifestyle similarities and photo analysis posits that Etta Place may have actually been Ann Bassett, another bold frontier woman who lived during the late 19th century. Members of the Outlaw Trail History Association have been chasing this theory for some time, particularly researcher Doris Karren Burton.
In her book, Queen Ann Bassett (Alias Etta Place), Burton notes similarities between the two women. Bassett, also born in 1878, was raised by cattle ranchers in Brown’s Park (on the Northwest border of Utah and Colorado). Citing the 1962 book Where the Old West Stayed Young by John Rolfe Burroughs, Burton describes Ann as an actress, “She could play the role of a cultured young gentlewomen; or she could be a perfect little hell-cat. She was spirited and high-strung, and a tempestuous daredevil.”
Ann Basset. Photo courtesy of Uintah County Regional History Center
Life on the ranch was hard, and hostile competition among Cattle Barons necessitated the Bassett sisters take up shooting and horsemanship. During this lawless time, the family often turned to illicit methods in order to protect their land. The sisters became cattle rustlers (cattle thieves) who formed alliances with outlaws laying low in the area, including Butch Cassidy himself. Burton believed the sisters formed close, perhaps even romantic, relationships with the Wild Bunch members. “Ann was in love with Butch Cassidy,” she writes. Although she quickly turned her attention to Sundance, “Ann Bassett soon tired of one man,” says Burton. “And Sundance liked the women.” Eventually, Ann is chased out of Brown’s Park for rustling and travels to Texas in February of 1901. In 1902, she returned to her family home, citing her time away as traveling in South America. Hmm.
In addition to their penchant for mischief, educational background and notable event timelines, the two women also share striking physical resemblance. Burton asked Dr. Thomas G. Kyle of Los Alamos National Laboratory to compare Etta’s De Young portrait and a verified image of Ann using NASA’s facial recognition technology.
The finding reported the two images were likely the same person, with the odds being 5,000 to one. Burton concludes “The 1-5000 chance is based only on the photo analysis, and greatly increases adding the fact Etta and Ann were in the same areas at the same time and knew the same people.”
So, mystery solved? Nothing involving women and history is ever so simple. What seems like conclusive evidence is challenged by reports of Ann’s later life. In which she stood trial for cattle rustling during the same period Etta would’ve been in South America. Ann settled in the Southwestern Utah town of Leeds until her death in 1956, not once confirming her alleged double life as Etta Place.
Katharine Ross as Etta Place in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Photo courtesy of the Everett Collection.
What of Etta’s Fate?
What happened to Etta once she left for South America with Butch and Sundance is as much a mystery as her origin. Between March 1901 and June 1904, Etta might’ve made several visits back to the United States to visit family and receive medical treatment. The Pinkertons even traced Etta and Sundance to the World’s Fair in 1904. Researcher Doris Burton claims Etta visited Denver in 1904 for appendicitis treatment, other historians believe she faked her own death and returned to Fort Worth under the name Eunice Gray. Another theory purports that Etta left Butch and Sundance in South America and traveled to Paraguay where she married famous boxing promoter Tex Ricar. Other historians assume Etta was accompanied by Sundance from Chile to San Francisco in 1905 and remained there while he returned to South America.
Etta Place remains the true mystery in the otherwise well-researched history of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, an ethereal and elusive figure. The Wild Bunch might’ve intentionally obscured her identity, but I suspect this is just another case of history giving little attention to women. One thing is sure. She was a damn good criminal. As Robert Redford’s Sundance says, “No one expects a woman.”
Meet Four More Outlaw Ladies of Note
Laura Bullion aka ‘Rose of the Wild Bunch’
Wanted For: Bank Robbery, Train Robbery and Forgery
Born to a Texan train robber, Laura Bullion became acquainted with outlaws William Carver and Ben Kilpatrick at the age of 13. After working on and off at Fannie Porter’s brothel, a popular hideaway for the Wild Bunch and other Western outlaws, Bullion made her way to Utah with Carver where she met Cassidy and the others. Known to sell stolen goods, disguise herself as a man during robberies, and provide the outlaws with a steady supply of horses, Bullion quickly caught the attention of detectives and national media. In 1901 Bullion was found in possession of $8,500 in unsigned stolen banknotes and was arrested for forgery and robbery. After her sentence, Bullion would go on to live a civilian life in Memphis under the alias Freda Bullion Lincoln
Fannie Porter
Wanted For: Harboring Criminals and Vagrancy
Madam Fannie Porter ran a high-end ‘boarding house’ in San Antonio in the late 1800s. The luxurious bordello became a popular hideout for Butch Cassidy and the rest of the Wild Bunch and is theorized to be the place that Sundance Kid met Etta Place, who may have been working as a prostitute for Porter. Although she was well connected and respected, Porter was arrested briefly in 1880 for vagrancy (read: prostitution). Her boarding house remained a pitstop for outlaws on the run, and its rumored she threw Sundance and Butch one last going away party before the outlaws fled the country.
The Basset Sisters Ann and Josie
Wanted For: Cattle Rustling, Assisting Outlaws and Suspected Mariticide
Ann and Josie Bassett became respected troublemakers for defending their homestead ranch in Brown’s Park against cattle barons (think Kevin Costner’s Yellowstone). Capable frontier women, the sisters also received formal education on the East Coast and were known for their silver tongues and striking good looks. The sisters formed close relationships with famed gunslingers, including Butch Cassidy who Ann dated at 15. Josie would go on to date Wild Bunch member Elzy Lay, and the sisters were two of only five women to know the location of the gang’s hideout, Robber’s Roost. Ann and Josie both lived into their 70s, Josie married five times with one husband suspected of having died of poisoning. Josie also claimed Cassidy visited her in 1930 and lived in Utah until his death in the late 70s. None of her claims have ever been corroborated.
Stops and Sights on the Outlaw Trail
Stop #1 Robber’s Roost
A hard-to-find desert hideaway, Robber’s Roost lives up to its elusive legend. To find the hole-in-the-wall, make your way to Hanksville near Capitol Reef. Head north on S.R. 24 for 16 miles and keep an eye out for a brown sign for Hans Flat Ranger Station, then take a right. All that remains of the rugged refuge is a crumbling stone fireplace and an underlying tone of mischief.
If You Go… Bring plenty of water and some emergency supplies, there aren’t any Wild Bunch women to offer supplies and fresh horses should your life of crime lead you astray.
Views from the Cassidy Trail
Stop #2 The Cassidy Trail
Beneath courtly red rock cliffs and otherworldly hoodoos lies a trail frequented by both well-meaning hikers and wanted criminals. The Cassidy Trail winds through Red Canyon inside the Dixie National Forest and was a popular route for Butch to evade the law and pursuing Pinkertons. The trail was also a major location for the 1969 movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. If You Go… Cassidy Trail starts at Red Canyon trailhead in Red Canyon, look for a discreet parking lot at the first left after passing the visitor center.
Stop #3 Brown’s Park
An isolated valley along the Utah and Colorado border, Brown’s Park has been home to fur trappers, cattle rustlers, cowboys and outlaws since the 1800s. Its remote location and protection from harsh weather made it a frequent pitstop to Butch Cassidy, Sundance Kid, and the Basset Sisters. Referred to as a place where “The Old West Stayed Young,” Brown’s Park has become a ritzy outdoor destination.
If You Go… There’s lots to do inside Brown’s Park, but if you just have a day or are passing through, take the Brown’s Park Scenic Backway. Traveling through Diamond Mountain, into Brown’s Park and crossing the Green River, the 2-hour drive will give you a peek into what life on the trail looked like for Cassidy and his Wild Bunch.
The legend of Etta Place has inspired historians and Western enthusiasts everywhere, including a couple in Torrey who named their cidery after the outlaw queen herself. As the first and only modern booze manufacturer in Wayne County, Etta Cidery is keeping the spirit of Torrey’s bandit background alive and well.
Ann and Robert Torrence came to Southern Utah in 1993, and after discovering their new land came with irrigation rights, they wasted no time laying roots. “I never do anything in small numbers,” says Ann. “I started planting every apple varietal I could get my hands on, and everything worked.” Etta Place Cider’s orchards boast over 500 trees and 90 different apple varieties, almost all of which go towards their in-house hard cider production. With assistance from head cider maker Travis Nelson, the cidery now offers eight flavorful products, like Gingerbread Hard Cider and Rhubarb Peach Wine.
Etta Cidery’s Anne Torrence.
The Cidery sells most of its products directly to consumers via special ordering to 40 states, as well as local venues like Scion Cider and Lucky 13 Bar and Grill. And if you happen to find yourself in Capitol Reef, Ann and Robert offer tours and tastings year-round. The pair have also put in for a full-bar license, and are looking to expand a tap room once approved.
Apples aside, Ann remains fascinated with the lore of Etta Place, a woman who embodied both the rustic values of the Old West and a refined nature. “That tension between rustic and refined has informed a lot of decisions we’ve made with the cidery,” says Ann. “We consider her the OG outlaw in our area and we’re the OG cidery in Torrey.” As for the mystery of the outlaw queen, Anne likes to believe Etta made her way back to San Francisco in 1906 and lived out the rest of her days happy and healthy. “She made a clean getaway, she was the smart one after all.”
“I’m 26, I’m Single, I’m a schoolteacher, and that’s the bottom of the pit.” The line, spoken by actor Katharine Ross as Etta Place in the 1969 film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, stood out. After all, I too am a 26-year-old unmarried woman and I cringed at the line. Sure. That might have been true for many women on the frontier in the 1890s. But it wasn’t just dismissiveness, it was the overt neglect by screenwriter William Goldman to develop Etta’s character at all. (Goldman won an Oscar for the script, BTW.) Goldman and the producers had spent eight years researching the origins of Butch and Sundance, tracking down childhood homes and first-hand accounts so they could tell the story. So what of Etta Place? If she was indeed a trusted member of The Wild Bunch and an accomplice to Sundance and Butch during their escape to South America, as the film depicts, surely she was more than a doe-eyed love interest. I wanted to learn more about this woman. I wanted to know: How did this school teacher become one of only five women in The Wild Bunch? What led her to a life on the run? Unlike Goldman, I wanted to find the real Etta Place.
Robert Redford, Katharine Ross, and Paul Newman in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Photo courtesy of the Everett Collection.
Despite Etta’s noteworthy role in the bandit group, her life before is obscure. Only one known photo of her remains, taken by the famous portraitist De Young in 1901 after her wedding to Harry Longabaugh in New York.
Ms. Place: She was born around 1878 in either Castle Gate or Price here in Utah, but other accounts place her birth in Texas or Pennsylvania. She was well-spoken, arrestingly beautiful and may have been educated on the East Coast. Skilled on horseback and an even better shot with a rifle, historians believe she first joined The Wild Bunch at their Hole-in-the-Wall hideout around 1896. And from the De Young portrait we know she was married to Sundance around 1900. After that photo was taken Sundance, Etta and Butch boarded the SS Herminius in New York bound for Argentina under the names Mr. and Mrs. Harry Place and James Ryan, according to the ship’s 1901 registry.
How Etta came to meet two of the Wild West’s most infamous outlaws remains a mystery, as does her fate after fleeing to South America. Throughout my hunt for the truth, three central theories about her origin emerged.
Theory No. 1: The Calculating Courtesan
Etta might’ve first encountered Sundance Kid and the Wild Bunch gang during their many (many) visits to Texan bordellos. High-class ladies of the night worked at Fannie Porter’s brothel in San Antonio, where it’s possible Etta Place took up residence as a young woman. Porter offered her girls’ hospitality to high-paying customers, including outlaws flush with ill-gotten cash. Fannie Porter’s was a rendezvous for The Hole-in-the-Wall gang after fleeing the scene of various train robberies and stick-ups.
Front row left to right: Harry Longabaugh, alias the Sundance Kid, Ben Kilpatrick, alias the Tall Texan, Robert Leroy Parker, alias Butch Cassidy. Standing: Will Carver, alias News Carver, and Harvey Logan, alias Kid Curry; Fort Worth, Texas, 1900. Photo credit Wikepedia Commons.
Etta married Sundance in 1900 and joined The Wild Bunch in their escapades, assisting them with getaway horses and posing as a distraction. Although no marriage license exists, a Pinkerton Agency memorandum from July 29, 1902 states Mrs. Place “is said to be [Sundance’s] wife and to be from Texas.” The Pinkerton Agency, a private security force paid by the railroads to protect trains from robbers and hunt outlaws, was always one step behind the outlaws. After getting ahold of Sundance and Etta’s 1901 De Young portrait in New York, agent William A. Pinkerton complained in a letter to his brother “It shows how daring these men are, and while you are looking for them in the wilderness and mountains they are in the middle of society.”
Although it’s unclear if Etta was truly a high-priced prostitute, she almost certainly was not a schoolteacher. This piece of revisionism as depicted by the film, can be attributed to screenwriter Goldman who didn’t want to portray his ingenue as a prostitute. “To me, she had to be a schoolteacher,” Goldman recalls in his book Adventures in the Screen Trade. And so our Etta went from soiled dove to eye-batting school teacher on the silver screen.
Theory No. 2: The Noblewoman
Accounts depict her as a woman of class and education. So it’s not far-fetched to believe that Etta might’ve come from a well-off family. Biographer Ed Kirby notes in his book Rise and Fall of the Sundance Kid that Etta was the daughter of George Capel, the son of the sixth Earl of Sussex. (The surname “Capel” just so happens to be an anagram of “Place,” coincidence?) Kirby believed Etta’s mother was actress Jane Place, who happened to be a sister to Anne G. Place Longabaugh—none other than the Sundance Kid’s mother. Was Etta actually related to Sundance? An article from a Sept. 29, 1991 issue of St. George newspaper The Daily Spectrum corroborates the theory, writing “Etta Place was in fact, Sundance’s cousin, not his lover as popularized in the movie.”
Theory No. 3: The Rancher Turned Rustler
The most popular theory, supported by timeline comparisons, lifestyle similarities and photo analysis posits that Etta Place may have actually been Ann Bassett, another bold frontier woman who lived during the late 19th century. Members of the Outlaw Trail History Association have been chasing this theory for some time, particularly researcher Doris Karren Burton.
In her book, Queen Ann Bassett (Alias Etta Place), Burton notes similarities between the two women. Bassett, also born in 1878, was raised by cattle ranchers in Brown’s Park (on the Northwest border of Utah and Colorado). Citing the 1962 book Where the Old West Stayed Young by John Rolfe Burroughs, Burton describes Ann as an actress, “She could play the role of a cultured young gentlewomen; or she could be a perfect little hell-cat. She was spirited and high-strung, and a tempestuous daredevil.”
Ann Basset. Photo courtesy of Uintah County Regional History Center
Life on the ranch was hard, and hostile competition among Cattle Barons necessitated the Bassett sisters take up shooting and horsemanship. During this lawless time, the family often turned to illicit methods in order to protect their land. The sisters became cattle rustlers (cattle thieves) who formed alliances with outlaws laying low in the area, including Butch Cassidy himself. Burton believed the sisters formed close, perhaps even romantic, relationships with the Wild Bunch members. “Ann was in love with Butch Cassidy,” she writes. Although she quickly turned her attention to Sundance, “Ann Bassett soon tired of one man,” says Burton. “And Sundance liked the women.” Eventually, Ann is chased out of Brown’s Park for rustling and travels to Texas in February of 1901. In 1902, she returned to her family home, citing her time away as traveling in South America. Hmm.
In addition to their penchant for mischief, educational background and notable event timelines, the two women also share striking physical resemblance. Burton asked Dr. Thomas G. Kyle of Los Alamos National Laboratory to compare Etta’s De Young portrait and a verified image of Ann using NASA’s facial recognition technology.
The finding reported the two images were likely the same person, with the odds being 5,000 to one. Burton concludes “The 1-5000 chance is based only on the photo analysis, and greatly increases adding the fact Etta and Ann were in the same areas at the same time and knew the same people.”
So, mystery solved? Nothing involving women and history is ever so simple. What seems like conclusive evidence is challenged by reports of Ann’s later life. In which she stood trial for cattle rustling during the same period Etta would’ve been in South America. Ann settled in the Southwestern Utah town of Leeds until her death in 1956, not once confirming her alleged double life as Etta Place.
Katharine Ross as Etta Place in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Photo courtesy of the Everett Collection
What of Etta’s Fate?
What happened to Etta once she left for South America with Butch and Sundance is as much a mystery as her origin. Between March 1901 and June 1904, Etta might’ve made several visits back to the United States to visit family and receive medical treatment. The Pinkertons even traced Etta and Sundance to the World’s Fair in 1904. Researcher Doris Burton claims Etta visited Denver in 1904 for appendicitis treatment, other historians believe she faked her own death and returned to Fort Worth under the name Eunice Gray. Another theory purports that Etta left Butch and Sundance in South America and traveled to Paraguay where she married famous boxing promoter Tex Ricar. Other historians assume Etta was accompanied by Sundance from Chile to San Francisco in 1905 and remained there while he returned to South America.
Etta Place remains the true mystery in the otherwise well-researched history of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, an ethereal and elusive figure. The Wild Bunch might’ve intentionally obscured her identity, but I suspect this is just another case of history giving little attention to women. One thing is sure. She was a damn good criminal. As Robert Redford’s Sundance says, “No one expects a woman.”
Meet Four More Outlaw Ladies of Note
Laura Bullion aka ‘Rose of the Wild Bunch’
Wanted For: Bank Robbery, Train Robbery and Forgery
Born to a Texan train robber, Laura Bullion became acquainted with outlaws William Carver and Ben Kilpatrick at the age of 13. After working on and off at Fannie Porter’s brothel, a popular hideaway for the Wild Bunch and other Western outlaws, Bullion made her way to Utah with Carver where she met Cassidy and the others. Known to sell stolen goods, disguise herself as a man during robberies, and provide the outlaws with a steady supply of horses, Bullion quickly caught the attention of detectives and national media. In 1901 Bullion was found in possession of $8,500 in unsigned stolen banknotes and was arrested for forgery and robbery. After her sentence, Bullion would go on to live a civilian life in Memphis under the alias Freda Bullion Lincoln
Fannie Porter
Wanted For: Harboring Criminals and Vagrancy
Madam Fannie Porter ran a high-end ‘boarding house’ in San Antonio in the late 1800s. The luxurious bordello became a popular hideout for Butch Cassidy and the rest of the Wild Bunch and is theorized to be the place that Sundance Kid met Etta Place, who may have been working as a prostitute for Porter. Although she was well connected and respected, Porter was arrested briefly in 1880 for vagrancy (read: prostitution). Her boarding house remained a pitstop for outlaws on the run, and its rumored she threw Sundance and Butch one last going away party before the outlaws fled the country.
The Basset Sisters Ann and Josie
Wanted For: Cattle Rustling, Assisting Outlaws and Suspected Mariticide
Ann and Josie Bassett became respected troublemakers for defending their homestead ranch in Brown’s Park against cattle barons (think Kevin Costner’s Yellowstone). Capable frontier women, the sisters also received formal education on the East Coast and were known for their silver tongues and striking good looks. The sisters formed close relationships with famed gunslingers, including Butch Cassidy who Ann dated at 15. Josie would go on to date Wild Bunch member Elzy Lay, and the sisters were two of only five women to know the location of the gang’s hideout, Robber’s Roost. Ann and Josie both lived into their 70s, Josie married five times with one husband suspected of having died of poisoning. Josie also claimed Cassidy visited her in 1930 and lived in Utah until his death in the late 70s. None of her claims have ever been corroborated.
Explore the Outlaw Trail
Stop #1 Robber’s Roost
A hard-to-find desert hideaway, Robber’s Roost lives up to its elusive legend. To find the hole-in-the-wall, make your way to Hanksville near Capitol Reef. Head north on S.R. 24 for 16 miles and keep an eye out for a brown sign for Hans Flat Ranger Station, then take a right. All that remains of the rugged refuge is a crumbling stone fireplace and an underlying tone of mischief.h
If You Go… Bring plenty of water and some emergency supplies, there aren’t any Wild Bunch women to offer supplies and fresh horses should your life of crime lead you astray.
Stop #2 The Cassidy Trail
Beneath courtly red rock cliffs and otherworldly hoodoos lies a trail frequented by both well-meaning hikers and wanted criminals. The Cassidy Trail winds through Red Canyon inside the Dixie National Forest and was a popular route for Butch to evade the law and pursuing Pinkertons. The trail was also a major location for the 1969 movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
If You Go… Cassidy Trail starts at Red Canyon trailhead in Red Canyon, look for a discreet parking lot at the first left after passing the visitor center.
Stop #3 Brown’s Park
An isolated valley along the Utah and Colorado border, Brown’s Park has been home to fur trappers, cattle rustlers, cowboys and outlaws since the 1800s. Its remote location and protection from harsh weather made it a frequent pitstop to Butch Cassidy, Sundance Kid, and the Basset Sisters. Referred to as a place where “The Old West Stayed Young,” Brown’s Park has become a ritzy outdoor destination.
If You Go… There’s lots to do inside Brown’s Park, but if you just have a day or are passing through, take the Brown’s Park Scenic Backway. Traveling through Diamond Mountain, into Brown’s Park and crossing the Green River, the 2-hour drive will give you a peek into what life on the trail looked like for Cassidy and his Wild Bunch.
“Hands down,this is my all-time favorite dessert,” says Tara “Teaspoon” Bench, author of Delicious Gatherings: Recipes to Celebrate Together. The rich apple cake reminds her of the dense steamed puddings her grandma used to make and she serves it year-round, especially during peak apple season in the fall. “It’s subtly spiced and full of the tart and sweet taste of apples, plus crunchy pecans,” Bench says. Bench is a food-focused author, content creator and blogger. The Utah-native Bench has penned and prepared countless mouth watering dishes. When Bench visits Utah from her current home in New York City, she naturally stirs things up. “My mom and I love to cook,” says Bench, who also relishes entertaining. Follow her on Instagram @tarateaspoon.
Tara “Teaspoon” Bench. Photo by Ty Mecham.
SERVES: 12 TO 14
HANDS-ON TIME: 40 MINUTES
TOTAL TIME: 2 HOURS, 55 MINUTES
APPLE PUDDING CAKERECIPE
2 cups (256 g) all-purpose flour
1 cup chopped pecans
½ teaspoon nutmeg
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon fine salt
4 cups grated apple, any variety, from 3 to 4 cored apples
½ cup unsalted butter, softened, plus more for pan
2 cups granulated sugar, plus more for pan
BUTTER SAUCE
¾ cup (1 ½ sticks) unsalted butter
3 cups granulated sugar
1 ½ cups (12-ounce can) evaporated milk
4 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
2 large eggs
1. For the cake: Heat oven to 350 F. Brush a 10- or 12-cup bundt pan generously with extra butter. Sprinkle pan with extra sugar, then tap out excess. Set pan aside.
2. Stir together flour, pecans, nutmeg, cinnamon, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
3. In a food processor or with a box grater, shred apples with the skin on. You should have 4 cups grated apple.
4. In a mixer, cream together butter and sugar with the paddle attachment. Add eggs and beat until mixture is fluffy. Stir in apples (and any juice they produce) and flour mixture until completely combined. Spoon batter into prepared pan and smooth top.
5. Bake until a cake tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean and cake pulls slightly away from the sides of the pan, about 1 hour 10 minutes. Tent cake with foil for the last half hour of baking to prevent over-browning.
6. Let cool on a wire rack, about 20 minutes, then invert onto a cooling rack to remove from pan. Let cool completely.
7. For the butter sauce: In a saucepan over medium-low heat, simmer all butter sauce ingredients, stirring, for 12 minutes. Remove from heat and cool slightly. Sauce will thicken as it cools. Serve the sauce warm over slices of cake, or serve sauce on the side and let guests add a generous amount of warm sauce to each slice of cake. Garnish with apple crisps, if desired.
On a night out during a snowy evening, there’s no place like downtown Salt Lake City. And if getting a great meal is on your agenda, Aqua Terra Steak + Sushi makes it easy. Nestled right inside the doors under the Main Street bridge at City Creek Center, the restaurant is an inviting yet luxurious spot for a holiday meal, especially with favorites like salmon belly crispy rice, braised wild boar pappardelle, the Kansas City bone-in New York strip, or sumptuous black cod.
While every customer who dines at Aqua Terra can expect a delicious bite to eat and impeccable service, the restaurant offers a special something for those looking for a bit extra to go along with their meal. And what’s more, according to Elaina Morris—CEO and president of Ascend Hospitality Group, Aqua Terra’s restaurant management team—you can create any kind of private dining experience you want.
“We often refer to Aqua Terra as a curated experience—as in we create it for you—but our private dining program allows the guest to join us in the process,” Morris says. “You get involved as the host to design an experience for you and your guests. That’s everything from the menu to the music and the seating arrangement.”
Do you want to gather a large group around a long table with bigger plates to pass around?
You got it. Take a seat and enjoy yourself!
Maybe you need an intimate lounge-style setting with smaller share plates to be enjoyed.
No problem, the cushy furniture is right there for you.
Would you prefer soft jazz or contemporary rock playing in the background?
As you wish. “Siri, play something by The 1975.”
What’s best, Morris says, is that you can have the private dining experience of your dreams at a price you wouldn’t expect for this caliber dining experience. When you consider the atmosphere, culinary and service experiences, for the cost, Aqua Terra is a great value.
“I think a lot of times people don’t realize how inexpensive a curated dining experience can be,” Morris says. “I mean, obviously, cooking a giant dinner at your house with pans and pans of lasagna and salad is probably the least expensive way to do a big dinner. But it’s also exhausting, and a lot of cleanup. At Aqua Terra, we’ll take care of all that for you.”
The restaurant’s 500-square-foot private dining room features a communal-style table that seats 12, and in addition to the casual lounge space, the suite can host up to 24 guests for celebrations and gatherings of all kinds.
“I’m super proud of our restaurant design and setup at Aqua Terra, it really is the perfect place for any group or occasion,” Morris says.
The private dining offerings elevate that thoughtfulness even further, especially during the time of year when gathering together means so much more. To learn more about private dining at Aqua Terra, visit their website at aquaterrasteak.com.
At The State Room, it’s not shameful to be a heathen. In fact, when the Band of Heathens (BoH) comes to town it’s an outright honor. Friday night we celebrated our otherness joy in fine musical fashion with a packed house of BoH veterans and newly converted fans. Salt Lake City’s concert scene is familiar territory for the Austin-based roots rockers. We could tell from their setlist they came to party with friends. They mixed in familiar favorites with new music they were eager to share. They also played us a few deep cuts from their massive catalog and some unexpected surprises.
They started their show with “South by Somewhere” and “Polaroid,” before introducing us to some new songs, “Stormy Weather” and “Heartless Year.” Their new album Simple Things is a great musical treatise to the struggles we all endured over the last few years. It acknowledges the difficult past, but also celebrates the beauty of living in the present.
Photo by Stephen SpeckmanPhoto by Stephen Speckman
They got us all singing along to the BoH classics “Jackson Station” and “LA County Blues.” On “Look at Miss Ohio” the band started off with a slow, bluesy tempo which they normally build to a rafter-shaking boil. For this show, they took us on a mid-song journey—a little psychedelic soul jam—before they arrived at a driving rock crescendo. It’s my theory that they were inspired by the months of touring the Southwest and West Coast free-states where the prohibition of cannabis has ended (except in Utah). Either way, it was a delightfully trippy interlude. They then brought us back to 2006 with “Keep on Trying” from their debut album Live from Momo’s before getting us all singing again with “Shotgun.” They ended the 16-song set with their certified gold record hit, and fun sing along, “Hurricane.” For their encore they ended with a lovely and soulful “Simple Things” and an extended experimental jam on “Should Have Known.”
Photo by Stephen Speckman
During the pandemic, the band streamed a live Tuesday night variety show called Good Time Supper Club which my wife and I tuned in for every week. We learned a lot about the individual band members through that show. For instance, we discovered that keyboardist Trevor Nealon is a huge Deadhead. The evening’s opener, Alex Jordan, also happens to be a Deadhead who tours with a Grateful Dead tribute band. When Jordan joined the Heathens on stage, we got a rare treat, a BoH cover of the Dead’s “Franklin’s Tower.”
As a truly independent band who shunned the lure of large corporate record deals, we experienced the BoH creed– a great live performance of some of the best songs you’ll never hear on commercial radio. They really do build their fan base one amazing show at a time.
Photo by Stephen SpeckmanPhoto by Stephen Speckman
Alex Jordan opened the evening with a solo performance of great new music from a forthcoming album set for release in March, 2024. He started us off with the title track “Queen Kerosene,” a roots rocking number with hints of alt-country. He played us his version of the Jayhawks country-folk song “Blue.” Jordan gives this hidden gem a little more of an electric, rockabilly flair. In 2020, just before the pandemic hit and the world shut down, Jordan released his debut album, The Subtle Exhibitionist. Poor timing aside, he made up for lost ground by playing us the catchy and clever “Your Kingdom Comes (With a View).” He shared with us a Utah-inspired instrumental piece, “Canyonlands,” that’ll be on his new record. He ended his 9-song set with another new one, “Saving Grace.”
With two full-length albums worth of original material and a vast repertoire of Grateful Dead songs to sprinkle in, Jordan is an exciting new roots artist. I’d like to see him again with a full-band. He’s mastered that California alt-country jam sound that continues to grow in popularity.
A night of great music at The State Room is one of the simple things that warms this Heathen’s soul.
Sometimes experience is the best teacher, even if the experience is an unpleasant one. That’s how it was for Annie Howard in 2018 when a dream trip skiing volcanoes went awry. “I was on a ski mountaineering trip in Chile. On the last day, skiing our biggest objective, I took a significant fall and ended up with a torn knee ligament and a concussion,” Howard says.
Recovery after knee surgery took months, but that was only the beginning for Howard. “I had brain fog. I struggled to feel in control of my emotions, I was dizzy and my ears felt stuffed like I had a sinus infection. I would get awful headaches when I started ramping up exercise, and I just didn’t feel clear. In a weird way, though, my recovery really reignited my passion for physical therapy.”
Brain injuries can be a black box, even for experts. And for everyone who skis, snowboards or participates in any mountain sport they’re a constant threat. The delicate dance with gravity can go awry for just a moment, and everything can change.
At the time of her injury, Howard had been a physical therapist for eight years and had significant neurological discipline experience, but it didn’t prepare her for her own recovery. “I tried traditional physical therapy routines, but it wasn’t working sufficiently. Then I found a physical therapist who had a different approach—one that took the disparate parts of the clinical practice guidelines and integrated them. Once I started working with her, everything improved,” says Howard.
Drawing from her experience, Howard developed a unique treatment program to help others who struggle with post-concussion symptoms and started her own practice: Happy Brain Concussion Physical Therapy. “We’re not just trying to address symptoms,” she says. “We’re working to rehabilitate the systems at the root of the symptoms by integrating the visual, vestibular, autonomic and cognitive systems at the same time. The treatment isn’t compensatory, so we don’t treat light sensitivity by telling a patient to wear sunglasses. We want to address the root of where the light sensitivity comes from.”
Though this type of therapy is considered alternative, Howard insists there’s no part of her program that’s outside of professional clinical guidelines. The difference is in taking the disparate facets of treatment out of siloed focus to treat the systems as part of the whole.
In the process, Howard’s grown closer to the community she lives in. “Brain injuries can affect anyone in our community, and I’ve been fortunate to build a lot of close relationships with patients.”
Howard has also recently partnered with the Utah-based nonprofit Save A Brain, which helps spread awareness about traumatic brain injuries (TBI) while raising funds to help with treatment. Save A Brain was started by Kelsey Boyer, a professional snowboarder who sustained a TBI requiring surgery to alleviate a subdural hematoma. Boyer struggled through a long, complex recovery over the course of several years. She started Save A Brain to support those struggling through their own TBI recoveries and help ease the significant financial burden brain injuries often entail. Visit the Save A Brain website to learn more and support their mission of helping keep as many brains as possible happy and healthy; saveabraininc.com
Organized labor is having a moment. After the highly publicized (and politicized) events of what some are calling “hot labor summer,” that much is clear. “We do see the events of new unions forming, even at the Starbucks stores here in Utah. That didn’t happen before,” explains Dr. Eunice Han, an assistant professor in the University of Utah Economics Department. Salt Lake City Public Library workers are seeking to form the first library union in Utah and the employees of Starbucks stores in Utah have voted to unionize. This is at a time when UPS averts a strike by meeting the Teamsters Union’s demands and United Auto Workers strike. Members of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and the Screen Actors Guild—American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) picket the lots of major film studios. “So you can decide whether this is just one case of exceptional stuff, but if you see this everywhere, say, all across the Starbucks in the United States, then it’s some kind of a movement, right?” says Han.
Why now?
This movement began building during the pandemic, and many in the fight point specifically to Amazon employee efforts to unionize led by Christian Smalls, who first organized a walkout at a Staten Island, N.Y. Amazon warehouse over unsafe working conditions as COVID-19 spread unmitigated. Amazon fired Smalls for his trouble. Other workers faced constant uncertainty and job instability. The pandemic exposed how many so-called “essential workers” felt unrecognized, unprotected and under-compensated, despite their work being deemed necessary for society to function.
As the fear over the pandemic subsided, the hollow accolades for heroic essential workers evaporated, but their struggles did not. Meanwhile, workers’ real wages have been stagnant, while the corporations that employ them report record profits and pay out sky-high dividends and stock buybacks for shareholders. That only further highlights the overall growing economic inequality of the last 50 years, which is attributed in part to the respective weakening of the labor movement. These factors have been in motion for decades, but workers are emboldened now in ways they have not been during much of that time.
Han says the messaging and visibility of strikes by high-profile unions like SAG-AFTRA and the WGA are likely inspiring workers across all industries. “They hear the news of writers striking in Hollywood and think, ‘Maybe it’s time for us to speak up.’” Historically, organizing collectively is one of the few ways U.S. workers have consistently been able to progress their interests. A strong labor movement put in place the worker protections we now take for granted—8-hour workdays, overtime pay, the ban on child labor, weekends, a minimum wage, etc. But, collective bargaining does not have the power it once had, in part because our work can be substituted much easier now through outsourcing or by machines. “If employers can go to other places easier instead of giving higher wages to workers, then the bargaining power of the union is lower,” explains Han. Rather than undermining the recent labor movement, the threat of being replaced has emboldened the movement and increased its urgency.
What do we want?
At an event where actors would normally be promoting their latest project to a mass of ecstatic fans, some voice actors instead held a somber panel discussion about the existential threat they face from the unchecked use of machine learning models, collectively referred to as artificial intelligence (AI). As a sign of the times, this year’s San Diego Comic-Con was bereft of the usual movie hype and big IP fanfare because of the ongoing Hollywood strikes, and some of SAG-AFTRA’s negotiators and striking actors instead made their case to reporters and fans. They highlighted the specific use of the technology that positions voice actors at the forefront of the AI issue—an issue that they believe could eventually impact the livelihoods of workers in every industry.
Voice actors have had their voices recorded for one project and then replicated by AI without their permission in other projects. “What we’re interested in is consent and compensation of the people who are being used. So if you’re going to replicate me or any other performer, we should consent to that, and then we should be compensated for the use,” says Zeke Alton, actor and a SAG-AFTRA negotiating member.
“We’ll be fighting to make sure that AI doesn’t overtake the human element of creativity,” says Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, the SAG-AFTRA National Executive Director and Chief Negotiator, alluding to the potential harm to society at large as profit-seeking drives companies’ attempts to remove humanity from the creative process.
“There is the concept that these large algorithmic machines generate things. Well, they don’t generate anything new,” says Alton. In some cases, the technology scours the online landscape, takes content, runs it through an algorithm and generates an amalgamation. Alton says there needs to be more transparency of what those machines are taking “because it affects the entire labor force. If we can’t see into the machine, then we have no idea of whose life’s work and training are being taken for free, without consent and compensation, and turned into something that makes money for a billionaire sitting somewhere at a retreat. So that’s why this is important to us.”
The union members know the technology is here to stay, but they believe that the unmitigated and uncompensated use of machines to supplant human labor is not an inevitability. “When you look at things like the assembly line that changed the world, the internet that changed the world, that can go one way or the other,” says Alton. “It can be a tool to allow the population to rise, or it can be a tool in the hands of the masters to bring the wealth to a single point in the one percent.”
Ashly Burch, actor in Horizon Zero Dawn and WGA member, says this fight is necessary to ensure a future for the most vulnerable. “It is about protecting people who are new to the industries that they’re trying to enter, who don’t have the support or clout to be able to defend themselves from predatory contracts. That’s a big thing across all unions right now and all the negotiations.” As it stands, the majority of SAG-AFTRA members work day jobs and many don’t meet the union’s income eligibility threshold of $26,470 per year to qualify for healthcare. “I think having unions and being part of a union is a massive, massive movement right now and essential to protect against this kind of technology,” says Burch. “I believe that with collective bargaining you can make protections that ensure that your livelihood is not replaced.”
When do we want it?
So, you have a union…how do you get employers to listen to your demands? Notably, some of the targets of recent unionization and strike efforts—Amazon, Starbucks and the major motion picture studios—have not come to the table to negotiate in good faith, even with the collective action of its employees. “Employers will always come to the meeting thinking that ‘I’m really not willing to sign anything today,’” says Han. “And the atmosphere is pretty heated. It’s not peaceful, as you can imagine. So unions need to be more strategic.”
One of the most powerful strategies a union has is to get the public on their side. Public support for unions and organized labor is higher than it has been in decades. According to a Gallup poll from August of last year, 71% of Americans now approve of labor unions. That’s the highest rate of union support since 1965. Even with their more positive attitudes toward labor unions, Han says drastic action could be needed to increase visibility and attract public support. “Employees are going on a strike because they learned that the public actually understands their struggles better if they go on a strike.”
“As a consumer, you should know that these big companies do care about what you think. Maybe not individually, but collectively, they do.” As SAG-AFTRA’s Chief Negotiator, Crabtree-Ireland says, he hears about company concerns over public perception every single day through back channels. “They definitely care about consumers turning away from the things that generate revenue for them. And so you have immense power if you just inform yourself and don’t let their spin confuse you.”
As to making the decision to strike, “That kind of drastic action will bring more attention to the public. And, usually, the public view is a kind of weapon, a powerful tool, that workers can wield,” says Han. “But the strategy is kind of a last resort.”
While striking may be a last resort, when faced with something they see as an existential threat, many workers are not backing down, and that is keeping this broader labor movement alive. “There’s a philosophical difference for how the workers feel and how the employers feel…they [the employers] don’t want to get caught at a competitive disadvantage,” explains Alton. “But they’re bargaining for a competitive and financial advantage. We’re bargaining for our very existence.” As a retired U.S. Navy test pilot and commander, Alton opts for the military metaphor. “We talk in negotiations, ‘Is this the hill you’re willing to die on?’ And we are at an inflection point in history right now. We can choose to fight and die on that hill, or we will be summarily executed there. That’s the only choice we have.”
