As there's been a spike in interest lately on the blog regarding Blanche, and in particular many requests for Blanche images-- I've dug up some Blanche photos which perhaps you haven't seen.
As I don't believe some of these pictures have been published before, and I'm unaware of the location of the originals-- as is the practice of this and other responsible B&C Internet sites, I include a disclaimer that photos (watermarked)-- may be subject to copyright.
The photos of which originals are from my collection, are the two sepia images and one apparent color image. This portrait of Blanche (printed backwards)-- is inscribed as being from 1942. I hope all will enjoy these photos of Blanche. All of these pics,
came to me within materials from Blanche's Estate.Blanche's pics are va
luable historically-- whether as originals or copies from originals, her archive yields good Blanche and Bonnie & Clyde related images.Of note to some, could be a look at Blanche's eye-- blinded at Platte City. I don't believe many willing straight on shots, such as these exist. I would suppose what seems to be a Blanche prison photo above, was a less willing look-- than her photo with the hat. In having read words of hope from Blanche's friends, re: methods said to exist to correct her sight, it's a shame this wasn't to be.
That's Eddie Frasure with Blanche at dinner with friends. A close up of that festive table, shows a good time was seemingly had by all. That was from the days before the need for a designated driver. The vintage restaurant motif is a classic. The final photo, is a lesser known shot of Buck and Blanche-- where Blanche had apparently borrowed Buck's hat.
It's always interesting to me to see pictures of Blanche in later life - Bonnie, too, could very possibly have lived a full AND HAPPY life without Clyde, if a successful plan could have been cooked up to get her away from him without her realizing that was what was being done. I think Clyde loved her enough to let her go, if she had shown any sign of wanting to... I know Clyde figured that he had to die sooner or later, but I don't know that he was necessarily resigned to Bonnie dying, too. They did have a suicide pact, but I don't know if that was Clyde's idea or if it was Bonnie's - I don't mean to sound sexist (after all, I'm a woman!) but it sounds like the sort of "romantic" touch that Bonnie would have loved. (She did have a very strong romantic streak to her - a bit of a drama queen, actually, but probably no more so than any young girl caught up in a situation that offered a lot of heartache and misery; she probably held tight to the romantic aspect as it was one of the few bright spots in her life. At any rate - there's no telling what combination of circumstances would have caused B&C to be separated so that she would not be with him at the end, and seeing photos of Blanche in later life makes me feel rather wistful because Bonnie very well may have done only some jail time if she had been captured when she was so badly injured; I think most juries would have looked at tiny Bonnie with her withered leg, so different from the "Blonde, Cigar-Smoking Femme Fatale!" that she was portrayed as being, and been relatively lenient toward her.
ReplyDeleteI see the photos of Billie, and Rhea Leen Linder, and I think I see glimpses of what Bonnie might have looked like if she'd lived to be past 23 years old in their photos. I wonder if she had been given the chance to look into two possible futures, and seen the possibility of doing some jail time and then being free, would she have chosen that possibility rather than choosing to die the way she did?