Pancho rides again

True West has a series of photos of Pancho Villa by the True West editors and Cameron Douglas:

Born a peasant, head of his family at an early age, and an outlaw by sixteeb, Doroteo Arango— aka Pancho Villa— rose from the lowest rungs of the social ladder to become one of Mexico’s greatest military chieftains.
He commanded thousands of men and outmaneuvered and eluded more than ten thousand Americans led by John “Black Jack” Pershing. A friend of the poor, he was the hero in the Mexican tradition of machismo— overpowering, dominant, and larger-than-life. This is his story in photographs.

...and an article, written by Mark Boardman, titled Long live Pancho Villa, Mutual Film, and the Mexican Revolution in Hollywood’s memory:

Mexican Revolution leader Pancho Villa knew the value of good publicity. Mutual Film Corporation knew the potential profits of silver screen war. So, in January of 1914, the two came to a mutual (pun intended) agreement to boost each other’s profiles and pocketbooks: they would make a movie!
The popular tale states Mutual agreed to pay $25,000 in gold to Villa, money he could use to buy weapons and supplies. Villa agreed to fight only during daylight, to aid the cameramen, and to let the film crew direct his troops to get the best shots.
Now that would be a Hollywood war.
But the actual movie contract, Villa biographer Friedrich Katz revealed, was simpler. Villa gave Mutual the exclusive right to shots of the revolutionaries in battle; Mutual guaranteed Villa twenty percent of the gate when the film was shown.
The studio also threw ten dollars into the pot, which director Raoul Walsh sweetened by delivering five hundred dollars to Villa, along with uniforms that looked better on camera than the dusty, dirty rags the general and his lieutenants had been wearing.
Unofficially, Villa gave the crew opportunities for retakes when the live action was not up to snuff, or when setting up the clumsy cameras had led to missed shots. He even staged some events for the cameras, an important allowance once the crew realized getting real shots of battle was virtual suicide for the cameramen.
The movie ended up a docudrama, with newsreel footage spliced in and actors added to flesh out a mythical story of an oppressed Villa forced to take up arms against a cruel government.
The Life of General Villa premiered in New York City on 9 May 1914. Anecdotally, the film performed well at American and Canadian box offices (the gross take was not well documented at that time). Yet just how much money Villa earned from the venture is unclear.
The film served as the pinnacle of Villa’s popularity. By the end of the year, the general’s bad deeds caused the US government to cut off aid to him. American public opinion of Villa tanked when his troops attacked Columbus, New Mexico, and killed eighteen Americans in 1916.
But, for Hollywood, that attack provided a golden opportunity. It took the Villa film, shot other dramatic scenes, recut it and portrayed Villa as the worst man in the world. HBO dramatized the affair to the “nth” degree in 2003’s And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself, starring Antonio Banderas as Villa.
Ten years later, a collector paid Heritage Auctions five thousand dollars for the signed five-page movie contract between Mutual Film Corporation and Pancho Villa (see the general’s signature from the contract below). As for the 1914 movie itself, only a few stills and publicity shots survive.
The Hollywood legend of Villa and Mutual’s agreement may still persist, but now you know the real story.