When Hollywood Came to Town: A History of Movie Making in Utah

by James V. D'Arc

Overview

For nearly a hundred years, the state of Utah has played host to scores of Hollywood films, from potboilers on lean budgets to some of the most memorable films ever made, including The Searchers, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Footloose, and Thelma & Louise. This book gives readers the inside scoop, telling how these films were made, what happened on and off set, and more. As one Utah rancher memorably said to Hollywood moviemakers "don't take anything but pictures and don't leave anything but money."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781423619840
Publisher:	Smith, Gibbs Publisher
Publication date:	09/01/2010
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	256
File size:	19 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

James D'Arc is Curator of the Motion Picture Archive in the L. Tom Perry Special Collections of the Harold B. Lee Library at Brigham Young University.

Read an Excerpt

Salt Lake City never intended to become a movie capital, and it certainly had no ambitions to rival Hollywood. However, it did have a brief period when production companies came and went, with movie promoters trying to get a foothold on regular fi lm production in the Beehive State.

1 Surviving records mention the Rocky Mountain Moving Picture Company that existed in Salt Lake City in the summer of 1908, making travelogue films of scenic areas in Utah. The announcement of this fi rm was followed by these remarks from the editors of the trade paper Moving Picture World: “The benefi ts that will accrue to Utah and the West, in advertisement through the medium of these pictures, which are to be shown throughout the United States, will be far reaching.

”2 Virtually nothing is known about the longevity of these early companies or the eff ects of their fi lms. What is important is that the editors of this important industry trade publication saw the fi lms as being valuable for drawing people to the state for tourism. If Utah’s experience was consistent with attempts by fi lm companies to establish a presence in other American cities, the precariousness of the moviemaking business guaranteed a high mortality rate,
and these companies quietly went out of business.

Table of Contents

Foreword 8

Acknowledgments 10

Introduction 14

Scene One: Iron County, 1924–1958

Cedar City and the Parry Brothers 20

Tom Mix and The Deadwood Coach 33

The Shepherd of the Hills, Ramona, and the “Battle” of Cedar Breaks 40

Glory Days for Cedar City 44

Scene Two: Washington County, 1927–1979

From Silents to Sound 62

Utah’s Centennial Film: Ramrod or “Hamrod”? 74

The Conqueror 87

Vanished Americans 96

Scene Three: Kane County, 1928–1978

Utah’s Hollywood 114

In Glorious Technicolor! 122

William Wellman’s Buffalo Bill 146

The Rustler from Kanab 156

Howard Koch and Bel-Air Productions 170

Reel Change in Kanab 186

Scene Four: San Juan County, 1925–1995

John Ford’s Monument Valley 206

Scene Five: Grand County, 1949–1997

Moab Means Movies 224

The Apocalypse in Moab 252

Scene Six: Northern Utah, 1908–2003

Capitol Moviemaking 264

Epilogue 274

Notes 275

Bibliography 283

Photo Credits 285

Motion Pictures and Television Made in Utah 286