:
you  Wizard  Let's throw us through a silver screen sky.  The story's still right.  Bootsteps echo  where legends collide.  Cameras roll  where they are lost at  all.  still whispers through it all. Sunlight falls on the streets of old  Every corner got a tale untold From the shadows  to the spotlight glow  That's where the Hollywood spirits go  You can hear them if you listen close  Every frame like a ghost   on the old frontier  stories come alive out here  from the dust to the silver screen  every dream ain't what it seems  Hi, it's Nicole Brandon and welcome back to Hollywood Film and TV Magic. So we are still in Prescott, Arizona right now. Tomorrow we will be in Flagstaff and I am bringing to you from Prescott  right now the history of Hollywood Film and TV and tomorrow as we're in Flagstaff and the state of Arizona and throughout our nation,  the history of film and TV. But today we are going to talk a little bit about Prescott's. history. I love Prescott's history because Prescott was actually the very, very,  very beginning  of filmmaking. And there is a four month period of time where sort of California Hollywood says that they started film studios  and Prescott said they started film studios.  And so we were not  there at that time to know which actually the chicken and the egg came first. but we do know that back in the early  1900s,  Prescott was something of a Hollywood for silent Westerns  with hundreds of films made there.  And thanks to its iconic landscapes like Granite Dells and the historic Whiskey Row,  we have some of the most famous silent movies and Westerns of all time. So I'm gonna take you on a little tour as if you were walking with me.  And so journey along. So the first thing that I want to share with you is there is a theater here called the Elks Theater. And the Elks Theater opened  in 1905 and it was an opera house. They had plays, had galas, they had balls, they had high school graduations  and people came from everywhere  to attend this prestigious theater. The closest theater at that time was in San Francisco. San Francisco, have to imagine, compared to Prescott. Arizona, which is between Phoenix, like staff, and people would come in their fineries and it drew attention and people came to this theater from far and wide. At that time, the show was 25 cents, which was roughly $10 today. And box seats were $1.25. which was roughly $46 today. But if you think in 1905, $46 or what that would have been like, and for people to come and to get here was huge. And then in 1915, they started with the silent movies and they had grand orchestras like John Philip Susan, all these orchestras performed. Sir. Harry Lauder performed here. And the film masterpiece, Birth of a Nation, was shown at the  Elks Theater in 1916. That's right, the film's masterpiece,  Birth of a Nation,  was shown at the Elks Theater  in 1916. And then what happened was that by  1929, silent movies were kind of coming over and a new generation called the talkies began. So in 1929 when the talkies began they had to take out the box seats because they needed a wider screen and they needed sound producing screen and theater to be able to have the talkies in there. So that actually started to change the face of the Theaters that we know today, if we look at some of these old theaters and we say, we wonder what happened to these big, beautiful box seats  or these stairs, these ornate stairs that used to be on the side or some of the ornaments that used to be on the ceiling on the sides.  A lot of those were taken out around that time in the late  1920s  just to make room for the talkies. So very interesting in history and looking at things.  And then the Elks Theater remained a movie house. until the 1970s into the 1980s. So that's, saw talkie movies and then we started seeing as our movies that we come to know today started to come into play. And then Arizona Community Foundation finally purchased the Elks Theater in 1982. And 1982 is the very same year that it was listed on the National Registry of Historic Places. And there is a college here called Yavapai College. Yavapai College I absolutely love because they have an incredible film department, an incredible theater department, but they have an incredible  film department and movies that are being made from there  are just fantastic.  And every year right now you have the Prescott Film Festivals, which is one of the leading film festivals in our nation.  And that is at the Jim and Linda Lee Performing Arts Center. at Yavapai College, but Yavapai College managed the theater from the 1980s until 1992 when the college's performing arts center was built. And that performing arts center is absolutely stunning. I was honored and privileged to speak at an event there for the Destiny House for sex trafficking event. And I had the opportunity last July to attend the Prescott Film Festival. Some of the best movies that I've ever seen in my life, the choices that they made on the movies were just fantastic. And I'm so looking forward to this July for the Prescott Film Festival and people come from everywhere. And it truly is one of the leading film festivals in our nation right there at Yavapai College. So let's go back to this Elks Theater. The Elks Theater in 2001 had been restored when I went in there, I'm amazed because you would think that you were back in the early 1900s with all of the inlay and all of the decorations  and all of the swirls and the plaster and the detail that you see. But what happened was when they were doing the restoration, they found pieces of the original plaster and the original forms  back when it was a silent movie house and even before. or was a silent movie house when it was an opera house.  And they were able from those original plasters and those original forms to recreate that look from the early 1900s. So it really is  a true  replica of what it looked like.  The theater originally could seat 900 people and it had eight dressing rooms for their guests artists. So now the Elks Theater seats  645. So  why would that be that originally back in the early  1900s 900 people could sit there  and now  645 people could sit there?  Well we are actually bigger people than we were in the early 1900s. The frame was much smaller people, people in their size and their stature were much smaller.  And 900 people were able to sit there where now we are 645. That's really something to think about when you think about what our body types look like and what the people, because I always think about people with canes and the eyeglasses and the big hoop skirts and how could they have possibly been smaller than us and our cocktail dresses or our gowns or our business suits and the things that we are wearing today. But actually the size of the people had a lot to do with how many people could actually sit. in the theater and it'd be an audience member. Also in the Elks Theater, the stairwells were removed because when they did the renovations, they didn't meet code. They were too narrow. So if you think about a lot of those old historic buildings  and you think that  going up these little narrow stairways, I love, I worked in a haunted movie.  a feature a couple years ago and we shot in Rochester, New York and we shot on the lake in Rochester, New York and it was  this horror film.  And we were in this house filming and my character had to run up and down stairs and they were so narrow.  And  it was not a house that was built for the horror movie, that was the structure of the houses at that time.  So the stairwells were very narrow, the people were smaller, remember the stairwells were narrow.  And when they went to do the renovation, they didn't meet code. So that's why they were removed. So if you look at pictures of the old Elks Theater in Prescott, Arizona, and you wonder why there used to be stairwells, there are no longer stairwells.  One of my favorite things dealing with the stairwells, if you listen to my show on Tom Mix, and we'll talk a little bit about Tom Mix today, but Tom Mix had a horse called Tony the Wonder Horse.  And Tony the Wonder Horse was afraid of stairs and he couldn't do stairs and he especially couldn't go up the stairs at the historic Elks Theater. But yet Tom Mix performed on that stage for  many performances and he also did a lot of charity shows for children.  And they actually had to build a harness. If you look around the side of the building, you'll see this big hook on the side of the building.  And they had to put Tony the Wonder Horse in the harness and they would put rope through that hook and they would hoist Tony the Wonder Horse up to the stage level to be able to perform because he wasn't able to go up those very narrow stairwells. So very, very interesting. Also, one of the things that being an acrobat that I love about this theater so very much  is that there is the original rigging. The fly is  original and the sky, if you look at how the lights are hung and you look at the  drapery,  and you look at everything,  it's fantastic. I went to uh a theater, is where the Diavolo, if you know Diavolo, one of the  most extraordinary  dance acrobatic, uh universal troops  on the planet. I had the opportunity and the privilege to do an anniversary show with them, but years before I performed with them, I happened to go in for show that was being held at the Diavolo Theater and I couldn't look at the stage. could, my eyes could not get off the ceiling.  I was dumbfounded and amazed and m boggled at the rigging in the ceiling  for all of the feats and all of the acrobatics and all of everything that they have, of every, just amazing.  And.  So when I was at the Elks Theater for the very first time and I was standing on the stage, my  eyes went up to the ceiling  and I had to ask and yes, that is the original rigging. All that fly  is original there, which the fact that that has been preserved since the early 1900s  is just  absolutely beyond astonishing. So something, if you have an opportunity, stand on that stage and look up. Also, the very last row of the theater has the original seats. And I love that. So if you want  just a touch of history  and to feel like you were there in the early 1900s, you can see in that very last row the  seats.  Then the Elks Theater.  Yes.  If you ever see pictures of the Elks Theater now, I hope if you're listening to this, you'll Google it, you'll look it up or you'll come here in person.  Take my tour. Take one of the tours here. or just see a show there, but the Elks Theater on top of the Elks Theater is yes, a huge, huge, ginormous elk. Of course, there would be an elk on top of the Elks Theater and that elk actually has a name. His name is Bill. That's right, the elk's name is Bill. And Bill was the head of the Elks Lodge. He was the head of the chapter.  And everybody went to Bill. He was the go-to guy. If they needed to know where the tape was, where is the ladder? How do you do this? How do you do that? When is the meeting?  Everybody would go to Bill. And now they're all named Bill, the Elks. It's a lot of fun.  And the copper bulk that was  on the very top of the building was given to the lodge by Charlie Clark. It's like the first day with my new tongue.  by Charlie Clark, who was the son of Senator Tom Clark. So was a gift from Charlie Clark and he was a copper elk and he was appraised at that time at $1,200 and that was way back in 1905. So can you imagine an elk? that cost $1,200 in 1905. He was cast from copper that was mined in the city of and case in a bronze foundry. Now, Jerome, if you've never had an opportunity to be to Jerome, you've got to go to Jerome. Jerome is like this haunted city. They even have haunted hamburger places. They have the best kaleidoscope store that I've ever seen. I've been in 73 countries. I have never seen a kaleidoscope store that has more kaleidoscopes or is more fun  than in Jerome.  And the energy of Jerome and from fudge to the food, just to the feeling and to the stories  of the energy that has been there. Jerome is definitely a city you want to see if you are in Northern Arizona, you absolutely do not pass go, go to Jerome.  But our elk from the Elk's Theater, yes, came from Jerome. The Elk was a symbol of stability of its brothers on the ground. Now, Bill the Elk was atop the Elk's Opera House leader from 1905 to 1971. And so what happened in 1971? Well, the Elks Club moved to a new building and that new building is located in Prescott Valley. And what they did was they took Bill with them.  And when they took Bill the Elk, to the new Elks Lodge in Prescott Valley, he was on the side of the road. And Bill the Elk was on the side of the road for 30 years. And while he was there, it's kind of a very sad story. He was neglected, he was abused, people took shots at him, people shot him with bullets, he was shot with bows and arrows. I mean, the way that we treat property is,  not we, not you listening and me. Speaking right now, I'm just saying ah people on this planet, on this world, sometimes just don't realize the value of something.  I know that I was taught when I was a little girl the difference between value and valuable.  know, something can have value and then something's very valuable, like someone you love and people that you care about,  and values and honor.  And  this elk not only has value, but it's valuable. means something to the people. It means something. It symbolized a brotherhood. It symbolized strength. It symbolized man and nature. It symbolized so many things. And so for people to have done that to this beautiful copper health is just so sad and so heart wrenching. And also, as we talk about part of the film history in this town, that this was a historic theater. that this was a symbol of this historic theater.  And so for 30 years, he was there on the side of the road and a woman named Nancy Burgess, who was a local historian and photographer raised money to bring Bill back to the theater, right? So  thank you, Nancy Burgess. And he was restored and he was returned to the top of the building in 2006. And that's where he is today. So if you get any pictures or you Google or you're doing your chat GPTs and you're looking up the books theater  in Prescott, Arizona, and it tells you in the early 1900s, it was an opera house and then it became silent movie house. And then it came to talkies  and then other movies came in there and then it got taken over  by the college and then it was restored. And now it is what it is today, which is an incredible theater and also a movie house  as well. And Bill is back atop of the building since 2006. And  his return was a festival full event and it marks the start of the Acre Music Festival. Now the Acre Music Festival  is uh so unique. I've never seen anything like it. And so on Acre Night musicians perform at all  the shops and all of the stores and all of the restaurants. And you literally can go. inside the bank and there is a band playing and you can go inside a candle shop and there is somebody playing and you can go inside a donut shop and there's a choir singing  in every place  all around the plaza and Risciro. They all have music and you can literally hear hundreds of thousands of musicians and it's all free and it's absolutely incredible  and it's part of their winter festival and something that is magical and marvelous about this city. but it was aligned with Bill returning to the Elks Theater. So I just think that's a really interesting fact. And then I was telling you about Tony the Wonder Horse, Tom Mix's horse that wouldn't go up the stairs.  So Tony the Wonder Horse appeared on stage with Tom Mix and they had that special sling that would get into the entrance of the theater, which was just fantastic, right? So  the Elks Theater has  incredible significance. And if you have an opportunity to see it,  a lot of the seats have been donated and you can see celebrities names or actors names on the arms of the seats  or patrons that have donated to the restoration of the theater. And it really is something not to miss.  And it's such a rich piece and part  of film and television history here  in Prescott, Arizona. So Hollywood,  so Hollywood's beginning as a town occurred back in  1887, but it really became a center for filmmaking in  1910s when filmmakers moved from California and they moved from the East Coast and they moved all the way to Prescott where they moved all the way to California.  filmmakers were escaping Philadelphia, were escaping New York, they were escaping the East Coast, and they were coming to California, and they were coming to Prescott to make movies. Why? People say, oh, was the beautiful weather, oh, it was the sunshine, oh, was the mountains, was the light. Yes, all those things are absolutely lovely, but the reason that they came out was because Thomas Edison was chasing them. That's right, Thomas Edison. had a patent enforcement  and he was taking all of these filmmakers to court for saying he invented that camera, he invented that thing. And so  they were escaping the patent sport. They were escaping his wrath.  And they also were taking advantage of the favorable climate and the sunny weather and all of that is yes, true. But the reason that they were coming out to California to begin with was really because they wanted the independents to be able to make their own movies and not to be chased down or not to have somebody in overseeing them or at the moment stopping their creativity and stopping their growth as filmmakers. So just interesting part of history. So the first film produced entirely in Hollywood was the film short called In Old California. That was in 1910. The earlier years, Back in the late 19th century, they had in 1911, the very first movie studio, which was called Nestor Studios that opened in Hollywood. So the first film produced entirely in Hollywood was the film short in old California, 1910. And then in 1911, the very first movie studio, Nestor Studios opened in Hollywood. But back in the 1910, filmmakers began relocating to California to avoid all of the patent lawsuits from Thomas Edison, right?  And also the sunny weather also made it ideal for filming outdoors.  Now a lot of the old sound stages were not  anything. They were platforms, almost like your porch in your backyard, there were platforms  and they had like some slats that you could move about that were maybe backdrops or background. It would just put the camera and people would stand on these platforms  and sometimes they would use a house or a shed or a garage and they would use that for wardrobe  or for makeup or for offices.  But the whole studio could have been like the porch in your backyard or your front porch. It was just literally. The platform and especially movies like the old Western movies where you're on the mountains or you're in the ranges. You're driving on the roads. A lot of the movies at that time are outdoor films, outdoor sets, outdoor scenes. And so it was absolutely ideal to be in Arizona and to be in California for the weather. By 1915, major motion picture companies established production facilities in Hollywood. So that really solidified their status as a major filmmaking hub. But at that time Prescott was going strong. Prescott had their Westerns and Prescott had their silent movies and Prescott had their Western stars and Prescott had their Tom Nixes. literally it's like the right arm, left arm, you have Prescott and you have Hollywood both making movies at the same time. So who were some of the key figures? There was a man named Sigmund Lubin. So did you ever see the Lubin symbol? You might've seen it and not even realized that the Lubin symbol was the old Liberty Bell. And you can see that if you look at any of the old movies and it has the Liberty Bell, that was a Lubin movie.  And Lubin was a film pioneer who developed a camera and a projector. It was a combination and he built an early film studio. He formed the Lubin Manufacturing Company back in 1902. Can you imagine back in 1902, becoming one of the very first movie moguls and building a movie making empire? In 1896, he started by distributing films for Thomas Edison. So 1896, he's distributing films for Thomas Edison. And by 1987, just a year later, he started making his own movies. From 1987, when he's making his own movies, by 1902, he formed the Lubin Manufacturing Company, making movies, and that company was incorporated in 1909. So let's look at that. Sigmund Lubin, filmmaker, you see it, if you close your eyes, you could see the Liberty Bell signal in a lot of those old movies, and you say, oh, now I know that was a Lubin film. In 1896, he was distributing films and working for Thomas Edison. Just a year later, he started making his own release. And within five years, he formed his own company, the Lubin Manufacturing Company, which incorporated in 1909, right? But Lubin Manufacturing Company was a production company that produced silent films from 1896 to 1916. Let's close our eyes and imagine that. Lubin Manufacturing Company was a production company that produced silent films from 1896 all the way through to 1916. You imagine making movies  at that time. And all of those films had that Liberty Bell trademark on it. So let's think about movies that you've seen between 1896 and 1916. Wow.  Now, Lubin's headquarters, which were called Lubinville, I love that, were in Belleville, which is right outside of Philadelphia. And that was back  in the 1910. And it was this large modern film studio.  And it's noted by the Hollywood Walk of Fame. So if you are on Hollywood Boulevard,  and you are going to see the stars, and you are going to the Walk of Fame,  Located I believe it's 6166 Hollywood Boulevard right on that block you will see.  beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, you know, accolade to  and credit to Lubin for  all of his creations and just,  I mean, he is a pioneer in the filmmaking industry. So 1912 was the year that Lubin Manufacturing Company set up shop and skate. Yes.  So they came out in 1912. Why? Because they wanted to produce Western motion pictures. They set up their Western Motion Picture Studio at 712 Western Avenue.  And  there was a director and an actor. His name was Romaine Fielding. So he arrived in Prescott with the cast and crew  even before there was a Hollywood. So we are going to believe that Prescott was first making movies before Hollywood. But like I said, There is a question of Hollywood was first or Prescott was first. So  you all can play the chicken and egg game. You you could do one potato, two potato duck, duck, goose, something and decide for yourself which came first.  But 1912 was the year that Lubin manufacturing set up shop in Prescott to produce Western motion pictures. Now at that time, Roman Fielding was an actor. He was a screenwriter and he was a silent film director known for his drugs.  I love that they say they were dramatic. They were  very dramatic. And Fielding himself was a stage actor and he worked for Solix Film Company back in New York. And that was before joining Lubin Studios in 1911. And in 1912, Lubin placed Fielding in charge of the Southwest Company as a director. Now this is really interesting because Lubin um placed fielding in charge as a director, but  up until that point, he was a stage actor, remember, who worked with Solex Film Company in New York. And so he had only ever acted. So could you imagine today if you have an actor and you say, okay, you're gonna become a director for my film studio without ever having  directed, but he was handed that job and he was in the hand an entire state. an entire community, an entire new world with filmmaking. So it was a gigantic  monumental task to be  not only creating a film studio and making movies,  but to be directing as well as acting. At that time, he was only 44 years old, but he looked so much younger on screen.  So he played these younger characters and it was the start of a very, very rapid rise to fame for him. And then Fieldingbroke Convention, challenging all stereotypical casting  of Indians and Mexicans as villains.  I think this is  my favorite part of this story because when I look at Prescott, Arizona, one of the things that  I'm always so touched and so moved by is the people. when you have the opportunity to come here and to be here, that people are so kind, they're so nice, they're so friendly. You go have a coffee in the morning and someone's like, good morning.  People are joyful, they're happy, they're willing to help you.  And so Fielding didn't make  anybody that was of a different race, of a different color,  of a different community, of a different origin, of a different background. He didn't make them villains like other people had in plays or in productions. He wanted everybody to be able to ride the range as compadres, as friends.  So when you're looking at Prescott, Arizona in film history, the movies at that time, those Westerns and those silent movies  were really movies that marked the very beginning of humanitarianism for our nation. This is the birth  of that humanitarianism, which I think is just Absolutely such a gift to know that and such a blessing and how wondrous that that's where it came from. That humanitarianism in this nation came from our film history. Also his films often ended on a downbeat note which for that time was really rare because people were impoverished and people didn't have anything and so they wanted movies to end all joyfully with the happily ever after and laughter and His didn't do that. His often ended where you really felt it and you were touched in your heart and you were moved deeply in some profound way.  And he allowed the human emotions and the human feelings to be able to be felt in his movies. And so  really he is revered for doing that. And his films were raised for their visual beauty combined with realism. really beautiful. His films in Prescott included stories based on the Old West, on mining, and on Indian life. Now, he used many locals. One of the things I love in reading the history, not just in Hollywood, but here in Prescott, is they didn't have that many actors. came out here at that time. And so, If you were a bank teller you might be a bank teller in the movie if you worked as a clerk you might be a clerk in the movie or you might just be in a saloon scene and you might be an extra and so a lot of the people would come to the movies to see themselves in the movies which is really fun. lot of times you hear people you know all the students so i was in the movie in nineteen whatever that is they were indeed. in those movies. If they lived in those areas, they had a chance to be on the movies, to be cast in the movies. Sometimes they had lines,  they were silent movies, they still could be highlighted.  so many, many, many locals were used in filming at that time. So Lubin just rented a house that they use for offices and wardrobe and makeup and props. And they built that platform that I'm telling you about that had the moving walls.  Now the journal miner said that the studio was an economic windfall that they spending upwards of $7,000 a month at local merchants. And so that is the equivalent of $190,000 today. So I'm going to repeat that once more just so you can understand what that looked like and the impact of that. So. Movie studio comes to town, they build their little platform, they put up their cameras, they're making their movies.  And by bringing movies to this little city called Prescott, it created an economic windfall.  And the people that associated with the movies were spending upwards of $7,000 a month at local merchants, which is basically the equivalent of $190,000 today. So can you imagine this little town and you have a grocery store, you have a mercantile store and then all of a sudden,  you know, you've got people coming in and make movies and all these people, need material and they need,  you know, hardware or they need food or they need  medicine, whatever it is that they need.  And people were spending money in this town and it really changed the face of the town. In only four months, they produced nine  one-wheel Western shorts. nine in only four months and a reel was about 10 minutes length. The very first movie that they made was a movie called The Cringer and that is starring Romaine Fielding. In The Cringer, Malcolm Fraser, who is the secretary of the chamber of commerce or the city of Prescott played the bank clerk in the film. And many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many locals  were actors in the film. There is a great article by Drew Desmond.  And  Drew Desmond is a local film historian  and very talented,  very talented writer and very talented in almost every artistic. area that you can imagine and he is absolutely revered in the Western world and in the historical fields.  he writes some  fantastic articles  that  I'm a huge fan and a huge follower. But he had a great article called Prescott was Hollywood for Silent Westerns.  And that's on his Prescott history.blogspot.com. So Prescott history.blogspot.com. if you would like to read his article.  And he talks about the cringer  was about a not too bright sheep herder. I love that.  A not too bright sheep herder who was goaded by his friends into proving he was no coward by stealing a horse and by robbing a bank. And to divert the attention of the bank robber, he set fire to the barn. So that is what it's about. And the film stars Romaine Fielding and many of the locals. And scenes include some  wild horseback riding at Granite Dells.  Granite Dells, if you listen to our podcast about Tom Mix, Granite Dells has those rocks that are sort of curved. So if Tom Mix is jumping off a rock on a horse and they're saving people, so they're not hitting those sharp peaks. And a lot of movies and a lot of Westerns, a lot of silent films were filmed in the Granite Dells. but in the movie, The Cringer, there's a wild horseback riding at the Granadales.  They also filmed at the goat ranch  at the Three Mile House. And the bank robbery in that movie was on a stage right behind the hospital. And the burning of the bar was on East Gurley Street. Now Gurley Street I love, if you're here on Prescott, there's a street called Gurley Street.  And  Girlie Street will take you  right across where Risky Row is and where the Plaza is,  but also on Girlie Street. She and a Queen of the Jungle, when we do,  we talk about that in our film history. The first 10 seconds  of  She and a Queen of the Jungle, our film does are going down in Girlie Street. So Girlie Street has for so many movies and we will talk about them on and on of all the movies and all the TV shows that are shot there. It's very famous, but that's where the burning of the barn was.  And then a Mount Carmel pen newspaper wrote, the film was replete with startling situations, full of thrilling action with plenty of cowboys, good fast riding and desperadoes. I think that's the greatest line I ever saw. The film was replete with startling situations, full of thrilling action with plenty of cowboys, good fast riding and desperadoes. Its production wooed the Lubin Company to the city of Prescott. Unfortunately, they  have no surviving copies of the Cringer. They have uh looked, there were a lot of fires at the time  and  we can talk about  the fires and what that looked like and how many people's careers. I believe I was talking about that in our last podcast, that they're  actors at their entire careers. There is nothing left and disappeared, even though they might've made hundreds of movies.  And a lot of movies that were being distributed in Europe ended up in the vault fires at that time. And so that never made their way into distribution, into getting across to another country. And a lot of people lost their businesses. A lot of people went bankrupt at the time because of the fires. But as far as we know, there are no surviving copies  of The Cringer. But it certainly sounds like a fun movie. but a not too bright sheep herder who was goaded by his friends into proving he was no coward by stealing a horse and robbing a bank. And to divert the attention of the bank robber, he said, fire to the barn. Now,  you could just see it, right? You could just close your eyes. You could see the movie, even if it was lost, you can find yourself seeing this movie in your mind's  eye, which must have been quite something back in that time. Then the second movie. was a movie called The Uprising. This was the first use of real Indian extras that Lubin was promised when he headquartered in Prescott. So he was promised if he came here that he would have real Indian extras from the local reservations.  And so people got to work together  in making movie magic, which is again, part of our film history and part of our humanitarian history. and part of the history of this nation that is really, really talked about, how we work together to create artistic magic. The third movie was a movie called The Forest Ranger. And I think that this,  of all the movies when we talk about the early 1900s, is the movie that I think is the one that I  wanted to focus on or I find myself focusing on  more than anything else. because the Forest Ranger movie was best known for its amazing wildfire scene. um The reviewer said that it was a marvel of realism and there must have been a good deal of daring on the part of the actors. Now, when we go back to the Forest Ranger, and I've done a lot of research on this movie, there's no way to know whether there's a real fire. and decided to make a movie and they went into that fire and they created a script and they filmed around that fire or whether they created a fire to go with the script or how that was done.  But people that had the opportunity and when you look at the reviews and people that talk about their history of the lives or people that were living at that time,  that had the opportunity to see the forest ranger, that movie kind of changed their life and people sat there sort of like, guess what we would consider 3D movies right now when we go to the theater and we put on glasses,  it seemed like they were inside the fire, that the heat was right there. And to be able to accomplish that and that feeling  at that early stage in the early 1900s um with filmmaking, with what they had at that time, how much talent and how much craft, how misingenuity to be able to do that. And I think it's a sensitive subject because I had a home in Malibu that no longer is existence due to the fires. And I have a lot of friends that lost their home in Palisades and Malibu and Napa and many other areas that the fires have taken our homes, our worlds.  And I know what that devastation is like. And I know the fear that goes with it. And I know the rage  and  all of that. And to imagine that you can go see a movie like the Forest Ranger and to feel that you were inside the movie and that that fire was coming right at you  must have just been  absolutely  astounding that a filmmaker and filmmakers at that time could create a movie that was that real, that had such a profound effect. on the movies that we see today. The fourth movie was a movie that was a comedy. So look, they're not just doing Westerns, they're not just doing silent movies. It was a comedy called The Family Next Door,  and it was said to be furiously funny. I love reviewers at that time, furiously funny.  I don't know any reviewer now that says something is furiously funny. But you can imagine if a reviewer said the movie was furiously funny, that it was probably very, very, very funny, that it was probably hysterical, right? And the fifth picture I think is really interesting because it was called The Way of the Mountain. And The Way of the Mountain, although it was filmed here, it took place on the screen at the hills of Kentucky. And so that is something that we see in most modern movies today. that something can be filmed in Hollywood, could be filmed on a sound stage,  it could be filmed in another country or culture, it could be filmed  on a vast open space, on a land, on desert, it can be on a mountain range. And even though it's filming there, the movie itself is actually taking place and somewhere else. So, you you might be in the desert in this hour, you might be in even though you're filming in the desert at Palm Springs or something like that.  So the fact that The Way of the Mountain was one of the first movies that was filmed in one place, but the movie was set somewhere else. So even though it was filmed here in Prescott, Arizona, it took place in the movie. If you're watching the movie, the movie is taking place in the Hills of Kentucky.  And that was a story of love and jealousy.  And so we've got the comedy,  we have this love story,  we have the fire, which is the adventure. We have the Western. So when you think about the Wild West in these movies, these silent movies and these Western movies, it wasn't just Cowboys.  It wasn't just  Western movies. They were doing romance movies, romantic comedy movies. They were doing comedy movies. They were doing,  you know, adventure movies with the fires and the historical. So  they were bringing film to life. It was the history and the making.  of movies themselves. And then  the Lubin company would go on to produce four more films  in 1912. And then they  ended up leaving Prescott forever.  This is the saddest part of the story. If you think about just the short time that they were here, mean,  it really...  they were only here just a couple years and look how many movies and look the precedent that was set for all of the movies that we see today. Every movie that you go to the theater today was somehow sent. This was the beginning  of the creation  of being able to see those movies and those scripts and the technique and the technology and the vision and the hope and the dreams of filmmaking. But Thomas Edison brought repeated lawsuits against the patents and Lubin Studios moved to Las Vegas, again, trying to escape Thomas Edison in 1913. And then a fire at its studios in June of 1914 destroyed the negatives for all of the unreleased new films. I think that's so heartbreaking to think that all of these movies, all of these actors, All of these sets, all of these scenes, all of the scripts, all of the cinematographers, the makeup, the hair, the costumes, the stunts, everything that went into making these movies. And then the fire in June of 1914 destroyed the negatives for all of Lubin's unreleased new films. And then when World War I broke out in Europe, right in September of that year, Lubin Studios was among the American filmmakers that lost their foreign sales. So between the fire and the war, all of a sudden everything was halted and there was a despondency and the Lubin film company went bankrupt in 1917 after having made more than a thousand motion pictures, more than a thousand motion pictures. And so We give  just credit to Lubin. We give credit to those early filmmakers that set forth. you know,  it's,  I remember Michael Jackson  was giving a speech once about Sammy Davis Jr.  And he said, we are here  because you were there. We are here because you were there.  That you opened the door and made it possible. for performers like myself to entertain and be on stage and be where they are today. We are here today as filmmakers. We are here today  as audiences. We are here today as viewers because of those early film studios, the very beginning of time, the very  start and the courage to come to a new state. to a new city, to build a scene, to gather talent, to  put creative ideas,  the technology, to create cameras  and projectors, and to have the idea not only to make movies, but to make comedies, to make action adventure movies, to make romance movies, to make Westerns,  to treat everybody as if they are friends,  and to make humanitarianism  a keynote factor. And then you think about the fires and you think about the war and everything they went through. And even with that, even with that, we still have films today. Film has survived. The art has survived. And the city that was just the very beginning, the groundwork for now, more than 3000 films that have been filmed in this area, over 5000 Arizona will talk about the history and films in our nations. But it's important to understand where that came from. And then Lubin, after the company went bankrupt in 1917, he went back to being an optometrist, which I think is very sad and very enlightening at the same time, because as an optometrist, he was able to see what others couldn't see, right? And he was able to see a vision of the future that we now call film and television magic. he was able to create something that is going to last forever and entertainment and arts and a way that we can literally take ourselves out of our own lives and watch these stories on film and then to be touched so deeply by our  own feelings,  our own emotions and our own elations. and our own thrilling excitement that sometimes we see these movies over and over and over and over and over over and over again. And certainly a hero in the filmmaking industry and has a huge history here in Prescott, Arizona. Lupin died in 1923 in Ventnor, New Jersey, which is interestingly late from Margate, New Jersey, which is right.  by there just a couple miles away. And after Lublin moved on in 1913, the prolific William Duncan of Selig Polyscoot moved in. And  on our next show, we will talk about William Duncan and Selig and the next generation of filmmaking. But from the start of the Elks Theater, where you would see opera and theater where you saw silent movies, where you saw talkies  in this area, people coming from everywhere, the windfall of money that came to the town from the filmmaking,  the fact that it was just a slat, just a little stage like your porch that was the very first film studio and they moved around  the sets and they moved around the backdrops and had the costumes and everything just in this little house.  And the fact that They were able to make so many movies, over a thousand movies in such a short, short, short period of time. Certainly  shares with us the very beginning  of film history, film magic here in Prescott, Arizona. So  I love being here. I love sharing. I love the joy of the movie making. And July, we will have the Prescott Film Festival and the movies that are up and coming. If you are in town, come see it. If you are not in town, come to Prescott for it. Come meet me, come greet me. If you come to the city. And we are again  taking you on the journey of the Hollywood film and television magic here, the state of Arizona, Hollywood, the nation, Europe. will share with you the beginning to the end in every film magic secret  that you could possibly imagine. And all of the stars, all of the celebrities, the directors, the cinematographers will bring in guests for you to be able to hear how movie magic is created and the future of film today. So thank you for being with me. I look forward to seeing you on our next episode of Hollywood Film and TV. And until then,  keep the magic in the dreams.  on the old frontier  every legend lingers here  through the lens of time and truth every step rewrite to you  take the trail no need to fear  Hollywood is standing near in the dust  where the stories grew the screen is looking back at you  and the move is me  That's where the stories never sleep.