A Star is Born: Hollywood in the Bow Valley (Part 1)
by Brian Patton
June 1919. The "Fred Stone Film Co. of California" blows into Banff, purchases one of the few cars in town from Dr. Harry Brett, pushes it off the cliff above Bow Falls, and films its tumbling descent over the foaming cataract. The locals were impressed.
For the next 35 years, Banff would serve as the base for most of the Hollywood film companies working in the Canadian Rockies. Surrounded by some of the most rugged mountain scenery on the continent, it was a natural. And as a well-established resort, it provided most of the amenities moviemakers required.
The golden era of silent film during the 1920s was by far the most active period for moviemaking in the Banff area. No sooner had Banffites fished Dr. Brett's demolished car from the Bow River, than four more motion pictures descended on the village the following year. Production companies gobbled up the best scenery in the valley, moving from the rugged slopes of Tunnel Mountain to the ice-covered waters of Lake Minnewanka to the glaciers and peaks above Lake Louise.
Olive Borden and John J. Clark on Little Beehive at Lake Louise during filming of Pajamas, 1927.
However, many of the early stars were not pleased to be uprooted from the glories of Hollywood to work in the Canadian wilderness. It was a long journey from Southern California, and without the amenities of modern-day movie companies, like trailers on location, actors and actresses often suffered from the rain and the ever-present mosquitoes. And many of these films were shot in winter, leaving cast and crew to often ponder their very survival. When actress Estelle Taylor arrived in Banff in June 1924 to star in The Alaskan, she immediately offended townsfolk by declaring the location, the remote Silver City ghost town, "anything but ideal." But much of Miss Taylor's displeasure resulted from her enforced separation from her fiancé, heavyweight-boxing champ Jack Dempsey.
John Barrymore was just as discouraged to find himself in Lake Louise during the summer of 1928 for the filming of Eternal Love. Despite luxurious accommodation in the Chateau, the actor spent most of his time barricaded in his room. One of the film's leading ladies tearfully complained to hotel staff that the great actor never spoke to her off-set. And director Ernst Lubitsch was also in tears when the temperamental, out-of-shape Barrymore refused to re-shoot a climbing scene on Victoria Glacier; the scene was only completed after Lubitsch fell to his knees on the glacier at Barrymore's feet, sobbing and pleading that he would be ruined if he didn't get the scene.
With the advent of "talking films" at the close of the 1920s, Hollywood retreated to the sound stages of California and did not return to the Bow Valley for nearly 15 years.
But when it did return during the summer of 1943, it did so with a vengeance.
Son of Lassie, the second in a long series of Lassie movies and the first colour film made in the Canadian Rockies, utilized every postcard location between Banff and the Columbia Icefield. Peter Lawford and Lassie (a.k.a. "Pal" the collie) starred in this improbable tale of a British fighter pilot and his faithful collie who are shot down by the Germans over Norway. In the grand finale, Lawford and Lassie, running beneath a hail of German bullets, leap from the Stewart Canyon bridge at Lake Minnewanka and are promptly swept over Bow Falls. But they survive to fight and bark another day.
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Hollywood director Frank Borzage (bottom right) directs camera crew during the filming of The Valley of Silent Men on the cliffs of Tunnel Mountain in 1922. Leading lady Alma Rubens (centre) hangs on for dear life.
In 1948, Hollywood tackled Canadian history in the feature Canadian Pacific, utilizing locations that stretched from Seebe to Lake Louise. Starring western hero Randolph Scott, the movie is an Americanized version of the building of the CPR. Scott plays a two-gun-slinging surveyor who faces everything from exploding dynamite caches to the flaming arrows of rampaging Indians. In the end he dispatches the villains, makes peace with the Indians, and saves the railway. And, of course, he gets the girl and lives happily ever after on the shores of Lake Louise.
But for sheer, unadulterated glamour, nothing equalled the summer of 1953. It was a summer when the Bow Valley was awash in movie stars. In mid-August, Marilyn Monroe, Robert Mitchum and Rory Calhoun arrived in Banff from Jasper to complete River of No Return. Alan Ladd and Shelly Winters were already in town, living at the Banff Springs Hotel, working on yet another travesty of Canadian history incongruously entitled Saskatchewan.
Marilyn Monroe's star dwarfed all others that summer, particularly with Banff's male population. And their adoration was only enhanced by their sympathy for the brave actress who had sprained her ankle on-location in Jasper and was now forced to hobble onto a raft each day at Bow Falls, Two Jack Lake, and Seebe's Horseshoe Canyon to complete the film's final scenes. (Shelly Winters later accused Marilyn of feigning the injury to soften director Otto Preminger's criticism of her acting.)
The activity of 1953 prompted many residents to believe Banff had become Hollywood North. During the course of the summer, one local outfitter supplied 280 horses and 200 Stoney Indians to the motion picture companies working in the Bow Valley, and on two other productions in Jasper. Forty trucks were utilized every day to haul food and equipment to various locations in the Banff area alone, and by mid-August it was estimated that over 300 movie people were staying in local hotels.
Movie poster for Pajamas, filmed at Lake Louise in 1927.
But the incredible activity of that summer was never repeated. National park administrators reconsidered their policy of allowing access to natural areas and the construction of major sets. While the park would continue to host moviemakers, even to the present day, their activities would be tightly managed and usually restricted to Banff townsite or local ski areas.
The future of filmmaking in the Rockies would lie down-valley, beyond national park boundaries.
Brian Patton is the author of The Canadian Rockies Trail Guide, now in its seventh edition, and a long-time Bow Valley resident
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