A lost Oregon film, set in an existing Oregon forest, has been found, and given back to this country by a former enemy who is now a friend.

A print of The Valley Of The Giants (1919) has been discovered in Russia, and a digitized copy of this lost film  – with Russian subtitles –now resides in the Library of Congress. Shot in Southern Oregon and Northern California, The Valley Of The Giants was one of the very first Oregon films.

Here’s the press release:

October 21, 2010

Russia Presents Library of Congress With Digital Copies of Lost U.S. Silent Films

A major gift from Russia—digitally preserved copies of 10 previously lost U.S. silent films—will help the United States reclaim its silent-film heritage.

Vladimir I. Kozhin, head of Management and Administration of the President of the Russian Federation, officially presented the films to Librarian of Congress James H. Billington in a special ceremony today in the Library’s Thomas Jefferson Building.

The 10 films constitute the first installment of an ongoing series of “lost” films produced by U.S. movie studios that will be given to the Library of Congress. The films were digitally preserved by Gosfilmofond, the Russian State film archive, and donated via the Boris Yeltsin Presidential Library.

“The Library is committed to reclaiming America’s cinematic patrimony,” said Librarian of Congress James H. Billington. “I am grateful to the dedicated staff of Gosfilmofond, the state film archive of Russia, for their efforts to save these important artifacts of U.S. film history. I am also thankful for the commitment of Prof. Alexander Vershinin and the staff of the Boris Yeltsin Presidential Library for their collaboration and cooperation in making this cultural recovery effort possible.”

The films, created for an American public, were distributed in other countries—including Russia—during the silent era, 1893-1930. Shown in Russian movie houses, the films had been given Russian-language intertitles. More….

I discovered this news when I began poking around the internet after reading about Grant McOmie’s visit to the actual Valley of the Giants, a forest of old growth redwoods in Southern Oregon.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Here is the Library Of Congress’ description of the film Paramount called “a great big outdoor picture”:

10. Valley of the Giants (Famous Players, 1919)
Director: James Cruze
Cast: Wallace Reid, Grace Darmond

Upon his return from college, a young man (Wallace Reid) learns that his father is in danger of losing the family’s beloved land to an unscrupulous lumberman. The film is highlighted with a daring scene played out on a runaway logging train.

Reid, one of the most popular film actors of the late teens and early 20s, teamed up with director James Cruze for several pictures in 1919, including this outdoor adventure. Cruze, originally trained as a stage actor, started working in films in 1911. In 1918, he turned his attention to directing, and by 1927, was the most popular and highest-salaried director in the business. It was on this movie, filming on location in northern California and southern Oregon, that Reid was injured doing stunt work. He supposedly was given morphine injections for the pain by a studio physician, which led to his addiction and ultimate death on January 18, 1923.

Thank you, Gosfilmofond, for the gift! I hope someday to get a chance to see both the trees themselves, and the silent classic in which they appear.

Cleveland born rodeo star Rose August Wenger married Hoot Gibson in Pendleton in 1913 and shared his career path into the movies. She changed her name at the request of the producers of the action serial The Hazards of Helen, when she was promoted from stunt double to star.

Widely acknowledged as Hollywood’s first professional stuntwoman, Gibson was regarded by her peers with awe.

Here’s Helen leaping from the top of a building to the roof of a moving train.

It seems that in such a leap the safest place to aim at is the gap itself. At least in that way one can guarantee to miss it. Arthur Wise, from Stunting In the Cinema, 1973

And you thought you worked hard for a living!

After a long career, Helen Gibson retired to Roseburg, Oregon, where she died of natural causes in 1977.

I have never seen Pinto’s Prizma Comedy Revue, but here’s information about its place in the career of one of Oregon first animators, Vance DeBar “Pinto” Colvig.

This is from the IMDB bio of Colvig, who was born and raised in Jacksonville, Oregon.

In 1914 he landed a job as a newspaper cartoonist at the “Nevada Rockroller” in Reno, and later the “Carson City News” in Carson City. By the spring of 1915 his cartooning was going well but the lure of the circus was too strong. When the Al G. Barnes Circus came through Carson City, Pinto dropped everything and joined the troupe, once again clowning and playing his clarinet in the circus band.

In those days circuses closed down each winter and Pinto returned to newspaper cartooning wherever he could find a job. While working on a Portland newspaper between seasons in 1916, he met and married Margaret Bourke Slavin, putting an end to his vagabond life as a circus performer. With a family to support, Pinto and Margaret moved to San Francisco, where he returned to the newspaper business writing and drawing cartoons full-time at “The Bulletin” and later the “San Francisco Chronicle”. His cartoon series, “Life on the Radio Wave,” which poked fun at the way the newly introduced radio was influencing people’s lives, was syndicated nationally by United Features Syndicate. He greatly enjoyed cartooning and considered it another form of clowning. “A cartoonist,” he said, “is just a clown with a pencil.”

While Pinto toiled daily to meet newspaper commitments, he began to spend evenings experimenting with the animation of cartoons and eventually set up his own studio, Pinto Cartoon Comedies Co., where he created one of the first animated silent films in color called “Pinto’s Prizma Comedy Revue (1919)”. In 1922, after realizing that San Francisco was not the place to break into the movie business, he moved his family to Hollywood.

I hereby claim Colvig’s entire output at Pinto Cartoon Comedies Company as (lost) Oregon films.

This post brought to you by Oregon Cartoon Institute.

The Valley Of The Giants (1919) is the film production during which leading man Wallace Reid was injured on set in a train accident (!) and treated with morphine so the production could continue. Unable to shake his dependence, he remained addicted, and productive, until the toll on his health was too great. He died at age 31, an enormous star.

Directed by James Cruze, The Valley of the Giants is a lost film.

Because The Valley Of The Giants was shot in Southern Oregon, I sorrowfully claim this sad chapter of cinema history as part of Oregon’s film history.

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News flash! Shelve the tragic regrets!

In October 2010, Library of Congress received a digital copy of a newly discovered print of The Valley Of Giants, as a gift from the Russian film archive, Gosfilmofond. How wonderful!

]]> http://www.talltalestruetales.com/2008/10/the-valley-of-the-giants-1919/feed/ 0 http://www.talltalestruetales.com/2008/10/crown-point-chalet-guestbooks-1915-1927/ http://www.talltalestruetales.com/2008/10/crown-point-chalet-guestbooks-1915-1927/#comments Thu, 02 Oct 2008 04:33:18 +0000 Anne Richardson http://mufilmfest.episodecreative.com/?p=488

When silent films acquired sound, filmmakers and movie stars the world over expressed their regrets. Many had seen their non-verbal medium as a peacemaker, with the power to tear down the Tower of Babel which separates nations from each other.

Some of those idealists visited Oregon, to drive along the brand new Columbia River Highway and stay overnight at the Crown Point Chalet,the square building (no longer standing) in the lower right hand corner of the above postcard.

Signatures on a guest register are from Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd, Ronald Colman, Billie Burke, Theda Bara, Fatty Arbuckle, Wallace Reid – and others..