In 1921, William and Irene Finley pulled out a camera and documented their friendship with a hungry campsite visitor.

Here’s the filmmaker:

Finley was an early conservationist. Oregon’s first fish and game commission was set up in 1911, following his recommendation. You can visit William L. Finley National Wildlife Refuge, named in his honor, just south of Corvallis.

Here’s how short Oregon’s history is.

William Finley was born in Santa Clara California, on Aug. 9, 1876. That’s one month after Custer’s Last Stand. His parents, John Pettus Finley and Nancy Catherine Rucker, had traveled west by covered wagon. His uncle, William Asa Finley, was the first president of Oregon State University.

William himself was one of the first presidents of Audubon Society of Portland. Notice the birds on his head! He made this film the same year Rudolf Valentino appeared in The Sheik and Charlie Chaplin appeared in The Kid.

At the time Chumming With Chipmunks was made, all feature films were preceded by newsreels. So although William Finley’s chipmunk film did not win the international accolades which later came to Perri, an Oregon film with a similarly wild cast, it was seen by movie audiences across the country.

I hereby claim Chumming With Chipmunks as an Oregon film, based on the Oregon citizenship of the director William and camerawoman Irene.

Flames was shot in Sullivans Gulch, once home to Portland’s Hooverville, now home to the infamously hospitable Gulch O’Rama.

In addition to Jean Hersholt, more famous for starring as one of the world’s thirstiest human beings in Erich Von Stroheim’s Greed (1924), the cast of Flames included Boris Karloff. The script was by Alfred Cohn, who the following year would be nominated for an Academy Award for his adaptation of Samuel Raphaelson’’s stage play The Jazz Singer (1927).

Directed by Lewis Moomaw. Flames was a production of Moomaw’s own Portland based company, American Lifeograph.

Turner Classic Movies has a print. According to their website, they have yet to receive one vote to make it available on home video.

Except for this technicality, Flames is a lost film.

Does anybody know what it was about?

On October 31, 1919, Lewis Moomaw and his wife traveled with Danish actor Jean Hersholt and his wife at the Crown Point Chalet in Corbett, Oregon. You can see Moomaw’s guest book signature, along with those of dozens of other silent era movie figures, on the wonderfully researched Crown Point Chalet website. ( Anne’s editorial note: Sadly, this website is no longer in existence. I trust that the guest book is still safe and sound somewhere, though!)

A wide range of Hollywood guests came to enjoy the views from the new Columbia Gorge highway – everyone from Ronald Colman to Theda Bara to Ilya Tolstoy (the filmmaking son of Count Leo, who knew?).

The Chechahcos tells the story of two Klondike gold seekers who raise a baby girl after she is accidentally separated from her young, beautiful, recently widowed mother. One man treats the girl as a daughter, and she grows up to be the apple of his eye. The other falls in love with her. You can watch this movie to see several amazing things you won’’t find anywhere else –  a love story between a girl and her adoptive dad, just for starters. The Chechahcos also includes a dog sled race, death by melting glacier, spectacularly detailed art direction, and magnificent vistas of the long trails of gold crazed chechahcos  (Inuit for newbies) trudging up Chilkoot Pass.

You may have seen the vistas already. They are rumored to have been recycled in Charlie Chaplin’s The Gold Rush.

A pristine print of The Chechahcos was recently discovered in Alaska, which is why we are able to see it today.  Shot entirely on location, this ambitious production is the only Lewis Moomaw film which made it to the 21st century.

I claim The Chechahcos as an Oregon film because it was directed by Moomaw, who was born in Bend, and based his film career in Portland.

It is available as part of a four DVD set titled Treasures of American Film Archives, and can be borrowed from the Multnomah Public Library.

The Chechahcos, directed by Lewis Moomaw in 1924 is b&w/silent/86 minutes.

Portland has never been as remote – geographically, socially and spiritually – from the rest of the country, as it would like to believe.

In 1923, a young Ernest Haycox was living in Greenwich Village, writing his first western.

In 1923, a young George Olsen was appearing on Broadway in Kid Boots, with Eddie Cantor.

In 1923, a young Mayo Methot was appearing The Song & Dance Man on Broadway, opposite George M. Cohan.

In 1923, a young Lee Morse was startling audiences with her deep bluesy voice in the Artists & Models, a musical review on Broadway.

In 1923, a young Mark Rothko moved to the Upper West Side to study painting, after being upstaged in a Portland acting class by the future King of Hollywood.

I have no idea if Mark Rothko liked jazz.

If he did, whenever he felt homesick he could have taken a quick stroll down Broadway to see his fellow Portlanders George Olsen, Lee Morse, and Meyo Methot performing onstage.