Oregon Movies, A to Z » Scorecard series

Scorecard: 15 Oregon Artists Reflect Bi-Cultural Reality

Anne Richardson — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 01:17:51 +0000

Joaquin Miller, pony express rider/lawyer/horse thief/literary figure.

When did Oregon writers start exploring the bi-culturality of our state ?

(This list is an excerpt of a previous post, designed for people who are list crazy.)

1873: Joaquin Miller writes Life Among The Modocs: An Unwritten History

1883: Sarah Winnemucca writes Life Among The Piutes

1890: Frederick Homer Balch writes Bridge of the Gods

1902: Eva Emery Dye writes The Conquest: The True Story of Lewis and Clark,with Sacajawea at the center of her narrative

1940: Yellow Wolf dictates Yellow Wolf: His Own Story to Lucullus Virgil McWhorter. Movie connection: In 1975, the television movie I Will Fight No More Forever dramatized the events to which Yellow Wolf was eyewitness in 1877.

1960: Don Berry writes Trask

1962: Ken Kesey writes One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest. Movie connection: In 1975, Milos Forman’s One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest won Best Picture and four other Academy Awards.

1987: William Kittredge writes Owning It All.

1993: Elizabeth Woody writes Seven Hands, Seven Hearts

1995: Craig Lesley writes Winterkill

1998: Chris Eyre directs Sherman Alexie’s Smoke Signals.

2000 Marv Ross and Thomas Morning Owl, Jr begin writing & composing The Ghosts Of Celilo

2010: Matt McCormick writes & directs Some Days Are Better Than Others

2010: Jon Raymond writes Meek’s Cutoff

The above book list is not comprehensive! I am not covering all related works of art, nor all artists. Please feel free to add names/titles I have omitted.

For people who would like to know more about the books on the list — see Walt Curtis Recommends: Top Nine For Oregon Bookworms. Another great list, created by David Milholland and Walt Curtis, can be found on the Oregon Cultural Heritage Commission website.

New York Is Oregon Territory: Sixth Ave & West Fourth Street/A Plimpton-Plympton Landmark

Anne Richardson — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 02:27:57 +0000

“I met a boy named Frank Mills/ On September 12th right here, in front of the Waverly”

October 17, 1967: The landmark musical Hair opens, with Shelley Plimpton singing the plaintive love ballad “Frank Mills”, about a boy she met at the Waverly Theater in New York’s Greenwich Village.

October 6, 2010: Idiots and Angels opens at the IFC Theater in New York’s Greenwich Village with writer-producer-director Bill Plympton acting as his own distributor.

The connection between these two Plimpton/Plympton debuts?

IFC Theater is “the Waverly “, aka the Waverly Theater, under a new name.

Then:

Now:

Distantly related Shelley Plimpton and Bill Plympton each traveled 3000 miles (from Roseburg, Oregon and from Oregon City, respectively) for their Waverly/IFC dates with destiny.

This strange but true confluence of theater, film and Oregon history is brought to you by Oregon Cartoon Institute.

Scorecard: Walt Curtis In Oregon Films

Anne Richardson — Wed, 05 May 2010 05:33:22 +0000

Click here to view the embedded video.

Walt Curtis, in a scene from Penny Allen’s Paydirt (1981). Cinematography by Eric Edwards.

Portland’s unofficial street poet laureate, Walt Curtis, did not confine himself to the printed page. Here’s a quick guide to his film career.

Number of times Walt appears as himself in a film: 3

Number of times Walt plays a character named “Walt” in a film: 2

Number of Oscar nominated filmmakers who have put Walt in their films: 2

===============================================

Walt appears as himself in Bill Bowling’s American Ferris Wheel (1970)

Walt appears as a character based on himself in Penny Allen’s Property (1979)

Walt appears as the character based on himself in Penny Allen’s Paydirt (1981)

Walt appears as George in Gus Van Sant’s Mala Noche (1985)

Tim Streeter appears as Walt in Gus Van Sant’s Mala Noche (1985)

Walt Curtis appears as himself in Bill Plympton’s Peckerneck Poet (1997)

Walt Curtis appears as himself in Sabrina Guitart’s Salmon Poet (2009)

Here’s information on how to contribute to the efforts to help Walt recover from losses sustained in the fire which destroyed Great Northwest Bookstore.

Scorecard: The Big Shots

Anne Richardson — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 20:40:30 +0000

American Film Institute’s Greatest American Screen Legends list contains actors selected by more than 1,800 AFI members.

Here are the stars on that list who appeared in Oregon films.

Listed in order of their rank (on that particular list):

#3. Jimmy Stewart, in Bend In the River and Shenandoah.

#7 Clark Gable, who apprenticed on the Portland stage before hitting Hollywood.

#12 Gregory Peck, in MacKenna’s Gold.

#13 John Wayne, in The Big Trail, Stagecoach, and Rooster Cogburn.

#17 Kirk Douglas, in Indian Fighter and The Way West.

#21 Buster Keaton, in The General.

#22 Sidney Poitier, in All The Young Men.

#23 Robert Mitchum in Rachel and the Stranger, The Lusty Men and The Way West.

#25 William Holden, in Rachel and the Stranger.

#9. Marlene Dietrich (on AFI’s separate list for top female stars) , in Golden Earrings.

The most recent film on the above list, Rooster Cogburn, was made in 1975.

Three years after that, Penny Allen shot Property, using CETA funds to pay her crew. She may or may not have sensed she was launching a renaissance of Portland based independent filmmaking.

Seven years later, her sound man, Gus Van Sant, made Mala Noche, and Oregon film history no longer was confined to showcasing our strengths as the world’s largest and most scenic sound stage.

Scorecard: Portland in 3D

Anne Richardson — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 23:43:30 +0000

Number of businesses producing 3D spectacles: 1

Number of animation studios producing 3D features: 1

Number of historic Viewmaster factory sites: 1

Number of 3D museums: 1

Scorecard: 1950’s trade balance

Anne Richardson — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 02:48:41 +0000

The 1956 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade in NYC. Sharp eyes will notice the Astor Hotel, built by the same family who named Astoria, Oregon.

Imports:

Bend Of the River 1952 (Anthony Mann, Jimmy Stewart)

The Lusty Men 1952 (Nicholas Ray, Robert Mitchum)

Indian Fighter 1955 (Kirk Douglas)

Tonka 1958 (Sal Mineo)

Exports:

There’s No Business Like Show Business 1954 (singer Johnnie Ray, from Hopewell)

Seven Brides For Seven Brothers 1954 (singer Jane Powell, from Portland)

The Incredible Shrinking Man 1957 (cinematographer Ellis Carter, born in “Oregon”, love to know more)

What’s Opera, Doc? 1957 (voice artist Mel Blanc, from Portland)

Perri 1957 (writer/director Ralph Wright, from Grants Pass)

Venice: Theme and Variations 1957 (director James Ivory, from Klamath Falls)

The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad 1958 (writer Ken Kolb, from Portland)

Sleeping Beauty 1959 (composer George Bruns, from Sandy)

Scorecard: Angelina Jolie/Charlize Theron Grunge Monkeys

Anne Richardson — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 05:00:55 +0000

Angelina and Charlize are so beautiful they don’t give a fig whether you think highly of their looks or not. They are both secretly drawn to making Oregon films because Oregon is well stocked with beautiful women who take this same attitude. While here, Charlize wore a watch cap and Angelina wore leather, tributes to Jack Nicolson in One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest(1975), and Keanu Reeves in My Own Private Idaho (1991), respectively.

Oregon films made by Angelina Jolie: Without Evidence (1995), FoxFire (1996)

Oregon films made by Charlize Theron: Men of Honor (2000), The Burning Plain (2008), The Road (2009)

Scorecard: The Fantastic Mr. Fox’s Vinton Studio Alums

Anne Richardson — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 07:38:27 +0000

Kristi Turnquist adds some more names to the “What would Wes Anderson do without Portland?” list.

FOXY PORTLAND TALENT
Wes Anderson’s animated feature, “Fantastic Mr. Fox” is getting some of the best reviews of the year. No surprise, then, to see the names of talent with Portland roots showing up on the crew list. Among them: animation director Mark Gustafson, a longtime luminary at Will Vinton Studios; production designer Nelson Lowry, who worked on the Vinton studio-animated series, “The PJs”; and animator Brad Schiff, who worked on “Coraline,” from Laika studio.

To clarify: All three above named Oregon exports worked on the television series “The PJs” , made here in Portland.

Scorecard: Top 5 Oregon Turkeys

Anne Richardson — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 15:45:25 +0000

To help celebrate the day, here is a short list of Oregon’s biggest disasters, film wise.

Lost Horizon (1973)

Island at the Top of the World (1974)

Clan of the Cave Bear (1986)

There’s No Business Like Show Business (1954)

Golden Earrings (1947)

Scorecard: Oregon/Washington vampire throw down

Anne Richardson — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 03:05:24 +0000



I would like to point out Oregon’s leading edge, when it comes to being haunted by vampires. See for yourself – in IMDB’s breakdown of shooting locations for the first Twilight.
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Oregon

Blue Heron Paper Company – Oregon City, Oregon, USA
Clackamas Community College, Oregon City, Oregon, USA

Stonecliff Inn Restaurant & Bar - Oregon City, Oregon, USA
Corbett Elementary School -Corbett, Columbia River Gorge, Oregon, USA

The View Point Inn, Corbett, Columbia River Gorge, Oregon, USA
Multnomah Falls Lodge -Columbia River Gorge, Oregon, USA
Multnomah Falls, Columbia River Gorge, Oregon, USA

Oxbow Regional Park, Sandy River Gorge, Oregon, USA
Indian Beach, Ecola State Park – Cannon Beach, Oregon, USA
Salmon River, Oregon, USA

Vernonia, Oregon, USA
Silver Falls State Park, Sublimity, Oregon, USA
St. Helens High School, St. Helens, Oregon, USA

Madison High School, Portland, Oregon, USA
Portland, Oregon, USA
.


Washington
The Shire – Prindle, Columbia River Gorge, Washington, USA
Vancouver, Washington, USA
Washougal, Columbia River Gorge, Washington, USA

Kalama High School -Kalama, Washington, USA

Mount St. Helens, Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument, Washington, USA
Kalama, Washington, USA
.


California (too much sun)

Santa Clarita, California, USA