Sergei Eisenstein trained as a civil engineer. He left the Red Army to become a set and costume designer for the First Workers’ theater of the Proletcut in Moscow in 1920. His Battleship Potemkin (1925)  and Oktyabr (1928) are silent masterpieces which illustrate his profoundly influential theories of film montage.

After seeing Battleship Potemkin, producer Samuel Goldwyn famously fired off a telegram telling Eisenstein he liked it very much, and that he like to do something similar with him, only starring Ronald Colman.

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?).

When silent films acquired sound in 1927, filmmakers and movie stars the world over expressed their regrets. Many had seen their non-verbal medium as a force for peace, with the power to tear down the linguistic Tower of Babel which separates nations.

We know that some of those silent era Hollywood figures visited Oregon, drove along the brand new Columbia River Highway and had dinner at the Crown Point Chalet, the square building (no longer standing) in the lower right hand corner of the above postcard.

We know this from the guest register.

Signatures on a guest register include Harold Lloyd, Ronald Colman, Jean Hersholt, Billie Burke, Theda Bara, Fatty Arbuckle, Wallace Reid and others.

Charlie Chaplin’s name in the register provides support for the long standing rumor that the shots of gold seekers climbing Alaska’s Chilkoot Trail in Chaplin’s The Gold Rush ( 1925) were outtakes from Portland filmmaker Lewis Moomaw’s silent feature, The Chechacohs (1924).

With a bit more verification providing proof that Chaplin did indeed use footage shot by Moomaw, I would be able to claim The Gold Rush as an Oregon film!

Here’s looking forward to that day.