Jackson Hole, Wyoming. A sleepy ski-cattle ranch town hidden
a mile high deep in the Rocky Mountains, may surprise a lot of folks as one of America’s great undisclosed locations for filming movies. Hollywood has known about Jackson for a long time. It is probably best known even today for the 1953 western classic, Shane. For me, when I visit there every year, and I’m out on the upper Gros Ventre River looking for our Christmas tree to chop down, I can’t help but think of the Siberian landscape in RockyIV (1985). I keep expecting to see Stallone running down the road followed by a KGB car. Or when we’re in the Jackson City Square, I wonder if I’ll have to dodge Clint Eastwood brawling and wrecking the town as he did in Any Which Way You Can (1980).
What makes it a wonderful and practical location to shoot are two things: major airport and most of the Federal and State park lands start just north of the town, preserving the rustic and wild quality of the wilderness. While a lot of films shot there have used the Jackson Hole area as a stand-in for somewhere else like Siberia, the mountains of Norway in Son of Lassie (1945) or usually some nameless western place like in countless westerns, it is when Jackson Hole has been featured itself that it’s been a gift to the local economy. And also a problem as big money has moved into the area. Development is encroaching these areas, and for the locals that live there year round, it is a never ending battle with the new billionaire jet set who seemingly want to urbanize this picturesque valley with XXL sized weekend getaway McMansions. Downtown is filled with high priced art, clothing retailers and real estate offices that make Rodeo Drive look like a fast food court at the local mall.
For now though, the cowboys seem to be putting the brakes on the billionaires.
While the airport and several highways make it a lot easier to get production equipment into Jackson Hole, it wasn’t always that way. It is a very remote area of the United States to try to get into anytime of the year. Heavy snows still close off the valley during winter, shutting down roads and grounding the planes. I was fascinated as to why early film makers would want to spend the time and money to travel a thousand miles from Hollywood, when there were so many other closer mountainsin California that have doubled for places all around the world. With so many incomplete records and papers lost from early silent cinema there’s no way to be certain of thier motivations, but the Grand Tetons are spectacular looking on film and that was most likely the reason to undertake such an expensive journey.
The earliest film shot in the Jackson area was possibly a film jumping on the popularity coat-tails of Flaherty’s Nanook of the North (1922), a film entitled Nanetteof the North (1922?). It’s hard to find any information on this title as apparently there aren’t any surviving copies of the silent film and in one description I found, it suggested it might have been a 1920’s soft “porn” or “stag” film. I use the term lightly as at this point it’s all hearsay and seems rather odd to go to the incredible expense to shoot something like this in such a remote area. Or perhaps it was an alternate title for another film shot around the same time called Nan Of The North (1922.) This was a 15 episodic serial created by the Arrow Film
Corporation (1915-1926) and the film was classified as a“northern.” A genre term not really used anymore but like its’ cousin the “western,” a “northern” usually referred to stories taking place in the Canadian wilderness or arctic regions in general. Instead of Sheriffs, there would be Mounties. There’s no doubt about the 5 reeler western: The Cowboy and The Lady (1922) which was filmed in and around Jackson Hole. It was released by Paramount Pictures. Unfortunately, there aren’t any surviving reels only a few photographs from the production.
The earliest film that survives from that era is probably also one of the first major Hollywood spectaculars, Raoul Walsh’s The Big Trail (1930). This epic was not only one of the first sound pictures, it was also one of the first to use the 70mm film format which enabled it to capture the adventure and romance of the American pioneer crossing the wild continent. The film is also the first leading role film for a young 23-year old prop boy, John Wayne. It would be almost another decade, however, before John Wayne’s big break out role in The Wagon Train. Despite being shot in black and white, the 70mm images in The Big Trail were so vivid that some audiences stood up and applauded at screenings set-up for the early Cinemascope at theatres in Los Angeles and New York.
Considering the technical problems they had to overcome, it’s really amazing the film was made at all. Outside of moving a production over 2,000 miles, they also had to wrangle the horses and actors, run a 35mm and a 70mm camera at the same time, fuel noisy generators for light and sound, move bulky sound recording equipment, and immediately re-shoot for four different foreign language versions (German, Italian, Spanish and French) with four different casts. In those early days of sound, they didn’t do voice over dubbing in the studio later or create subtitles. The most famous Hollywood film made like this is probably Universal
Studios’ Dracula (1931,) which shot an exact shot for shot Spanish version. In 2006 The Big Trail was selected to be preserved in the National Film Registry of the United States Library of Congress.
Every few years after that, a smaller scale picture or parts of a picture would be filmed in the area, one of the most notable films to be set in the area was Tex Ritter’s singing cowboy B-movie Down The Wyoming Trail (1939). Filmed in old town Jackson Hole and just north of town in the National Elks refuge, they made themost of the location for this goofy singing cowboy western/ Christmas/murder
mystery movie. It’s interesting to see old town Jackson in several shots. The singing cowboy genre was very popular in the 1930’s and 40’s. Even John Wayne made eight films as Singin’ Sandy Saunders after The Big Trail. Luckily for him and us, that craze did not last long.
As World War II raged in the 1940’s, MGM needed a stand-in for Norwayfor the first sequel to their hit Lassie Come Home (1943). Parts of Son of Lassie (1945) were shot in around the Jackson Hole area featuring the beautiful lakes. It’s bizzare to envision Lassie and the cast run away from actors dressed as assorted NAZI soldiers, as Wyoming cowboys watched from afar at nearby ranches, but that’s the movies. It’s also notable that this was the first color picture to be filmed there, capturing the splendor of the Teton range.
Big Hollywood productions returned in 1952 with Howard Hawks’ The Big Sky, featuring Kirk Douglas as an 1830’s fur trapper travelling the Missouri river. Oddly, this movie was filmed in black and white and on a standard screen format of 1:37 to 1. It is not considered to be one of Hawks’ best works, it was nominated for two Academy Awards and has an appreciated fan following. This was the first major film to be shot entirely on location and not in studio.
And then there was Shane(1953). Based on the extremely popular novel by Jack Schaefer, Shane was mostly shot in the valley around Jackson. Every year I still see the remains of the cabin used in the film slowly turn a little more into dust as the weather slowly claims it. I picture Alan Ladd and the rest of the cast, milling about in-between takes, the crew grumbling about production problems until the final call for the day and they all head back into town for some rest before the next
day’s film shoot. Many movies were subsequently shot and filmed in Jackson after Shane. However, it is this film that seems to still resonate with the locals and
western fans alike. The local Dairy Queen on the northern end of town seems to
be a shrine to Shane. Aged publicity pictures are framed and on the wall. The film plays endlessly, year after year on the TV monitors. People I know there all seem to have a copy of the film, along with their best Sunday boots, a bible and the collected works of Louis L’Amour. The folks in Jackson are very proud of the movie, even though it wasn’t filmed entirely there. They call it one of their own, mostly because this was the first major modern film to actually be set in Wyoming. Everything came together as Shane was released at the zenith of the American Western cowboy movie craze, and that it was filmed in color guaranteed its’ continued release for decades on network television.
It doesn’t hurt that the filmmakers made a great film, as well.
The film itself is gorgeous, having been shot in color. Paramount released it in a
1:66 to 1 format as the studio was trying to get people away for the televisions. Loyal Griggs, the cinematographer, won an Academy Award for his work on the movie. The film became an instant western classic and iconic American cowboy film. In 1993, it was selected as to be included in the Library of Congress’s National Film Registry. It is the first movie filmed in Jackson Hole to receive this honor.
I think what’s interesting about Jackson Hole’s film history that since filming there is not continuous as it is in a place like Hollywood, when movies are filmed there they become bench marks or snap shots on the current state of the art of cinema, technology and a reflection of society and the films that entertain them. Films of all sorts and genres will continue utilize the beautiful sights of Jackson Hole, but it’s safe to say the area will forever by entwined with the American Western. The most recent western film to shoot there is Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained (2012.)
a mile high deep in the Rocky Mountains, may surprise a lot of folks as one of America’s great undisclosed locations for filming movies. Hollywood has known about Jackson for a long time. It is probably best known even today for the 1953 western classic, Shane. For me, when I visit there every year, and I’m out on the upper Gros Ventre River looking for our Christmas tree to chop down, I can’t help but think of the Siberian landscape in RockyIV (1985). I keep expecting to see Stallone running down the road followed by a KGB car. Or when we’re in the Jackson City Square, I wonder if I’ll have to dodge Clint Eastwood brawling and wrecking the town as he did in Any Which Way You Can (1980).
What makes it a wonderful and practical location to shoot are two things: major airport and most of the Federal and State park lands start just north of the town, preserving the rustic and wild quality of the wilderness. While a lot of films shot there have used the Jackson Hole area as a stand-in for somewhere else like Siberia, the mountains of Norway in Son of Lassie (1945) or usually some nameless western place like in countless westerns, it is when Jackson Hole has been featured itself that it’s been a gift to the local economy. And also a problem as big money has moved into the area. Development is encroaching these areas, and for the locals that live there year round, it is a never ending battle with the new billionaire jet set who seemingly want to urbanize this picturesque valley with XXL sized weekend getaway McMansions. Downtown is filled with high priced art, clothing retailers and real estate offices that make Rodeo Drive look like a fast food court at the local mall.
For now though, the cowboys seem to be putting the brakes on the billionaires.
While the airport and several highways make it a lot easier to get production equipment into Jackson Hole, it wasn’t always that way. It is a very remote area of the United States to try to get into anytime of the year. Heavy snows still close off the valley during winter, shutting down roads and grounding the planes. I was fascinated as to why early film makers would want to spend the time and money to travel a thousand miles from Hollywood, when there were so many other closer mountainsin California that have doubled for places all around the world. With so many incomplete records and papers lost from early silent cinema there’s no way to be certain of thier motivations, but the Grand Tetons are spectacular looking on film and that was most likely the reason to undertake such an expensive journey.
The earliest film shot in the Jackson area was possibly a film jumping on the popularity coat-tails of Flaherty’s Nanook of the North (1922), a film entitled Nanetteof the North (1922?). It’s hard to find any information on this title as apparently there aren’t any surviving copies of the silent film and in one description I found, it suggested it might have been a 1920’s soft “porn” or “stag” film. I use the term lightly as at this point it’s all hearsay and seems rather odd to go to the incredible expense to shoot something like this in such a remote area. Or perhaps it was an alternate title for another film shot around the same time called Nan Of The North (1922.) This was a 15 episodic serial created by the Arrow Film
Corporation (1915-1926) and the film was classified as a“northern.” A genre term not really used anymore but like its’ cousin the “western,” a “northern” usually referred to stories taking place in the Canadian wilderness or arctic regions in general. Instead of Sheriffs, there would be Mounties. There’s no doubt about the 5 reeler western: The Cowboy and The Lady (1922) which was filmed in and around Jackson Hole. It was released by Paramount Pictures. Unfortunately, there aren’t any surviving reels only a few photographs from the production.
The earliest film that survives from that era is probably also one of the first major Hollywood spectaculars, Raoul Walsh’s The Big Trail (1930). This epic was not only one of the first sound pictures, it was also one of the first to use the 70mm film format which enabled it to capture the adventure and romance of the American pioneer crossing the wild continent. The film is also the first leading role film for a young 23-year old prop boy, John Wayne. It would be almost another decade, however, before John Wayne’s big break out role in The Wagon Train. Despite being shot in black and white, the 70mm images in The Big Trail were so vivid that some audiences stood up and applauded at screenings set-up for the early Cinemascope at theatres in Los Angeles and New York.
Considering the technical problems they had to overcome, it’s really amazing the film was made at all. Outside of moving a production over 2,000 miles, they also had to wrangle the horses and actors, run a 35mm and a 70mm camera at the same time, fuel noisy generators for light and sound, move bulky sound recording equipment, and immediately re-shoot for four different foreign language versions (German, Italian, Spanish and French) with four different casts. In those early days of sound, they didn’t do voice over dubbing in the studio later or create subtitles. The most famous Hollywood film made like this is probably Universal
Studios’ Dracula (1931,) which shot an exact shot for shot Spanish version. In 2006 The Big Trail was selected to be preserved in the National Film Registry of the United States Library of Congress.
Every few years after that, a smaller scale picture or parts of a picture would be filmed in the area, one of the most notable films to be set in the area was Tex Ritter’s singing cowboy B-movie Down The Wyoming Trail (1939). Filmed in old town Jackson Hole and just north of town in the National Elks refuge, they made themost of the location for this goofy singing cowboy western/ Christmas/murder
mystery movie. It’s interesting to see old town Jackson in several shots. The singing cowboy genre was very popular in the 1930’s and 40’s. Even John Wayne made eight films as Singin’ Sandy Saunders after The Big Trail. Luckily for him and us, that craze did not last long.
As World War II raged in the 1940’s, MGM needed a stand-in for Norwayfor the first sequel to their hit Lassie Come Home (1943). Parts of Son of Lassie (1945) were shot in around the Jackson Hole area featuring the beautiful lakes. It’s bizzare to envision Lassie and the cast run away from actors dressed as assorted NAZI soldiers, as Wyoming cowboys watched from afar at nearby ranches, but that’s the movies. It’s also notable that this was the first color picture to be filmed there, capturing the splendor of the Teton range.
Big Hollywood productions returned in 1952 with Howard Hawks’ The Big Sky, featuring Kirk Douglas as an 1830’s fur trapper travelling the Missouri river. Oddly, this movie was filmed in black and white and on a standard screen format of 1:37 to 1. It is not considered to be one of Hawks’ best works, it was nominated for two Academy Awards and has an appreciated fan following. This was the first major film to be shot entirely on location and not in studio.
And then there was Shane(1953). Based on the extremely popular novel by Jack Schaefer, Shane was mostly shot in the valley around Jackson. Every year I still see the remains of the cabin used in the film slowly turn a little more into dust as the weather slowly claims it. I picture Alan Ladd and the rest of the cast, milling about in-between takes, the crew grumbling about production problems until the final call for the day and they all head back into town for some rest before the next
day’s film shoot. Many movies were subsequently shot and filmed in Jackson after Shane. However, it is this film that seems to still resonate with the locals and
western fans alike. The local Dairy Queen on the northern end of town seems to
be a shrine to Shane. Aged publicity pictures are framed and on the wall. The film plays endlessly, year after year on the TV monitors. People I know there all seem to have a copy of the film, along with their best Sunday boots, a bible and the collected works of Louis L’Amour. The folks in Jackson are very proud of the movie, even though it wasn’t filmed entirely there. They call it one of their own, mostly because this was the first major modern film to actually be set in Wyoming. Everything came together as Shane was released at the zenith of the American Western cowboy movie craze, and that it was filmed in color guaranteed its’ continued release for decades on network television.
It doesn’t hurt that the filmmakers made a great film, as well.
The film itself is gorgeous, having been shot in color. Paramount released it in a
1:66 to 1 format as the studio was trying to get people away for the televisions. Loyal Griggs, the cinematographer, won an Academy Award for his work on the movie. The film became an instant western classic and iconic American cowboy film. In 1993, it was selected as to be included in the Library of Congress’s National Film Registry. It is the first movie filmed in Jackson Hole to receive this honor.
I think what’s interesting about Jackson Hole’s film history that since filming there is not continuous as it is in a place like Hollywood, when movies are filmed there they become bench marks or snap shots on the current state of the art of cinema, technology and a reflection of society and the films that entertain them. Films of all sorts and genres will continue utilize the beautiful sights of Jackson Hole, but it’s safe to say the area will forever by entwined with the American Western. The most recent western film to shoot there is Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained (2012.)
RSS Feed
