In the early days of the twentieth century, movies weren't made in California. As America's film pioneers traveled westward, Colorado became a beacon to them, contributing to the early motion picture business with all the relish and gusto of a western saga. The gorgeous natural scenery was perfect for the country's (and the world's) growing infatuation with the West, turning Colorado itself into a bigger star of the early cinema than any particular actor. Using rare photos and contemporary accounts, writer and filmmaker Michael J. Spencer explores the little-known filmmaking industry that flourished in the Rocky Mountains between 1895 and 1915--west of New York but east of Hollywood.

The storied town of Durango is situated on the farmlands of the Ancestral Puebloans, which later became the hunting grounds for the Southern Utes, in the Animas River Valley of southwestern Colorado. Founded in 1880 as the headquarters of the Silverton branch of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad, Durango became the supply depot for gold and silver mines up and down the Western Slope. One of the few old-time cowboy towns in Colorado that retains the vibrancy of a self-supporting downtown of hotels, restaurants, and retail businesses, Durango has worked actively to restore and remodel historic buildings. Enhanced by stories of Spanish explorers, miners, settlers, early entrepreneurs, and the desperadoes of Western lore as well as Hollywood myth, Durango has earned a reputation as one of the Rocky Mountains' favorite travel destinations.

A female movie star on the decline finds that she and her opportunistic agent want the same things.

Reprint. Originally published: 3rd rev. ed. Chicago: Sage Books, 1969.

This bestselling book, originally published as a companion volume for public television’s Nature series, Cloud: The Wild Stallion of the Rockies is documentary filmmaker Ginger Kathrens’s personal retelling of her years following the wild horse she named Cloud. Beautifully designed, the book is elaborately photographed and divided into seventeen chapters that follow the life of a wild stallion, just one of hundreds of horses that have roamed wild in the Rocky Mountains for two hundred years. The book begins with the author and filmmaker witnessing the birth of a helpless white colt, that will soon capture her heart and imagination. Each subsequent chapter documents Cloud’s interaction with his mare Raven, his brother Diamond, and other colts in the wild as well as his adventures encountering dangerous predators, older stallions, and human trappers. The author follows Cloud over the course of five years, taking note of his physical and behavioral development, as his begins to take on more of a leadership role in the band of wild bachelors he’s joined, to become a fighter, a survivor, and a father. Kathrens’s emotional involvement in Cloud’s story is palpable, such as when she tearfully watches the young stallion get captured by trappers. Due to his unusual coloration, he is set free, though the other members of his band and sisters are removed and sold. Returning to the mountains every season, the author continues to look for Cloud in the vast wild habitat, always relieved to find him still living, despite fights, predators, and encounters with trappers. She is later is touched to see how Cloud, the five-year-old mare, grazes with his yearling son, the first of his new family. Kathrens’s gripping observations of wild horses of the Arrowheads, their fights, struggles, and alliances, give the reader much insight into the fascinating behavior of these wild horses. Now published in paperback for the first time, this updated and fully redesigned volume coincides with the one year anniversary of the last sighting of Cloud.

From the time of Coronado?s discovery to the era of modern ski resorts and sport climbing routes, adventurers have been lured irresistibly to the Rocky Mountains. In this book distinguished writer David Lavender traces the colorful history of the Rockies, focusing on the period that began in 1859 with the first gold strikes. The real and fabled attractions of gold, silver, furs, lumber, and lead brought swarms of people into the mountains, eagerly seeking wealth. A get-rich-quick spirit pervaded the Rockies, leading to lawlessness, violence, vigilantism, and political expediency. The Rockies is particularly revealing about the struggles which resulted in codes peculiar to the mountainous West. Duane A. Smith provides a new introduction to this Bison Books edition of The Rockies.

American motion pictures still dominate the world market with an impact that is difficult to measure. Their role in American culture has been a powerful one since the 1930s and is a hallmark of our culture today. Though much has been written about the film industry, there has been very little systematic attention paid to the ideology of its creative elite. How does the outlook of that elite impact on the portrayals of America that appear on the screen? How do their views interact with the demands of the market and the structure of the industry to determine the product that is seen by mass audiences? Hollywood's America is a marvellously rich and careful discussion of these questions. It combines a meticulous systematic content analysis of fifty years of top-grossing films with a history of the changing structure of the industry. To that mixture it adds an in-depth survey of Hollywood's creative elite, comparing them to other leadership groups. The result is a balanced discussion of unique breadth and depth on a subject of national importance.Placing the film industry in the context of American society as a whole, the authors point out that Hollywood's creative leadership impacts the larger society even as it is influenced by that society. The creators of films cannot remove themselves too far from the values of the audiences that they serve. However, the fact that films are made by a relatively small number of people, who, as the authors demonstrate, tend to share a common outlook, means that, over time, motion pictures have had an undeniable impact on the beliefs, lifestyles, and action of Americans.This study contributes to the debate over the role and influence of those who create and distribute the products of mass culture in the United States.The book also contains a devastating critique of the poststructuralist theories that currently dominate academic film criticism, demonstrating how they fail in their attempt to explain the political significance of motion pictures.

“Do you think you could teach Rock Hudson to talk like you do?” The question came from famed Hollywood director George Stevens, and an affirmative answer propelled Bob Hinkle into a fifty-year career in Hollywood as a speech coach, actor, producer, director, and friend to the stars. Along the way, Hinkle helped Rock Hudson, Dennis Hopper, Carroll Baker, and Mercedes McCambridge talk like Texans for the 1956 epic film Giant. He also helped create the character Jett Rink with James Dean, who became a best friend, and he consoled Elizabeth Taylor personally when Dean was killed in a tragic car accident before the film was released. A few years later, Paul Newman asked Hinkle to do for him what he’d done for James Dean. The result was Newman’s powerful portrayal of a Texas no-good in the Academy Award–winning film Hud (1963). Hinkle could—and did—stop by the LBJ Ranch to exchange pleasantries with the president of the United States. He did likewise with Elvis Presley at Graceland. Good friends with Robert Wagner, Hinkle even taught Wagner’s wife Natalie Wood how to throw a rope. He appeared in numerous television series, including Gunsmoke, Bonanza, Dragnet, and Walker, Texas Ranger. On a handshake, he worked as country music legend Marty Robbins’s manager, and he helped Evel Knievel rise to fame. From his birth in Brownfield, Texas, to a family so poor “they could only afford a tumbleweed as a pet,” Hinkle went on to gain acclaim in Hollywood. Through it all, he remained the salty, down-to-earth former rodeo cowboy from West Texas who could talk his way into—or out of—most any situation. More than forty photographs, including rare behind-the-scenes glimpses of the stars Hinkle met and befriended along the way, complement this rousing, never-dull memoir.

This collection presents a postcard tour of Durango and its environs and provides keen insight into the history and colorful character of this area, which has been a vibrant center of Southwestern Colorado for more than a century. A brief history of postcards as a convenient medium for sharing messages--and as a revolutionary departure from Victorian-era long letters--is included here as well. The Center of Southwest Studies at Fort Lewis College is pleased to present these evocative images gathered by the indefatigable Nina Heald Webber.