Weekly Register-Call/ Gilpin County News

Movie making at American City

American City today is a picturesque ghost town located just below timberline a few miles above Central City, but 98 years ago the stars of the new “motion picture” industry lived and worked there. Two silent movies were shot on location in the once-thriving mining town and one in Central City, down the hill. Colorado was a hotbed of the new moving picture industry in its earliest days, when it was variously called making “photo plays” or “motion pictures” or “moving pictures”.

The very first moving picture was filmed by the Edison Company in 1896, and within a year, four more moving picture companies had started production. One was the Selig Polyscope Company, headquartered in Chicago, the only one not situated on the east coast and the company which would base a troupe in American City.

The first moving picture shot in our state dates from 1897 and its subject is the Grand Parade of the Festival of Mountain and Plains in Denver. Edison shot this first Colorado film; it was sponsored by the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, a company which quickly realized the promotional possibilities in broadcasting the scenic charms of Colorado and sponsored all of Edison’s early Colorado films. “Westerns” began with the release of A Cripple Creek Barroom, filmed in New Jersey, of all places, in 1899. Because of the tremendous response to the “western” film, all five of the early motion picture companies began scouting western locations and filming moved west to real working ranches and spectacular scenery.

Selig soon dominated early film-making in Colorado. Other companies sent agents west to scout and film for them but Selig teamed up with noted Denver photographer H. H. “Buck” Buckwalter in 1902. Buck shot scenes of Denver street life, the Ute Indians, rodeos, ranch life and mountain peaks and valleys. These early films lasted two minutes and were shot in one continuous take.

In 1902 the Selig Company released a separate catalog, the “Special Supplement of Colorado Films”, which shows their enthusiasm for the variety of our state. The catalog promised “We have had our special photographic corps in Colorado for several months. No other concern has ever made so many nor such good pictures in Colorado…..and all will cheerfully pay liberally to see pictures of this strange land of sunshine and beauty, of gold and precious stones. The very name of Colorado will attract hundreds, yes, thousands and the exhibitor first on the spot will reap a golden harvest…” (That “special photographic corps” was Buckwalter and he would continue to work as Selig’s western agent through 1917.)

The first real hit in film history was The Great Train Robbery in 1903 because it told a story. Then as now, motion picture makers were quick to replicate a successful film and only story films were made from then on. Tracked by Bloodhounds, or a Lynching at Cripple Creek, followed the next year and gave viewers glimpses of that town in 1904.

But American City became the epicenter of motion picture activity in 1911 because of a series of coincidences. American City was an early successful mining town in the Pine Creek Mining District, northwest of Central City. Apex, established in the mid-1890s, was the largest town in the rich Pine Creek district. Apex is about seven miles uphill from Central City and American City, about two miles further uphill. Two retired naval officers built large log homes there and gave the town its patriotic name when it flourished during the late 1890s. The scenic mining town boasted a mill, a hotel, a school and several houses.

This remote mining hamlet came to the attention of the Selig Corporation because their leading lady, Mrytle Stedman, was very familiar with it and appreciated its magnificent panoramic views. She had spent many happy times there with her future husband, Marshall Stedman, son of one of those naval officers and now an official with Selig! This series of coincidences went even further when a cabin was named for Myrtle Stedman. Mrytlehurst can still be seen in what’s left of the town. This talented and lovely actress was born in Chicago and was dancing on stage at the age of 12 and had also performed with the Whitney Opera Company. Her recommendation brought a group of 20 Selig employees, who settled into the high-altitude town during August and September of 1911.

In their August 18, 1911, issue, the Central City Register Call noted that Tom Mix was in the group which had “taken up residence” in the town to film. Mix was, however, a minor personage in the theatrical troupe in those years. He was given small parts as a trick rider or as a “heavy”. His wife Olive was also on the payroll because she could ride quite well also. There were three early moving picture “stars” (although the term hadn’t been invented then), but only the name of Mix remains recognizable today.

Mix had Colorado roots. He had worked as a bartender in a Lamar, Colorado, saloon and as a Las Animas peace officer. Ever a restless sort, he literally wandered into a Selig filming site to see if he could find a job. He was offered one because he was an experienced rider and ranch hand. At first he was only used in minor roles and he still “cowboy’d” for real on ranches to supplement his paycheck, but his handsome looks and devil-may-care attitude propelled him to stardom. Supposedly it was Mix who established the “kiss the horse but not the girl” creed in westerns.

In 1940 Tom Mix died in a bizarre auto accident when driving across the desert. For some unexplained reason he hit his brakes. He had stacked his suitcases on the rear shelf of his speedy roadster, one on top of another, and the top suitcase flew forward and broke his neck.

In five weeks of living in American City in 1911, the troupe made three movies. They were all common one-reelers, about 15 minutes in length, just like all the other motion pictures then made. Although it seems unbelievable in 2009, films then were created and loosely written in one, at most two, days and shot in two, or maybe three, days. Two films a week were expected from a company. (Why the American City troupe shot only three isn’t clear.) Films were deliberately kept short in those early days because ten to twenty minutes was considered the limit of the attention span of American’s adults at that time.

The shooting of the second of these films in Central City provided the residents with unexpected drama. No one working for the film crew thought of telling the press or the public about the filming. In Why the Sheriff Is a Bachelor, a sign was hung on an empty Main Street store of a Mr. Harris designating it the “Eagle City Bank” and a robbery was staged of the “bank”. Central City residents tending to their business in the town had no idea why “bandits” were galloping down the street and a “posse” was following – both shooting at each other!

Told in Colorado was the first film and Western Hearts the third; both were shot in and around American City. Western Hearts was filmed on September 8, just before the snow began falling in earnest on that high elevation, and the company moved on to lower climes. Selig would discover a new “Hollywood” in Canon City, Colorado, and moved their western headquarters there.

Gilpin County did not easily relinquish “her” film company, however. Local papers consistently referred to the Selig Company as the “Gilpin County Selig Company” after its American City stay. In the Central City Register Call in January 5, 1912, a notice states that “Romance of the Rio Grande, made in Canon City during the last summer by the Gilpin County Selig Company, is being exhibited at the Opera House on Saturday evening.”