Movies Made in Wyoming

Wyoming has been a setting for movie-making from the industry's earliest days. Some films have celebrated such locales as Devil's Tower (Close Encounters of the Third Kind; 1977), Hole-in-the-Wall (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid; 1969), and Casper (Starship Troopers; 1997 and The Hellfighters; 1968), but the principal location has been the exceptionally photogenic scenery of Jackson Hole.

Some of these Jackson Hole films have been easily forgettable horse operas, equally forgettable sequels such as Rocky IV (1985), or silly romances such as The Cowboy and the Lady (1922), starring the ill-fated Mary Miles Minter. She reclined in a sort of Arabian tent at the foot of the Tetons and received the peasantry there with royal condescension. Tom Mix's 1925 oater was no more memorable. Much less forgettable, in Jackson Hole at least, was The Big Trail (1930), an epic production that turned the economics of Teton County upside down and was a major flop. However, it served its purpose. It introduced to the public the handsome, if not very animated, features of John Wayne. The West and Wayne were pals from then on.

Shane starred Alan Ladd and was shot in Jackson Hole in 1951. During the same summer as Shane, two other films were made in the Hole: Jubal, with Glenn Ford, and The Big Sky, with Kirk Douglas. These three rather exceptional shootings were balanced by the egregious Spencer's Mountain of 1963, which attempted to graft the Appalachian tale full of moonshiners and religious revivals onto Wyoming scenery. Henry Fonda did his best in this one.

The roster of male stars who have worked in Jackson Hole also includes such stars as Charlton Heston, Clint Eastwood, and Wallace Beery. Among heroines, only Jean Arthur seems to have made much of a hit in the Hole. It is a man's world, from the movie-making point of view. A nice little TV series, "The Monroes," was shot there in 1970, as was footage for the popular but short-lived TV series, the "Young Indiana Jones Chronicles," 1991-93.

Somewhat different was the presence in the Hole of Western comedian Wallace Beery, who became an annual summer visitor and obtrusive local personality in Jackson bars. He arrived by plane on the flats near Jenny Lake in the late 1930s and put up a raffish pseudo-dude ranch called the Elbo, where he chased the cook around the kitchen. He then settled into his own summer place on Jackson Lake, where he made various forgettable films. His most spectacular public appearance was a much photographed ride across the flats to protest the creation of Jackson Hole National Monument, in 1943. This was supposed to be in defense of the rights of the range.

By Nathaniel Burt
Nathaniel Burt is a composer and writer whose published works include poetry, fiction, and non-fiction. He is the author of the book Jackson Hole Journal. The preceding article was excerpted from Compass American Guides: Wyoming, 3rd edition.