April 1929: Sheridan's First 'Talkies' Draw Throngs

Sheridan movie buffs rejoice!

Silent movies were all the rage for Sheridanites in the teens and twenties of the last century, but the trend was soon to change. On April 18th, 1929, the first sound movie shown in Sheridan, legendary director John Ford's new film, Four Sons, opened at the Lotus Theater (now the Wyo Theater).

Four Sons poster from the April 16, 1929 edition
of  the Sheridan Journal.
Click to enlarge.

(Fun fact: Four Sons featured a young John Wayne playing an officer.)

The new sound movies were known colloquially as 'talkies'. Four Sons wasn't a talkie, strictly speaking, but it did feature a music and effects track. The true talkie of the night, the 15-minute short film, The Carnival Man, opened with Four Sons, as well as the newsreel, "Fox Talking News," and a "grand opera selection," accompanied by a Fox 100-piece orchestra.

Movie snapshot from the April 21 edition
of the Sheridan Post-Enterprise.
Click to enlarge.

People flocked to the Lotus, with the first showing jam packed and folks waiting hours to see the second. Amid  the fanfare and hoopla, it was the little Carnival Man, an "all-talkie dramatization of carnival life," that stole the show.

Scene from The Carnival Man. Image from IMDB.com.
Click to enlarge.

The Sheridan Post-Enterprise joined in the revelry, celebrating the spankin' new cinematic experience: "No more will Sheridan Cinema patrons have to contend with the trap-drummer's imitation of machine gunfire, horses [sic] hoofs several seconds too late, explosion of sound after the real explosion has settled, for Sheridan now boasts a complete equipment for movietone productions." Think going from mono to Dolby 7.0 Surround Sound.

Add expert testimony to boot. Engineer Fred Cole of the DeForest laboratory, who set up the Lotus for sound pictures, lauded the building, saying it was "the best theater for acoustics he has ever equipped." The Wyo Theater's acoustics are renowned to this day.

The big doin's extended beyond state-of-the-art explosions of sound. The Lotus upgraded to the then equivalent of widescreen, which "permit[ted] viewing the pictures from the side-wings of the stage with but little distortion" a softer, less grainy picture on a screen conducive to a "free flow of sound."

The then manager and co-owner of the Lotus, Fred Bezold, and  co-owner James Young (who managed the Orpheum) enthusiastically praised the forthcoming event, making sure to encourage folks from Sheridan and surrounding areas to prop the monumental expense of installing new equipment:

From the April 16, 1929 edition of  the Sheridan Journal.
Click to enlarge.

So. What did Sheridanites say about the experience? Apparently, there was some resistance to talkies, Bezold felt "elated at the compliments received on the show." Looks like the newfangled moviegoing experience met with Sheridanites' approval.

(Apparently, this Arthur James person was dead on.)

Edward S. Curtis Photos Now On Display

We are proud to host part of the Edward S. Curtis collection of photos, 19 of which are on display right here in the Wyoming Room until May 23.

Just some of the photos we've been fortunate enough to bring to you.
Click to enlarge.

Edward Sheriff Curtis (1868-1952), a.k.a. 'Shadow Catcher,' was an ethnologist and photographer of renown, preserving photographic history of Native American cultures in the early 20th Century.

Curtis's self portrait, taken from PBS.org.
Click to enlarge.

Growing up in Wisconsin and Minnesota, Curtis spent his time learning the photography trade, fostering a growing love and appreciation for the great outdoors. The turning point in his career came when famed naturalist and anthropologist, George Bird Grinnell, invited Curtis to Montana to see the the then dying ritual of the Plains Indians' Sun Dance in 1900.

From then until 1930, Curtis traveled the continent, making some 40,00 photographs (as well as upwards of 10,000 sound recordings) of people from more than 80 tribes from the Inuit of the north to the Navajo of the southwest.

A health crisis, one from which he never fully recovered, forced Curtis into retirement in 1930. He took things relatively easy, writing and doing photography here and there, even shooting the 1936 Gary Cooper western, The Plainsmen, for director Cecil B. DeMille. 

Photo of a young Arikara woman.
Click to enlarge.

Photo of Tearing Lodge, of the Piegan band, the largest
of the three that composed the Blackfoot people.
Click to enlarge.

Curtis's health continued a slow decline until his death in 1952 at the age of 84. The legacy of his subjects endures, though, vivifying the grace, beauty, and power of these more than eighty Native American cultures, without which far too much would have been lost to history.

We also have seven books by or about Curtis for your enjoyment, containing 

hundreds more of his pictures.

Click to enlarge.