If not for a snowstorm, Flagstaff might have been the movie capital of the world. Not even many locals know the story: in December 1913, the men who would build Hollywood stepped off the train here first, looked around, and nearly stayed.
Why did Cecil B. DeMille skip Flagstaff for Hollywood?
Snow, mostly, with a ranchers' feud for insurance. In 1913, Cecil B. DeMille, then a theatrical director and writer, wanted to break into the movies. The Squaw Man was a successful play that DeMille and his partner Jesse Lasky decided to film at epic scale, all sweeping landscapes and wide vistas. With Sam Goldwyn they formed the Jesse L. Lasky Feature Film Company, bought the rights to the play, and headed west to Arizona. They did not just intend to film here; they had their eye on establishing the production company in Flagstaff.
They arrived that December to iffy weather. Lasky filmed several background scenes that made the final cut, but reportedly found the region disappointing; he wanted an open-range feel, not mountains. Within a day the rain and snow began in earnest, and the team pushed on to a little area outside Los Angeles called Hollywood. There, inside an old barn, they set up a studio and production office, and The Squaw Man went on to be credited as the first feature-length film shot in California.
Locals have asked the fair question for a century: what did they expect from a mountain town in December? You can pretty much bet on snow.
The feud that sealed the deal
Weather took the blame, but the grazing-rights feud playing out between area ranchers in the newspapers mattered too. The company had no interest in sinking time and money into a studio only to land in the middle of legal wrangling over land rights. So Hollywood got the studios.
What Flagstaff got instead
Flagstaff became an important staging town for the Westerns of the early and mid-1900s. Film crews and stars, John Wayne among them, based up here for shoots, and downtown still carries that era in its bones, from the old Elks Theatre to the hotels that put the stars up. For more of what the town was like in those decades, start with our post on 20th century Flagstaff.
See the town the movies missed
The Flagstaff those filmmakers walked through in 1913 is still here, and the best way to see it is on foot. The Route 66 Centennial Walking Tour, partially funded by the Historic Route 66 Association of Arizona, covers 90 minutes of downtown history daily at 6 PM for $35. Dress for the weather. This town has opinions about December.
