The Heart of California (Griffin, 1915). Fine on Linen. Six Sheet (80" X 80").. ...

Description

The Heart of California (Griffin, 1915). Fine on Linen. Six Sheet (80" X 80").
Rodeo organizer F. J. Griffin filmed cowboys in action at the Bakersfield Rodeo in 1914 with 1912 world steer bulldogging champion Art Acord in the lead. Griffin began organizing rodeos in Northern California in 1910 and the Sacramento Union review of the film calls Griffin the "father of rodeos." He produced large scale shows lasting three to five days, full of bronco busting, roping, steer wrestling, and mad bull riding. He guaranteed prize money of $10,000 to the winners in each category. Griffin hired Smythe Addison, a director for Essanay and Keystone to film the action and create a story line around these rodeo scenes, and employed cowboys and rodeo performers and hired prominent San Francisco printer Schmidt Lithography Co. to design and create elaborate stone lithography key art. The film premiered in San Francisco on the July 7, 1914 and depicts authentic range life, starting with a 3000 cattle stampede, more than 100 scenes of bullfighting, daredevil cowboys. Contemporary reviewers were struck by how the movie did not portray cowboys and ranch hands as drunkards or bums, but as "gladiators of the range"! This is offered for the first time by Heritage and is almost surely the only surviving example of this six sheet (and likely the only surviving movie paper from this film) The poster has wonderful art of three cowboys rescuing an unconscious Native American Girl named Nokomas, as a primly dressed woman looks on disapprovingly. The poster is currently on loan to the Silent West exhibit at the Autry Museum of the American West, where it will remain through March 2023. It has not been examined out of the frame. Special shipping arrangements will need to be made at the conclusion of the loan term.


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