CHEATED OF FAME

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 November 1940, Page 9

CHEATED OF FAME

THE FATE OF FLAGSTAFF. Flagstaff, Arizona, the town that was cheated of the fame which now belongs to Hollywood, had a brief taste of motion picture life when a special train, carrying 250 members of the cast and crew from Edward Small studios, rolled into the Santa Fe depot to unload its carloads of notables, there to make Small’s latest United Artists release “Kit Carsen.” Heading the list of those who got off the train, were

Jon Hall, Lynn Bari, Dana Andrews, Ward Bond, Harold Huber, Clayton Moore, Raymond Hatton and Director George B. Seitz. From Flagstaff the entire troupe went to the Indian trading post of Kayenta, on the Navajo Indian reservation, 160 miles north and east of the railroad, where a special town was built to accommodate the Hollywood folk during a month-long visit. Flagstaff missed being the world’s motion picture capital just because, back in 1913, a rainstorm darkened the skies when director Cecil B. de Mille landed there with Dustin Farnum and other actors to make “The Squaw Man.” the industry's first feature length motion picture. De Mille left New York for Flagstaff to film the picture. But he was discouraged by the rainstorm and ordered his whole troupe back on to the train, determined to keep going until they found a place where the sun was shining. The sun didn't shine until they reached Los Angeles, which also happened to be the end of the line. The next day De Mille, looking for a base of operations, found a barn in an orange grove suburb of Los Angeles known as Hollywood. The barn became the West's first studio and the suburb of Hollywood became the glamour city of I the world. I