A Stunning Backdrop
eBook - ePub

A Stunning Backdrop

Alberta in the Movies, 1917-1960

  1. 344 pages
  2. English
  3. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

A Stunning Backdrop

Alberta in the Movies, 1917-1960

About this book

Alberta's magnificent landscape has served as a popular location for filmmakers since the dawn of the movie industry. For film pioneers, Alberta embodied the myth of the Great Northwest, a primeval mountain wilderness and the last western frontier. In turn, Canadian entrepreneurs were eager for American studios to drape Alberta landscape across the backdrop of their movies, an advertisement without equal.

A Stunning Backdrop is the untold story of six rollicking decades of filmmaking in Alberta. Mary Graham draws on twelve years of exhaustive research to reveal a film history like no other, illuminating the deep importance of the province to Hollywood. She explores the often friendly partnerships between American filmmakers and Indigenous communities, particularly the Stoney Nakoda, that provided economic opportunities and, in many cases, allowed them to retain religious and cultural practices banned by the Canadian government.

Beautifully illustrated with archival photography and featuring century-old set stills alongside photographs of the locations as they appear today, by Jean Becq, Solomon Chiniquay, Jeff Wallace, George Webber, and Paul Zizka, A Stunning Backdrop is the fascinating, often surprising, always unconventional story of film in a province whose rugged, compelling, multifarious, terribly beautiful landscape continues to inspire filmmakers and audiences around the world.

Frequently asked questions

Yes, you can cancel anytime from the Subscription tab in your account settings on the Perlego website. Your subscription will stay active until the end of your current billing period. Learn how to cancel your subscription.
At the moment all of our mobile-responsive ePub books are available to download via the app. Most of our PDFs are also available to download and we're working on making the final remaining ones downloadable now. Learn more here.
Perlego offers two plans: Essential and Complete
  • Essential is ideal for learners and professionals who enjoy exploring a wide range of subjects. Access the Essential Library with 800,000+ trusted titles and best-sellers across business, personal growth, and the humanities. Includes unlimited reading time and Standard Read Aloud voice.
  • Complete: Perfect for advanced learners and researchers needing full, unrestricted access. Unlock 1.4M+ books across hundreds of subjects, including academic and specialized titles. The Complete Plan also includes advanced features like Premium Read Aloud and Research Assistant.
Both plans are available with monthly, semester, or annual billing cycles.
We are an online textbook subscription service, where you can get access to an entire online library for less than the price of a single book per month. With over 1 million books across 1000+ topics, we’ve got you covered! Learn more here.
Look out for the read-aloud symbol on your next book to see if you can listen to it. The read-aloud tool reads text aloud for you, highlighting the text as it is being read. You can pause it, speed it up and slow it down. Learn more here.
Yes! You can use the Perlego app on both iOS or Android devices to read anytime, anywhere — even offline. Perfect for commutes or when you’re on the go.
Please note we cannot support devices running on iOS 13 and Android 7 or earlier. Learn more about using the app.
Yes, you can access A Stunning Backdrop by Mary Graham in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Media & Performing Arts & Film History & Criticism. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Half Title
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright page
  4. Dedication
  5. Contents
  6. Foreword by Rev. and Elder John Snow Jr., Walking in Two Worlds
  7. Foreword by Luke Azevedo
  8. Acknowledgements
  9. Prologue: An Unfortunate Incident for Miss Estelle Taylor
  10. Early Alberta Movie Landscapes Today
  11. 1 - Into the (Civilized) Wilds
  12. 2 - Snow! Snow! Snow!
  13. 3 - A Rabble Rouser and a Dreamer
  14. 4 - Father of the Western
  15. 5 - In the Shadow of Castle Mountain
  16. 6 - Royalty, Great Chiefs, Ranches, and Rodeos
  17. 7 - The Joy Girl and Others of a Gregarious Nature
  18. 8 - Mountain Men
  19. 9 - Building the Railway, Movie Style
  20. 10 - War and Propaganda
  21. 11 - Out of the Coma
  22. 12 - Rodeo Westerns of the Atomic Age
  23. 13 - Selling Sex and Nostalgia
  24. 14 - Making Rocky Mountain Movie Magic
  25. 15 - The Power of Revision
  26. List of Movies Made in Alberta 1917–1960
  27. Notes
  28. Bibliography
  29. Index