Linda Darnell and Tyrone Power sharing a wagon on the trail to the Salt Lake Valley

Brigham Young: Frontiersman (1940) – Hollywood’s Mormon Epic

When plucked by Daryl F. Zanuck from Paramount to helm the production of 1940’s Brigham Young, director Henry Hathaway initially told Zanuck that “the two dullest things are wagon trains and religion”. Despite Hathaway’s and others’ correct assertion that the project didn’t scream box …

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A Trip to Salt Lake City (1905) Review

The earliest films relied heavily on other entertainment mediums such as vaudeville, theater, books, and newspapers to create short narratives for audiences. Comedy especially relied on jokes that were prevalent in late 19th and early 20th-century culture. For example, one of the earliest Lumiere films …

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Utahns in Classic Film


This post is the third historical overview in my series Celebrating 125 Years of Utah and the Movies. Visit the series page for other historical overviews and reviews of films shot in Utah or made by Utahns.


While Utah failed to compete as an …

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Riders of the Purple Sage Book Cover

Riders of the Purple Sage — Book Review

Ohio-born author Zane Grey, originally a dentist and minor league baseball player before trying his hand at writing, was instrumental in solidifying the major themes, characters, and tropes of the American Western genre. Writing dozens of novels and short stories from the first decade of …

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