A Charming Country for Pictures

In January 1915, the trade paper Moving Picture World ran an uncredited promotional article touting the Northwest as a location for shooting motion pictures. (See “A Charming Country for Pictures,” Moving Picture World, 30 January 1915, Page 661.) It’s a tad heavy-handed and reads like a clumsy Chamber of Commerce effort at drumming up some new business in western Washington.  And yes, this is a decidedly western Washington viewpoint – the article doesn’t even attempt to acknowledge we have another half of the state.  

Did it work?  Not really…Although plenty of moving pictures would be shot in the Northwest during the silent and sound eras, it never became a moviemaking center.  The prestige of filmmaking (and the dollars that came with that) were the prime motivations for touting Washington as a location. Still, I’m reprinting the article in full because I know it to be totally, unequivocally, 100% true, and I’m not just saying that because I like to have my opinions validated.  The Northwest can be grey, cold, damp, depressing, muddy and overrun with slugs, but on the 5-6 days a year when none of that applies, it’s absolutely glorious.  

A CHARMING COUNTRY FOR PICTURES

          There is every evidence that the charms and alluring nature-settings of Seattle and the Puget Sound districts, are to be embodied in moving pictures. Through its great variety of scenery, its mountains, plain[s], forests and marine perspectives, the Puget Sound district offers most unusual advantages for the setting of moving picture scenarios, especially in the radiant days of the long summer.

          Alpine settings may be found in the snow and declivities of the Cascades and Olympics, only a few miles away; the great sweeping beaches of the Sound offer most fitting surroundings for the activities of shipwrecked sailors, pirate crews, or seaside romances. The great naval station at Bremerton contributes, with its guns, the real touches of war, while the blue reaches of the Sound furnish all that can be desired in marine settings. Farm life, with the old homestead, the mystery of the forest, together with the slivery Cascades and great fall of waters at Snoqualmie all furnish at once the common and uncommon needs of the scenarios. City requirements, with skyscrapers, crowded streets, with a business and commercial populace are also within easy reach.

          Southern California has long enjoyed much popularity as a setting for moving pictures, yet there are phases of scenery about Seattle and the Sound that California cannot furnish; indeed, it is doubtful if, in their combination, they can be excelled anywhere.

          These great advantages have led to a new industrialism in these regions, moving picture studios and manufacturing plans are being erected in many places, what the neighborhood has to give to the pictures in perfect surroundings will be returned in commercial profits; the time having arrived when even the still life of natural beauties can be a source of profit.

          Again, the value of pictures will be enhanced, and while people everywhere will be made acquainted with the beauties of these attractive regions, the pictures themselves will be improved a hundredfold because of the superior and real nature of the background. Nature and the moving picture form a splendid and educational partnership.