Silent film story sounds a little like Little Big Man

 Clara Bow, Robert Edeson, Helen Ferguson in The Scarlet West.

"There is an endless supply of white men. There has always been a limited number of human beings. "

__ Old Lodge Skins, played by Chief Dan George, Little Big Man

Made movies in Dolores, 

but maybe not in the Hollywood

By Rob Carrigan, robcarrigan1@gmail.com

Always. Stories of silent film stars, parties, hints of stardom and suggestions of larger-than-life symbols of the entertainment business. Always. Hints and suggestions percolated through the cultural fabric in Dolores, Colo., where I grew up. For example, the most-storied bar there being known as the Hollywood, and the three-storied Del Rio Hotel construction completed in the early 1930s, reportedly was frequented by Clara Bow, and perhaps others.

Truth is, in 1925, Bow did make a movie there in Dolores. 

The American actress who rose to stardom during the silent film era of the 1920s and successfully made the transition to "talkies" in 1929,  starred The Scarlett West in 1925, near the peak of her silent career in movies.

Clara Bow in 1932.

Her appearance as a plucky shopgirl in the film It brought her global fame and the nickname "The It Girl." Bow came to personify the Roaring Twenties and is described as the era's leading sex symbol.

There are no prints of The Scarlet West surviving, making it a lost film. A trailer survives apparently at the Library of Congress, and is being restored. Some of the still photography from the production of the film survives and is used in a documentary on local cinematographer Victor Shuler, who was one of four cameramen on the production.

 "The Scarlet West" In 1925,  is an American  silent film directed by John G. Adolfi and starring Robert Frazer and Clara Bow. It was distributed by the First National company. 

"This was an ambitious silent film made by an independent producer about George Armstrong Custer and the Battle of the Little Bighorn," according to IMdb. 

Sounds a little bit like one of my favorites  — "Little Big Man," Little Big Man is an early revisionist Western in its sympathetic depiction of Native Americans, a 1970 American Western film directed by Arthur Penn and based on the 1964 novel Little Big Man by Thomas Berger. It stars Dustin Hoffman, Chief Dan George, Faye Dunaway, Martin Balsam, Jeff Corey and Richard Mulligan. 

 Silent film actress Helen Ferguson, in The Scarlet West.

IMDb is an online database of information related to films, television series, podcasts, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, plot summaries, trivia, ratings, and fan and critical reviews.

They describe the film The Scarlet West like this .

"Cardelanche, the son of an Indian chief, returns from the East to find himself rejected by his own people. He is made captain of the U.S. army when he saves a detachment of cavalry from a group of renegade Indians, and further removes himself from his race when he develops a relationship with Miriam (Bow), the daughter of the Fort Remmington commandant. Lieutenant Parkman (Walker) gets into a fight with Cardelanche when Parkman is demoted, while General Custer's troups are slaughtered by Cardelanche's people. Cardelanche decides that his true allegiance is to his own race, and gives up Miriam to return to them." writes Kieran Kenney, of the movie filmed in Dolores. Yet The Scarlet West, lives on in local lore.

Among the still photography from the production of the film. there is even a still photo in the mix of Frank W. Pyle. The Pyle and Lockett families came to Dolores in the 1880's. Being here that long, they became connected to the Brumleys, Chadwicks and probably many other local family names.

The name, of course, rings a bell, and I look it up in an old Dolores Star of Oct. 15, 1909. Here it is. "Frank W. Pyle ..."

"Dolores Livery, Feed and Sale Stable,"  right below two ads,for J.J. Harris & Co. "Have good teams and rigs. Are prepared to do all kinds of hauling, transfer and delivery. Second-hand buggies, buggy harness and saddles for sale. Priced right. Blacksmith and Lump Coal."  

Film crew for The Scarlet West in Dolores.