Thursday, January 19, 2023

Vidal family pose for the first western movie

The Vidal family

Creator(s): Buckwalter, Harry H.
Summary : Members of the Vidal family, seven women and one man, pose in front of a wood cabin on the set of a western movie. The women wear overalls and the man wears work pants and suspenders.
Date: August 2, 1902
Notes: "Photography - motion pictures "Girls in Overalls", Aug 2, 1902 .

The Vidal family who posed in the first western movie." handwritten on back of photoprint.
History Colorado, Buckwalter collection no. 664

From Colorado Film commission:
Regis Vidal settled on a 725-acre ranch near Gunnison, Colorado. Eight daughters and one son were born. As the family grew up times became hard and the father was compelled to borrow $15,000 on the ranch. He fell into the clutches of a money-lending shark and the worry caused his death. A year later the mother died, leaving the children even more deeply in debt. With true Western spirit the children decided to work the ranch themselves.
Filmography info:
Year: 1904
Name: The Girls in the Overalls
Production Company : Selig Polyscope Company
Type Of Production: Documentary Short
Genre: Short, Documentary
Director: Harry H. Buckwalter
Location: Gunnison, Colorado

"Harry Buckwalter was one of the first photojournalists and motion picture photographers in the American West. He began making films in Denver around 1900 and soon established a working relationship with William Selig, who would release his scenic views and primitive dramatic narratives for the next decade. Buckwalter's last known motion picture work involved filming Panama Canal construction in 1913, " wrote Denver, Colorado, historian Bill Jones in "Film History."

 

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