How The Covered Wagon Was Made

(1923)

If it were possible to take behind the scenes the twenty million motion picture fans so that they might gain a slight conception of the tremendous task involved in making an epic picture such as The Covered Wagon, it would disprove the unjustified claim that motion picture producers are satisfied with makeshifts and are careless of detail.

When Famous Players-Lasky Corporation determined upon the huge task of translating to the screen Emerson Hough's novel, "The Covered Wagon" as a Paramount picture, it was with a full knowledge of what was entailed. It meant weeks of preparation, painstaking research, gigantic expenditure and a responsibility almost unequalled in the history of the films.

Instead of acting as a deterrent, this only spurred them on to greater effort and determination to make this not only an entertaining drama of a vital period in American history, sufficiently recent to compel and hold the audiences of today, but likewise an historical document on celluloid, preserving for all time the accurate spectacle of the great task of the pioneers who braved the trails across the continent in the face of untold hardships, dangers and privations.

James Cruze, producer of The Old Homestead and Hollywood, was given the task of making the photodrama. A staff of fifty or more experts was assigned to him, and immediately the preliminary work of research and location finding was entered upon. Nine states- California, Utah, Nevada, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, Oregon, New Mexico and Arizona- were combed for locations and data, material and "properties."

Much Research Work Done

Meanwhile the costuming department was preparing for the immense number of period garments to be worn- plainsmen, trappers, Indians, guides, emigrants, scouts, cattlemen, drivers, etc., etc.- all must be represented. The Research Department was busy collating data. State Historical Societies were appealed to and among those who answered were A. E. Sheldon, superintendent of the Nebraska State Historical Society, who supplied valuable photographs and data about the Oregon trail in that state; Ennice G. Anderson, State Historian of Wyoming, gave advice and references regarding Fort Bridger and other historic forts in Wyoming. So it came from all quarters until the pile of material began to assume formidable proportions.

The Buffalo Hunt

When the idea of putting The Covered Wagon on the screen first came to Paramount, one of the problems was the buffalo hunt. Where in Sam Hill would there be found in 1922 a herd of wild bison roaming the plains at will?

Then Jim Cruze remembered hearing of buffalos on a big barren island eighteen miles out in Salt Lake. So they proceeded to investigate and discovered that a firm known as Buffalo Livestock Corporation owned the shaggy beasts and for a consideration was willing to let them be used for the picture.

If you have never seen a buffalo close up, let me tell you that it is a sight not soon to be forgotten- I mean a wild one. They have a bad eye. Also they are evil tempered beasts. And they seem to dislike horses and men especially. They can outrun a horse up hill. They are quick as cats and can turn on a circle. (Maybe that's why they are on the five cent pieces we use nowadays.) They charge, and come up with their wicked heads and horns and everything is fish that comes to their net. If they get headed in one direction, nothing can stop them. So the big problem that confronted the picture people was to get them to run before the camera.

Rounding 'Em Up

Cowboys drove the buffalo in herds of a hundred or so across the mountain and down into the level plain where the bulkhead for the cameras had been erected. Sometimes the punchers would "spill them," which means that the herd would split and part would take their own course, generally up hill again. The calves ran beside their mothers, as fast as the old ones. Three or four days were consumed in this way, but finally they got a big bunch to run past, and during this the actors- J. Warren Kerrigan, who has the male lead; Tully Marshall as Jim Bridger, another historical old scout; Ernest Torrence as Jackson, took after them.

Thus the hunt was filmed.

Thrills? Well, take all the wild west shows and combine them and you get some idea of what it was like. Work? Those actors never worked so hard in their lives before and never will again- for they don't make pictures like this more than once in a lifetime. And it was hotter than the hinges of Tophet, with alkali dust and alkali wind and salt water breezes that burned your face and blistered your lips and made your eyes water.

There were no casualties, but some near ones. Karl Brown, the chief cameraman, wanted to experiment on a close-up of a buffalo, so the punchers roped a big bull and brought him in. Karl and his assistant with the cameras were in a wagon drawn by a team of horses.

"Turn the buffalo loose and then rope him right near," said Brown.

The cowpunchers turned the buffalo loose and the buffalo turned loose on his own account. He went for the horses. The latter turned quickly and spilled Brown right under the bison's heels. Old Ed Jones, a movie actor, a puncher and a dead shot, calmly sighted with his sawed-off Winchester, from his hip, shot between horses, men, cameras and wagon- a space about a foot in diameter- and brought down the buffalo. It saved Brown's life probably and that's how they had buffalo meat the first day in camp.

Scenes Made in Utah

Then Mr. Cruze, himself, went to Nevada and Utah, which had been settled upon largely as the most promising spots whereon to film the other scenes for the play. With Otto Meek, owner of the Baker Ranch, of probably 200,000 acres, largest in Nevada if not in the world- located in the Snake Valley- arrangements were made whereby it might be used as the principal location. It contains a great lake which it was decided could be banked and an outlet formed to create a river which should provide the torrential stream which would later be forded by the wagon trains, every animal being obliged to swim as in the actual experiences of 1848-9.

Hundreds of Oxen and Horses Used

Oxen had to be obtained to pull them and so 150 yoke of steers were secured and broken to the yoke; the yokes and chains had to be made.

In addition 200 mules were required, of the army type- no small task in itself. A herd of 500 buffalo was utilized for the big hunt scenes.

A thousand horses, 100 cowponies with equipment, several herds of ordinary cattle flanking the wagon trains were needed.

One thousand Indians, five hundred being mounted warriors, the rest made up of squaws, papooses, old men and so on, was another order.

Five hundred drivers for the ox teams- types of bearded, bronzed plainsmen, families of wives, children, etc., dogs, guides, wagon train captains, all were among the necessities.

Covers had to be made for several hundred wagons.

The country was untouched by modern equipages, there were no telephone or telegraph wires, no trains, no autos. In fact, much of the territory used never has been trodden by man; all of it is wild and primitive- in none of it has a camera ever clicked.

How The Covered Wagon Was Made, excerpt from Original Souvenir Program, 1923, pages 7-8.

Return to the Silent Film Bookshelf Home Page