The Shepherd of the Hills Movie of 1919 Details

The Shepherd of the Hills -- 1919

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In June, 2002 eleven unique postcards (plus 2 duplicates) stated by the seller to be from the 1919 silent movie, The Shepherd of the Hills, were offered on eBay. All cards were purchased by Dave Hadsell, Gerry Chudleigh and Robert McCarty, and are shown below. These are not publicity photos, but appear to be personal pictures taken for someone's personal use. The cards are very worn, evidently from being looked at by many people over the last 80+ years. All the cards are real photo, AZO, divided back, in the style that AZO used from 1904 to 1918. None of the cards has any identification on the front or back, so the descriptions are my own. It will probably take considerable research to determine if these photos are really from this movie or some similar movie. The movie featured on these cards obviously featured the Bald Knobbers, a vigilante group that was famous in the Ozarks in the late 19th century. The original Bald Knobbers in Taney County did not wear headgear but, "...the Christian county Bald Knobbers were different from the other groups in that they liked to wear a mask that has become associated with all Bald Knobbers. It was a black skull mask, with holes cut for the eyes, nostril and mouth and adorned with red horn-like appendages atop the mask." --from Missouri K12 teachers site.

Rick Gunter, an expert in Harold Bell Wright movies tells me the 1919 movie was to be shot in the Branson area, but after only a few days of filming in 1918, the plan was changed and the movie was filmed in California. Rick believes the photos below are from the early shoot, and may not have been used in the final film.

A member of the HBW group at www.eons.com, csbarrow, transcribed the following from the Stone County News-Oracle:

Stone County News-Oracle
Volume 34 #16: Wed 10 Jul., 1918. Pg. 3, column 4

Notables at Marvel Cave

June in the Hills was marked by the visit of several prominent men to Marvel Cave. Among these is Harold Bell Wright, the famous author who has just made a flying trip from Los Angeles to the Ozarks and back. Mr. Wright arrived on the 20th, and spent a couple of days at Branson with the Business Men’s Club, trying to arrange for the production of his scenario of the Shepherd of the Hills, in the very hills themselves. Finding this impossible on account of the trouble and expense entailed, Mr. Wright returned to Marvel Cave Farm with Mr. Reynolds, his publisher, and Jack Holder, the scene painter and property man, who came from Hollywood to study Ozark hills and styles. Sunday week Mr. Wright went to Reeds Spring to hunt for “local color,” and through the help of Mrs. J. A. McCullah, whose guest he was, succeeded in finding a model Sammy Lane costume to convey to Los Angeles.

On Monday Mr. Wright and body, which included the well known camera artist, Signor Vallejo, returned to Los Angeles where Mr. Wright’s scenario will be produced under his constant supervision. Through the sleepiness of Stone and Taney counties a great opportunity to have a famous picture made in its midst has been lost. Mr. Wright and Signor Vallejo will return in the autumn to make the panoramic views and introductory scenes for the picture from nature.

While at Marvel Cave Mr. Wright offered to send an autographed set of his books to be sold for the benefit of the Red Cross.

Stone County News-Oracle
Volume 34 #18: Wed 24 Jul., 1918. Pg. 2 column 3

Harold Bell Wright

Everyone in this part of the Ozark region is interested in what the author of the Shepherd of the Hills is doing, and intending to do. I have been allowed to read a letter from him to Mr. Levi Morrill, P.M. [postmaster] at Notch. It was from Los Angeles, Calif., and was written immediately after he had arrived there from his recent trip to the Ozarks.

He says: “When I first arrived in the Ozarks, I fully expected to be there all the time until Oct. 1, and therefore said to myself that there would be plenty of time for a good old-fashioned visit with you after I had my men lined out to their jobs. But the further I went in the investigation the more evident it became that it was impossible to make the pictures in the mountains; that is, at a cost that would justify our doing so.

I am sure that you will understand how this is, and that you will forgive me. I just barely shook hands with Will Powell in the road, saw Wally at the depot for about five minutes, spent just about as much time with Mr. Ross as I spent with you.

When I return in September my plan is to have the picture finished here before I leave, to be with the camera man a few days while he takes the introductory shots, then send him back to Los Angeles, then spend some time with you and my other friends in the hills. With kindest regards, always,
Your friend,
Harold Bell Wright

Theatrical Bald Knobber masks exactly like the masks shown on these postcards. Evidently this photo is from the same movie as the postcards below, or both movies used the same masks. From ThinkQuest site, no longer available.
This Link shows an original Bald Knobber mask, which is quit different from the movie variety.

1. This appears to be Harold Bell Wright (tall, thin man to right of camera) directing the filming of the movie, but probably isn't. The man to the left of the camera was said be E. W. Reynolds, but it does not look much like him. Reynolds was the president of the production company, not the cameraman.

Is the man on the right of the camera in the above photo really Harold Bell Wright? Judge for yourself with the help of the following comparison photos. By the way, Eric Tudor points out that Wright's parishioners were sometimes irritated by his tendency to keep his hands in his pockets, even when preaching. Does this postcard show Wright when he was not well, perhaps not happy, and not posing for a portrait? Or a different person, not as handsome as Wright?

c.1916

1918

1920

2. Cast and crew eating between takes.

3. There are two instances in the Shepherd of the Hills book when people are attacked in a cabin. First, Wash Gibbs' gang attacked the Shepherd and Young Matt at the Shepherd's ranch house. No women were present.

The second fight occurred when Wash Gibbs' gang killed Jim Lane during a closed gang meeting. Again no women were present. In this photo above, one Bald Knobber is clubbing a man on the floor while one woman lies in bed, another woman crouches by the left wall, and another woman lies against the far wall. Nothing like this happens in the book, but the movie could have departed from the story in the book. This photo does, however, seem to accurately represent the actual Edens/Green massacre committed by the Christian County Bald Knobbers in 1887. The Shepherd of the Hills outdoor play in Branson includes a Bald Knobber attack to establish the social climate and Wash Gibbs' background. The 1919 movie may have done the same thing.

4. In Wright's book, the Bald Knobbers are mentioned but had been disbanded by federal agents years earlier. They do not appear in the story in the book, except that the same men were now the Wash Gibbs gang.

5. Before the smoke cleared at the shooting of Jim Lane, federal marshals arrested most of Wash Gibbs' gang. Here the two men in photo #6 arrest two men, possibly the men in photo #9, though the clothes are not exact.

6. Men in white hats and clean clothes sneak up on the bad (?) guys. In the book, federal agents lay in wait around Jim Lane's cabin and arrested most of Wash Gibbs' gang when they killed Jim Lane. These guys, with their matching hats could be federal agents.

7. Bodies on the ground, men with guns. In the first attack, Wash Gibbs' gang dragged the Shepherd and Young Matt from the ranch house and started to hang them from a tree, but were scared away by a ghost. But there are more than two bodies on the ground here and neither of the men in the foreground is the white-haired and white-bearded Shepherd.

8. The Bald Knobbers help fallen comrade. Again, the Bald Knobbers do not appear in the book, the Shepherd of the Hills. Wash Gibbs' gang was made up of all the surviving members of the old Bald Knobbers gang, but Wash Gibbs' gang is shown in the 1919 Shepherd of the Hills movie brochures without masks.

9. I see dark hats and stupid expressions--could be bad guys, waiting outside either Jim Lane's cabin or the Shepherd's ranch house--assuming these cards are from The Shepherd of the Hills movie.

10. I am guessing the good guys are arresting the bad ones and rescuing a victim, perhaps from the mouth of a cave. Nothing like this happens in the book, unless these are some of Wash Gibbs' gang being arrested after murdering Jim Lane. Men on extreme right and extreme left are wearing matching clothes, could be federal marshals. This appears to be at or near what is now called, Bald Knobber Cave, located near Chadwick, Missouri.

11. This is certainly not the actress who played Sammy Lane in the 1919 version of The Shepherd of the Hills, but perhaps it is her best friend, Mandy Ford. There is one other young woman who appears throughout the book. That was Maggie, the long-dead daughter of Old Matt and Aunt Mollie, who appears frequently as a ghost in the book, but was played by a corporeal (bodily) actress in the early part of the movie.

12. "The Sadie H" with some of same people who are standing by the camera in photo #1 above. 600dpi

< Reverse of postcards. AZO with four arrows pointing up, 1904-1918.

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