The Untold Truth About The First Westerns

Publish date: 2024-05-05

William Selig liked Colorado enough to keep an agent, H.H. Buckwalter, making films there according to journalist Rob Carrigan. So did Edison. But Colorado, with it's high elevations and harsh winters, was not always a convenient location for filming: Following Selig's lead, another western debuted in 1906 from Colorado, titled From Leadville to Aspen: A Hold Up in the Rockies. This movie, however, was filmed entirely in the Catskill Mountains of New York. The film, shot entirely with a view of the front of a train car, consisted of robbers busting in, robbing everyone, and killing a train employee according to Internet Movie Database. And it was viewed by audiences in the most unique way.

World Catalogue explains that the film's producer, American Mutoscope and Biograph Co., shot the film for use by a company called Hale's Tours and Scenes of the World. The company was worldwide, their "theaters" being specially built sets (like a train car in this case). Viewers entered the car, sat in a real train seat, and viewed a screen at the front. As they watched the film, sound engineers produced the noise of a train car on the tracks as the "theater car" rocked back and forth to simulate travel. It was really the earliest version of virtual reality gadgets like Oculus. Meanwhile, film makers would continue to call Colorado home. To date, at least 4,410 movies have been shot in Colorado

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