Colorado has a rich film history. From Woody Allen’s Sleeper to Quentin Tarantino’s upcoming film, The Hateful Eight, directors have been coming to the Centennial State for over a century to film westerns, ski films and action movies alike. And the Roaring Fork Valley has a deep and storied history of its own.
One of the most famous appearances Colorado has made in film was Dumb and Dumber, starring Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels, but they went to Breckenridge and Copper Mountain instead of Aspen.
But the 1971 film Vanishing Point? Glenwood Canyon.
Do fast cars, loud engines and big action not do it for you? What about the classic western Cat Ballou starring a young Jane Fonda, filmed in Carbondale, with occasional views of Mt. Sopris?
The history of film in the Roaring Fork Valley goes back more than a century, before even Hollywood was the center of show business.
Prior to the the film industry expanding west, films, particularly westerns, were shot in studios and on sound stages, but at the turn of the twentieth century that changed.
Michael Spencer is an author and documentary filmmaker who grew up in Colorado Springs. In 2013, he wrote a book called Hollywood of the Rockies: Colorado, the West & America’s Film Pioneers. He explained how the first Colorado filmmakers broke the trend.
“…and they thought ‘well we could just make it feel more realistic by actually shooting a western in a western locale’" says Spencer.
According to Spencer, this was the start of a rash of films shot in Colorado. One of the prime locations was Glenwood Canyon.
David Emrich is the president of PostModern Company, a film production company in Denver, and former member of the Colorado state film commission.
But in 1926, The Great K & A Train Robbery was released. Filmed in no place other than Glenwood Canyon.
The Great K & A Train Robbery was shot in the train tunnels that weave inside the canyon. There’s no Hollywood magic here. Tom Mix, the star of the film, did all of his own stunts – including one where he rides on top of a train as it enters a tunnel, and then grabs the top of it and holds on. Cindy Hines, the executive director of the Frontier Historical Society and Museum in Glenwood Springs explains the rest.
“…and then the train was supposed to stop, back up and then he’s supposed to drop back down onto the train," says Hines. "Unfortunately, the train took way too long to back up and Mix couldn’t hold on any longer and he fell all the way to the tracks.”
He only sprained his ankle. And that was after he rappelled down the canyon for another scene.
