The Heartwarming Christmas of 1920

The Christmas of 1920 was both old-fashioned and heartwarming.

That's My Daddy! (at Frontier Days)

Lester Ruffner, Arena Director, Frontier Days

Early etiquette at movie theaters was sacred. People paid good money to watch and demanded to do so without distraction. But there was an occasional time when the silence was broken and even more rarely, when it was excused.

Tom Mix Helps Start the Northern Arizona Fair

In 1913, the Arizona State Legislature allowed for counties to use a certain amount of property tax dollars “for the support and furtherance of county fairs and exhibitions.” For the northern counties, it was felt that more money could be raised and result in a better fair if they could pool their resources and stage the event together. “This was agreed upon, and the Northern Arizona Fair Association came into being (with) bylaws formally adopted on August 7.”

However, the prime mover in helping to bring the fair together was the western silent movie star Tom Mix. Prescott was a second hometown for Mix, who produced scores of films around the Granite Dells area. He was named “Program Chairman and, through his efforts, raised $6000 (over $150,000 today) to put on the fair. He planned and staged a Wild West show using local cowboys” to help raise the money.

The effort turned out to be more popular and successful than the planners could have dreamed.

Hollywood's First Child-Star Was a Prescott Girl

Virginia Lee (born LaVerne) Corbin

On March 2nd, 1910, the Weekly Journal-Miner reported that Mrs. LE Corbin, wife of a wealthy business owner in Prescott, left for Long Beach, CA, to visit relatives there for several weeks. The couple’s parting must have been both cordial and celebrated, for nine months later, on December 5th, a future star was born.

The couple named her Virginia LaVerne Corbin, but outside Prescott, she would become known as Baby Virginia Lee Corbin; “The Dresden Doll,” comparing her fair complexion to the celebrated porcelain-headed playthings. 

Cowboy Escapades #1

In this premier edition of Cowboy Escapades (formerly titled "Crazy Cowboy Tricks,) we look at true stories of bear roping and buffalo riding!

Prescott was Hollywood for Silent Westerns

(Tom Mix with an unknown starlet in an unknown film.)

What do these movies: "Creepshow 2," "Universal Soldier," "Arizona Summer," "Transamerica," "Jolene," "How the West Was Won," and "Billy Jack" have in common?

They are part of 16 modern movies that were all filmed, at least in part, in Prescott, Arizona. (*1)

But when it came to silent western movies, Prescott was a real "Hollywood."  Incredibly, in the three years of 1913-15, over a hundred silent westerns were filmed in Prescott and the surrounding area.

The first movie ever made in Prescott was The Cringer.

Entertainment In Prescott a Century Ago

In later January 1915, nothing much happened in Prescott according to the Journel Miner newspaper.  Heavy snows made all travel but train nearly impossible.

The resulting slow news stories were charming:

* A couple of hundred words were given to the story of two boys who "shot the lock off the pump house (and)...After a stern lecture and cross-your-heart promises," the boys were released...

* It was observed that the mail-posts in downtown had received "so many degradations from local canines" that replacements were needed swiftly...

* It was reported, in detail, how a local woman slipped and fell on the ice. (No hospitalization was needed--simply bedrest)...

All of which gives the author an opportunity to talk in general about entertainment in Prescott a century ago...