Roll Camera, and….ACTION!
By John Hibble
Does anyone remember Fractured Flickers on television? It was a series of short comedies pieced together from silent film footage of the same genre as Rocky and Bullwinkle and Dudley Do-Right. I enjoyed watching them and I was also lucky enough to see re-runs of silent movies on television when I was young. Without sound, silent movies were the opposite of radio where you had sound but no picture. Both radio adventures and silent movies required your personal involvement in the stories. You had to invest your attention and imagination as part of the process in order to fully enjoy the show.
In silent movies, the story line and conversation were written on title cards for the viewer to read. If you did not pay attention, you would lose part of the story. The words on the title cards were painted in white letters on a black background and inserted in the movie at the appropriate time. Part-time local, Alfred Hitchcock, got his start in the movie industry painting title cards. I also remember watching early black and white movies starring local Santa Cruz actress, ZaSu Pitts.
I have found that at least two black and white, silent movies were filmed in Aptos, and I wish we could find a copy to share with everyone. The first was called “The One-Way Trail” starring Edythe Sterling. It was filmed in 1919 and released in 1920. The melodrama takes place in the great northwest of Canada. The bad guy gets the best of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police hero who is chained to a log which is about to go through the sawmill. Sounds like the villain is Snidely Whiplash, right? The heroine saves him in the nick of time. The movie was filmed at the Loma Prieta sawmill and in the forest of today’s Nisene Marks State Park. Scenes were also filmed in Aptos Village on Valencia Street and at the Spreckels Ranch. Several real Royal Canadian Mounted Police were used as extras in the film for authenticity. The attached photographs are from this movie.
Edythe Sterling and Jack Connolly – UCSC Special Collections
Valencia Street, Aptos 1919 – Lucy Hanchett Butler collection
Actor on a high-line log showing the clear-cut damage to the old-growth forest in today’s Nisene Marks State Park. – UCSC Special Collections
The other movie was called “The Dixie Merchant” released in 1926, starring Jack Mulhall and Madge Bellamy. It is the story of a man who is so wrapped up in his racehorse that he neglects his wife and his daughter who move out on him and find romance somewhere else. It all ends well, and they are reunited when the man rides his horse to victory. This movie was filmed on the Spreckels Ranch at a time when Rio Del Mar and Seacliff were just beginning to be developed.
J. Walter, Madge Bellamy, and others. The building in the background is the men’s quarters on the Spreckels Ranch – Aptos History Museum
Jack Mulhall with the Spreckels mansion to his left – Aptos History Museum
Just imagine how priceless the views of our town were in these two movies. If any of you can help us to find copies of these movies or even photographs from them, they would be priceless, (meaning that we could not afford to pay you for them, but we could give you a lifetime membership to the museum). And… CUT.
1/2025