Author Archive
July 2024 Meeting Announcement
- Film Night
- TUESDAY, JULY 16, Fort Douglas Post Theater
- 6:00 p.m. mingling and dinner, 6:45 comments by Dr. James V. D’Arc, 7:00 film, 9:00 Q&A
- Reserve space with Craig Smith at email utwesterners@gmail.com or at 801-712-6183. Payment of $45 at the door by cash, check, or PayPal. No reservations after July 11.
- July 2024 Utah Westerners Newsletter available to view or download here.
- Film notes below
“Civilization Stalks Warlock,”
Says the Town’s Deputy
Westerner Dr. James V. D’Arc – Presenter
It’s time to hear again from our film virtuoso Jim D’Arc about a well critiqued 1959 movie, Warlock, that was shot in Moab. The film was directed by Edward Dmytryk (The Caine Mutiny). It stars Henry Fonda and Anthony Quinn, two notorious gunslingers who are hired as the town’s (Warlock’s) sheriff and deputy. The novel that inspired the film was written by Oakley Hall, a University of California-Irvine professor who later was said to be the dean of West Coast writers after Wallace Stegner’s death.
Dmytryk said “the depth of the novel furnished us with a number of opportunities to examine life in the West in a serious and ‘adult’ manner, while retaining the obligatory action and gunfighting of the standard Western.” It has to do with democracy, crime, and friendship between two men. Dmytryk was known for having gone to jail in 1947 when he refused to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee.
The show’s music was composed by Leigh Harline, who studied at the University of Utah and was tutored by Tabernacle Choir conductor J. Spencer Cornwall. At Disney, Harline composed “When You Wish upon a Star.” He composed most of the songs for Pinocchio and scored Snow White.
When you arrive at 6:00 and pay Craig Smith, you will be able to pick up a meal at the food truck. D’Arc’s updated When Hollywood Came to Utah, with five new chapters, will be available for sale.
D’Arc was a professor of Speech and Theatre Arts at BYU for 30 years, curator of the Motion Picture Archive at the Harold B. Lee Library for 41 years, and was involved with the BYU Motion Picture Studio. His book has 1,240 movies filmed in Utah and the location for each movie. He also created BYU’s Film Music Archive.
Program Notes From Jim D’Arc for Warlock
Not-to-be-missed expert narrative and screen snaps from our film maven to view or download here.
May 2024 Meeting Announcement
- Dinner and Presentation
- TUESDAY, MAY 21, Alta Club
- 6:30 p.m. mingling, 7:00 p.m. dinner, 8:00 p.m. presentation
- Reserve space with Craig Smith at email utwesterners@gmail.com or at 801-712-6183. Payment of $45 at the door by cash, check, or PayPal. Drinks by credit card. No reservations after 1:00 p.m. May 16.
- May 2024 Utah Westerners Newsletter available to view or download here.
The Scofield Mine Disaster of 1900
Erin A. Thomas and Craig Fuller, PhD – Presenters
Erin A. Thomas is an adjunct professor at Weber State University. She received an MFA in creative writing and non-fiction from George Mason University. In addition to her book, Coal in Our Veins: A Personal Journey, (USU Press) she has published research and essays in periodicals and journals, including winning a writing award at Dialogue.
Craig Fuller, PhD, retired, worked for the Utah State Historical Society and Division of State History. He has published on Finnish emigration in the Utah Historical Quarterly and Utah History Encyclopedia. He co-authored, with Robert E. Parson and F. Ross Peterson, Water, Agriculture and Urban Growth: A History of the Central Utah Project.
April 2024 Meeting Announcement
- Dinner and Presentation
- TUESDAY, APRIL 16, Alta Club
- 6:30 p.m. mingling, 7:00 p.m. dinner, 8:00 p.m. presentation
- Reserve space with Craig Smith at email utwesterners@gmail.com or at 801-712-6183. Payment of $45 at the door by cash, check, or PayPal. Drinks by credit card. No reservations after 1:00 p.m. April 11.
- April 2024 Utah Westerners Newsletter available to view or download here.
Author to Speak on Southern Paiutes
Logan Hebner
Logan Hebner moved to Alta, Utah, in 1978 after graduating cum laude from Vassar College. In 1980 he founded the Bit and Spur Mexican Restaurant in Springdale. In 1987 he founded the International State Legislative Exchange, which brought delegations from ex-Soviet parliaments to the United States to study democracy. He began interviewing Southern Paiute elders in 1992, which resulted in his book, Southern Paiute: A Portrait. He is also the executive director of Zion Canyon Mesa, an arts and humanities center in Springdale. He currently resides in Rockville with his wife, Angie, with whom he has two sons.
Hebner came to know the Southern Paiute through friendships that developed organically, which over time included attending ceremonies. When the elder Lucille Jake died, Hebner asked her daughter Vivienne if he could access any interviews with her. Surprisingly, there were none. Hebner began researching and realized that a whole generation was about to pass away without anyone recording their stories. He intensively researched available histories, ranging from John Wesley Powell, Edward Sapir, and Isabel Kelly to Martha Knack, as he was quietly handed from one elder to the next. Award-winning photographer Michael Plyler took their portraits. This work evolved from local exhibits to a book with USU and John Alley, himself a noted Southern Paiute historian.
Addendum
On 4/15/24 Logan Hebner asked that the following document be made available as a supplement to his presentation on the Southern Paiutes at the Alta Club 4/16/24: Utah_Westerners_A_Reckoning_The_Green_Valley_Conference_w_intro.02.
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