Posts filed under ‘Newsletters’
February Announcement for the Utah Westerners
RAILROAD REDUX
SALT LAKE & UTAH RAILROAD: “THE OREM LINE”
JAMES D’ARC
With
BLAINE GALE
With the gleaming Front Runner trains running between Ogden and Salt Lake City, and the Utah County line slated for completion of the system within the next two years, it appears that Utah will soon enter the portal of modernity in intercity public mass transit. However, as you will see with your eyes on Tuesday, February 21, much of this was all done once before when there were no freeways and, in fact, virtually no paved roads in the rural regions of Salt Lake City and in most of Utah County.
The Salt Lake & Utah Railroad, incorporated in 1912, began running interurban trolleys betweenSalt Lake Cityand Payson, roughly along the current Union Pacific trackage, in 1914. Led by eastern businessman Walter C. Orem, what became known as the Orem Line was built to exploit the commercial possibilities ofUtahCountyfarmers as well as to move passengers. Sometimes referred to by passengers as the “Leaping Leena,” the cars swayed from side to side on the admittedly uneven track beds, but it afforded a heretofore unknown commute between the communities of Payson, Provo, American Fork, the agricultural area of the Orem bench and Salt Lake City.
The little known history of Utah’s first mass transit and commercial carrier will be unveiled Tuesday, February 21, by Utah Westerner James D’Arc, curator of BYU’s Motion Picture Archive, who discovered the sole surviving motion picture copy of “Electric Railroad Transportation in Utah” more than 30 years ago in a pile of film that was slated for disposal. In what may have been a promotional film made in 1930 for company salesmen to sell its services to commercial clients in Utah County, you will ride the trolley in downtown Provo, see the Onion Days celebration in Payson, and see the Conference Special trains arriving at the Interurban Depot in Salt Lake City where Abravanel Hall now stands as it was experienced the early years of the 20th century.
This will be an evening that you won’t forget as you travel by trolley car into Utah’s past and to the accompaniment of organist extraordinaire Blaine Gale, veteran performer who regularly accompanies silent film screenings at the Organ Loft in Salt Lake City. Jim will provide running commentary to the images shown on the screen and you will learn the fascinating history of this pioneering effort to bring Utahinto the 20th century andUtah products to the East Coast. Be sure to get your tickets early—for yourself and a guest! The trains are leaving at7:00 PM, Tuesday, February 21. Get on board and don’t be left at the station!
James D’Arc, Ph.D., is Senior Librarian at BYU’s Harold B. Lee Library where, for over 30 years, he has been curator of three specific areas at the L. Tom Perry Special Collections at Brigham Young University: the Arts & Communications Archives, for which he acquired the original collections of legendary producer-director Cecil B. DeMille, Howard Hawks, James Stewart, and many other notables from the film world; the founding curator of the BYU Film Music Archive and collections of several major film composers. In that capacity, he is also producer of 18 special edition CDs of original classic motion picture soundtracks from this rich collection; finally, he is the founding curator of the BYU Motion Picture Archive in which capacity he has been the director of the BYU Motion picture Archive Film Series. He has also taught for BYU’s Theatre & Media Arts and American Studies departments.
Dr. D’Arc is the author of When Hollywood Came to Town: A History of Moviemaking in Utah (published by Gibbs Smith and reviewed in Bench Press in September 2010). He has lectured on motion picture history internationally and has authored a number of articles on the image of Mormons in commercial motion pictures as well as on film directors Howard Hawks and Cecil B. DeMille. He also appears as an important resource inDVD documentaries that accompany classic motion pictures from several well-known entertainment companies.
Blaine Gale studied piano at age 7, but later fell in love with theater organ pipes and has thrilled audiences ever since by playing for silent films. For many years he has accompanied classic silent films on the 2400-pipe “Mighty Wurlitzer Theatre Pipe Organ” at the Organ Loft’s annual series between September and May. Blaine is also a video producer, blending and mixing visual and music talents. He has successfully used his talents to promote and preserve live silent movie accompaniment as a true art form.
July 2010 Meeting Announcement
See the announcement here: july 2010 announcement
March Meeting Announcement
Get a PDF of the March meeting announcement/newsletter here.
February 2010 Meeting
Get a PDF of this month’s meeting announcement here.
January 2010 Newsletter
Utah Westerners
Dinner Meeting: January 19, 2010, 6:30 p.m., Alta Club
Donna L. Poulton
Painters of Utah’s Canyons and Deserts
Our own Donna Poulton will tell us about her phenomenal book with Vern G. Swanson, Painters of Utah’s Canyons and Deserts. Donna is Associate Curator of Utah and Western Art at the University of Utah’s Museum of Fine Arts, and she’s working on bringing along her co-author. For more on this great book, see this month’s Bench Press.
Partner’s Night
January will be our annual partner’s night, so don’t forget to include your significant other when you make reservations. Cost of dinner is $35.00 per person. YOU MUST MAKE RESERVATIONS for dinner. For reservations: call Walter (363-1331; e-mail walter.jones@utah.edu
Walter must hear from you by the Thursday before the meeting. If you e-mail him, Walter asks that you put Westerners in the subject line. Walter will confirm either by email or phone with everyone who makes a reservation. If you make a reservation and fail to cancel it by the day of the meeting, you will be charged for the cost of the meal.
Upcoming Programs
Next month Jay Banta will share with us tales of his long career caring for Fish Springs National Wildlife Refuge. And in March we’re in for a special treat, when one of Utah Westerners’ finest historians, Steven K. Madsen, will share his experiences researching and writing Exploring Desert Stone: John N. Macomb’s 1859 Expedition to the Canyonlands of the Colorado, the first comprehensive history of this forgotten exploration of the American Southwest.
Directory
We’re once again updating our annual directory SO PLEASE check last year’s listing to make sure your contact information is up-to-date. If you need to change you directory information or wants to add or change your mugshot, contact Nelson Wadsworth (801-598-0753 or n.wadsworth@comcast.net) by January 15.
A New Board
January marks the installation of our new board, which now has a total of five new members, including Judy Dykman, Vernon Gorzitze, Oscar Olson, Brent Reber, and Brad Westwood.
Officers for 2010 are Brent Reber, president; Brad Westwood, vice president; Walter Jones, treasurer; Kristen Rogers-Iversen, secretary. Judy Dykman is membership chair, Oscar Olson is field trip chair, Bob Steensma is publications chair, and Curt Bench is programs chair.
Next Year’s Trek: Hopi Country
Our 2010 field trip will be to Hopi country, by way of Highway 89, and it will take place on June 3, 4, 5, and 6. If you have any questions or suggestions or are interested in helping out, contact Steve Gallenson at galico@comcast.net or 801 244-8468.
Vegetarian Meals
The Alta Club will prepare specially ordered meals to accommodate your dietary preferences and medical needs. If you would like to request a vegetarian or special meal, make it known when you make your reservation.
BENCH PRESS
BOOKS OF WESTERN AND REGIONAL INTEREST
By Curt Bench
PAINTERS OF UTAH’S CANYONS AND DESERTS by Donna L. Poulton and Vern G. Swanson. Published by Gibbs Smith, Publisher, 2009. 290 pp., oversize, illus., photos, index. $75.00
For over a century and a half, writers, artists, and photographers have attempted to capture the stunning beauty of southern Utah’s canyon country and desert landscapes in various art forms. The Red Rock country of the Colorado Plateau has long been a magnet for some of the most talented artists of the West: Thomas Moran, William Henry Jackson, Solomon Nunes Carvalho, Alfred Lambourne, Georgia O’Keefe, Maynard Dixon, LeConte Stewart, Everett Ruess, and many more.
Donna L. Poulton and Vern G. Swanson, both respected art experts and authors of several books of Western and Utah art, spent three years finding, viewing, and researching hundreds of pieces of artwork on southern Utah. The result, after careful selection, is a lavishly illustrated volume of the most beautiful and vivid examples of the art of the southern Utah country ever assembled. This large, handsome book contains over 300 color and black and white images which show the various media used by the many artists from oil, watercolor, and acrylic to block print and lithography. The book is divided into three sections: “Utah’s Red Rock, 1848-1970,” “Utah’s Plateau Parks & Monuments, 1900-Present,” and “Utah’s Continuing Allure, 1960-Present.” Informative and insightful text provides background on the many artists and descriptions of their specific work on Utah landscapes.
Having family roots in Springdale and the Zion National Park area, I was particularly pleased to see a wealth of material and images of the area created by a large number of artists, both famous and lesser-known. I learned that Alfred Lambourne was the first artist to explore the Zion region and the first to fully paint the grandeur of the area. There is also much on Bryce Canyon, Capitol Reef, the Grand Staircase and other monuments, and the many natural arches and bridges in southern Utah.
Donald J. Hagerty writes in the foreword: the authors “have compiled an almost encyclopedic approach to identifying and discussing those artists who have defined and delineated the lithic landscape of Utah’s canyon country from 1848 to the present. . . . No artists—past or present—have been overlooked.”
In a Deseret News interview about the book, author Vern Swanson said that woven into the history of the art is a history of the land and its people. He emphasized that it is much more than just a book of pretty pictures, saying that it will appeal to many people on different levels—those interested in art, those interested in the area, the geography, geology, and the history. He added, “It’s a nice combination of scholarship and beauty. It’s the warp and woof of art in southern Utah.”
Utah Westerners 
Recent Comments