"The White Desert" MGM 1925

[cawkercitykid]

"The White Desert" was produced as propaganda to win the support of the public for the building of the Moffat Tunnel. It contains the only known footage of Rollins Pass while it was still in use and would be of great interest to railroad fanatics! In 1928, the Moffat Tunnel was completed to coincide with the Denver Auto Show. Claire Windsor stared in the movie and was invited to be the Queen of the Denver Auto Show of 1928. A time capsule was placed in the entrance to the Moffat Tunnel and was to be opened 50 years later. Claire Windsor's arrival in Denver, complete with canon shot and airplane drops of rose petals, as well as highlights from the Denver Auto Show were filmed and shown for weeks in the movie theaters in Denver (and elsewhere?) at the time.

In the book "Rails That Climb," it states that the Moffat Tunnel time capsule was in fact opened in 1978 to great fanfare. The silent movie "The White Desert" was shown in Denver to complete the celebration. To my knowlege, that was the last public showing of the movie.

I would like to find the film. I have not been able to find anyone still living who actually had a part in getting the film for the 50th Anniversary event in Denver. I do not know if it was in private hands or from MGM itself. I would like to know if the MGM vault in the salt mines near Hutchinson, KS has a catalog or inventory list of some kind that a person could search in person or online. Claire made 7 or 8 other MGM films.

[silentfilm]

You are in luck. The film still exists, and 35mm prints are at the George Eastman House and at Warner Brothers. It has even been screened at Cinefest. See this alt.movies.silent thread for more information.

[cawkercitykid]

Thanks, this looks promising.

[Ed Hulse]

I remember liking WHITE DESERT very much. It's long overdue for another screening.

[Rob Farr]

As you point out, this was screened at the Denver Paramount sometime in 1978 (I was in the audience). I believe Hank Troy accompanied it so if he is still around you can ask him if he remembers the source of the print. I have been watching for this to show up on TCM, but so far...not.

[Rodney]

As you point out, this was screened at the Denver Paramount sometime in 1978 (I was in the audience). I believe Hank Troy accompanied it so if he is still around you can ask him if he remembers the source of the print. I have been watching for this to show up on TCM, but so far...not.

Hank Troy is very much around, and will be playing for the Chautauqua series this summer. Unfortunately, Chautauqua's limited to 16mm or video, so we can't schedule WHITE DESERT there, but I'll bring it up with the Denver International Film Festival (for what good it'll do...). What would be ultra-cool would be to have it play at the summer "Films at Red Rocks" series, since the amphitheater is only a dozen miles from where the train track passes, but they tend to show only recent blockbuster films.

[cawkercitykid]

"The White Desert" was shown last July 18, 2013 in Craig, Colorado. Here is a newspaper article about the event:

http://www.craigdailypress.com/news/201 ... o-history/" target="_blank" target="_blank

Also: here is a link to our new website featuring our research on the film:

http://clairewindsor.weebly.com/the-white-desert.html" target="_blank" target="_blank

[gimsocoo]

Your Claire WIndsor website is fantastic! I'm from Kansas too so I have a fondness for Ms. Windsor (along with Phyllis Haver, ZaSu Pitts and Louise Brooks. Not to mention the male stars from KS).

Do you have any information on the details of her leaving M-G-M? The only details I've seen are in the caption of a portrait from a fan magazine (also pictured on your site) saying she left her husband and her studio. I wonder when they filmed the banquet scene for Show People as I thought, and her filmography implies, that she left in 1927. But Show People wasn't released until Oct 1928.

I had no idea so many of her films survived! Nellie the Beautiful Cloak Model and Souls for Sables I'd LOVE to see/own. I thought for sure any Tiffany pictures she made would all be lost.

Do you have access to the physical copies of her pictures/magazine covers? I'd love to see hi-res scans of those if possible.

[cawkercitykid]

As you can see from the website, I still have a lot of work to do on condensing the tons of information I have about Claire. I dislike writing. The fun for me is in digging for information. Over the past 8 years, I have put all the bits of information into a huge chronological database which helps immensely in putting the puzzle pieces together.

As far as MGM goes, her contract with Goldwyn was taken over by the creation of MGM in 1924. It finally ran out and it was not renewed. At last, she was freed from the studio system. Claire was getting better parts being loaned out to poverty row studios than the parts she was given at MGM anyway. "Fashion Madness" at Columbia, was her first picture as a fee and independent actress. I do think she would have lasted longer at MGM if she had not gotten married, but she was thinking more about Billy and life after pictures. It is a shame that in the end, the marriage did not last.

Claire continued to have a good relationship with MGM after she left. I am not sure when the scene for Show People was actually filmed. It may have been a publicity shot made long before it was added to "Show People." Perhaps it was used in a News Reel. I do not know.

[The Blackbird]

It's just a shame so few of her MGM titles survive intact.