Gold Is Where You Find It (Warner Bros.) (1938)

the four years of conflict. The fertile valley of the Sacramento which was their goal—yielded the gold they sought. Mile on mile of golden wheat ripened under cloudless skies as a reward for years of labor. There they built their homes and reared their families. Prosperity smiled upon this new empire they had established. At harvest time the click of the reapers resounded across the shining acres, long lines of wagons were heaped high with the golden grain, and the threshing machines prepared it for the markets. Then loomed the enemy. In the mountains above the peceful valley—gold was discovered. Men with capital employed the most modern methods of robbing the hills of their hidden treasure. They set up huge hydraulic monitors which literally ripped open the mountains, the yellow tongues of water hurling the gold-laden earth down the sluice-boxes to the stream but—and here was the menace to the men of the farms and vineyards—bearing with it a lavalike tide of black mud which defiled the waters of the stream, and spread over the fields, killing all life there. The farmers built levees— only to see them swept away. Thus began the war between hydraulic miners and men of the fields, one of the greatest conflicts of American history. The burning question in the Golden State in the ’70s: “Shall California belong to the wheat growers, who bring food-crops from the soil each year, or to the hydraulic miners, whose terrific streams of water tear away the hillsides and ruin the adjacent farming lands?” That bitter war was ended by the historic decision of Federal Judge Sawyer—one that is a classic in annals of the law: “In any final question between the two,” he said, “‘agriculture is of more lasting value and irnportance than mining. Gold may be the blood of a nation, and, Ne a ee ee eee as such, indispensable—but the earth is its heart and soul. The land is for the people. It does not change. Its fruits are inexhaustible, and, God willing, may it continue to survive its spoilers.” Along Came Ripley The story of these “‘brave days of old” might have been lost to posterity, had it not been for a wide-awake young man named Clements Ripley, to whom California's past was of extreme interest. Ripley, a native of Tacoma, Washington, graduated from Yale in 1916, and between that time and America’s entrance into the World War, he served with the national guard on the Mexican border, taking examinations for the regular army and trying, unsuccessfully, to get a job on some newspaper or magazine. He did not write professionally until after the war from which he emerged with a captain’s commission. A thrilling novel—‘*Gold Is Where You Find It’’—is the result. Dealing with the California ‘‘gold war’? mentioned above—it was pub lished serially in the Cosmopolitan Magazine and later in book form. It soon became a best seller. Warner Bros., who had been searching for a worthy sequel to their smash techni color success— God's Country and the Woman’’—lost no time in_ securing the screen rights to this thrilling romance of American history, “Gold Is Where You Find It.”’ : In Search of “Gold” The making of a picture in Technicolor is a difficult task and it was a company of two hundred, artists, technicians and laborers which entrained for Weaverville, California LEFT: Curtiz directs actors buried under a tree stump, after dynamiting of mountain. line, where many of the most important scenes were to be taken. Here are some of the difhculties they had to contend with. Weaverville, being a town of but 1500 inhabitants, naturally lacked accommodations for so large an influx of visitors. Consequently the studio had to build a tent city seven miles from town, and about half a mile from the location proper, to house the troupe. Seventy-five tents were put up and, excepting stars and executives, four persons occupied each tent. Meals were served in the cook tent. After dinner a bus service was in operation between location and the town of Weaverville, the last one leaving at 11 P.M. Whoever missed it walked the seven miles back to camp. The company arose at 5, breakfasted at 5.30, and at 6.30 shooting began. SUNDAY FEATURE PAGE — Entire Page — Heading, Photos and Type available in mat form Lunch was served at noon and dinner about 6 P.M., depending on how late the afternoon permitted the company to work. Before leaving the studio for location, each member of the company was handed an official order which. said, among other things, that positively no money would be advanced to anyone on location. Curfew rang at the location camp at midnight, and the studio sent members of its private police department along with the company to enforce orders. Movie-Making Oddities Probably the most unusual fire insurance policy ever LEFT: Curtiz directs from a raft. BELOW : ‘Shoot ma es : ing’ a scene; and as it appears on the screen. written for a motion picture studio was taken out by the producers on the 2400-acre wheat field at Perris, California, where the colorful harvest scenes were photographed. The policy, which was for $50,000, covered the entire wheatfield, or any part of it, which might have been damaged by fire. Under the terms of the policy, and because of the great fire hazard, members of the cast and crew were forbidden, under penalty of dismissal, to smoke on the set. A 50-year-old steam threshing machine and an ancient Advance Rumely thresher were brought from Chicago for the wheat har vest sequences. The threshing machine, looking something like a locomotive with steam roller wheels, and driving the thresher through the medium of a long belt, burns oil now, instead of coal or wood. But the camera couldn't see that. So intense was the heat at Perris, where the company spent four days shooting the harvest sequences, that artificial perspiration had to be supplied, the actors being properly wetted with water buckets and spray guns. The 118-degree temperature caused moisture to dry as quickly as it appeared on faces and arms and, as a consequence, the wheat harvesters had to be literally drenched with water at the start of each scene. It’s not on record that any of the company — actors or technicians — made up their minds to leave films for the farm, Nearly sixty per cent of the scenes were _ photographed on location. At Perris not only the harvest scenes were shot, but the sequences so vividly describing the chaos and disaster caused by the tons of debris hurled down over the wheatfields by the monitors of the hydraulic miners. At Weaverville, hydraulic mining scenes were made. River scenes were done at Sacramento. The end of the picture took the company to Big Bear Lake in the San Bernardino mountains. George Brent, leading man of ““God’s Country and the Woman,” is cast as the romantic lead, opposite love ly Olivia de Havilland. Prominent parts include Claude Rains, Margaret Lindsay, Barton MacLane, Marcia Ralston, John Litel, Russell Simpson, Tim Holt, Henry O'Neill, Granville Bates and Sidney Toler, “No. 701-B.” Price $1.00. Order from Warner Bros. Campaign Plan Editor.