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Articles/Essays – Volume 10, No. 3
From Antagonism to Acceptance: Mormons and the Silver Screen
Mormons have been involved in films ever since Hollywood became a magic word. Church members first tried to influence the Hollywood establishment, then went on to create their own film industries; finally, today a corps of successful film professionals is carrying LDS values to both national and international audiences.[1]
Early Hollywood movies focused mainly on Mormon pioneer life with attacks upon the supposed evils of polygamy. Although most early moviemakers could not be called dedicated anti-Mormons, their unfamiliarity with LDS doctrine and history, as well as a lack of contemporary information about Utah led them to sensationalized screen interpretations. Even so respected a figure as Cecil B. DeMille, a long-time friend of President David O. McKay, was the executive producer of the anti-Mormon silent potboiler A Mormon Maid[2] in 1917. This movie was typical of the attitude silent photoplay producers displayed toward the Church. A polished, though lurid, pseudo-documentary of alleged pioneer atrocities, it was undoubtedly inspired by the unprecedented appeal of the epic Birth of a Nation (1915). (Even at that early date, filmmakers were tempted to manufacture “formula pictures” in the hope of recreating the box office magic for previous successes).
Filmed in California, A Mormon Maid used masked Danite “Avenging Angels” in Ku Klux Klan robes to promote its well advertised “expose” of Brigham Young’s Utah.[3] Unlike the Klan in earlier epics, the Danites were villains not heroes, and the movie reflected anti-Mormon viewpoints of the day.[4]
The earliest motion picture to touch on Mormon life was made in 1905 and ran only a few minutes in length. A rather crude comedy called A Trip to Salt Lake City, it detailed the problems faced by a harried polygamist when all his many children wanted a drink of water at the same time during a train trip.[5]
Within a few years, however, this humorous look at plural marriage had given way to a series of attacks on the Church by commercially motivated film makers. These were produced mainly in foreign lands in response to overseas missionary activities by the Church. A Victim of the Mormons, a 1911 Danish production, set the tone for later anti-Mormon photoplays, engendering a controversy with international repercussions.
Like the Victorian literature which spawned them, A Victim of the Mormons and other pictures in its wake repeated the same theme: a pretty young girl is forced by evil missionaries to enter into a polygamous alliance. Her loyal gentile suitor follows in pursuit, and—against great odds—eventually rescues his beloved from a life of misery in Utah.[6]
This film and other foreign melodramas* brought vigorous protests from both LDS Church and Utah civic officials. Governor William Spry went so far as to threaten to bar all motion pictures from the state unless the offending photo plays were withdrawn from circulation.[7] Although the Church owned Deseret News praised Spry’s success in partially suppressing The Victim, in the United States, not everyone connected with the controversy agreed with Spry. When the semi-official National Board of Censorship rescinded its original approval of the picture, New York City’s Morning Telegraph attacked Spry and asked, “Have the alternating religio-political tentacles of the Mormon Church . . . drawn into their embrace the National Board of Censorship?” And when the Governor suggested that Utah officials themselves could provide “suitable themes” for motion pictures, an unknown staff writer on the trade newspaper cried: “By the beard of the Prophet Brigham, that is going some! Reduced to an immigration advertising proposition, Elder Spry’s suggestion is audacious enough to make every tithe-gathering elder of the temple chortle with joy.”[8]
Although the debate excited much comment in the popular and trade press, little concrete action ensued. Local California interests, always on the lookout for topical subjects, produced a number of repetitious exploitation films during 1912. They included The Mormon and Mountain Meadows Massacre, both based loosely on the Utah tragedy (the latter showing Joseph Smith supposedly plot ting the massacre with Brigham Young); An Episode of Early Mormon Days; Marriage or Death; and The Danites.[9]
This onslaught brought renewed protests and calls for censorship from church leaders like Rudger Clawson, and LDS film entrepreneurs like D. Lester Park. Although largely forgotten today, Park was the first man to exhibit motion pictures in Utah and was an early supporter of religious toleration.[10]
In response to movie slanders and in recognition of the power of film, the Church subsidized the making of one of the first monumental feature films ever released. One Hundred Years of Mormonism, produced in Los Angeles in 1912-13 (shot partly on location in Utah), took its title from the popular Church history of the same name.[11]
The publicity phrase “a cast of thousands” was applicable in this case—over a thousand people took part in the making of the picture. A half-mile re-creation of Nauvoo, Independence, and other historical sites was constructed for the movie. Homes, stores and other buildings were faithfully reproduced from old photographs. Parts of the action for the six-reel, 1V2 hour spectacle were recorded by four simultaneously running cameras—a herculean feat for the day.[12]
Although most of the principals connected with the film are now obscure, several became prominent within the silent industry. Nell Shipman, who authored the final screenplay, was one of the first women to become a screen writer. Later she became a popular movie actress.[13] Norval MacGregor, the director, helped found the Motion Picture Director’s Association and worked for a number of the leading film manufacturers.[14]
Although praised by the Church and distinguished by its epic proportions, this independently marketed film seems to have had little impact. It did counterbalance somewhat the negative screen treatment of the Mormon community. Today it remains little more than a cinematic curiosity, largely unknown even to motion picture historians. Despite promises of worldwide release, no prints of the movie are believed extant today.[15]
Several other shorter films favorable to the Latter-day Saints made their appearance as early travelogues. These include the Hale Tour Film A Trip to Utah (1907), the similar Edison travelogue Salt Lake City, Utah, and its Surroundings (1912), and the Bison Company’s The Romance of the Utah Pioneers (1913). The latter remains the earliest known movie treatment of the handcart pioneers. Still other pro-Mormon photoplays were apparently planned by commercial interests and Mormon cineastes, but most were never completed.[16]
Church members did, however, become more active in the industry. Included were cameraman-director Harry Revier, producer and showman Albert Scowcroft, screenwriter Elliot Clawson, as well as a number of LDS and Utah actresses.[17] Despite these entries, Hollywood continued to be fascinated by the “Mormon Question” or polygamy. Post World War I movies repeatedly emphasized the lurid and sensational. In Riders of the Purple Sage and The Rainbow Trail, (1918 Fox Company releases based on the best-selling Zane Grey novels), catch phrases like “An Expose of Early Mormon Days” and “How Mormon Polygamy was Spread” were used to attract patrons.[18]
This fascination continued long after the Manifesto and was partially re sponsible for Church reiteration of the polygamy ban in the mid-1920s. Overseas production of similar vehicles such as the British-made Trapped by the Mormons and Married to a Mormon (both 1922) undoubtedly contributed to the decision.[19]
In 1921, in response to this continuing unfavorable cinematic publicity, Sena tor Reed Smoot, Apostle to the Church, reached an understanding with picture mogul William Fox. Fox promised, through his intermediaries, William Brady and attorney Saul Rogers, to eliminate any further references to Mormonism in remakes of the Zane Grey pictures as well as to withdraw the current versions from international distribution. This was done in return for an unwritten agreement to assist in killing a proposed 30 percent film industry tax pending in Congress.
As Smoot later recounted to President Heber J. Grant: . . . After telling them that I was in sympathy with the elimination of the 30% tax . . . I did say to Mr. Rogers however that I thought that any film company that would produce a moving picture and exhibit it to the American people, such as was done by the Fox Film Company in .. . “Riders of the Purple Sage,” came with unclean hands to me asking for relief in any way. Perhaps I was a little rough on Mr. Rogers but there is no question but what the position taken by me resulted in an immediate decision. William J. Brady spoke up before Rogers . . . and promised me as a friend that the picture would never be shown again. Mr. Rogers assured me that as soon as he returned to New York he would see that his company withdrew the picture from future exhibition. Brady spoke up and said: “We need not wait until we return to New York, we will stop the showing of the picture by telegram.”[20]
Further correspondence between Grant, Smoot and Fox over the possibility of making a pro-Mormon picture showing the “true history of Utah” apparently did not lead to a completed film.
The Senator was aided in his actions by declining public interest. As proof of the official disavowal of polygamy became known, allegations of a Mormon “conspiracy” to spirit away unsuspecting women waned. The long cherished image of an evil theocratic kingdom in Utah faded along with other frontier trappings.[21]
Moviemakers, too, realized that their conception of the state and its people was no longer big box-office. While still rooted in the pioneer period, their treatment took on a more humorous and sympathetic note still evident in modern feature film and television portrayals. In the forefront was Hands UP! a 1926 comedy starring Raymond Griffith. Even though Mormonism was a relatively minor theme in the plot, this movie heralded the return to a “positive” screen image. Griffith plays a man of polish and assurance who is thrown off balance by his relationship with two sisters. As a confederate spy during the Civil War, he has fallen in love with the two daughters of a Western mine owner. Although the North wins the war, he ends up with the gold and the girls. The appearance of Brigham Young (Charles K. French) with a score of his wives gives Griffith his cue, and he goes to Salt Lake City were he settles down in blissful polygamy.[22]
Whatever the effects of Hands Up!, the LDS leadership sought to avoid a possible renewal of screen persecution by encouraging film development within the state. As early as May 26, 1927, the Deseret News welcomed the temporary stopover of a large contingent of motion picture executives from a Hollywood trade convention. After calling their visitors “keen observers and rare judges of beauty,” the News urged the filmmakers to “come again, gentlemen.” Certainly this solicitous attitude on the part of the Mormon-owned paper (which had urged strict censorship of the industry) must have reflected serious interest among Church authorities in having a motion picture studio in Salt Lake. Whatever the causes and inducements, ten months later the newly formed Pioneer Film Corporation was operating in the Utah capital.
Announcements of the new group’s plans appeared in the March 24, 1928, Salt Lake papers. First up was a feature entitled The Exodus (also referred to as The Exodus of the New World), “a dramatization of the perilous journey of the Mormon pioneers across the plains in 1847, from the Missouri River to Salt Lake Valley.” Popular Hollywood players Ben Lyon and Marie Prevost were imported as the leads, and two grandsons of Brigham Young—Levi Edgar Young and Richard W. Young (then president of the Utah Bar Association)—were named to prominent positions with the firm. Plans were even made to build an elaborate 20-acre studio “in some picturesque region on the outskirts of Salt Lake, which would be as complete in every way as any in Hollywood.”
Renamed All Faces West, the picture received only limited distribution after its release during the awkward silent-talkie period of 1929. Like many other in dependent producers, the makers of All Faces West could not weather the combined shocks of a vastly changed industry and the economic conditions created by the stock market crash. The Pioneer Film Corporation went into receivership and never made another film.[23]
All Faces West has the distinction, though, of being the filmic antecedent of 20th Century Fox’s Brigham Young—Frontiersman (1940), the best known version of that prophet’s life to date. While fictionalizing parts of Mormon history and de-emphasizing the Mormon leader’s commitment to plural marriage (motion picture codes strictly prohibited favorable screen treatment of polygamy), the movie turned in excellent performances by Dean Jagger in the title role and Vincent Price as Joseph Smith. However, the film was weighed down by the emphasis on the romantic relationship of Tyrone Power and Linda Darnell—the “real stars” of the picture.[24]
In 1976, nearly four decades later, Philip Yordan, producer and writer for such classics as King of Kings and Broken Lance, began production of a modern version of Brigham Young, filmed mainly in Utah. The movie is being directed by Thomas McGown and was written by Mr. Yordan in close cooperation with the historical Department of the Church. Starring Maurice Grandmason as Brigham Young and Charles Moll as Joseph Smith, it will cover Brigham’s life from 1832 to 1861 and will deal in detail with polygamy.[25]
Today, most screen portrayals of Mormons are serious and sympathetic views of their struggles against persecution and harsh western elements. Favorable television episodes about the Church have appeared in Bonanza, The New Land, Big Valley, Here Come The Brides, and Death Valley Days. Movie features such as Wagon Master (1950), Blood Arrow (1958), the unreleased The Polygamist (1969) and Educated Heart (1970), and others also reflect this view point.[26]
At the same time, theatrical film versions of Bad Bascomb (1946), Paint Your Wagon (1969), the “spaghetti-western” They Call Me Trinity (Italy—1972), and The Duchess and the Dirtwater Fox (1976) all have opted for humor in their treatment of Mormonism.
Comtemporary Mormonism, however, remains relatively unreported. The award winning film Mahlzeiten (Germany—1967) was made with Church cooperation with the use of real missionaries and a baptism. The overall impact drew Church protests, however, because in the end the couple’s conversion makes no real difference, and the husband commits suicide.[27]
The state of Utah—so long identified with the Church—has been aggressive in marketing its natural beauty and unusual scenery to movie and television production companies. Although most pictures made in the state bear little relationship to Mormonism, an hour-long TV series pilot made for NBC in late 1971 called Movin’ On attempted to reflect lifestyles of contemporary Mormons. Despite some pretty postcard views of Salt Lake City, Sterling Silliphant’s tele play offered up only cardboard characterizations—including a young female missionary romantically linked with one of the heroes. Audiences turned away in droves when Movin’ On was piloted in 1972, and the project died.[28]
Because the movies have basically given up their role as family entertainment to television, the non-Mormon majority in the industry has turned to “adult” themes unappealing to most Mormons. The void has attracted Mormon film makers like Kieth Merrill and Lyman Dayton.
Merrill, who won an Academy Award for his documentary The Great Ameri can Cowboy, was highlighted as a “Great American Filmmaker” by the New Era, where he published his credo: “Being committed to the gospel means that we were praying constantly for guidance and inspiration that we could be creative and able to put this film together and still be able to represent the ideals that are important.”[29]
Producer Lyman Dayton of Doty-Dayton Productions has found national audiences for such films as Where the Red Fern Grows and Seven Alone. For 1977 he plans four new movies, two of which will depict Mormon themes.
Dayton, like Merrill, is conscious of his Mormon values and places a high priority on them in his films. “Our eventual hope is to promulgate Mormon teachings and philosophy more than ever before. We have interjected some Mormon philosophies in each of our films and look to the day when the subtle line of statement will become a major part of our films.”
For Dayton, the family film concept has yet to be realized. Nevertheless, he has strong feelings about the possiblities:
A family film should be just that—a motion picture about real people and experiences that an entire family can enjoy together. Too much of our recreation has been fragmented, with adults going to their movies and their own activities while the children are left to do their own thing. .. . A quality family film should be one which provides entertainment for everyone—be it teenager, single adult or senior citizen. As a producer and a family man, I want my pictures to meet my standards. I want to watch every detail from casting to conclusion to know that what goes upon the screen is something I can enjoy, not only with my contemporaries but with my parents and my children, too.[30]
The G-rating has proved the kiss of death for many fine pictures simply because audiences (including Mormon ones) have not patronized them in sufficient numbers to justify production and distribution costs. Even the Church’s attempt to build audiences with its ill-fated Family Film Award was halted when entertainment editor Howard Pearson of the Deseret News selected a controversial picture.
One thing seems certain: Continued interest in the distinctive Latter-day Saint cultural heritage probably means that as long as there are viewers, there will be Mormons on the screen.
[1] See Richard Nelson, “A History of Latter-day Saint Screen Portrayals in the Anti-Mormon Film Era 1905-1936” (M.A. Thesis, Brigham Young University, 1975), for a detailed analysis of most of the motion pictures discussed in this article.
[2] Cecil B. DeMille, The Autobiography of Cecil B. DeMille, ed. Donald Hayne (New York: Prentice Hall, 1959), pp. 433-434; “Doings—On The Cover,” California Intermountain News, March 20, 1975′ P- 3-
[3] See, for example, George Blaisdell, “A Mormon Maid,” The Moving Picture World (New York), XXXI, 9 (March 3, 1917), 1372; George W. Graves, “A Mormon Maid,” Motography (Chicago), XVII, 9 (March 3, 1917), 483; and Peter Milne, “A Mormon Maid,” Motion Picture News (New York), XV, 9 (March 3, 1917), 1419.
[4] James B. Allen and Richard C. Cowan, Mormonism in the Twentieth Century (2nd ed.; Provo: Brigham Young University Press, 1969), p. 66; Leonard J. Arrington and Jon Haupt, “Intolerable Zion: The Image of Mormonism in Nineteenth Century American Literature,” Western Humanities Review, XXII, 3 (Summer 1968), 243-260; and Linda Lambert, “The Image of Mormons in Films,” The New Era (Salt Lake City) II, 5, (May 1972), 12-15.
[5] Kemp R. Niver, Motion Pictures From The Library of Congress Paper Print Collection 1894-1912, ed. Bebe Bergsten (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967), pp. 100-101. The film is still in existence. See Blackhawk Bulletin (Davenport, Iowa), 149 (September—Early October 1964), p. 4.
[6] Mormonens Offer (Aarhus, Denmark: A/S Fotorama, [1911]); Edwin D. Hatch, “Moving Picture Misrepresentations,” Latter-Day Saints Millenial Star (Liverpool, England), LXXIII, 45 (November 9, 1911), p. 710; and Rudger Clawson, “The Anti-‘Mormon’ Moving Pictures and Play,” Latter-Day Saints Millenial Star, LXXIII, 51 (December 21, 1911), 808-811. See also Neal Lambert and Richard Cracroft, “Through Gentile Eyes: A Hundred Years of the Mormon in Fiction,” The New Era, U, 3 (March 1972), 14-19.
[7] See “Mormon Governor Threatens to Bar Films in Utah,” The Morning Telegraph (New York), January 28, 1912, Section 4, Part 2, pp. 1, 6; and “Offensive Films Are Suppressed,” The Deseret Evening News (Salt Lake City), February 3, 1912, p. 2, for typical accounts.
[8] The Morning Telegraph, January 28, 1912.
[9] Nelson, IDS Screen Portrayals, pp. 40-69.
[10] “The Sectarian Film Once More,” Moving Picture World, XI, 4 (January 27, 1912), 282; and “Utah Native Dies in California,” Deseret News, June 7,1952. Park helped found Ogden Pictures Corporation in 1917 and was to be involved in a variety of other local and national film activities. For more on Ogden and Park see “Big Corporation to Produce Films,” Salt Lake Tribune, March 4, 1917.
[11] John Henry Evans, One Hundred Years of Mormonism, A History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints From 1805 to 1905 (Salt Lake City: The Deseret News Press, 1905).
[12] For representative articles see Levi Edgar Young, ” ‘Mormonism’ in Picture,” Young Woman’s Journal (Salt Lake City), XXIV, 2 (February 1913), 74-80; “Mormon Pictures,” Motography, VIII, 3 (August 3, 1912), 110; P. M. Powell, “Doings at Los Angeles—The Mormon Picture,” Moving Picture World, XV, 3 (January 18, 1913), 251; “History of ‘Mormonism’ in Picture,” Deseret Evening News, January 25, 1913, Section 3, p. VIII; and Richard Nelson, “Utah Filmmakers of the Silent Screen,” Utah Historical Quarterly, XLIII, 1 (Winter 1975), 4-25.
[13] See the advertisement “Nell Shipman—Photoplaywright,” Moving Picture World, XV, 7 (February 15, 1913), 707; and Tom Fulbright, “Nell Shipman—Queen of the Dog Sleds,” Classic Film Collector (Indiana, Pennsylvania), 25 (Fall 1969), 30-31+.
[14] The Motion Picture Studio Directory and Trade Annual (6th ed.; New York: Motion Picture News, Inc., 1920), p. 308; and Nelson, LDS Screen Portrayals, pp. 79-89.
[15] Because the accounts cited above state that orders for the film came from Russia, Germany, France, Argentina and elsewhere, it is possible that further research may uncover the complete film.
[16] The Clawson brothers, Chester and Shirley, have been described as “the motivating force” behind continued LDS Church interest in motion pictures during the silent years. Much of their work is now of great historical interest and forms an invaluable documentary record of early twentieth-century Mormon activities and leadership. Their feature film plans never reached completion, however, and a tragic fire in 1929 killed one of the brothers and ended their active work in motion pictures. “Motion Picture Producer Dies as Blasts Wreck Laboratory,” Salt Lake Tribune, October 24, 1929, pp. 1-2.
[17] Among the many other actors, actresses, directors and producers with Utah backgrounds during the silent and early talkie period one finds film company heads William H. Swanson and William W. Hodkinson, directors James Cruze and Frank Borzage, and others well known—and not—such as Violet Bird, Edwina Booth, Betty Compson, Luke Cosgrave, Hazel Dawn, John Gilbert, Reed Howes, DeWitt C. Jennings, Eleanor Lawson, Willard Mack, Norman Peck, Marjorie Rambeau, Mack Swain, Mary Thurman, and Loretta Young. See Nelson, “Utah Filmmakers of the Silent Screen,” p. 18. Many of the stage players at the old Wilkes Theater (now the Promised Valley Playhouse) in Salt Lake also went on to successful movie careers and deserve a mention. Among them were Anne Berryman, George Cleveland, Ralph Cloninger, Cyril Delavanti, Ferdinand Munier, Donald Woods, and perhaps most notable of all—Gladys George, who played there for several years. Other LDS players of note include Larraine Day, child star Gary Gray, and respected character actor Moroni Olsen. See Leo J. Muir, editor, A Century of Mormon Activities in California, Volume 1 (Salt Lake City: Deseret News Press, 1952), pp. 361-369; and Richard Nelson, “Child Actor Gary Gray: He’s a Man Now,” California Intermountain News, July 3, 1975, p. 3.
[18] P. S. Harrison, ” ‘Riders of the Purple Sage’—Fox,” Motion Picture News, XVIII, 12 (September 21, 1918), 1913; and P. S. Harrison, ” The Rainbow Trail’—Fox,” Motion Picture News, XVIII, 14 (October 5, 1918), 2244+.
[19] Leonard J. Arrington, “Mormonism: Views From Without and Within,” BYU Studies (Provo, Utah), XIV, 2 (Winter iq74), p. iso; and Nelson, LDS Screen Portrayals, pp. 20Q-210.
[20] See the carbon copy of the letter of Reed Smoot to LDS Church president Heber J. Grant, September 7, 1921, pp. 2-3, Reed Smoot Collection, MS 1187, Container 48, Folder 9, BYU Library Archives, Provo, Utah; and Nelson, LDS Screen Portrayals, pp. 128-139.
[21] Allen and Cowan, Mormonism in the Twentieth Century, p. 36. Polygamy was at the heart of the anti-Mormon crusades. Typical was the statement that “Mormonism spells polygamy, and polygamy means the enslavement of women.” C. Sheridan Jones, The Truth About the Mormons— Secrets of Salt Lake City (London: William Rider and Sons Ltd., 1920), p. ix. This form of literary reportage alleging the “crime” of plural marriage on the part of contemporary Utah church members largely dies out after this period.
[22] The script tor Hands Up! (1926) is found in Carton 37 of the Paramount Pictures Collection at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Library in Beverly Hills. For background on the making of the photoplay see Kevin Brownlow, The Parade’s Gone By . . . (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1968), pp. 441-445.
[23] Forfull details see Nelson, LDS Screen Portrayals, pp. 180-186.
[24] For a contemporary view on the picture from a Mormon perspective see James V. D’Arc’s ” ‘Brigham Young’ . . . Epic Film,” The Daily Universe (Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah), October 9, 1972, Monday Magazine Section, pp. 6-7 and “The Saints on Celluoid: The Making of the Movie ‘Brigham Young’ “, Sunstone (Provo) I, 4 (Fall 1976), 10-28. Interestingly enough, Dean Jagger later joined the Mormon Church. See James V. D’Arc, “Dean Jagger—’Prophet’ to Convert,” The Daily Universe) November 19,1973, pp. 7-8. The Production Code was voluntarily accepted by all the major studios to ward off official government censorship. It came into full effect in 1934. See Olga J. Martin, Hollywood’s Movie Commandment—A Handbook for Motion Picture Writers and Re viewers (New York: H. W. Wilson Company, 1937), p. 174.
[25] An attempt to capitalize on news items about an outlawed plural marriage sect in Arizona in 1936 brought forth a cheap “sex-ploitation” picture appropriately called Polygamy (also known as Illegal Wives). Its cast was largely non-stellar, and it quickly faded into oblivion. The genre has almost disappeared, except for the brief use of a “Mormon Priest” in a 1972 Danish pornographic production Bordellet. Background on the Short Creek (now Colorado City) religionists can be found in John Marshall Day, “A Study in Protest to Adaptation” (M. A. Thesis, University of Utah, 1963); James Cary, “The Untold Story of Short Creek,” American Mercury, LXXVIII (May 1954), 119-123; and Nelson, LDS Screen Portrayals, 198-206.
[26] Educated Heart was written by Nathan and Ruth Hale, a couple long active in LDS dramatics. The film unfortunately reflects many of the problems of bringing a film to the family screen. See “Utah Cast and Locale for New Movie,” The Deseret News, December 3, 1969, p. C8; Jan Padfield, “Utah to Star in Hollywood Film,” The Deseret News, February 16, 1970, p. Bio; “Do-It Man— It’s a Sure Way to Get Educated,” The Deseret News, August 13, 1970, p. A19. Mormons also have become increasingly active in Hollywood television production. For more on this refer to the author’s “TV Pioneer Henry Kesler Says ‘Hard to be LDS’ in Filmdom,” California Intermountain News, November j , 1974, pp. 3, 5; “Composer Lex de Azevedo: A Musician With a Mission,” California Intermountain News, March 6, 1975, pp. 2, 8; and “Singer-Actress Heather Young: She’s a Long Way from the Land of the Giants,” California Intermountain News, April 3,1975, pp. 2, 7. In recent years this newspaper has placed greater emphasis on coverage of Mormon performing arts and forms, an invaluable secondary reference source for in-depth research.
[27] See D. L. Ashliman, “A Small Helping of Mormonism,” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, II, 4 (Winter, 1967), 119-120 and the remarks by Richard L. Bushman appearing on pages 118-119 of the same issue.
[28] Robert H. Woody, ” ‘Movin’ On’ Moves On Into Salt Lake,” Salt Lake Tribune, November 6, 1971, Second Section, p. 29.
[29] Brian Kelly, “Kieth Merrill, Great American Filmmaker,” The New Era, V, 9: 10-14, (August 1975; See also Kieth Merrill, “The Filming of the ‘The Great American Cowboy,’ American Cinematographer, May 1974; and “Oscar Winning Alumnus Presented Award at Y,” The Universe (Provo, Utah), April 29, 1974, p. 2.
[30] Personal correspondence, Lyman Dayton to Dialogue, October 14, 1976. See also Time, January 3,1977, p. 74; and Richard Nelson, “LDS Moviemaker Lyman Dayton Sees Need for Family Films,” California Intermountain News (Los Angeles), October 24, 1974, pp. 3, 7.