In March of 1911, a film company from Hollywood, called the Essanay Company, arrived at the Pine Crest Resort near Lake Arrowhead.  They unloaded their equipment, and began filming a short one reel film entitled “Romance of the Bar O”.  It is believed that this was the first movie ever made in the San Bernardino Mountains.

In July of 1911, the Bison Motion Picture Company arrived at the new Pine Knot lodge in Big bear and begin filming. They had traveled out here from back east, not Hollywood.   They brought with them 28 actors and actresses, along with five wagon loads of equipment and props.  They stayed in Big Bear for about two months, and it was reported that they could complete about one movie per day. That summer in 1911, Hollywood and Big Bear Lake began a love affair that has continued to this day.

CECIL B. DEMILLE
Famous film director/producer Cecil B. DeMille was one of the first Hollywood producers to use Big Bear as a location for a filming.  Just three years after the Bison Motion Picture Company had arrived in Big Bear, DeMille was up here making a silent film called “The Call of the North”.

Cecil B. DeMille with cast and crew on the shores of Big Bear Lake in 1914, filming Call Of The North.

This was only the second film that DeMille had ever made.  But it was a critically acclaimed success, and it firmly established him as a major director.  One of DeMille’s favorite locations for filming in Big Bear was the famous Fisher family estate located just west of the village.  Today the Fisher property is known as Logonita Lodge. Cecil B. DeMille not only went on to become a giant in the film industry, but in the early 1920’s, he was also a major player in Big Bear’s early real estate development.

WINTER & PINE KNOT LODGE:
At the same time that the film industry was getting started in Big Bear Lake, tourism was began to take off.  Lodges were being built all over the valley. Real Estate values were soaring. Business was good, but only during the summer.  During the winter months, the lodges and most resort businesses would close down and their owners would leave the hill.  Except for a hand full of hard core locals, Big Bear sat empty.  The ski resorts didn’t exist yet.  During the winter months, there was absolutely nothing going on in Big Bear.

However, there was a local guy back then, by the name of Fred C. Skinner, who wanted to do something to try and change that.   Fred was manager of the new Pine Knot Lodge, which was Big Bear’s largest resort.  He had organized Pine Knot’s, first Chamber of Commerce., and in 1914, Fred informed Hollywood production companies that the Pine Knot Lodge would remain open during the winter if they wanted to film.  He even brought in a generator, and Pine Knot Lodge had electrical power five years before electricity reached the valley.  The movie industry enthusiastically supported Skinner’s efforts, and began filming right through the winters.  Few people in Big Bear today realize just how important Fred’s work was back then.  Until the  ski resorts came along, it was the film industry, not the tourists, that kept the Big Bear community alive through the long winter months each year.

Actress Evelyn Keyes receives an invitation to a local community event from Judge Jack Mathew’s and Constable Coy Brown, while filming “Mrs. Mike” in 1949.

The Big Bear community and the movie industry pretty much grew up during the same time period.  The film companies mixed easily with the local community, and Big Bear residents enjoyed working as extras on films whenever they were needed.  Many early Big Bear pioneers including Dad Skinner, Bill Knickerbocker, Henry Shay (of Shay Ranch), and some of the Talmadges of the IS Ranch, all worked as extras in these early films.

EARLY BIG BEAR CELEBRITIES

With the amount of filming going on in the valley, it was inevitable that some Hollywood celebrities would eventually buy property, and become a part of the Big Bear community.  In the early 1920’s, Cecil B. DeMIlle was probably the first major celebrity to buy a home in Big Bear.

In the 1940’s, western film star Andy Devine was a major influence in the community.  He not only had a home here, but he owned several businesses around town.  He built the Sportsman’s Tavern back in 1945, which today is the popular Captains Anchorage.  In the photo below Andy and friends receive personal skiing lessons from Tommi Tyndal, the founder of Snow Summit Ski Resort.

“King of the Cowboys” Roy Rogers was also familiar figure around Big Bear for many years.  Roy was part owner of Grey’s Landing on the North Shore of the lake.  Fisherman would sometimes be unexpectedly surprised to find Roy serving up hamburgers on a busy weekend.

Another popular local celebrity, was entertainer Mel Blanc, “the man of a thousand voices”.   Mel created the voices that brought to life most the familiar cartoon characters that we all grew up with such as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig,  Sylvester and Tweety Bird.

Mel also wrote and recorded a popular song about Big Bear. In 1947 local residents voted Mel honorary mayor of Big Bear Lake.  A position that he held for over 25 years.  Roy Rogers and Mel Blanc both had homes on the south shore of Big Bear Lake.  Mel’s son, Noel Blanc, tells many fascinating stories of the times that their families spent together.

CEDAR LAKE

A couple miles west of the Big Bear village, up in the hills off of USFS road 2N10, nestled in the woods, is a small manmade lake.  This lake is the home of the Cedar Lake Christian Camp that provides lodging and camping accommodations to private groups. It is also a popular location for the film industry.

Cedar Lake is a manmade lake.  The dam that created it was constructed  the Bartlett family in 1928, as part of an ambitious resort and real estate development that had nothing to do with Hollywood.  In 1929, a year after the dam was built, the stock market crashed.  The great depression hit, and construction on the new Bartlett resort came to a halt.

Then in 1935, a Hollywood production company approached the Bartlett’s, and asked permission to build movie set on the east side of the dam for a movie they wanted to film.  A deal was struck.  And in 1936, they built a rustic old mill, and started filming “Trail of the Lonesome Pine”  starring Henry Fonda and Fred Mac Murray.  From that point on Cedar Lake gradually evolved into an important “back lot” for the movie industry.  Over the years over a hundred films have been made at the little lake.  Even today it used regularly for films, TV shows, and commercials. But, the grand resort that the Bartlett’s had once envisioned, never happened.

Henry Fonda and Sylvia Sydney at Cedar Lake in 1936, filming Trail Of The Lonesome Pine.

Elvis Presley was in Big Bear in 1962. Here he is singing to his leading ladies on the old sawmill during the filming of his movie “Kissing Cousins”.  While he was up here, Elvis visited with Mel Blanc at his lake front home, and spent some time on the lake with Mel and Roy Rogers.

GOLD MOUNTAIN
At the north/east side of Baldwin Lake is Gold Mountain.   It was here that Elias J. “Lucky” Baldwin built a 40 stamp mill back in 1873, and started a second gold rush.  However it turns out that gold wasn’t the only thing that Baldwin’s stamp mill produced.  Years later in the 1930’s, long after the gold rush was over, “Through The Wrong Door” and “Rocky Mountain Mystery” were both filmed at this historic site.

It has been almost 100 years since Hollywood first discovered Big Bear.  The history of Hollywood’s relationship with Big Bear is still being written.  For a more detailed look at this fascinating part of Big Bear history go to the program guide on the Channel-6 website .  Here you will find the dates and times for the next showing of the two-part episode of “Big Bear and the Hollywood Connection” on Channel-6’s History Show.

© Rick Keppler

Note:  This article contains excerpts from the video production “Big Bear Lake And The Hollywood Connection” as seen on the Channel-6’s The Big Bear History Show. Information from that copyrighted show has been presented here with permission from Rick Keppler and Bear Valley Broadcasting.

For a more detailed look at Big Bear’s fascinating history, go to the Channel-6 website program guide.  Here you will find the dates and times for the various Big Bear Historical episodes on Channel-6’s History Show.

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