April 14, 2017 • Seaside Signal • seasidesignal.com • 7A
The man who brought Hollywood to Oregon
By Rebecca Herren
For Seaside Signal
It all begins with the sound
of the clapperboard and the
director saying, “Action!”
The world of fi lmmaking
is magical. It evokes emotions
of wonderment, love, sadness
or fear, and grants the audi-
ence the freedom to laugh.
Movies bring to life stories
that entertain, as did the pre-
sentation Mac Burns gave
at the March 30 History and
Hops speaker series.
Burns, who is the execu-
tive director of the Clatsop
County Historical Society,
gave an account of the histo-
ry of fi lmmaking in Clatsop
County and illustrated the
relationship Oregon has had
with Hollywood, or “Hol-
lywood North” as it is often
referred to in the movie indus-
try, said Burns.
Early fi lmmaking
One obscure person who
was key to making movies
possible and popular in Ore-
gon was William Selig. “He’s
probably the most important
person in the history of Holly-
wood that know one has ever
heard of,” said Burns.
Selig was the son of Polish
immigrants. He was raised in
REBECCA HERREN/FOR SEASIDE SIGNAL
Mac Burns, executive direc-
tor of the Clatsop County
Historical Society spoke at
the History and Hops speak-
er series.
Chicago and became a vaude-
ville performer as a magician
known as Selig the Conjuror,
traveling the country with his
troupe of performers.
In 1894 while performing
at the Texas State Fair, Selig
came across an exhibition
of Thomas Edison’s kineto-
scope. This enthralled him
and upon returning to Chica-
go, Selig opened a studio and
became involved in optical
trades. To get out of paying
Edison patent rights or buying
Edison equipment, Selig be-
gan to modify Edison’s kine-
toscope. “This happened a lot
during this time period,” said
SUBMITTED PHOTO
The Glam Tram is a restored 1963 people mover from the Los
Angeles Zoo, originally opened as the Selig Zoo in 1913.
Burns, causing Edison to sue
people over the years. Two
years later, Selig started the
Selig Polyscope Company in
Chicago and released his fi rst
movie called “The Tramp and
His Dog.”
In the early years of com-
mercial fi lming, Burns ex-
plained why movies were
15-minutes in length. Print
rolls were 1,000 feet which
was approximately 15 min-
utes of running time; movies
were shown in vaudeville
houses and most vaudeville
performances were about 15
minutes; projectionists were
not trained on how to do reel-
to-reel changeovers; and, last-
ly, “it was determined to be
the average attention span of
the average American.”
After “The Tramp and His
Dog,” Selig’s company made
what was called “actuality
shorts” or industry documen-
taries. He made more than 60
of these fi lms including trav-
el logs, agriculture and live-
stock shorts. In 1908, Selig
opened the fi rst studio in Los
Angles, and that same year,
made his fi rst narrative fi lm
“The Count of Monte Cris-
to.” Soon, the company was
SCHOOL DISTRICT BOARD MEETING
Kids get feet wet in environmental program
Grant provides
funds for boat-to-
school program
By Katherine Lacaze
For Seaside Signal
Fifth-graders at Seaside
Heights Elementary School
are receiving exposure to eco-
nomic and environmental sus-
tainability in a tasty, fun way
during the 2016-17 school
year.
During the Seaside School
District Board of Directors
meeting March 21, fi fth-grade
teachers from the Heights pre-
sented on the school’s year-
long partnership with the Or-
egon Albacore Commission,
a part of the U.S. Department
of Agriculture, for an edu-
cational boat-to-school pilot
program.
“It’s been a really, really
exciting program,” fi fth-grade
teacher Laurie Dougherty told
the board. “I wish it wasn’t a
pilot, and we could keep it go-
ing on and on.”
Funded by an approx-
imately $15,000 farm-to-
school grant from the Oregon
Department of Education, the
program connects students to
local seafood and fi shers. The
purpose is for students to learn
about the importance of sea-
food to the state’s economy,
as well as “where their food
comes from, and that they
can eat healthy and enjoy it,”
Nancy Fitzpatrick, executive
director of both the salmon
commission and the Oregon
Albacore Commission, said
in a Grant’s Getaways video
on the program shown to the
Seaside board.
Fitzpatrick spearheaded
the boat-to-shool program
along with Christa Svensson,
an export and marketing man-
ager at Bornstein Foods, and
retired teacher Robin Tim-
mons Malony.
Since October, the pro-
gram has featured four dif-
ferent segments on wild and
locally sourced seafood and
the individuals who catch and
produce it.
The program started with
salmon in October; the school
was visited by guest fi shers
and speakers from the Oregon
Salmon Commission. Accord-
ing to fi fth-grade teacher John
Meyer, the segment included
a sample of freshly caught
salmon, smoked right on cam-
pus, for all the fi fth-graders.
They also received activity
books — featuring projects
that applied mathematics, ar-
tistic skills and vocabulary —
and dinner kits with fresh fi sh,
other ingredients and recipes
to use.
The same components
were incorporated into a rock-
fi sh segment in December,
a Dungeness crab segment
in January and an albacore
tuna segment in March. The
program will wrap up with a
pink shrimp segment in May.
The idea was to cover “all the
major (seafood) exports from
Oregon,” Dougherty said.
The program also fi nanced
a trip to the Nehalem Fish
Hatchery for the students,
where they got a more hands-
on experience with live fi sh
and a deeper understanding
of biology and conservation.
The program coincided with
the release of coho salmon
fry into the river, an activity
Meyer has conducted for his
fi fth-graders for several years.
During their presenta-
tion to the school board, the
Heights’ teachers shared a tes-
timonial from a fi fth-grader’s
parent, who wrote, “I believe
that teaching a kid to cook is
a vital part of growing inde-
pendent and healthy. And it’s
so fantastic the school is sup-
porting this, while also sup-
porting our local community
and fi shermen.”
In the Grant’s Getaways
video, Fitzpatrick said she
hopes this program “can go all
over the place,” even outside
of Oregon.
‘It’s so fantastic
the school is
supporting
this, while also
supporting our
local community
and fi shermen.’
A Seaside Heights
Elementary parent
“All of our coastal states
have their own seafood, so
maybe we can be the template
for other areas to develop
something like this,” she said.
In other news:
• After a public hearing,
the board unanimously ap-
proved a resolution exempt-
ing the school district from
the competitive bid process
when hiring a construction
manager/general contractor
for the new school campus
construction project. Mike
Day, with owner’s represen-
tative DAY CPM, discussed
how the exemption will not
lead to favoritism and will
result in cost-savings for the
district. It is “the commonly
used contracting method by
local governments for larger,
complex projects,” such as
Seaside’s new $100-million
school campus, Day said.
With the approval, the pro-
curement should take place
in April. Community mem-
bers attended a meet-and-
greet on April 4 at Seaside
Heights Elementary School,
where they interacted with
staff from the district DAY
CPM and DOWA-IBI Group,
the architecture fi rm, to learn
more about the construction
project.
• The board unanimously
approved a resolution to ac-
cept a $4 million matching
grant from the department of
education’s Oregon School
Capital Improvement Match-
ing Program. Business Man-
ager Justine Hill said Seaside
originally was a runner-up but
after another district’s bond
measure didn’t pass, Seaside
became eligible to receive
the grant instead. The resolu-
tion authorized Superinten-
dent Sheila Roley to sign an
agreement with the education
department. The grant will be
distributed as reimbursements
for payments made on any-
thing related to the project up
to $4 million, Hill said.
• The board approved
the calendar for the 2017-18
school year. It is similar to pre-
vious calendars, with school
starting Sept. 5, the day after
Labor Day, and a two-week
winter break. One change,
Roley noted, is parent-teach-
er conferences for kinder-
gartners have been scheduled
on the same day as those for
fi rst- through fi fth-grade stu-
dents. In the past, having the
conferences on different days
caused “a hardship on some of
our families,” Roley said.
Car Show!
widely known for its early
Westerns and authentic looks
using wild animals, shooting
outdoors, historical subjects,
and using movie extras and
Native Americans; everything
to make his movies more real-
istic and authentic.
Selig made stars out of
Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle and
cowboy Tom Mix. He was
the fi rst American to make a
horror movie in 1908 — “Dr.
Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” and in
1910, he made the fi rst fi lm
production of “The Wonder-
ful Wizard of Oz.” He popu-
larized the fi rst cliffhanger in
1913 with “The Adventures of
Kathlyn,” and pioneered the
second unit fi lm crew.
Overall, Selig made more
than 1,000 fi lms in his career
beginning with 15-minute
shorts to full-length features,
including 14 experimental
talking movies. He is best
known for “The Spoilers,” a
1914 two-hour feature and
Selig’s fi rst talkie.
“Probably one of the rea-
sons why this is his best-
known fi lm is that it still
exists,” said Burns. “Most
movies from this time period
have disappeared, nitrate dis-
solves the fi lm, they’ve been
lost, or theaters threw them
away; but this is an earlier one
that actually survived.”
Clatsop connection
There have been 400 mov-
ies made in Oregon, nine in
Clatsop County: “Come See
the Paradise,” “Free Wil-
ly,” “Kindergarten Cop,”
“Short Circuit,” “Teenage
Mutant Ninja Turtles,” “The
Goonies,” “Ring Two” and
“The Road.”
After the overwhelming
support from the 20th an-
niversary celebration of the
movie “The Goonies,” plans
got underway to create a fi lm
museum. Seven years ago,
the old county jail in Astoria
became home to the Oregon
Film Museum.
In addition to the old coun-
ty jail and the Goonies house
as popular movie attractions,
the Glam Tram has a direct
connection to Selig. Aban-
doned and left for scrap in a
junkyard, Jeff Daly of Asto-
ria, found, rescued and re-
stored a 1963 people mover
from being crushed in 2015.
Before that, the tram was used
to transport people around the
lot of the Los Angeles Zoo,
which fi rst opened as the Se-
lig Zoo in 1913 to house the
exotic animals Selig used in
his movies.
And, that’s a wrap!
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