AH challenge: Tinseltown, Arizona

In 1911 Cecil B DeMille and Jesse Lasky almost built a film studio in Flagstaff, Arizona, but instead opted for Hollywood CA, where they made the Squaw Man, DeMille's first feature film.

What would US popular culture and film history have been like if Flagstaff became the center of the US film industry, rather than Hollywood?
 
I've actually been thinking about something similar recently -- places other than Los Angeles becoming centers of the American film industry. I knew that somebody back then was looking at Flagstaff as a place to build a studio, but I didn't know it was DeMille. That right there is an easy POD. Have DeMille set up shop in Flagstaff, have him like the experience, and have him tell all his filmmaker buddies to head there instead of California. New Jersey also entered my mind -- partly because of Thomas Edison and his film studio, and partly because of local pride. Then again, the reason most of the filmmakers headed west in the first place was to get away from Edison and his control of the film industry. Maybe if you make Edison less greedy... which also has knock-off effects on Nikola Tesla's career... man, that could make for one interesting TL.

But, I digress. Let's get back to the original argument, concerning the film industry being based in Flagstaff instead of Hollywood. The Southwestern US -- and Arizona in particular -- becomes the center of American pop culture instead of Southern California. One possible butterfly from this is an increase in the popularity of Westerns, what with Arizona's closer association with the Wild West than Southern California. A bigger change is that surfer culture and, more importantly, the skater culture that emerged from it, will probably remain limited to the West Coast for a lot longer, since you don't have the studios in Hollywood giving it national exposure. As a result, the default "youth rebellion" subculture would probably be rooted a lot more in the "greaser" culture, the East Coast punk scene, and biker culture. The major figures in the industry (directors, actors, studios) would change due to the butterflies created by a new location, but barring some unforeseen revolution, the general trends are likely to continue happening on schedule. Somebody is going to come up with the film techniques employed by D. W. Griffith in Birth of a Nation or Orson Welles in Citizen Kane, even if it's not those directors or films. The Flagstaff film industry will still impose something like the Hays Code to avoid government censorship, and will replace it with a less restrictive MPAA analogue in the '60s as British and French cinema reaches American shores and tackles subject matter that the Flagstaff studios aren't allowed to touch.

Beyond pop culture, I can see Southern California becoming more conservative than in OTL, while Arizona becomes more liberal, going by the historical liberal tendencies of the film industry (it's no use to deny it -- and I'm a liberal myself). Arizona native Barry Goldwater may not emerge as a national figure under these circumstances, especially if you still have Joe McCarthy going against the film industry. Flagstaff will almost certainly be a much larger city than in OTL (maybe Phoenix-sized?), which would lead to greater demands for power and water, and most likely an earlier Glen Canyon Dam. Los Angeles will still grow into a huge city, as it was one of the largest manufacturing centers in the country during and after World War II, and was home to a large number of defense and government jobs. However, once the manufacturing sector starts leaving, it won't have tourism and Hollywood to fall back on, which means it's in for a huge fall.
 
You bring up some interesting points. Sedona, just south of Flagstaff, is where they filmed hundreds of Westerns from the silent era until the sixties, the most famous of which being She Wore a Yellow Ribbon and Broken Arrow. Sedona's too built up to shoot anything like they used to anymore. It could become TTL Beverly Hills. I think some of the players would be the same, since Jesse Lansky's sister was married to Samuel Goldwyn.

Not sure if Flagstaff would be Phoenix sized, but it would definately be bigger. Phoenix may not have become near as large as OTL, but it still may become the state capitol. It would definately be more liberal. With all the college students and Indians, Flagstaff is pretty liberal in OTL.

There could also be some interesting fallout with CA and NV if Arizona takes the lion's share of water from the Colorado river, especially with a lot of stress on the local water sources. I also wonder about Indian disputes and land rights since they would be a lot closer to the national spotlight.

And speaking of the Indians, I could see a bigger 'wannabe' subculture due to the proximity of the reservations and the large Indian population in Flagstaff. Also the 'wannabes' and 'twinkies' would be more Hopi/Navajo influenced than Lakota.
 
You bring up some interesting points. Sedona, just south of Flagstaff, is where they filmed hundreds of Westerns from the silent era until the sixties, the most famous of which being She Wore a Yellow Ribbon and Broken Arrow. Sedona's too built up to shoot anything like they used to anymore. It could become TTL Beverly Hills. I think some of the players would be the same, since Jesse Lansky's sister was married to Samuel Goldwyn.

Not sure if Flagstaff would be Phoenix sized, but it would definately be bigger. Phoenix may not have become near as large as OTL, but it still may become the state capitol. It would definately be more liberal. With all the college students and Indians, Flagstaff is pretty liberal in OTL.

There could also be some interesting fallout with CA and NV if Arizona takes the lion's share of water from the Colorado river, especially with a lot of stress on the local water sources. I also wonder about Indian disputes and land rights since they would be a lot closer to the national spotlight.

And speaking of the Indians, I could see a bigger 'wannabe' subculture due to the proximity of the reservations and the large Indian population in Flagstaff. Also the 'wannabes' and 'twinkies' would be more Hopi/Navajo influenced than Lakota.

Good points about the Indians. I thought about addressing them myself in my original post, but I didn't consider myself knowledgeable enough about them. Still, they'd certainly get more recognition in this timeline. Maybe they get heavily involved in the film industry? They wouldn't be the first group with a history of persecution to make it big in movies -- just ask the Jews. And like the Jews, this could give them a platform to air out their grievances and gain recognition for their plight. Perhaps an earlier and larger American Indian Movement, coinciding with the greater civil rights movement?
 
Good points about the Indians. I thought about addressing them myself in my original post, but I didn't consider myself knowledgeable enough about them. Still, they'd certainly get more recognition in this timeline. Maybe they get heavily involved in the film industry? They wouldn't be the first group with a history of persecution to make it big in movies -- just ask the Jews. And like the Jews, this could give them a platform to air out their grievances and gain recognition for their plight. Perhaps an earlier and larger American Indian Movement, coinciding with the greater civil rights movement?

I could see many Indians (probably mostly Navajos) coming to Flagstaff looking for work in the industry. I think some of the earlier studio players would be the same (Fox, Goldwyn, Mayer, the Warners), and some of the actors (Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, D.W. Griffith) but a few Indians would make it big, and inspire more to come. Indians may not become the stereotypical bad guys of so many westerns either.
 
If SoCal becomes more conservative and Arizona more liberal as Kevin posits, this will probably have pretty large changes in the US political scene beyond Goldwater's ATL campaign of fail.
 
Good points about the Indians. I thought about addressing them myself in my original post, but I didn't consider myself knowledgeable enough about them. Still, they'd certainly get more recognition in this timeline. Maybe they get heavily involved in the film industry? They wouldn't be the first group with a history of persecution to make it big in movies -- just ask the Jews. And like the Jews, this could give them a platform to air out their grievances and gain recognition for their plight. Perhaps an earlier and larger American Indian Movement, coinciding with the greater civil rights movement?

I don't know about this. While many of the early studios were Jewish owned or run, they hesitated to address anti Semitism in their films for the first couple decades.

OTH there were many more Jewish comedians working early on. It'd be interesting to imagine Indian humor being much more widely known much more earlier on. As it is, most non-Indian readers don't get that there is a lot of humor in Vine Deloria's books, or even some of the jokes in works by Sherman Alexie.
 
I could see many Indians (probably mostly Navajos) coming to Flagstaff looking for work in the industry. I think some of the earlier studio players would be the same (Fox, Goldwyn, Mayer, the Warners), and some of the actors (Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, D.W. Griffith) but a few Indians would make it big, and inspire more to come. Indians may not become the stereotypical bad guys of so many westerns either.

Be a nice change from all the Italians wearing wigs.

Most of the Lakota in John Ford's westerns were actually Navajo. Ford told them to use their own language, thinking it'd be more authentic. So the actors decided to get even. The dialog in their own language included a lot of insults of Ford. "This isn't a very good movie. What the heck was that idiot director thinking."
 
Top