A Treasure Hunt for Missing Films
a collaboration with Dale Gervais
Recently I have been working with Dale Gervais, a retired archivist with Library and Archives Canada, creator of the wonderful website, Canadianfilm.ca. We are trying to find copies of Byron Harmon films we know about through historical records but have never been able to locate.
In 1913 Byron and Maude Harmon open The Harmony, a purpose built motion picture theatre at 111 Banff Avenue, next to their existing building at 113 Banff Avenue which houses Harmons Gallery, Gift Shop and Fountain Lunch, as well as Byron’s studio.
Almost immediately Byron begins selling stock footage to the Canadian Government Motion Picture Bureau, (per-cursor to the National Film Board of Canada), the Canadian Board of Trade, Fox Movietone News, Fox Films, Pathé, and Associated Screen News, the publicity arm of Canadian Pacific Railway.
Over the next few years he organizes his own excursions into the mountains which he documents with movie film and 5x7 still photographs. In 1918 he releases a feature length film, Virgin Field for Explorers, also referred to as From Laggan to Robson and sells a copy to the Canadian Government Motion Picture Bureau.
In the 1970’s I tracked down as many leads as I could. I would find records but no-one knew where the corresponding films were. Bill Galloway, then head of Canadian Film Archives in Montreal told me there were thousands of films which had never been copied and identified. I gave up.
Fast forward fifty years and the situation is not greatly changed. However, with Dale’s expertise some gems are slowly being unearthed.
Mentions in Banff Crag &Canyon newspaper Include":
1919 “Byron filming in the mountains with the editors of N.Y. Tribune, McClure’s Magazine, Atlanta Constitution, Chicago Tribune, guided by Bill Potts.”
July 17, 1920: “Byron Harmon returns from a trip of nearly 3 months to the British Isles and France. He left on 25 March to the World Alpine Congress at Monaco May 1 to May 10. He took with him 5000 feet of film, taken from Mount Assiniboine to Mount Robson…the films also contained pictures of the animal life indigenous to the Rockies of every kind and description…Films were shown in London, before the Royal Geographical Society; also at Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Glasgow before the Royal Scottish Geographical Society. Between 700 and 1000 persons attended each session. The films were also shown in Liverpool.”
May 20. 1922 “Byron Harmon, accompanied by Conrad Kain and George Harrison plans to leave for the Selkirk ranges about 1 June where they will endeavour to secure movie pictures of a grizzly bear in its native haunts. Sir William Beach Thomas, correspondent for the London Times, will join the party.
Dale has located a copy of the last mentioned film, Sky Trails in the Bear Country. He is attempting some restoration work before including it on his website.
I’ve seen clips and bits but this is the first time I have seen a full length short film credited to Byron as photographer.
To Be Continued!
Can’t wait to learn more about this exciting film!!🙏🙏🙏🌈🌈🌈❣️💕
Looking forward to seeing the next episode of this story.