Distinctly Montana Magazine

D I S T I N C T LY M O N TA N A • S P R I N G 2 0 1 8 60 GREAT WEST FILM COMPANY AT ZORTMAN In the mid-1910s, Coburn formed the Great West Film Compa- ny at Zortman, as well as a studio in St. Paul, Minnesota. "Primar- ily, the object of this company is to depict western life from real live scenes in a genuine western atmosphere," reads one contemporary film publication of Coburn's endeavor. At the present time many of the film companies throw western pictures on the screen containing "mail-order cowboys" and scenes lacking in local color and vividness and if the film company accomplishes what it has planned, it will, to an ap- preciable extent, revolutionize existing opinion in the minds of people who heretofore have been unable to obtain information about the West and westerners, first hand. Equally skillful with his pen, he wrote the scenario and took the leading role in its first production, "Yellowstone Pete's Daughter." Filmed at the Walter Coburn Ranch (Walter, Wallace's half-broth- er, lived from 1889-1971. e camp was outfitted with horses and packstrings and the movie party stayed at the Great Northern Hotel in Malta. While most of the film was shot at the Coburn Ranch, a few of the scenes were shot in Malta. e name "Malta" was taken off the railroad station and replaced with "Butte." John Shady's livery barn was background for the departing stagecoach. One episode showed a thousand head of steers stamping. After filming, the name of the picture was changed to e Golden Goddess and it was shown at the Bison eatre. e Great West Film Company produced films for at least a couple of more years. WALLACE KNEW THE LIFE e Circle C Ranch was eventually sold off and became part of the Matador holdings that stretched from Texas to Saskatchewan. (e Nature Conservancy struck a "complicated" deal to preserve the 60,000-acre Matador Ranch in 2000.) Wallace lived out the remainder of his live in California; at one point he operated a western museum at Hollywood. Some of the stories from his most enduring work, Rhymes from a Round-up Camp, were dramatized for the screen. He died on March 15, 1954 in Los Angeles. Perhaps this quote about Wallace from an entertainment pam- phlet in 1918 would be a fitting, respectful epitaph: "He is one of the few men who actually know the life and can depict it properly in verse and on the screen." His daughter, Dorothy Coburn, also became a noted film actress, appearing in a chain of Hal Roach-directed shorts and early Laurel and Hardy silent films. Dorothy died May 15, 1978, in Los Angeles. Wallace's daughter, Dorothy Coburn, with Laurel and Hardy in a publicity still for the 1928 short film, "The Finishing Touch." Photo courtesy John W. Heap.

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