Kelly Burton
MHS Film Archivist
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A procession featuring members of the Crow Indian Tribe
and local Catholics, near Pryor, ca. early-1930s. |
The
Montana Historical Society’s 45th annual conference was recently
held in Billings, and the theme for this year’s event was “history from the
Yellowstone Valley.” Conversations at the gathering inevitably addressed
individuals that had made significant contributions to the history of Billings,
and “Snook” was one of the family names that came up repeatedly among
attendees. Earl Snook was a painter and decorator from Ohio who moved to the
Fort Peck area when it was opened to homesteaders. Earl lived and worked on
ranches in the Musselshell area until he was married in California in 1909 to
his wife, Eleanor. The couple soon opened a paint and wallpaper shop in
downtown Billings, which eventually expanded to include artist supplies, books
and model airplanes. In the 1930s, the Snooks began acquiring what would become
a sprawling 800-acre ranch along the crown of Sacrifice Cliff on the east side
of Billings. Maintaining both the ranch and Snook Art Company in Billings, the
family began to collect art and forge acquaintances with artists and writers
such as Will James, Ernest Hemingway, Hans Kleiber, Bell Rock, Joseph Henry
Sharp, and Joe DeYong.
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| Man riding a camel in the Shriners parade, downtown Billings, ca. early-1950s. |
Virginia Snook, the only child of Eleanor and Earl, was born
in Billings on June 6, 1911. After departing for Seattle in 1936 to attend
Cornish School of the Arts, Virginia returned to Billings in the late 1930s to
work in the family store and continue strong relationships with regional
artists. After many decades of collecting artwork and supporting local creativity,
Virginia was encouraged by Donna Forbes of the Yellowstone Art Museum to make a
gift of the family’s collection. The friendship the family enjoyed with
celebrated western artist and writer Will James is evidenced by the museum’s Virginia
Snook Collection, which represents the largest collection of James art in the
world. Virginia passed away on September 13, 2000 at the age of eighty-nine,
and the family business closed in 2001 after serving the Billings area for
almost a century.
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| Virginia Snook on horseback, ca. early-1940s. |
In 2014, a collection of motion picture films created by the
Snook Family was donated to the Historical Society by Marjorie Brown – Virginia’s
longtime friend – on behalf of the Snook Estate. The collection consists of
forty-two reels of 16mm motion picture film, and it serves as a dynamic
document of life in the Yellowstone Valley from the early 1930s to the early
1950s. Highlights from the Snook Family collection include regional fairs and
rodeos, parades, Snook ranch activities, gatherings on the Crow Indian
Reservation, horse auctions, equestrian quadrilles, and images of the cliffs
and canyons around Billings. The family also documented several trips away from
their familiar Billings surroundings, including a pack trip to the
newly-established Grand Teton National Park ca. 1931, a visit to California ca.
1932, and the bullfights and architecture of Mexico ca. 1945.
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Senator Burton K. Wheeler speaking
at a Billings area fair, ca. mid-1940s. |
Earl Snook appears to have enjoyed a unique relationship
with members of the Crow Nation, as is evidenced from several important films
from this collection. Plenty Coups lived from 1848-1932, and he was the Ashbacheeítche – or “chief of the camp” – of the Mountain Crow
Band of the Crow Nation. Plenty Coups began building the log homestead seen in
the Snook film on 320 acres of Crow Indian Reservation land near Pryor, Montana
in 1884, and in 1928 he and his wife presented 189 acres of his land in trust
to Big Horn County for what is now Chief Plenty Coup State Park. Earl
filmed a gathering of Crow Indian Tribal members at this homestead in the early
1930s, with several of the chief’s notable log structures serving as backdrops. In addition to this meeting, Earl also filmed a
procession near an unidentified Catholic mission in the Pryor area. This
procession footage shows members of the Crow Nation and the Catholic church
walking together down a rural road and gathering in front of a small area mission.
Given the date of the film and the fact that Earl Snook took still photographs
of the funeral of Chief Plenty Coups in 1932 (MHS photograph collection Lot
35), these gatherings may have represented tributes to the life of the Crow
chief.
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| Gathering at the home of Chief Plenty Coups on the Crow Indian Reservation, ca. early-1930s. |
One of the more novel events to happen on the Snook ranch
was the filming of battle scenes for the Paramount Pictures film Warpath. The film was directed by Byron
Haskin, and it stars Edmond O’Brien, Dean Jagger, Forrest Tucker, Harry Carey
Jr. and Polly Bergen. Based around a Seventh cavalry detachment scouting
expedition out of Ft. Lincoln near Bismarck, N.D. in 1876, the film portrays
the events leading up to the tragic Battle of the Little Bighorn. The film
itself was made with the cooperation of the Crow Indian Tribe, Montana Film
Office, City of Billings, Yellowstone County Fair Board, and the U.S. Bureau of
Indian Affairs, and many of the battle scenes were staged on the Snook ranch.
Earl Snook shot 30 minutes of home movie footage during the filming of Warpath, a fact that was noted in one of
the many newspaper articles covering the production: “Earl Snook, on whose
ranch most of the battle scenes are being taken has been a continuous visitor
on the set. He has been taking his own action movies along with the studio
camera.” (Billings Herald, September
7, 1950) Billings also hosted the world premiere of Warpath at its Fox and Babcock Theatres in 1951, though this party
remains sadly undocumented in the Snook Family films.
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| Harry Carey Jr. and Polly Bergen on the set of the Paramount Pictures feature Warpath, filmed in 1950. |
