{"id":19,"date":"2018-03-06T11:30:41","date_gmt":"2018-03-06T17:30:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.library.unt.edu\/spotlight-north-texas\/?p=19"},"modified":"2018-02-25T16:27:39","modified_gmt":"2018-02-25T22:27:39","slug":"texan-by-choice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.library.unt.edu\/spotlight-north-texas\/2018\/03\/06\/texan-by-choice\/","title":{"rendered":"Spotlight on Dallas Filmmakers: The Lost Films of H. K. Carrington"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0Local film productions have the capacity to reveal\u00a0landscapes, architectures, and traditions that are no longer viewable in present day cities. Often shot by local crews and featuring local actors, these movies give us a visual representation of historical landscapes, events, and people that are not always depicted in nationally produced materials. Many of these films were produced in Dallas movie studios, shot on location in North Texas, distributed through Dallas film exchanges, and shown at Dallas movie theatres.<\/p>\r\n

Unfortunately, many of these buildings have been demolished and many of these films are lost or missing. This appears to be the case for Dallas filmmaker, H. K. Carrington who made a living filming Texas. With the exception of\u00a0 the short film “Texomaland,” located in the UNT Media Library’s 16mm film collection, I have been unsuccessful in my search to locate copies of Carrington’s Texas-based film series.<\/p>\r\n

A Texan By Choice\u00a0<\/h2>\r\n

Information about Carrington and his films is difficult to piece together.\u00a0Texas Week, <\/em>a local news magazine,\u00a0reported<\/a> in 1946 that H. K. Carrington was “born at the turn of the century, educated in England, France and America, and graduated by Harvard with a degree in electrical engineering.” He was reportedly an employee of Bell Telephone Laboratories in New York before the “lure of show business beckoned” and he became a director or cameraman for motion pictures. What follows is a brief history of the films Carrington made in and about Texas pieced together from local newspapers and trade magazines. We hope to find other local films like these at our media preservation event, “Spotlight on North Texas.”<\/p>\r\n

\u00a0<\/h3>\r\n\"\"\r\n

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“Texas\u00a0is to have its own newsreel. Produced in Texas, of Texas, and for Texans.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\r\n

During the 1930s and early 1940s, Carrington worked as a traveling cameraman and supervisor at Nationwide Pictures, shooting popular newsreel series about the history and landscapes of the United States including “See America First,” “Great Moments in American History,” and “Skylines of America.” These films, a sort of travelogue and\u00a0 state history lesson, were distributed across the country and told the histories of exotic places like Twin Falls, Idaho. It was while working on these pictures, possibly while shooting a film about the 1939 Galveston Oleander Festival, that Carrington became fascinated with the history and traditions of the state of Texas and first dreamed of the possibility of a newsreel devoted only to Texas.<\/p>\r\n

Carrington established a Nationwide Pictures unit in Dallas, Texas with the plan to produce a monthly newsreel, “This is Texas.” The whereabouts of the film studio has not been confirmed and various newspaper reports have it located at the\u00a0Melba Theatre Building<\/a>, Jackson Street<\/a>, or even in Grand Prairie.\u00a0The Kingsville Record<\/em> reported in April 1942 that these newsreels would “bring to the screen many and varied pictures of unusual and interesting events, people, occupations, and places which serve to make Texas the grandest station in the nation.\u201d The film studio was reportedly offering Texans $10 in cash for ideas and were “especially interested in\u00a0<\/span>unusual people, odd and different occupations, places of historical significance, and, in fact, all sorts of oddities.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

This is Texas<\/em><\/h4>\r\n

Carrington and his crew shot three or more short films in 1945 – 1946, but these films were apparently not distributed until 1948 and 1949. In the fall of 1948,\u00a0 Television Enterprises<\/span><\/a>\u00a0acquired exclusive world television and non-theatrical rights to “This is Texas.” The deal included six one-reel films per year over the next 5 years.\u00a0Showmen\u2019s Trade Review columnist Jack Jackson reported on June 25, 1949 <\/a>\u00a0on\u00a0<\/span>the activities of Carrington and Nationwide Picture, noting that Carrington <\/span>\u201cconceives the ideas, writes the script, turns the camera crank, edits, and cuts the film and then goes about the job of arranging playdates for short subjects.\u201d He reported that Carrington was about to engage in a 4-city world premiere of a 10-minute picture and \u201chas been hipped on the idea of getting a series of shorts \u2018This is Texas,\u2019 on the screens of the big state\u2019s theatres for some time, and has spent many dollars and far more hours banging his noggin against that immovable wall of circuit indifference.\u201d He said Carrington had gone to \u201cexecutives of the State of Texas and wangled permission to put his reels into school film libraries on a sponsor basis–some firm buying the reel and donating to schools in return for a credit frame–and this seemed the turning point.\u201d Jackson reported that\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Invisible Rivers (ca. 1945, 10 min., B&W, Sound)<\/strong>: A guide to the city of New Braunfels and the big springs of Texas.<\/p>\r\n\"\"\r\n

Swords and Plowshares (ca. 1945, 10 min., B&W, Sound)<\/strong>: The film was to show the history of the iron and steel industries in the Southwest from the Civil War era to present. According to a May 1945 news story in the “Rusk Cherokeean,”<\/a> Carrington spent several hours shooting the site of Old Birmingham and would be filming at the Dangerfield and Sheffield plants in Houston. Carrington was to return to Rusk after receiving permission to shoot the Rusk Blast Furnace.\u00a0The completed film was released for a week-long run in Dallas in December 1946.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Unknown (ca. 1945):\u00a0<\/strong>The Fort Stockton Pioneer <\/span><\/i>reported on Friday July 13, 1945 that Carrington\u2019s Nationwide Pictures was in town and had shot footage of Comanche Spring and Rooney Park for a short feature \u201con points of interest, mainly water scenes, about Texas.\u201d The <\/span>Pioneer<\/span><\/i> reported that Carrington’s cameraman “added local color with several pictures of a Pecos County donkey, with Miss Florence Potter, daughter of Mrs. J.A. Campbell,as the rider.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\r\n

The Bells of Tejas (ca. 1946, 10 min., B&W, Sound)<\/strong>: This film concerned the 8 remaining Franciscan missions built in Texas and was filmed in Yaleta, Socorro, Goliad, and San Antonio.\u00a0The Showmen\u2019s Trade Review reported on 05\/15\/48 (p.15)<\/span><\/a> that Jim Preddy of the Telenews Theatre in Dallas had orchestrated for his showing of the film \u201can exploitation campaign that rivaled the one for his feature, Universal-International\u2019s \u2018Black Narcissus.\u2019\u201d The <\/span>Review<\/span><\/i> reported that Preddy had mailed out 500 letters to churches, schools and clubs which \u201ccalled attention to the short\u2019s story of the religious influence and cultural backgrounds which commenced in the early days of the Tajos (Texas) people and continues to the present time, emphasizing the fact that it is the first picture dealing with the religious influence of the early Tajos.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Unknown (1948)<\/strong>: While shooting footage for the\u00a0Lone Star Riders\u00a0<\/em> (see below), Carrington was reportedly shooting a film about ranching in the Panhandle, starring cover model Jinx Falkenberg. The January 04, 1948\u00a0Amarillo Globe<\/em> quoted Carrington as saying\u00a0\u201cIt is beginning to look like the Panhandle has about everything in the way of locale for a Western and we are looking forward with a great deal of pleasure to our stay in Amarillo.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\r\n

City of Contrast (ca. 1949, 10 min., B&W)<\/strong>: This film reportedly features San Antonio, Texas and the influence of its Spanish heritage.<\/p>\r\n

Spanish Texas (ca. 1949):\u00a0<\/strong>This film reportedly showed the influence of Spain and Mexico on the Southwest and included dramatic historical recreations.<\/p>\r\n

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