Let’s remember when a blizzard forced Cecil B. DeMille off of Mt. Rainier, on this day in 1924 (October 26)
Here’s another factoid I find incredibly interesting:
Eric L. Flom of HistoryLink explains:
On October 26, 1924, a film crew headed by famed Hollywood director Cecil B. DeMille (1881–1959) is forced off Mount Rainier’s Nisqually Glacier when blizzard conditions overtake the company. DeMille is shooting on location for the film The Golden Bed (Paramount, 1925), with Mount Rainier standing in for the Swiss Alps.
…
DeMille and a crew of 40 arrived in Tacoma in mid-October 1924, in preparation for shooting the Alpine scenes in The Golden Bed. On Sunday, October 26, after nearly a week in Mount Rainier National Park, the company was positioned on the Nisqually Glacier to film the fight between Kosloff and actor Robert Cain, cast as the Marquis’ rival, Savarac. Around 3 p.m. that afternoon, the weather on Mount Rainier looked as if it might turn, and DeMille was advised three times by hired guides that they should retreat to the safety of Paradise Inn. DeMille brushed off the warnings. He was behind schedule and needed to squeeze in a few extra shots.
Rather than make up precious shooting time, that decision instead afforded a demonstration of Mother Nature’s fickleness. As the guides had warned, conditions on the glacier went from pristine to dangerous in a matter of minutes. With the principal actors still clad in Swiss costumes, an immediate evacuation was necessary. The guides quickly split the crew into three groups and lead them on a slow trek back to Paradise Inn; Lillian Rich and two other women had to be carried out on the backs of others whose hands were made numb by the icy winds, according to one account. Conditions on Mount Rainier changed so quickly that DeMille had to abandon $20,000 in lighting and film equipment on the glacier, there being no time to pack it out with the rest of the crew. (With the assistance of guides and forest rangers, several of DeMille’s crew eventually retrieved the lost equipment.)
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