Stunt Man Lou Costello
Hollywood came to Cordova in 1927. The filmmakers planned to make an action thriller. The movie ended up a tragedy for three men on set.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s “The Trail of ‘98” was directed by Clarence Brown.
The movie loosely was drawn from the novel about Alaska God Rush seekers by Canadian writer Robert W. Service.
Service today largely is remembered for his epic “The Cremation of Sam McGee.”
Hollywood veteran Harry Schenck chose Alaska locations at Chilkoot Pass and the wild country outside Cordova.
He selected the Abercrombie Rapids on the Copper River some 50 miles from Cordova to shoot a blood-racing scene.
“The Trail of ‘98” starred Western film veteran Harry Carey as chief villain and heroine Dolores Del Rio, the Mexican actress.
Del Rio inspired playwright George Bernard Shaw to compare her beauty with that of the Taj Mahal. Her film career began in the U.S. in 1925 and, later, it ended with several acclaimed films shot in Mexico.
She also served as a model for painter Diego Rivera.
Carey and Del Rio never engaged in risky scenes for the movie. They employed stunt doubles to face all dangers.
The film employed around 25 men from Alaska for work on the set, including Joseph Boutin of Juneau.
The director also hired a team of stunt men including veteran Raymond (Ray) Thompson of Los Angeles, Howard F. Daughters of Washington State, and Lou Costello of Los Angeles.
The movie employed no audible voices of the actors, but it did introduce then-pioneering innovations in sound effects and cinematography.
The following facts come from a coroner’s inquest.
Preparations for filming began on June 29, 1927. The year’s rains had been heavy. The river’s waters were fast-moving and treacherous.
Six boats ventured into the river. The last boat contained stunt doubles Thompson, Tom Granville and a third stuntman, according to the Juneau Empire.
They steered toward a white flag marker. There, the sixth boat was supposed to head diagonally through an eddy and head for shore.
However, the boat shot past the marker. Crew members with cables, ropes and chairs were aligned to catch boaters in an emergency.
Beyond them, in a lifeboat tied to pulleys, waited Daughters.
Howard F. Daughters, briefly a teacher at Eyak, served as failsafe in midstream to catch any stunt doubles coming his way.
Daughters was issued a rubber suit to prevent sinking, but he removed the wetsuit.
Everything that could go wrong did so.
The third man and Granville spilled from the sixth boat. They briefly grabbed the ropes. The third man (listed by various names in papers of the day) landed safely on a sandbar.
Tom Granville, a powerful swimmer, braved the currents and collapsed on shore.
Thompson also fell out of the sixth boat. The turbulent waters buffeted him, and he smashed into rocks.
Daughters lost his balance while trying to catch one of the fallen boaters. He fell into the frigid, swirling river.
Boutin, a World War One veteran, never hesitated. He dove into the river after Daughters, but the raging river caught him.
Boutin’s corpse landed three miles downriver.
Would-be rescuers plucked his body out of the river near a railroad bridge.
Five of the boats returned unharmed to shore.
Rescuers combed the banks searching for Thompson and Daughters.
Their bodies never were found.
The corner ruled preventive measures seemed sufficient, finding the film company blameless.
The movie opened in 1928. It was one of the last of the silent pictures.
The plot featured an evil claim jumper, prospectors, and the beautiful Del Rio as a woman hoping to gain her fortune feeding hungry miners at her Klondike restaurant.
After this film, Lou Costello quit stunt doubling and gained fame as a comedian in radio, film and Vaudeville.
Reviewers back in 1928, and a few current writers reviewing the DVD, say the boating scene was as wild and exhilarating as director Brown intended.
I’ll have to take their word for it.
I’ve no wish to watch “entertainment” that cost three men their lives.
Hank Nuwer won first place for “Best Column” this year from the Alaska Press Club. The Alaska Children’s Trust awarded him one of four 2024 Champion for Kids awards.
Published Sept. 20, 2024 in the Cordova Times