sander_h
Active member
So I my step dad showed me this interesting article it really brought to my attention of why warren miller films have been made the way the way they are.; http://www.mtexpress.com/index2.php?ID=2005123557&var_Year=2008&var_Month=11&var_Day=12
Ski economics 101
By WARREN MILLER
I lived in the Sun Valley parking lot in a
4-by-8-foot trailer during the winters of 1946-47 and 1947-48. In 1947,
I painted cartoon murals on the employee cafeteria walls in exchange
for a season ski pass. The general manager, Pappy Rogers, let me eat my
meals in the employee cafeteria as long as I was working on the murals,
which took me the entire winter to finish.
That was when ski lift tickets were $4 a day and a
season's pass was $150. Wages were $125 a month plus room and board. In
1948-49 I taught kick turns at the bottom of Dollar Mountain for Otto
Lang and then taught the next winter at Squaw Valley, where I produced
my first feature-length ski film.
In November 1950, while living in my panel
delivery truck, I drove from Seattle to Sun Valley to show that first
film in the Opera House. I agreed to pay my own expenses and split the
gross income 60/40 with no guarantee. I thought all my old friends
would show up and pay $1 to see my first cinematic effort. The Opera
House was almost empty with only 13 people in the audience. Later that
night I split the take and my 40 percent of $13 was $5.20.
With this background, you can imagine my shock
when a friend called to tell me that he couldn't take his children to
see the latest ski movie because it was $18 for a ticket. This is
certainly not why I produced the feature-length films for over 50 years
and for almost 40 of those years made an annual trip to the Opera House
to introduce and narrate the film in person. For 36 of those early
years, Sun Valley was also featured in my annual movie. Obviously low
prices are no longer the case and I want to set the record straight
with my many longtime friends in the Wood River Valley. I sold my film
company many years ago to my son Kurt, who ran it for 10 years, and
since then it has changed hands two more times. One of the subsequent
owners asked me to continue to write and narrate the films and take a
75 percent pay cut. I declined and for the last six years or so have
had absolutely nothing to do with the films or the various companies
that have bought and sold my name. For many years the different owners
have taken previously recorded sentences out of my old ski movies and
inserted them in their latest film to try and convince the
$18-per-ticket customers that I had something to do with their film.
My only involvement with the ski industry today is
writing a weekly newspaper column for half a dozen newspapers and
skiing almost every day all winter as honorary director of skiing at
the Yellowstone Club in Montana.
Since 1947 I have always told anyone who will
listen to me, "Baldy is the best developed ski mountain in the world."
I also add, "Unfortunately, there are too many lifts to the top of it
so you have to ski early in the morning if you want to get the good
snow."
I still pause for a moment every time I drive
through the Sun Valley Lodge parking lot and think about how living
there for two winters changed my life forever. For over 50 years I
changed people's lives with my many films. In 2000, I switched careers
completely and began publishing my experiences in weekly syndicated
newspaper columns.
Stay tuned because it snowed 3 feet in South
Dakota on Nov. 6. It came with 80 mph winds, 30-foot-deep snowdrifts
and with Al Gore's latest global warming alert.
Ski economics 101
By WARREN MILLER
I lived in the Sun Valley parking lot in a
4-by-8-foot trailer during the winters of 1946-47 and 1947-48. In 1947,
I painted cartoon murals on the employee cafeteria walls in exchange
for a season ski pass. The general manager, Pappy Rogers, let me eat my
meals in the employee cafeteria as long as I was working on the murals,
which took me the entire winter to finish.
That was when ski lift tickets were $4 a day and a
season's pass was $150. Wages were $125 a month plus room and board. In
1948-49 I taught kick turns at the bottom of Dollar Mountain for Otto
Lang and then taught the next winter at Squaw Valley, where I produced
my first feature-length ski film.
In November 1950, while living in my panel
delivery truck, I drove from Seattle to Sun Valley to show that first
film in the Opera House. I agreed to pay my own expenses and split the
gross income 60/40 with no guarantee. I thought all my old friends
would show up and pay $1 to see my first cinematic effort. The Opera
House was almost empty with only 13 people in the audience. Later that
night I split the take and my 40 percent of $13 was $5.20.
With this background, you can imagine my shock
when a friend called to tell me that he couldn't take his children to
see the latest ski movie because it was $18 for a ticket. This is
certainly not why I produced the feature-length films for over 50 years
and for almost 40 of those years made an annual trip to the Opera House
to introduce and narrate the film in person. For 36 of those early
years, Sun Valley was also featured in my annual movie. Obviously low
prices are no longer the case and I want to set the record straight
with my many longtime friends in the Wood River Valley. I sold my film
company many years ago to my son Kurt, who ran it for 10 years, and
since then it has changed hands two more times. One of the subsequent
owners asked me to continue to write and narrate the films and take a
75 percent pay cut. I declined and for the last six years or so have
had absolutely nothing to do with the films or the various companies
that have bought and sold my name. For many years the different owners
have taken previously recorded sentences out of my old ski movies and
inserted them in their latest film to try and convince the
$18-per-ticket customers that I had something to do with their film.
My only involvement with the ski industry today is
writing a weekly newspaper column for half a dozen newspapers and
skiing almost every day all winter as honorary director of skiing at
the Yellowstone Club in Montana.
Since 1947 I have always told anyone who will
listen to me, "Baldy is the best developed ski mountain in the world."
I also add, "Unfortunately, there are too many lifts to the top of it
so you have to ski early in the morning if you want to get the good
snow."
I still pause for a moment every time I drive
through the Sun Valley Lodge parking lot and think about how living
there for two winters changed my life forever. For over 50 years I
changed people's lives with my many films. In 2000, I switched careers
completely and began publishing my experiences in weekly syndicated
newspaper columns.
Stay tuned because it snowed 3 feet in South
Dakota on Nov. 6. It came with 80 mph winds, 30-foot-deep snowdrifts
and with Al Gore's latest global warming alert.
