Description: This color poster advertises a 1946 film based on author Zane Grey's novel "Sunset Pass." The poster's dominant image, an illustration, portrays a fistfight between two men wearing Western clothes. In the background a woman wearing a hat is watching the fight. At the bottom right corner is the figure of a cowboy holding a six-shooter. The poster lists the film's major credits: actors, director, producer, screenwriter, and Grey's novel. The movie stars an actor named James Warren. The poster is exhibited at the National Road and Zane Grey Museum, Norwich, Ohio. The novel "Sunset Pass" was serialized in 1928 and first published as a complete work in 1931. Three motion pictures dating from 1929, 1933, and 1946 were made based on the novel. Zane Grey (1872-1939) was a popular and widely read novelist of the American West. Grey was born in Zanesville, Ohio, on January 31, 1872. As a teenager, Grey was an excellent baseball player. He won a baseball scholarship to the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied to become a dentist. After beginning his dental practice in New York, Grey realized that he was not happy. He decided to leave dentistry behind and become a writer. Grey's first novel, "Betty Zane," drew inspiration from the stories he had heard about frontier Ohio when he was growing up. He wrote "Betty Zane" in 1904 but was not able to find a publisher at first. Refusing to give up, Grey traveled west and continued writing. In 1910, he had his first success when "Harper's Magazine" published "The Heritage of the Desert." Two years later, "Harper's" published "Riders of the Purple Sage," one of his best-known works. Grey married Lina Elise Roth in 1905. The couple had three children, Romer, Betty, and Loren. After publication of "The Heritage of the Desert," the family moved to Altadena, California. Grey also had a hunting lodge in Arizona. Each year, Grey spent time traveling in the west and fishing in the Pacific. He then would return home and spend time writing. Grey died unexpectedly of a heart attack on October 23, 1939. By the time of his death, he had written almost ninety books. Most of his books were Westerns, but he also wrote nine books that had a fishing theme. Grey also published many short stories, a biography of George Washington as a young man, and several stories for children. Some of Grey's other popular Western novels included "Spirit of the Border," "Desert Gold," "The Last Trail," "The Call of the Canyon," and "The Thundering Herd." View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL05844
Subjects: Cultural Ohio--Literary Ohio; Motion pictures; Posters; Grey, Zane, 1872-1939; Western films; Advertisements
Places: Ohio History Connection Archives/Library