Beginning in picturesque Taos, New Mexico in the Sangre de Cristo Mountain Range Jay continues on a laugh a minute cruise through Vail and Aspen, Colorado; Klosters and Zermatt, Switzerland; Japan; Sun Valley, Idaho; Mount Snow, Vermont; Persia; and New Zealand. Highlights are numerous and include the daring race on an avalanche slope by world champion skier Helli Lantschner as well as the camel safari to ski the Atlas Mountains in Africa.
Known for his commentary-laden chronicles of key moments in winter sports history, the late John Jay is considered by many to be the founding father of the modern-day ski film.
Shot in 1941, this black-and-white instructional film (featuring actor Alan Ladd) serves as a veritable time capsule on the history of the sport, with advice on ski design, schussing, lacquer, wax and toe plates.
Before the high-tech advancements of Fiberglas, aluminum poles, release bindings and artificial powder, it was a simpler time in the world of winter sports: It was just you, your skis and the snow that lay ahead.
Famous skier Otto Lang is featured in a short documentary filmed at Mt. Whitney and Mt. Baker, and premiered on 4 February 1938 at Radio City Music Hall with NYC screenings of Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937).
A film about three ski-bums (Run Funk, Mike Zuetell and Ed Ricks) that are followed by another ski bum (Dick Barrymore),with a 16mm Bolex camera, who filmed a four-month part of their nomadic and vanishing-breed way of life across four continents.
The proprietor of an ice-skating revue promotes a peanut-vendor to a management position based on suggestions he made to improve the act of the show's star, who also happens to be the owner's wife.
Madrid, late 19th century. A wealthy woman is found murdered in her home and her maid seems to be the main suspect; but her statement further entangles the case.
Veteran cowboy star Johnny Mack Brown plays a cattle buyer turned prairie sleuth in this low-budget oater from Monogram, which co-stars perennial old-timer Raymond Hatton as a retired U.
