We recently visited Marfa, Texas, a town similar in size to Watonga, where the movie “ Giant” was filmed. Giant was a blockbuster movie made in 1956 from one of Edna Ferber’s books. But 25 years earlier, another of Ferber’s books, Cimarron, was made into a movie. It loosely follows the lives of the T.B. Ferguson family and the 1889 land run. (They did have a claim near Guthrie that year but came to Watonga in 1892). Edna Ferber visited Oklahoma in 1928 and interviewed Mrs. Ferguson. Mr. Ferguson had passed away in 1921.
Cimarron (1931) was an early full-sound movie. Several of the earlier Ferber-adopted films were silent or partial “talkies” Wikipedia. Mrs. Ferguson was flown to Los Angeles to consult on early printing shops for this RKO movie Cimarron starred Richard Dix and Irene Dunne. The RKO production won Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, and best Production Design. It was the first Western to win “Best Picture”.
“Epic in scope, spanning forty years from 1889 to 1929, Cimarron was RKO’s most expensive production up to that date ($1.5 million). It was a critical success, although it did not recoup its production costs during its run in 1931 (a second 1935 run premiered in Oklahoma City and helped recoup costs).
“In the 1889 land run, Yancey Cravat (based on T.B. Ferguson) is outwitted by a young prostitute, Dixie Lee, who takes the prime piece of real estate that Yancey had targeted for himself.
Cimarron is a pre-Hays code film. The fallout of Dixie getting the land is seen in one of the early scenes when Yancy’s mother-in-law speaks plainly about Dixie.
But my favorite scene is the land run. “The Land Rush scene was filmed at the Quinn Ranch outside of Los Angeles. More than 28 cameramen, and numerous camera assistants and photographers, were used to capture scenes of more than 5,000 costumed extras, (over 600 horses were used in the 1960 remake), covered wagons, buckboard, surreys, and bicyclists as they raced across grassy hills and prairie to stake their claim.” Wikipedia It is a great honor for the Fergusons to be commemorated in an academy- award winning film.