Let's Write about the silent film hit "Evangeline" starring Dolores Del Rio

Somehow or other, I honestly cannot recall how, but I have a copy of a press release daated January 3, 1929, published in the Santa Cruz, California County Sentinel, about "Evangeline Scenes to be Filmed Here: Dolores Del Rio in Lead". 

Evangeline, the fictional heroine created by Henry Wadsworth Longfellos, played by the Mexican born actress Dolores Del Rio (1904-1983), in the silent film produced and directed by Edwin Carewe in 1929. 

Evangeline the poem: At 178 years old, published in 1847, a legacy continues to resonate today.

Although she is a fictional heroine, Evangeline’s epic story symbolizes the agony caused by forced mass deportations and family separations.

"Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow tells the sad  story about Evangeline Bellefontaine, a young Acadian woman, and her beloved Gabriel Lajeunesse, whose lives are tragically disrupted in 1755, by the British expulsion of the Acadians from Nova Scotia (Acadie).

Evangeline’s character is a myth who created a lasting legend to bring international attention to the cruel Acadian expulsion. Longfellow’s epic poem may fit the cliché about how history can repeat itself, while Americans are witnessing immigrant deportations and family separations in real time on nearly all main stream media.

In 1929, the poem was produced into a popular silent film starring the Mexican born actress Dolores Del Rio (1904-1983). Somehow, found among my collection of Evangeline memorabilia, I happen to have a press release about the film, in a news article published in the Santa Cruz Evening News, on January 3, 1929.

Here is the content in the press release:

SANTA CRUZ, CA-  Twoenty-four members of the Edwin Carewe unit of United Artists Pictures arrived in Santa Cruz this morning (January 3), at 6:45 o'clock on a special rain from Los Angeles. They were stopping t the Hotel St. Gerge and intend to stay in this city today and tomorrow to work in the Big Basin and at the Minnehaha Falls in Blackburn gulch.  This evening, six more of the film company, including Miss Dolores Del Rio, will arrive.

The play to be produced with be Longfellow's "Evangeline".  Exterior scenes, the forest primeval in the Big Basin and love scenes at Minnehaha Falls will be shot.  The company plans to leave for Carmel on Saturday where an Arcadian villae has been erected on Point Lobos.  (Maine Writer's note- I suspec the reporter did not understand the set was to be an "Acadian Village" as in Grand Pre, the village where the epic poem begins, as in the nararative, "forest primeval".)

Miss Del Rio will have the feminine lead as Evangeline. She will be supported by an all star cast including Roland Drew as Gabriel, one of the masculine leads; Donald Reed as Batiste, as the other masculine lead; Alec Francis as Father Felician; James Marcus, Paul McAllister, George Marion and Bobby Mack.

The (silent) picture (movie) is being personally directed by Edwin Carewe.  Santa Cruz area is the firts port of call for the filming of the picture.

The film company plans to spend three weeks in Caramel in filming the Arcadian (aka "Acadian") atmosphere before taking up the story of the travel to Louisiana which will be made elsewhere. During the filming of the Acadian deportation scenes, the company plans to employ several hundred people for many days.

"Evangeline" will take four months to film and is planned for one of the United Artiss big hits for the 1929, season.