Louisiana is now third amongst states in film production behind California and New York, but the state has more of a film industry history than most people realize. According to Ed Poole, film accessory researcher and co-author of the reference book Hollywood on the Bayou with his wife Susan, the variety of looks Louisiana offers makes it an alluring studio destination. “You’ve got everything from the river, to the plantations, the oil wells, the plains,” Poole says.
While the offer of tax credits for studios to film in Louisiana has brought about an industry boom, “Louisiana was a major source for the film industry way before the tax era was even thought of,” he says From the silent era, to the addition of sound and color, to the high-tech productions of today, Louisiana has been at the forefront of the U.S. film industry for almost a century.
An exhibit of original posters from Poole’s collection of movies that were either filmed in Louisiana, or dealt with Louisiana subject matter, is currently on display in the East Bank Regional Library in Metairie. The exhibit spans a 63-year period of Louisiana films and even looks to the future with the promotion of Tarzan: Lord of the Louisiana Jungle, a documentary on the original Tarzan (1918) that will be released in 2012.
Poole worries that while California has famous film research facilities and New York has MOMA, “In Louisiana, we’re forgetting our film history.” The Pooles’ reference book, which features 1,170 films made in or about Louisiana, is still not extensive enough to encompass all the films that Louisiana has produced. “We’re trying to pull all this together and hopefully create an archival community that hopefully will start documenting a lot of the history that’s here, because people really don’t know. You look through our book. You will be shocked at what has been made here.”
The exhibit is on display until Sunday, August 21.
The following movie posters are included:
Alligator People (1958)
Buccaneer (1958)
Cat People (1982)
Drum (1976)
Everybody’s All American (1988)
Fletch Lives (1987)
French Quarter (1977)
Interview with the Vampire (1994)
Louisiana (1949)
New Orleans Uncensored (1954)
The Pelican Brief (1993)
Savage Bees (1976)
Swamp Women (1956)
Tarzan: Lord of the Louisiana Jungle (2012)
