Nell Shipman Project
is my vision to bring long overdue acknowledgement to an incredible, amazing woman. Nell Shipman, star of the Silent Screen, was unconventional, unquestionably non-conformist and in every respect totally in control of her artistic authenticity. She was decades ahead of her time working at tasks totally unfathomable by most women and men of her day. She was an advocate for animal rights long before most people even considered the possibility or necessity. She was human, vulnerable and imperfect but she was unwavering and beyond compromise in her resolve as an artist. My intention is to create and cast a full scale bronze sculpture of Nell Shipman who is most likely one of a select few of historically significant women of North Idaho in the early 20th century. Nell Shipman lived in Priest Lake Idaho from 1922 to 1925 using the wild beauty of the surrounding area as the back drop and location for several of her films. It is time for the lake and mountains that she loved so much to have a permanent tribute to its most illustrious thespian. Nell eloquently says it all, “Did you ever come to a place and instantly recognize it as your Ultima Thule, the one spot in all God’s world where you belonged, where your roots could go deep into the soil which would forever nourish you, where inspiration and spiritual blessing welled up from earth to top the tallest Tamarack, spread to the encasing bowl of sky, return on every waterway to feed you everlastingly? Such a spot, so it seemed to me, was Priest Lake, in Idaho.” Quote taken from her autobiography, The Silent Screen And My Talking Heart, Hemingway Western Studies Series, Boise State University, Boise, ID 1969
Nell Shipman 1892—1970 is best known for her starring roles in several silent films between 1914—1925. Nell also wrote screenplays, short stories, novels and magazine articles. Born in Victoria, British Columbia, the Shipman family moved to Seattle, Washington when Nell was twelve. Nell began her career as a stage actress with a performance troupe at the age of fourteen. By the time she was nineteen her silent film career had begun. Along with starring and acting in the lead roles in many films she also directed, produced and edited her films. Shipman is famous for her portrayals of strong women/ heroines, who sometimes lived in log cabins in the deep forest, befriended many a wild animal, mushed teams of sled dogs and saved herself and usually her man from some menacing villain. Nell performed her own stunts and is still marveled at for her ability to work with and handle her menagerie of undomesticated North American animals.
While acting with the Charles A. Taylor Stock Company at age 17 Nell spent the summer touring Alaska. She explains in her autobiography that the unadulterated country she saw was “like experiencing a homecoming of the soul.” This was the beginning of her love affair with wilderness and its wild creatures. By 1914 Nell had moved to California with her first husband, Ernie Shipman, and progressed to the vocation of screen actress in the budding silent film trade. In 1915, after writing and starring in several films, Nell got her big break. She was cast in the leading role by the film company Vitagraph for the movie God’s Country And The Woman, written by one of the day’s most popular authors, James Oliver Curwood. The movie was a huge box office success. This drama had all of the elements that Nell would continue to use in her subsequent independent films: wilderness, wild animals, snow, sled dogs, canoes, thrilling stunts, and a strong leading lady.
In spite of being offered a lucrative contract by Sam Goldfish, who would later become, Sam Goldwyn, and upon fulfilling her contract with Vitagraph, Nell announced that she and Curwood had entered into a partnership to make independent films. This joint venture, with the help of camera man Joe walker, later to become Frank Capra’s main camera man, created the film Back to God’s Country. Upon completion of that film, Nell, true to form embraced her independent nature and ended her relationship with Curwood creating the Nell Shipman film company. Finally, Nell hoped she would attain full authority in making her films but Nell’s first solo independent film Girl From God’s Country proved differently. Aghast at the editing the distributing company did to the film which removed three reels from the twelve reel film Nell placed adds in all of the film trades papers: “Mr. Exhibitor, “…do “not book my maltreated, malformed, abortion of a picture.” Nell paid dearly for her demand that her contract which had given all editorial rights to her and her alone be honored. Her epic was a box office disaster. She was largely blackballed for the rest of her career.
Down but not out with little capital, Nell looked north for a location to continue her work. Having friends that owned a movie production company in Spokane, Washington where sets could be built and filmed and knowing that just some eighty miles north in Idaho was a pristine paradise for the artic tundra scenes she had written into her screenplay she began her next film The Grub Steak. 
Nell stayed in the far northern reaches of Priest Lake for three years and made several films there. She and her film crew lived in log cabins that they built. She brought with her over seventy amimals including bob cats, elk, deer, bear and many others. She insisted that no guns, whips, or electric prods be used on her furry co-stars. Many romped and roamed free much of the time. She considered them all her friends not pets. Life at the Lake was not easy. It was truly a wilderness journey involving, trains, coaches and steam boats with ice cutters in winter to get to the location. Winters were long and harsh. There were no amenities such as telephones or electricity. After one particularly hard winter her partner Bert Van Tuyle, delirious with gangrene from a frostbitten foot, took off by foot to travel the twenty miles south to the lower lake where he hoped to get transportation to the hospital. Nell followed him for two days and nights mushing a sled and team of dogs knowing that he would not survive by himself. When Bert finally passed out on the ice, Nell was able to pass him and go for help. The fact that either of them survived is incredible. As each film was completed Nell would then go to Spokane or California to edit them and then on to New York to peddle her wares. In the 1920’s Hollywood was just in its infancy and New York was the place to sell movies. Nell would raise money for her traveling by doing Vaudeville shows in the near by towns of Priest River, and surrounding areas in the local movie venues. Money went out faster than it came in and The Shipman Film Company was never financially successful.
After 1925 Nell’s life took many twists and turns and she never achieved the level of success or fame she enjoyed as a young screen star again. She continued to write short stories for magazines, screen plays, and novels. Canadian born Nell Shipman is considered Canada’s first lady of film. Her film God’s Country And The Woman, shot in Canada, is considered to be Canada’s first classic. Nell’s autobiography is a fascinating read about her indomitable spirit and eternal optimism. Nell died in 1970 at Cabazon, California while living in a bungalow at a dude ranch for celebrity’s dogs generously provided by an old friend. Like so many great artists not appreciated while living, as Nell aged she fell on even harder times. Nell applied to the Motion Picture Relief Fund’s Facility for the Aging and Indigent for admittance but was turned away because she was told they did not recognize her body of work. The day she was buried as if life would strike one final blow to this valiant woman, her home was burglarized and several trunks with much of her film memorabilia was stolen, never to be reclaimed.
Today Nell is finally recognized as the true pioneer that she was. Several books have been written about women in film and early film stars in which she is mentioned. Nell is studied at several universities with programs on women studies and film, specifically Boise State University in Idaho. A biography and an autobiography about Nell Shipman have been published. Some of her movies are available on D VD. Still, Nell Shipman is not a house hold name. But to many people, I in particular--a female artist, she is a role model and inspiration, an American woman of Courage. Please continue to scroll through for more photos of Nell and a list of books and DVD’s that might be of interest. Photos of the model of the intended sculpture and more about the Nell Shipman Project follow.
Betty Gardner, January 2011
Nell and crew Priest Lake, Idaho between c1923
Lion Head Lodge Priest Lake 1923, Nell center, son Barry below, left: Bert Van Tuyle, Dorothy Winslow, Daddy Dufill, right: Bobby Newhard, Ralph Cochner
For more information:
Kay Armatage, (2003),The Girl From God’s Country: Nell Shipman and the Silent Cinema, University of
Toronto Press, Scholarly Publishing Division
Lloyd Peters, (1976), Lion Head Lodge: Movieland of the Northwest, Fairfield, WA. Ye Galleon Press
Nell Shipman, (1987), The Silent Screen and My Talking Heart, Boise, Id. Boise State University
Nell Shipman, Letters From God’s Country: Nell Shipman Selected Correspondence
And Writings, 1912-1970, (2003), Boise, Id. Boise State University
Some of Nell’s films are available I found them at my local library and through Amazon.com
Idaho Film Collection: Volume 1: A Girl from God’s Country ISBN 0-932129-43-9
Volume 2: The Short Films ISBN 0-932129-44-
Volume 3: From Lionhead Lodge ISBN 0-932129-45-5