Post-War Treasure, Digitized: Arabian Horse Show, Flintridge, California, October 1946

These days, most of us rely on cell phones to capture images, edit them, and share them on social media. But it really wasn't all that long ago that we used movie cameras with film to record horses in action.  Viewing this quintessential analog medium with others was an event.

The Arabian gelding GAWALAD and his rider collect their prize.
Keep reading to learn more about this historic horse show!

In retrospect, making a "home movie" seems time-consuming. You loaded the film into the camera, pointed it at something interesting (in our  case, a horse), and turned the camera on. Then when the interesting thing had passed by, you turned the camera off. On again, off again, as you recorded the various scenes with horses in them that you wanted to save. If you pointed the camera at the ground or jumped out of the way of a passing horse, that was recorded too. Unless you were a serious amateur cinematographer in the mid-1940s, your camera only recorded images, not sounds. 

When you ran out of film, unless you had your own developing equipment and a darkroom, you took it to be developed, and a few days later it was returned to you. 

Even though the process took days or even weeks, there was a beauty in the anticipation of the finished product. You threaded the film through a movie projector in your home or office, darkened the room, and showed the film to your friends while you described what they were seeing.  If your friends had been at the same horse show, they chimed in excitedly as they recalled the day's events.

General Camera Company advertisement in Popular Photography
magazine, March 1946. Source: Internet Archive

In October 1946, someone -- probably Calabasas Arabian owner/breeder Earle E. Hurlbutt! -- used a 16mm film camera to make a home movie of an Arabian horse show. The Special Collections and Archives unit (home of the W. K. Kellogg Arabian Horse Library) in the Cal Poly Pomona University Library digitized this silent film through the California Revealed project. 

Here's a link to the film, which you can watch online for free (also ad-free). I'll also place the link at the end of this post, in case you want to read through first.

https://californiarevealed.org/do/17664f54-ac14-445d-a57a-6aba275eaa2c

"This film features footage of an Arabian Horse Show held on Sunday, October 13, 1946 at the Flintridge Hunter Trials Course in Flintridge, California. The event was sponsored by the Arabian Horse Breeders Society of Southern California and showcased Arabian horses from both breeding and working classes. 

"The footage was likely captured by Earle Hurlbutt, who owned Calarabia Ranch in the Calabasas area of Southern California and served as the first president of the [modern-day] Arabian Horse Association...."

[Hurlbutt indeed had a good eye for an Arabian horse. About three years after this show, he traveled to the US Army's Fort Reno, Oklahoma Remount Depot's dispersal sale and ($8,100 later) returned to California with the celebrated Arabian stallion *Witez II. But that's another story for another time.] 

We don't have E. E. Hurlbutt to talk us through the silent film footage he shot that day.  There was no Arabian horse magazine yet, to cover the event. 

Local newspapers didn't report the full results, although the Pomona Progress-Bulletin (which did a very good job reporting on horse community activities back in that day) carried a story about the US Army Remount-owned Arabians at the show.  The article noted that 157 horses were shown, 2500 people attended the show, Prof. C. E. Howell of UC Davis judged halter classes and George Stokes judged the working (performance) classes. 

Pomona Progress-Bulletin, October 14, 1946

Fortunately, more results were reported in the 1946 annual hardback book Here's Who in Horses of the Pacific Coast, edited by Joe Droeger. 

Droeger and his staff tell us that the humans involved included many other well-known names in the post-War Arabian horse community. 

(As well, we see a common error in reporting Arabian horse names, even for a horse publication: the winner of the English Pleasure class, GAWALAD AHR #1956, was misspelled. His owners, the Phillipses, were among the founders of the Arabian Horse Breeders Society of Southern California.)

The order in which Here's Who printed the results, differs from the order of Hurlbutt's film footage. We'd have to look at the film itself to see if someone edited it. There may or may not have been other classes with results not reported; I'll look into this and report back if I find more information. Meanwhile, let's enjoy the show!  

One mare in the Hurlbutt film is recognizable even without the show results, because her person, Harvey Ellis, famously rode her in shows, trail rides, and even parades with a Western saddle but no bridle. She is MONEYNA 1352 (*Raseyn x Monica), foaled at the Kellogg Institute in 1937.

Moneyna and Harvey Ellis give a special performance
starting at about 14:37 in the film.

(The highly intelligent Moneyna deserves her own blog post, not only for her performance but also because of her two talented sons, Ferneyn and Neyseyn, both by Ferseyn, who like Moneyna was also by *Raseyn.)

Alyf and Charles Smith take part in the Harness Horses class.

Moving on, we see the results of the Harness Horses class, with other well-known Arabian names. We mentally chide Hurlbutt for not filming the gray ALYF 1465 ( foaled 1938, Ronek x Fath) receiving his first-place award, although he does appear in the footage.

 

When we look at the results for Class 5 -- Mares, 4 Years or Over, we catch our breath and start searching the film footage, because the winner, BINT SAHARA 2394 (gray 1942, Farawi x Bint Sedjur) is considered by many to be one of the greatest Arabian mares of this era. She went on to become the foundation of a dynasty of Arabians for her person, Frank McCoy. Her 18 purebred offspring included Fadjur, Fersara, McCoy's Count, and other champions.  

I checked with members of the Arabian Horse History group on Facebook, and we believe that Frank McCoy himself was her handler at the show. They come to life on our computer screens, legends in the making. 

As we continue to review Hurlbutt's home movie, we see that he took a shot of some of the trophies the winners took home. The majority of them were designed by Gladys Brown Edwards, whose career as an artist and Arabian horse authority has been covered here extensively. 

And at the end of the film -- a surprise! We see the artist herself, recently married to Cecil Edwards, handing out awards to Arabians and riders in Western performance. 

Equine historians (amateur and professional) may note the Arabian horses' conformation, compared to Arabians today. You can compare their tack, the nature of the performance and halter classes, the rustic obstacles in the Western trail class, the laid-back nature of the venue, to the slick spectacle that a modern all-Arabian horse show can be. 

History lovers in general can watch the film and think about how it reflects income and demographics in the post-World War II Western United States (hint: you didn't have to be particularly wealthy to compete back then); clothing styles; and the fact that women, men, and teenagers competed against each other.  Looking at the "working" classes, Western tack seems to have been more popular than English at this show; but after all, this was on the West Coast. 

Here's the link to the film again:

https://californiarevealed.org/do/17664f54-ac14-445d-a57a-6aba275eaa2c

Note: you can speed up the film by clicking on the rabbit icon on the lower left side of the screen. To slow it down, click on the turtle icon.

* * *

The Internet Archive holds a digitized copy of the 1946 edition of Here's Who in Horses of the Pacific Coast.  You can do a keyword search, or just scroll through the pages. 

https://archive.org/details/hereswhoinhorses0000unse

If you're interested in comparing the 1946 Arabian Horse Show with one from just a couple of years later, here's a good resource. The Hathi Trust has digitized the 1948 edition of Here's Who in Horses of the Pacific Coast. The much longer results of the 1948 All Arabian Show, held in Pomona, demonstrate just how quickly the popularity of the Arabian horse was growing in Southern California.  

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89052499613&seq=7

(Our old friend Moneyna was Grand Champion in 1948.)

Facebook groups of interest (be SURE to answer the easy questions to join, if you haven't already):

Arabian Horse History  

https://www.facebook.com/groups/848043201925430

The Kellogg Arabians

https://www.facebook.com/groups/208971406622353

* * *

Many thanks to Katie Richardson and the staff at the W. K. Kellogg Arabian Horse Library, Special Collections and Archives, at the University Library at Cal Poly Pomona. 

https://libguides.library.cpp.edu/wkkahl

Their ever-growing collection of digitized films, sound recordings, and still images is a real treasure. You can find the entire collection here, or just do a keyword search for "Arabian horse" to narrow down the results. 

https://californiarevealed.org/partner/california-state-polytechnic-university-pomona-special-collections-and-archives

I'm going to explore one of their Arabian horse show films from 1955 in an upcoming post. Stay tuned for another real superstar from 20th century equine history!