Anchorage Symphony Orchestra presents 'The Cheechakos'

In 2015, as part of the celebration of Anchorage’s Centennial Anniversary, the Anchorage Symphony presented a free screening of the 1923 silent film The Cheechakos – the first feature-length film shot entirely in Alaska. This season they are bringing it back!

Very few residents of 1923 Anchorage were unaware of Captain Austin “Cap” Lathrop’s latest venture – the Alaska Moving Picture Company. With abundant extras, a Hollywood cast and locations never seen before in films, Lathrop and his team were ready to take the cinematic world by storm with The Cheechakos. This silent film tells the story of two prospectors who take in a young woman after she loses her mother in an accident. The sourdoughs strike it rich and as they grow more prosperous the younger one falls in love with the young woman. All three learn the harsh lesson that not everyone is as honest as they are.

With scenes that sometimes required hundreds of extras, and included locations in Anchorage, Girdwood, Denali National Park, and two glaciers near Cordova, everyone got involved. On April 17, 1923, the Anchorage Daily Times printed, “All Aboard for Mile 52, the scene of the million-dollar picture which is destined to make Alaska famous… Advices from Mile 52 report some splendid pictures have been taken, but the big thing comes when the 250 Anchorage people arrive on the scene to take part in the mad gold rush of ‘98. Captain A.E. Lathrop, in charge of local affairs, invites the public to take part in the scene that so aptly shows Alaska during the olden, golden days. This is a free-for-all, and everybody is welcome. Hot coffee will be served on the trail, but guests are asked to take their own lunches.”

The Cheeckakos solidified its place in cinematic and Alaska history when it was chosen by the National Film Preservation Foundation to be part of a fifty film collection, “Treasures from American Film Archives”, released in 2000. In 2003 the United States Library of Congress deemed this film “culturally significant” and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.

While not originally a Hollywood blockbuster, modern audiences love The Cheechakos’ spectacular re-enactment of the march over the Chilkoot Pass, daring chases across glaciers, Alaskan cast and crew, and intertitle artwork by Sydney Laurence.

For many years ASO clarinetist Chris Beheim has studied, researched and collected information about The Cheechakos. Come early and get “Behind-the-Scenes” of The Cheechakos when Chris gives the pre-concert lecture on the history music and personalities of The Cheechakos an hour before the performance (7pm), in the Atwood Concert Hall (Orchestra Level).