What was the first movie ever filmed in Shreveport, Louisiana?

If you have lived in Shreveport for any length of time, you have heard of the history of filming in the Shreveport area. Either some form of the sentence “They filmed _____ right there.” or “I remember when ______ was filming here and I met _________ at _______ and they were really cool.”

Maybe you didn’t hear it from anyone, maybe you just noticed the many signed celebrity photos at local restaurants or the historical markers indicating filmings in the area.

Perhaps your exposure to Shreveport film history was sparked by the explosion of interest in Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, who moved his production company to the Shreveport area. A project that was already scheduled to resume filming, but so far seems to be a little off schedule.

If you live in the Shreveport area, you’ll eventually learn about the filming history. But this story will be based on more modern cinema. Films like Click, Olympus Has Fallen, The Mist, Mr. Brooks, W, Year One, Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay and Snitch receive the most advertising. Along with television shows like “Salem” and “True Blood” spotlighting much of the local historical filming. But none of them are even close to being the first film ever filmed in Shreveport.

Now, before we go into too much depth, let’s make sure we are clear that this is not a historical, established and undisputed fact. This is the first in our opinion based on information from the sources we have access to. If anyone has other evidence, we’d love to hear about it.

But according to sources like the Louisiana Film History Library and IMDB, the first film filmed in Shreveport was the 1921 film “Millionaire for a Day”…which was also known as “Oil” and “Liquid Gold.” .

The film was a silent comedy filmed in Shreveport and Homer. The main role was played by Arthur Guy Empey, who also served as the author of the project. Directed by Wilfrid North and Aubrey M. Kennedy. The American Film Institute explains the plot as follows:

“Bobbie Walters, a taxi driver in a Midwestern town trying to save enough money to marry his lover Dorothy Wright, a waitress at the cigar and newspaper counter of a large hotel, manages to amass $15,000. He behaves like a millionaire When Bobbie is soon cheated out of his money by two Wall Street fraudsters, he has to work as a bellman in Dorothy’s hotel. After a series of battles and adventures, Bobby gains a fortune despite his rivals who blow up his oil rigs and end up getting married.

Empey starred in the film as Bobbie Walters and Florence Martin played Dorothy Wright. The film was released in 1921, almost 50 years before the next film shot in Shreveport.

There were some short film projects such as the Selig’s Firestation series made by Selig Polyscope in 1907, but this was not a theatrical release film. As were the 1940 short films “Kidnapper’s Foil,” which were filmed in Shreveport and Baton Rouge. Or the 1947 biography of Gov. Jimmie Davis, which included some random shots of Shreveport.

But after “Millionaire for a Day” (or whatever you want to call it) was filmed, the next movie shot in Shreveport was the film “Slaves,” which was released in 1969. After that, it wouldn’t be until 1973’s “The Legend of Boggy Creek” and then sporadic filming for a few decades until the big boom in the 2000s.