The Golden Age of Hollywood is popularly accepted as beginning after the release of "The Jazz Singer" -- the first talking motion picture -- in 1927, and ending sometime in the 1950s. Smack dab in the middle of that era was Inupiat movie star Ray Mala, who achieved major success as the star of MGM's 1933 filmed-in-Alaska movie "Eskimo," and continued acting and working behind the camera until his death at age 45 in 1952.
Despite Mala's unprecedented success -- no Alaskan before or since has been so prominent in Hollywood -- he is a figure relatively unknown to today's Alaskans. A new biography by Lael Morgan hopes to change that.
"Eskimo Star: From the Tundra to Tinseltown, the Ray Mala Story" is a comprehensive look into the life and career of Mala, the handsome son born to Bill Wise and Casina Armstrong in Candle, Alaska in 1906.
Mala was discovered in his teens, when he was recruited by explorer Frank Kleinschmidt to operate a camera on a movie-making expedition, "when it was discovered that (Mala) could hand crank a camera in numbing Arctic cold when white men quailed," Morgan's book says.
According to a press release about the new book, Mala "became the first non-white actor to play a leading role in a Hollywood film" when "Eskimo" was released in 1933. The lead actresses in the film were of Chinese and French, Hawaiian and Japanese descent, according to the book.
"Eskimo" was forward-thinking in another way too -- it was the first major studio picture filmed in Alaska, a tradition that has only recently been resurrected.
While "Eskimo" was a highlight of Mala's career, he enjoyed a long and busy occupation in Hollywood working sometimes as an actor, other times as cameraman or cinematographer. Other films he worked on included "Igloo," "The Girl From Alaska," and "Red Snow." He died in 1952 at the age of 45 from complications of a heart condition.
Despite the big budgets and prominence of many of the films Mala worked on -- "Eskimo" won the Academy Award for film editing -- many of them have faded into obscurity over time. The release of Morgan's biography has led to a resurgence of interest in Alaska for Mala's films, and numerous events around the state have featured or will feature screenings of Mala films.
Tuesday, March 29 marks a book launch at the Anchorage Museum for the new biography, and will have Lael Morgan on hand, as well as screenings of select parts of Mala's filmography. Wednesday kicks off two nights of Mala films at the Bear Tooth Theatrepub, with showings of "Igloo," "Red Snow" and "The Last of the Pagans" on Wednesday, and two showings of "Eskimo" on Thursday. Visit the Bear Tooth website for more information on show times. There will also be showings April 29 in Anchorage at the Alaska Native Heritage Center, and archival film footage of Mala will be shown April 1 at UAA's Consortium Library.
Other events around the state include to-be-announced screenings by the Fairbanks Arts Association in April; a screening presented by The JUMP Society in Juneau on April 21; National Park Service screenings every Tuesday through April in Kotzebue; screenings at the Kuskokwim campus of the University of Alaska in Bethel on April 25-29; showings of "Igloo" and "Eskimo" April 14-15 at the Tuzzy Consortium Library in Barrow; showings in April at Tikigaq School Community Library in Point Hope, with Mala's grandson Ted Mala Jr. on hand; and screenings in Nome at the Carrie M. McLain Memorial Museum on April 16 and June 14.
Contact Ben Anderson at ben(at)alaskadispatch.com.