What Was The First Movie Ever Filmed In Shreveport, Louisiana?

If you've lived in Shreveport for any amount of time, you've heard about the filming history in the Shreveport area. Either some form of the phrase "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 someone, maybe you just noticed all of the signed celebrity photos in local eateries, or the historical markers noting filming across the area.

Perhaps your exposure to Shreveport's film history was brought on by the exploding interest in Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson moving his production company to the Shreveport area. A project that was expected to restart filming already, but seems to be a little off schedule so far.

Eventually, if you live in the Shreveport area, you're going to hear about the filming history. But that history will be based in more modern cinema. Movies like Click, Olympus Has Fallen, The Mist, Mr. Brooks, W, Year One, Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, and Snitch get most of the publicity. Along with TV shows like Salem and True Blood who take a lot of the local historical filming spotlight. But none of those are even close to being the first movie even filmed in Shreveport.

Now, before we get too deep, lets make sure that we clear up that this isn't a historical, locked in, can't be disputed fact. This is what we believe to be the first, based on information provided by the sources we have access to. If someone has different evidence, we'd love to hear about it.

But according to sources like Louisiana Film History Library and IMDB, the first movie filmed in Shreveport is the 1921 film "Millionaire for a Day"...which also when by the names "Oil" and "Liquid Gold".

The movie was a silent comedy filmed in Shreveport and Homer. It starred Arthur Guy Empey, who also served as the writer on the project. It was directed by Wilfrid North and Aubrey M. Kennedy. The American Film Institute explains the plot as:

"Bobbie Walters, a cab driver in a Midwest city who is trying to save enough money to marry his sweetheart, Dorothy Wright, an attendant at the cigar and newspaper counter of a large hotel, is able to amass $15,000. He acts like a millionaire and soon is fleeced of the money by two Wall Street swindlers. Broke, Bobbie is forced to work as a bellboy at Dorothy's hotel. After a series of struggles and adventures, Bobby wins a fortune in the oil fields of Louisiana, despite the efforts of his rivals, who dynamite his oil derricks. Bobbie and Dorothy marry in the end."

Empey starred as Bobbie Walters in the movie, and Florence Martin portrayed Dorothy Wright. The movie was released in 1921, which was nearly 50 years before the next movie that was filmed in Shreveport.

There were some short filming projects like the "Selig's Firestation" series filmed by Selig Polyscope in 1907, but that wasn't a movie for theatrical release. Just like the shorts filmed in 1940 called "Kidnapper's Foil" that were filmed in Shreveport and Baton Rouge. Or the 1947 biography of Governor Jimmie Davis that included some random shots of Shreveport.

But after "Millionaire for a Day" (or whichever title you want to give it) was filmed, the next theatrical movie filmed in Shreveport was the film "Slaves" that 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.