The “King” of Vidor lived to be 88 years old, but spent only about three hours of his life in the town named for his father.
King Wallis Vidor was a pioneer movie maker and ended up directing many classic films. He was a native Texan who was born in Galveston in 1894 and grew up there. He was a child on the island and survived the great 1900 hurricane, the worst natural disaster in U.S. history.
He was named “King,” but he was more like a prince of a lumber dynasty. The Miller-Vidor Lumber Company owned a mill in the west part of Orange County, along with mass acreage of forest land. The Handbook of Texas online says the town was founded in 1898 and named for timber company owner Charles Shelton Vidor, King’s father.
But King Vidor never came to the town until 1959. He was honored with a Chamber of Commerce luncheon, a parade, and a speech from a U.S. senator.
The Turner Classic Movie Channel reports King grew up as a movie fan and worked in high school in Galveston as a movie theater ticket taker and then as a projectionist.
His first film was an amateur effort about the Galveston storm. The Handbook of Texas said he began his first movie company when he was 21. The company was Hotex in Houston. Later that year, he and his bride left for Hollywood where he had more than a decade making dozens of silent films.
He was nominated for a Best Director Academy Award the first year of the honors in 1928. Through the years he was nominated for Best Director four more times. In 1979, the Academy gave him an Honorary Oscar and with Audrey Hepburn, who had been in his movies, presented the statuette.
King Vidor had been invited to visit the city of Vidor several times, and finally in 1959, his third wife arranged for him to receive his American Heritage Foundation Distinguished Service Medal in the town. Mrs. Vidor, who had married him in 1937, wanted to see the part of Texas where he grew up, according to The Vidorian newspaper.
The ceremony was Friday, December 4, 1959. The Vidorian had a huge banner reading “Welcome King Vidor.”
The chamber had the luncheon for the Vidors at St. Andrew’s Methodist Church. The Vidors’ party included two publicists promoting Vidor’s recent movie, “Solomon and Sheba.”
After lunch, the Vidors road in a parade that started at the high school on Orange Street and then went onto Main Street. The Orange Leader reported the parade included bands from Vidor, Little Cypress, and Bridge City. Several organizations decorated floats and decorated cars. A U.S. Marine Corps honor guard led the parade.
The medal ceremony was held on a platform set up at the Wood’s Shopping Center. U.S. Senator Ralph Yarborough presented the medal and gave a speech.
The Vidorian reports students in grades four through 12 were taken by bus to see the parade and then taken back to classes. The famous director left with his wife and publicists to visit Houston and Galveston.
The town of Vidor is pronounced to rhyme with “cider.” King Vidor pronounced his last name VEE-dor.
His biography says he holds the Guinness Book of World Records for the longest career as a film director. His first one was in 1913 and his last in 1980. His films include “Duel in the Sun,” “Stella Dallas,” “Northwest Passage,” and “The Fountainhead.” His first “talkie,” or film with sound, was “Hallelujah” in 1929 with an all African-American cast.
Vidor was called in to help in 1938 when a change in directors were made in two of the most famous movies made.
Vidor never got screen credit, but everyone in the business knew he directed the black and white segments of “The Wizard of Oz,” including Judy Garland’s rendition of “Over the Rainbow.”
-Margaret Toal, KOGT-
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