Sun Valley Serenade: The Film That Sold the Mountain to America

In March of nineteen forty-one, a film crew arrived at Sun Valley to shoot a movie that would introduce the resort to millions of Americans who had never heard of it. The film was called Sun Valley Serenade, and its cast was formidable. Sonja Henie, the Norwegian figure skater who had won three Olympic gold medals and become one of Hollywood's highest-paid stars, played the lead.

John Payne appeared opposite her. Milton Berle provided the comedy. The bandleader and composer Glenn Miller and his orchestra provided the music, and several songs from the film became standards.

The skating and skiing sequences required a local stand-in for Henie in the ski scenes, as she was a world-class skater but not a skier. The resort provided one: a young skier from Tacoma, Washington, named Gretchen Fraser, who was training in the valley at the time. Fraser doubled for Henie in the ski scenes and received no screen credit.

Seven years later, at the nineteen forty-eight Winter Olympics in Saint Moritz, Switzerland, Gretchen Fraser became the first American ever to win an Olympic alpine skiing gold medal, taking the women's slalom. The anonymous ski double from the Sun Valley film had become the country's greatest ski champion. Sun Valley Serenade was a commercial success, and the tourism boost that followed was significant.

The resort's publicity operation had already been working to associate Sun Valley with celebrity, and a Hollywood film was the most powerful promotional tool available.