Warren Miller

Every year about this time something tugs at my heartstrings. The lure of skiing as made famous by photographer, filmmaker and writer, Warren Miller. I ask myself every year why this is so.

When I was young, in my tweens and teens, we were a skiing family. My father, my mother and my brother all skied. And so did I. At first learning was hard. Nobody likes getting tangled up in a rope tow. The ultimate in humiliation let me tell you. As the years went by, my father befriended a dynamic skier from Vermont by the name of Clif Taylor. Dubbed the Instant Skier, Clif had just invented a revolutionary new way to teach people skiing – short-ee skis. Using Clif’s method you graduated from a two foot ski to longer lengths over the course of time and at the end you were skiing on the big dogs. Later this form of teaching would be christened the graduated length method. So I learned to ski and I loved it.

Every November, between Halloween and Thanksgiving, the Ski Show would come to town. It was held at whatever was the convention center of the moment and was the place where skiers could gather and get jazzed about the upcoming season. Equipment manufacturers where there showing off the new lines of boots, skis and bindings. Each of the ski shops (and there were several in those ancient times) had a temporary store where you could ogle new gear and shop for bargains. There was usually a Ski Deck (a giant carpeted treadmill) where instructors would demonstrate the latest techniques. Every local ski area would have a booth as would many from the west and east coast. My father, who was a photographer and filmmaker, was the official photographer of the show and also had a booth, so we could go as many times as we wanted. Correct that, I had to go as many times as he wanted. Sometimes I’d man the booth and other times I’d haul my Dad’s equipment. All in all it was a pretty fun time.

For all of that though, the main event by the Big Kahuna was the Warren Miller show. Lots of people, including my father, made ski movies, but Miller’s films were the biggest and best and eagerly anticipated each year. In the beginning Warren would personally narrate each showing in his unique style so you could actually meet the man. Later on he used soundtracks; but the movies never changed. They were always funny and exciting travelogues with some downright breathtaking scenes. Although you knew you’d die if you ever did those things, it was fun to imagine yourself trying.

Miller was born October 14, 1924, in Hollywood, California. As a child he enjoyed skiing, surfing and photography. After a stint in the Navy during World War II, he bought an 8mm movie camera and moved to Sun Valley, Idaho where he and a friend, Ward Baker, set up camp in the parking lot of the Sun Valley Ski Resort. They lived in a teardrop shaped trailer, earned a living as ski instructors and filmed each other skiing and surfing. Warren started to show his skiing and surfing films to friends with a running monologue of jokes and commentary. He then began to receive invitations to show and narrate his films at parties and in 1949, he founded Warren Miller Entertainment. Thus began the long-standing tradition of producing one feature-length ski film a year beginning in 1950 with Deep and Light. At one point he was screening his latest film in 130 cities a year.

At the end of the 1980s, Miller sold the company to his son, Kurt Miller, who sold it to Time Warner, who then sold it to Bonnier Corporation in 2007. Warren has not been actively involved with production since 2004 and has been critical of recent productions -- so much so that he has said that he will never work with the company that bears his name again.

Since then, in 2010, Miller announced the launch of the Warren Miller Company, an organization representing his professional and philanthropic interests established over 20 years ago. Currently, Warren Miller and his wife Laurie split their time between Orcas Island in the San Juan Islands north of Seattle and the Yellowstone Club in Big Sky, Montana.

Although Warren is no longer involved in film making, every time I hear his voice I am transported back to that darkened auditorium at the Ski Show and those thrills, chills and laughs. And each year there was the same closing line:

"I'm Warren Miller. I'll see you next year, same time, same place."

He single handedly created a film genre (according to Miller some 200 filmmakers have come and gone) and nobody did it better than Warren. This winter try to check out one of his older films, many of which are available on Amazon.com here.