Remembering Salt

The Kootenay region of British Columbia is full of hidden historical events that have long been forgotten. The showing of Salt of the Earth at the Castle Theatre on December 15 and 16, 1954, was one such event. The blacklisted Hollywood movie was seen by 900 viewers who paid 70 cents each (35 cents for children) to see what the CBC film critic Nathan Cohen called "an exciting experience, a deeply human drama in the documentary manner perfected by the Italians in such masterpieces as Open City, The Bicycle Thief, and Shoe Shine." This booklet argues that it is worth celebrating the courage shown by those who dared sponsor the original showing in 1954, those who dared to see it, and those today who see the value of revisiting that time of repression and political intolerance that infected all North America right down to this rural region of B.C.