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The Independent
11-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Real-life chilling photograph from The Shining found decades later
The real-life photo behind one of the most iconic scenes in cult classic, The Shining, has been found. Stanley Kubrick 's film, which was released in 1980, is considered one of the best horror films of all time and has become an annual Halloween staple. The film has also been the subject of numerous books and documentaries and, in these projects, film theorists have dissected the film, sharing ideas and hidden references featured within every scene. But one moment in the film has remained a mystery for over 45 years. At the end of the movie, Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) is seen in a black-and-white group photo at the Overlook Hotel, after his mental state increasingly deteriorates due to the psychological force of the building. The eerie snap reveals that Torrance, inexplicably, has always been a part of the hotel. Now, after a year of investigation, New York Times journalist Alec Toler and British academic Alasdair Spark have found an obscure reference to the photo in a book from the 1980s that reported the original had been taken from an archive, with Nicholson's head pasted on at the front. According to a thread by Toler on X/Twitter, Spark recognised Santos Casani, a famous dancer and jazz instructor in London during the 1920s, which helped them narrow down the timeline and location. Casani also wore a prosthetic nose so the pair were able to 'triangulate the rough date when his nose matched the photo'. Toler and Spark looked through hundreds, 'maybe thousands', of 'British newspaper archive pages, old photos from jazz clubs, building blueprints/floor plans, dance instruction videos, etc, but never found any places that matched', After much sleuthing, they narrowed down the source: the BBC Hulton Archive, which was later purchased by Getty. Their conclusion was confirmed by Murray Close, a photographer who worked with Kubrick on The Shining. The photo is from a Valentine's dance held on 14 February 1921 at the Empress Ballroom in the Royal Palace Hotel in London. Spark told Getty Archives: "The photo doesn't show any of the celebrities I had speculated on – the Trix Sisters for instance - nor the bankers, financiers or presidents others like Rob Ager have imagined there. No devil worshippers either. Nobody was composited into it except Jack Nicholson. It shows a group of ordinary London people on a Monday evening. 'All the best people' as the manager of the Overlook Hotel said." Fans were pleased with the revelation saying: 'If these people only knew their group photo would become an iconic prop in one of the greatest horror films of all times...'
Yahoo
09-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Iconic ‘The Shining' Photograph Is Traced Back to a Real-Life 1921 Valentine's Day Dance in London
The legendary group photo 'proving' that Jack Nicholson's Jack Torrance never really left the Overlook Hotel in 'The Shining' has been finally found in real life, 45 years later. Stanley Kubrick's iconic film was released in 1980, with Nicholson and Shelley Duvall playing two parents who relocate to a remote resort to look after the empty property during its offseason. As struggling author Jack descends into madness, the blood-soaked past of the Overlook Hotel infiltrates his tenuous understanding of the present. The final sequence in which the audience sees Jack in one of the old photographs at the Overlook is one of the most famous scenes of the film. More from IndieWire 'The Studio' Gets Closer to Real Life: Hershey Chocolate Movie in the Works with Finn Wittrock and Alexandra Daddario Hilary Swank: Hollywood Was 'More Patriarchal Than Ever' at the Start of My Career Now, New York Times reporter Aric Toler has sourced where the photo exactly was from, and who was really in it. Toler wrote in a thread on X that he worked with retired British academic Alasdair Spark for almost a year to solve the 'mystery' of the picture, wondering 'where did the original photo from the end of 'The Shining' come from, and where/when was it captured?' Toler discovered that the original photo was taken from the BBC Hulton Archive, which was later purchased by Getty Images. Murray Close, a photographer who worked on 'The Shining,' confirmed to Toler that this is where the image was taken from, with Nicholson's face being 'pasted on' on the body of famous jazz dance instructor Santos Casani. The photo itself is from a Valentine's dance on February 14, 1921 at the Empress Ballroom in the Royal Palace Hotel in London. 'The Shining' fans can recreate the image, in part, by visiting The Stanley Hotel, the real Colorado resort that inspired Kubrick. The resort was transformed into an immersive horror experience in 2024 from Peacock and Blumhouse. Producer Jason Blum is set to curate an ongoing horror cinema exhibit housed within the hotel in partnership with the Colorado Office of Film, Television, and Media. The making of 'The Shining' on location was also captured in 2024 documentary 'Shine On — The Forgotten 'Shining' Location,' as produced in partnership with the Stanley Kubrick Film Archive and the late auteur's estate. Best of IndieWire Guillermo del Toro's Favorite Movies: 56 Films the Director Wants You to See 'Song of the South': 14 Things to Know About Disney's Most Controversial Movie The 55 Best LGBTQ Movies and TV Shows Streaming on Netflix Right Now
