All Play and No Work…

There is a ski lodge high on Mount Hood that you may have seen before.  It’s Timberline Lodge; and while its story as a WPA project is worth a read, and its interior a marvel in American craftsmanship, you probably know it best from its short screen time as the framing shot for the fictional Overlook Hotel in Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining.  Now allow me to be upfront about this; Timberline Lodge is not the Overlook Hotel.  The hotel was a set piece, and the interior of the Timberline looks nothing like the faded glory of the Overlook.  However, there’s information about the movie proudly displayed in the hotel and the Lodge hosts the annual “Overlook Film Festival”; a bit of a perverse thrill in telling its guests that they are sleeping in closest thing to the Overlook.  (According to the Lodge’s website, room #217 — the original room in Stephen King’s book — is the most requested room.)

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