Stanley Kubrick's 1980 film adaptation of The Shining is renowned for its chilling final scene, which features a haunting photograph from the Overlook Hotel’s 1921 Fourth of July ball. In this iconic image, Jack Torrance (played by Jack Nicholson) appears prominently, despite the fact that he had not yet been born at the time the photo was supposedly taken. The image used in the film was a real photograph that had been altered to include Nicholson, and the original had remained elusive until recently. Now, 45 years after the film's release, the original 1921 Fourth of July ball photograph has finally been uncovered.
Alasdair Spark, a retired academic from the University of Winchester, detailed the journey to find the image on Getty's Instagram. He explained that following the identification of the unknown man in the photograph as Santos Casani, a London ballroom dancer, using facial recognition software, he discovered that the photo was one of three taken by the Topical Press Agency at a St. Valentine's Day Ball on February 14, 1921, at the Empress Rooms in the Royal Palace Hotel, Kensington. The post included a new scan from the original glass-plate negative and additional handwritten documents corroborating the photo's authenticity.
Spark, along with New York Times staffer Arick Toller and dedicated Redditors, embarked on an extensive search to locate the image. Despite numerous dead ends and the fear that the photo might be lost forever, they persevered. Spark had been informed by on-set photographer Murray Close, who captured the image of Nicholson that was superimposed over Casani, that the original picture came from the BBC Hulton Library. Knowing that Hulton had acquired Topical Press in 1958 and that Getty took over in 1991, Spark decided to delve into Getty's vast archives. This search led to the discovery that the image was licensed to Hawk Films, Kubrick's production company, on October 10, 1978, for use in The Shining.
Spark clarified that the photo dates back to 1921, as Kubrick had stated, not 1923 as previously suggested by Joan Smith. He noted that the photograph does not feature any of the speculated celebrities, such as the Trix Sisters, nor any bankers, financiers, or presidents, as some theorists like Rob Ager had proposed. There were no devil worshippers either; the only alteration was the addition of Jack Nicholson. The photo simply captures a group of ordinary Londoners enjoying a Monday evening, fitting the manager of the Overlook Hotel's description of them as "all the best people."
This revelation is sure to delight fans of The Shining. Stephen King's novel, released in 1977, has been adapted twice: once by Kubrick in his iconic film and again in a 1997 miniseries directed by Mick Garris, which closely followed the book.
