The El Rancho Hotel's D. W. Griffith Myth

Above, the El Rancho Hotel & Motel in Gallup, New Mexico. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

"This is the West, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend." - quote from The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962).

Around about the time I first heard of the El Rancho Hotel in Gallup, New Mexico, it was stated that it was built by the brother of noted Silent Era filmmaker D. W. Griffith, R. E. Griffith, so that actors and crew members would have a first-class hotel to stay at while filming in the Southwest.

Like a lot of things, there are stories that are true, some based on true incidents and some are complete fabrications. Well, we have one that is a complete fabrication it appears.

The Never Quite Lost website (or blog?) posted an article on "The Enduring Myth of Hotel El Rancho." In it the subject of D.W. and R.E. Griffith was brought up. 

Here's what it had to say:

Hotel El Rancho in Gallup, New Mexico, is as much a draw for tourists as it was when it opened in 1937 and one of the first things anyone is told about the hotel is that it was owned by the brother of the most famous film director of the early 20th century, David Wark ‘DW’ Griffith. Given its history as home to the stars, commemorated today by named rooms and copious photographs through the hotel, it’s easy to see why the idea that RE Griffith was related to such a movie legend has been repeated over and over again, by everyone from the National Parks Service to Wikipedia.

There’s one problem; it isn’t true.

There has always been something that has troubled me about the Griffith connection; I have a degree in film and have researched DW Griffith and I knew that, of his siblings, not one had a name beginning with R. So down the rabbit hole I went.

Rupert Earl Griffith was born in 1893 in Hallettville, Texas, the second son of Henry and Minnie Griffith. He had two brothers neither of which were David Wark and his only relationship with DW was that they shared a surname. 

The myth was further perpetuated in 2019 by the Lost Dutchman Chapter of E Clampus Vitus with their El Rancho Hotel plaque. 

Above, the El Rancho Hotel plaque placed in 2019 by the Lost
 Dutchman Chapter of E Clampus Vitus. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

It should be noted that the myth is not mentioned in the hotel's official website. 

To read more, go here.