A real-life photograph that inspired one of the most chilling scenes in Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining has been discovered after over four decades.
The scene in question, at the film’s conclusion, shows Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) in a black-and-white group photo at the Overlook Hotel. This eerie image has perplexed fans for years, as it suggests that Torrance was always part of the hotel, long before his arrival.
After a year-long investigation by New York Times journalist Alec Toler and British academic Alasdair Spark, the source of the photo has been traced to a 1921 Valentine’s Day dance at the Empress Ballroom in the Royal Palace Hotel, London. The photograph, initially thought to be a fabricated image for the film, was confirmed by Murray Close, a photographer who worked on The Shining. Nicholson’s head was digitally added to the historical photo, creating the unsettling illusion that Torrance had always been part of the hotel.
Toler and Spark’s research led them to the BBC Hulton Archive, which was later acquired by Getty. They identified Santos Casani, a well-known dancer from the 1920s, as one of the people in the image. Their discovery adds a fascinating layer of history to the legendary scene.
As Spark explained to Getty Archives, the photo reveals a group of ordinary Londoners at the event, with no celebrities or sinister figures as some fans had speculated. The discovery has delighted fans of the film, with many expressing amazement at the idea that these “ordinary” people unknowingly became part of cinematic history.
For many, this revelation only deepens the mystique and enduring legacy of Kubrick’s horror masterpiece.
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