''The Fallbrook Story'' (1952) is a short subject film that told the story of a water rights battle between the citizens of the

Fallbrook, California Fallbrook is a CDP in northern San Diego County, California. Fallbrook had a population of 30,534 at the 2010 census, up from 29,100 at the 2000 census. Fallbrook's downtown is not on a major highway route. It is west of Interstate 15 or n ...

area and the federal government. The government wanted to have exclusive rights to the water from the Santa Margarita river for the use of adjacent

Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton is the major West Coast base of the United States Marine Corps and is one of the largest Marine Corps bases in the United States. It is on the Southern California coast in San Diego County and is bordered by O ...

, a U.S. Marine Corps base, in conflict with the established use by local ranchers. At the time film director Frank Capra served on the Board of the local water agency, the Fallbrook Public Utilities District ("FPUD"). He produced the short film (without on screen credit) to tell the story from the ranchers perspective, leading to front page publicity from the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...

''. As a result, the federal government subsequently withdrew their claim on exclusive use of the water. The film was introduced on camera by

Cecil B. DeMille Cecil Blount DeMille (; August 12, 1881January 21, 1959) was an American film director, producer and actor. Between 1914 and 1958, he made 70 features, both silent and sound films. He is acknowledged as a founding father of the American cine ...

. A copy of the 16mm film is in the archives of the Fallbrook Historical Society.

References

1952 films 1950s short documentary films 1952 documentary films Water and politics Documentary films about water and the environment Water in California American short documentary films 1950s English-language films 1950s American films {{environment-documentary-film-stub