Mammoth Area Avoids Fallout From ‘Volcano’

The Mammoth Mountain Ski Area says it successfully objected to plans to use Mammoth Lakes as the name of the locale in the recent TV movie “Volcano: Fire on the Mountain” after finding the script “offensive and exaggerated.”

After discussions between representatives of the ski area and producers at Davis Entertainment Co. of Century City, the name of the setting for the ABC film was changed to Angel Lakes, both parties confirmed.

Despite going up against the smash hit “Schindler’s List,” the volcano movie did quite well with the TV audience on Feb. 23. It ranked 17th for the week and was seen by an estimated 18.3 million people.

But with two volcanologists, as well as the Mammoth Mountain Ski Area, it was not popular, and criticisms against it on scientific grounds were even sharper than voiced by scientists against the film “Dante’s Peak.”

David Hill, the U.S. Geological Survey scientist in charge of monitoring volcanic activity near Mammoth Lakes, said “Fire on the Mountain” contained so many inaccuracies about volcanic situations that he found it “painful to watch.”

And Stanley Williams, a volcanologist at Arizona State University, said he refused to serve as a consultant on the film after he ascertained its producers “were more interested in creating excitement than in scientific fact.”

Donna Ebbs, who as Davis Entertainment’s vice president of development dealt with the Mammoth Mountain request, conceded in brief remarks that “this was not a scientific movie. It was an entertainment project.”

Ebbs confirmed that Davis Entertainment had agreed to not use the Mammoth name, but she said the producers had been thinking of changing names even before she was contacted by Pam Murphy, marketing director of the Mammoth Mountain Ski Area.

Ebbs initially agreed to a more extended interview, to which she promised to bring a producer, to answer criticisms of the movie. But her assistant, Scott Weinstein, called before it was to be held to cancel it. Weinstein would not give a reason.

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Murphy said that in her discussions with Ebbs and other Davis Entertainment personnel, no one ever suggested that a name change had been contemplated before she made contact, but that, ultimately, the production company changed the name “without much resistance.”

Murphy said Mammoth officials had become concerned upon reading the script after getting a copy anonymously in the mail. The scene at Mammoth in many respects resembles what was shown in the movie, with a ski lodge right next to the mountain.

“I personally didn’t think it was a very good movie at all,” Murphy said. “It indicated we would take almost a cavalier attitude when skiers disappeared, and this is just not so.

“It portrayed the mayor of the town as putting monetary considerations above visitors’ safety. I know him, and this would never be the case.

“Those were among the things we were offended by.”

Hill said he thought the conclusion of the movie, in which an avalanche is triggered to cut off a volcanic flow and save those in a ski lodge, was a serious distortion of reality.

“If this were ever tried, it could create a lahar [a mud flow] that would widen the devastation and kill everyone in the vicinity,” he said.

Davis Entertainment has produced such films as “The Firm” and “Courage Under Fire.” Its chairman is John Davis, son of movie and oil magnate Marvin Davis.

Since 1980, when four magnitude 6 earthquakes struck in the Mammoth Lakes area in a two-day period, the Geological Survey has been extensively monitoring for a possible resumption of volcanic activity last seen in the vicinity more than 200 years ago.