Warren Miller’s Story: You May Be A Skier Because Of Him

New Autobiography Shows How Miller Created Skiing’s Visual Brand.

For any senior who’s ever attended a Warren Miller film, Freedom Found, My Life Story will provide an intriguing look at skiing history as well as Miller’s success story. The autobiography is a must-read for anyone with a mindset to dig into the ups-and-downs of skiing—and real life.

Freedom Found is also a candid, moving, and adventurous story of how Miller became America’s most famous and prolific maker of ski and sports films.

As Miller details his journey from childhood deprivation to filmmaker success, he delves into the effects of being an “invisible” child during the Depression. In sharing his dysfunctional family life—alcoholic father doesn’t work, mother incarcerated, embezzlements—he shows how parental neglect led to his own drive to work hard.

He also acknowledges the saving grace of grandparents who provided attention at just the right times—an inventor grandfather who teaches him skills in his workshop and pays him for work; a grandmother whose gifts (bicycle, roller skates, Scout uniform) provide the attention and help needed. Living with them for two years while his mother was “away,” Miller finds the support that “changed my life” and gets to join the Boy Scouts in 1936 at age 12, another life-changing event.

Loving the outdoors, he enjoys hiking and learning to ski with his troop. By taking Scout trip photos with his 39-cent Univex camera and selling a print, he discovers the profit motive, commenting, “This was the kernel of the idea that taking pictures of great places would be a good way to make a living.”

It was skiing and surfing—he lived in Hollywood near the ocean and a teacher helped him make his first surfboard—that provided an escape to a world of delight and freedom. Miller graduated to even more freedom with his driver’s license, and soon his filmmaking turns into a career, starting with Surfing Daze in 1949 and Deep and Light in 1950.

An “original ski bum,” Miller lived out of a trailer and cooked over a camp stove to afford his ski habit and to make films. Marketing his ski features as fundraisers—for ski shops, clubs, organizations—he built his touring business into a huge success by personally narrating the showings (narration tracks came later). He entertained us with wry humor and comedic ski scenes—frustrating rope tow struggles, awkward situations (splitting stretch pants, etc.), crazy crashes—and inspired us to ski with his thrilling action shots and gorgeous scenery.

Warren’s success helped build skier participation and was a major contributor to the 1960s and 1970s ski boom. I saw that firsthand after showing The Sound of Winter (1970) to two high school assemblies and at an evening fundraiser: several non-skiing students joined our ski club and parents came forth to chaperone! The proceeds paid for the bus to Whiteface and made possible a $70 six-day trip (skiing, lessons, lodging, meals). To say thousands took up skiing because they enjoyed his films is an understatement.

Warren sold his film company in 2004, but the Warren Miller Entertainment (WME) film tour lives on. This year’s feature Here, There, and Everywhere (reviewed here by Seniorsskiing.com co-publisher Jon Weisberg) weaves the Warren story into several segments.

The just-published, 444-page biography, written with collaborator Andy Bigford whose 35 years in publishing include SKI Magazine and WME, is available at bookstores, warrenmiller.net, and via online outlets. Suggested retail price is $29.95.