''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 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 Oc ...

, a

U.S. Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through comb ...

base, in conflict with the established use by local ranchers. At the time film director

Frank Capra Frank Russell Capra (born Francesco Rosario Capra; May 18, 1897 – September 3, 1991) was an Italian-born American film director, producer and writer who became the creative force behind some of the major award-winning films of the 1930s ...

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 Un ...

''. 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 cinem ...

. 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