The mystery of Gunnison's cameo appearance in a Barack Obama campaign film has been solved.

As reported in last week's Gunnison Country Times, several longtime residents and historians thought a three second black-and-white shot in what has become known as "the Obama infomercial" looked like the west side of the 200 block of N. Main Street in Gunnison, circa 1950. When old photos were compared to image captures from the film, it became certain that Gunnison made an anonymous appearance before 33.5 million television viewers on Wednesday, Oct. 29.

Several questions remained unanswered. Where did the footage come from? How did it end up in the Obama film? Why was it shot in the first place? And when was it shot?

The Times began searching for the answers.

The answer to the first question was fairly easy to guess. The Gunnison shot must have come from a stock footage library, most likely one that served the Hollywood film industry.

The Obama infomercial, "A Mother's Promise," was produced for the campaign by Electric Kinney Films of Santa Monica, Calif. Its associate producer, Michael Birtel, confirmed that they obtained the Gunnison footage from Getty Image Archives, along with various other historic shots used in the 30 minute film.

"There's no exciting story on why we selected that particular shot," Birtel said. The script called for a 1950s street scene and "we just felt it was a good image of small town America from the period."

The presence of the footage in a library also suggested that it was professionally shot. This narrowed the possibilities, as not too many movies have been made here over the years. "American Cowboy," a 31-minute documentary about ranching, made in 1950, became the leading candidate.

Conveniently, that film was available for viewing in an on-line archive and, sure enough, it contains a slightly longer, color version of the N. Main Street footage subsequently used in the Obama film.

Seeking the answers to these questions also revealed the largely forgotten film that provides a look at Gunnison over a half century ago.

"American Cowboy" was done by MPO Productions of New York City and supervised by the public relations arm of the Ford Motor Company. It tells the story of a newspaper reporter coming to Gunnison to meet real-life rancher Gus Roberson and learn about the life of a cowboy on his Ohio Creek Valley ranch.

Roberson's daughter is Sandra Dowis, who has worked at Western State College for more than 30 years. She did not see the Obama film and was surprised when told that some of the footage from "American Cowboy" had ended up in it.

Dowis remembers the film featuring her father being shot in 1950. "It was a big deal," she said. "They made several visits to film at different times of the year. It was something different for the ranch hands and was fun while it was happening. There was a party atmosphere."

The film includes ranching scenes, cattle drives into the mountains, the Cattlemen's Days parade up Main Street, the rodeo, and loading cattle onto the train for shipment to market. It also prominently includes several Ford vehicles in an early example of "product placement."

Dowis recalls the pride the ranching community had that a film was made "about our community and industry." The film makers returned for a local premiere that was held at the rodeo grounds. At that time, they presented Gus Roberson with a 1951 Ford to thank him for his help.

Roberson sold the ranch "a couple of years later," according to Dowis, and moved to Amarillo, Texas, where he worked for the American Quarter Horse Association. He returned to Gunnison when he retired in the late 1970s, and passed away in 1996 at the age of 83.

"American Cowboy," starring Gus Roberson, is now available for on-line viewing at www.gunnisontimes.com.