"Shining's Iconic Final Shot Photo Found After 45 Years"

Stanley Kubrick's 1980 adaptation of The Shining is renowned for its haunting final shot, featuring a photograph from the 1921 Fourth of July ball at the Overlook Hotel with Jack Torrance (played by Jack Nicholson) prominently displayed, despite the fact that Torrance was not yet born in 1921. This image, which had Nicholson superimposed over it, was believed to have faded into obscurity until recently. Now, 45 years after the film's release, the original 1921 photograph has been discovered.

Retired academic Alasdair Spark from the University of Winchester shared the journey of uncovering this image on Getty's Instagram. He revealed that the photo was one of three taken by the Topical Press Agency at a St. Valentine's Day Ball on February 14, 1921, at the Empress Rooms in the Royal Palace Hotel, Kensington. Spark identified the man in the photo as Santos Casani, a London ballroom dancer, using facial recognition software. The post also featured a new scan from the original glass-plate negative and other supporting handwritten documents.

Spark, along with New York Times staffer Arick Toller and dedicated Redditors, embarked on a challenging quest to find the image. "It was starting to seem impossible, every cross-reference to Casani failed to match. Other likely places that were suggested didn’t match," Spark noted. The team feared the photo might be lost forever, but their persistence paid off.

Spark learned from on-set photographer Murray Close, who captured the image of Nicholson used in the film, that the original photo was sourced from the BBC Hulton Library. Knowing that Hulton had acquired Topical Press in 1958 and that Getty later took over in 1991, Spark searched through Getty's extensive archives. They discovered that the image was licensed to Hawk Films, Kubrick's production company, on October 10, 1978, for use in The Shining.

Spark concluded, "Joan Smith had said the photo dated from 1923. Stanley Kubrick had said 1921 and he was correct. The photo doesn’t show any of the celebrities I had speculated on — the Trix Sisters for instance — nor the bankers, financiers or presidents others like Rob Ager have imagined there. No devil worshippers either. Nobody was composited into it except Jack Nicholson. It shows a group of ordinary London people on a Monday evening. ‘All the best people,’ as the manager of the Overlook Hotel said."

This discovery is sure to thrill fans of The Shining. Stephen King's novel was released in 1977 and has been adapted twice: Kubrick's iconic film and Mick Garris' book-accurate 1997 miniseries.