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

Stanley Kubrick's 1980 film adaptation of The Shining boasts one of the most chilling final scenes in cinematic history: a haunting photograph from the Overlook Hotel's 1921 Fourth of July ball, featuring Jack Torrance (played by Jack Nicholson) prominently, despite him not yet being born. This image, which was a real photograph altered for the film, had faded into obscurity until now. After 45 years since the movie's release, the original 1921 Fourth of July ball photograph has finally been rediscovered.

Alasdair Spark, a retired academic from the University of Winchester, shared the journey of uncovering the image on Getty's Instagram. He explained, "Following the earlier identification by facial recognition software of the unknown man in the photograph at the end of The Shining as Santos Casani, a London ballroom dancer, I can reveal that the photo was one of three taken by the Topical Press Agency at a St. Valentines Day Ball, 14 February 1921, at the Empress Rooms, the Royal Palace Hotel, Kensington." Alongside his post, Spark included a new scan from the image’s original glass-plate negative and other supportive handwritten documents.

The quest to find this image was a challenging endeavor, involving Spark, New York Times staffer Arick Toller, and numerous dedicated Redditors. Spark detailed their efforts: "It was starting to seem impossible, every cross-reference to Casani failed to match. Other likely places that were suggested didn’t match. There were some places we could not find images for and we started to fear that meant the photo might be lost to history, and never be found."

Spark also mentioned that Murray Close, the on-set photographer who captured the image of Nicholson that was superimposed over Casani for the film, had informed him that the photograph 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 decided to search through Getty’s vast collection. This search led to the discovery 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 delight fans of the film. Stephen King's novel The Shining, released in 1977, has been adapted twice: Kubrick's iconic film and Mick Garris' more faithful 1997 miniseries.