One month before its national release in 1972, Robert Redford would attend a preview of his movie “Jeremiah Johnson” at the Chief Theater in Pocatello to honor the original author of the book it was based on.

The movie, which Redford would later cite as his favorite that he starred in, was based on the book “Mountain Man” by Vardis Fisher, who wrote it as a tribute to his father and other men who founded Ririe, Idaho. Fisher believed these foundational fathers were the last of the true mountain men.

Redford himself, the movie's director Sydney Pollack and the author's widow Opal Laurel Fisher attended the preview. The proceeds of both the Pocatello movie preview and Boise premiere would go to benefit the Vardis Fisher memorial fund, a fellowship and literary scholarship for the late Fish

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