A movie ranch is a
ranch
A ranch (from es, rancho/Mexican Spanish) is an area of land, including various structures, given primarily to ranching, the practice of raising grazing livestock such as cattle and sheep. It is a subtype of a farm. These terms are most ofte ...
that is at least partially dedicated for use as a set in the creation and production of
motion pictures
A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...
and
television
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...
shows. These were developed in the United States in southern California, because of the climate. The first such facilities were all within the
studio zone
The studio zone, also known as the thirty-mile zone (TMZ), is an area defined by a radius of "Hollywood" used by the American entertainment industry to determine employee benefits for filmwork done within it. Its center has traditionally been ...
, often in the foothills of the
San Fernando Valley,
Santa Clarita Valley
The Santa Clarita Valley (SCV) is part of the upper watershed of the Santa Clara River in Southern California. The valley was part of the Rancho San Francisco Mexican land grant. Located in Los Angeles County, its main population center is th ...
, and
Simi Valley
Simi Valley (; Chumash: ''Shimiyi'') is a city in the valley of the same name in the southeast region of Ventura County, California, United States. Simi Valley is from Downtown Los Angeles, making it part of the Greater Los Angeles Area. The ...
in the U.S. state of
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
.
Movie ranches were developed in the 1920s for
location shooting
Location shooting is the shooting of a film or television production in a real-world setting rather than a sound stage or backlot. The location may be interior or exterior.
The filming location may be the same in which the story is set (for ex ...
in
Southern California
Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most populous urban a ...
to support the making of popular
western
Western may refer to:
Places
*Western, Nebraska, a village in the US
*Western, New York, a town in the US
*Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western world, countries that id ...
films. Finding it difficult to recreate the topography of the Old West on
sound stage
A sound stage (also written soundstage) is a soundproof, large structure, building, or room with large doors and high ceilings, used for the production of theatrical film-making and television productions, usually located on a secured movie or ...
s and studio
backlot
A backlot is an area behind or adjoining a movie studio containing permanent exterior buildings for outdoor scenes in filmmaking or television productions, or space for temporary set construction.
Uses
Some movie studios build a wide variety of ...
s, the Hollywood studios went to the rustic valleys, canyons and foothills of
Southern California
Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most populous urban a ...
for filming locations. Other large-scale productions, such as war films, also needed large, undeveloped settings for outdoor scenes, such as battles.
History
To achieve greater scope, productions conducted
location shooting
Location shooting is the shooting of a film or television production in a real-world setting rather than a sound stage or backlot. The location may be interior or exterior.
The filming location may be the same in which the story is set (for ex ...
in distant parts of California,
Arizona
Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...
, and
Nevada
Nevada ( ; ) is a state in the Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the 7th-most extensive, ...
. Initially production staff were required to cover their own travel expenses, resulting in disputes between workers and the studios. The studios agreed to pay union workers extra if they worked out of town. The definition of "out of town" was defined as a distance of greater than from the studio, or beyond the
studio zone
The studio zone, also known as the thirty-mile zone (TMZ), is an area defined by a radius of "Hollywood" used by the American entertainment industry to determine employee benefits for filmwork done within it. Its center has traditionally been ...
.
To solve this problem, many movie studios purchased large tracts of undeveloped rural land, in many cases existing
ranch
A ranch (from es, rancho/Mexican Spanish) is an area of land, including various structures, given primarily to ranching, the practice of raising grazing livestock such as cattle and sheep. It is a subtype of a farm. These terms are most ofte ...
es, that were located closer to Hollywood. The ranches were often located just within the perimeter, specifically in the
Simi Hills
The Simi Hills are a low rocky mountain range of the Transverse Ranges in eastern Ventura County and western Los Angeles County, of southern California, United States.
Geography
The Simi Hills are aligned east-west and run for , and average aro ...
in the western
San Fernando Valley, the
Santa Monica Mountains
The Santa Monica Mountains is a coastal mountain range in Southern California, next to the Pacific Ocean. It is part of the Transverse Ranges. Because of its proximity to densely populated regions, it is one of the most visited natural areas in ...
, and the
Santa Clarita
Santa Clarita (; Spanish for "Little St. Clare") is a city in northwestern Los Angeles County in the U.S. state of California. With a 2020 census population of 228,673, it is the third-largest city by population in Los Angeles County, the 17t ...
area of the
Greater Los Angeles Area
Greater Los Angeles is the second-largest metropolitan region in the United States with a population of 18.5 million in 2021, encompassing five counties in Southern California extending from Ventura County in the west to San Bernardino Coun ...
. The natural California landscape proved to be suitable for western locations and other settings.
As a result of
post-war (WWII) era
suburban development, property values and taxes on land increased, even as fewer large parcels were available to the studios.
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...
development was widespread, resulting in
urban sprawl
Urban sprawl (also known as suburban sprawl or urban encroachment) is defined as "the spreading of urban developments (such as houses and shopping centers) on undeveloped land near a city." Urban sprawl has been described as the unrestricted growt ...
. Most of the historic movie ranches have been sold and subdivided. A few have been preserved as open space in
regional park A regional park is an area of land preserved on account of its natural beauty, historic interest, recreational use or other reason, and under the administration of a form of local government.
Definition
A regional park can be a special park distri ...
s, and are sometimes still used for filming. In addition, studios have developed movie ranches in other regions, such as
New Mexico
)
, population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano)
, seat = Santa Fe
, LargestCity = Albuquerque
, LargestMetro = Tiguex
, OfficialLang = None
, Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ke ...
,
Arizona
Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...
, and
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...
.
Below is a partial listing of some of the classic
Southern California
Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most populous urban a ...
movie ranches from the first half of the 20th century, including some other and newer locations.
Classic movie ranches
Apacheland Movie Ranch (Apacheland Studio)
![Apacheland Movie Ranch in Arizona](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5b/Apacheland_Movie_Ranch_in_Arizona.jpg)
Located in the town of
Apache Junction, Arizona, the Apacheland Movie Ranch and Apacheland Studio was developed from 1959 to 1960 and opened in 1960. Starting in late 1957, movie studios had been contacting Superstition Mountain-area ranchers, including the Quarter Circle U, the Quarter Circle W, and the Barkley Cattle Ranch, for options to use their properties as town sets. One notable production during this time was ''
Gunfight at the O.K. Corral
The gunfight at the O.K. Corral was a thirty-second shootout between law enforcement officer, lawmen led by Virgil Earp and members of a loosely organized group of outlaws called the Cochise County Cowboys, Cowboys that occurred at about 3: ...
'' (1957) with
Kirk Douglas and
Burt Lancaster. Though historically inaccurate, it features the area known as Gold Canyon, with the Superstitions prominent behind the movie's representation of the Clanton ranch. During this time, Victor Panek contacted his neighbors in Apache Junction, Mr. and Mrs. J.K. Hutchens, to suggest the idea of building a dedicated studio in the Superstition area. Hutchens and Panek found a suitable site that was developed into Apacheland, intended to be the "Western Movie Capitol of the World".
Construction on the Apacheland Studio soundstage and adjacent "western town" set began on February 12, 1959, by Superstition Mountain Enterprises and associates. By June 1960, Apacheland was available for use by production companies and its first TV western ''
Have Gun, Will Travel'' was filmed in November 1960, along with its first full-length movie ''
The Purple Hills
''The Purple Hills'' (originally titled "The Vanishing Frontier") is a 1961 American Western film directed by Maury Dexter and written by Russ Bender and Edith Cash Pearl. The film stars Gene Nelson, Kent Taylor, Danny Zapien, Medford Salway, ...
''. Actors such as
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one ...
,
Jason Robards
Jason Nelson Robards Jr. (July 26, 1922 – December 26, 2000) was an American actor. Known as an interpreter of the works of playwright Eugene O'Neill, Robards received two Academy Awards, a Tony Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and the Cannes ...
,
Stella Stevens
Stella Stevens (born Estelle Eggleston; October 1, 1938) is a American former actress. She began her acting career in 1959 and starred in such popular films as '' Girls! Girls! Girls!'' (1962), '' The Nutty Professor'' (1963), ''The Courtship of ...
,
Ronald Reagan, and
Audie Murphy
Audie Leon Murphy (20 June 1925 – 28 May 1971) was an American soldier, actor and songwriter. He was one of the most decorated American combat soldiers of World War II. He received every military combat award for valor available from t ...
filmed many other western television shows and movies in Apacheland and the surrounding area, such as ''Gambler II'', ''
Death Valley Days
''Death Valley Days'' is an American old-time radio and television anthology series featuring true accounts of the American Old West, particularly the Death Valley country of southeastern California. Created in 1930 by Ruth Woodman, the program ...
'', ''
Charro!
''Charro!'' is a 1969 American Western film starring Elvis Presley, shot on location at Apacheland Movie Ranch and Old Tucson Studios in Arizona. This was Presley's only film in which he did not sing on-screen; the film featured no songs at all ...
'', and ''
The Ballad of Cable Hogue
''The Ballad of Cable Hogue'' is a 1970 American Technicolor Western comedy film directed by Sam Peckinpah and starring Jason Robards, Stella Stevens and David Warner. Set in the Arizona desert during a period when the frontier was closing, t ...
''. The last full-length movie to be filmed was the 1994 HBO movie ''
Blind Justice'' with Armand Assante, Elisabeth Shue, and Jack Black.
On May 26, 1969, fire destroyed most of the ranch. Only a few buildings survived, but the sets were soon rebuilt to accommodate ongoing productions. A second fire destroyed most of Apacheland on February 14, 2004. The causes of both fires were never determined. On October 16, 2004, Apacheland was permanently closed. The Elvis Chapel and the Apacheland Barn, both of which survived the second fire, were donated to the Superstition Mountain Museum. Each structure was partially disassembled at the ranch, moved by truck, and reassembled on the museum grounds, where both stand today.
Big Sky Ranch
Big Sky Ranch is a cattle ranch located in
Simi Valley, California
Simi Valley (; Chumashan languages, Chumash: ''Shimiyi'') is a city in Simi Valley (valley), the valley of the same name in the southeast region of Ventura County, California, United States. Simi Valley is from Downtown Los Angeles, making it ...
. It has been used for the filming of Western
television shows
A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, or cable, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are typically placed betw ...
and film productions. Some of the past television episodes and productions filmed there include: ''
Rawhide'', ''
Gunsmoke'', ''
Bonanza'', ''
Little House on the Prairie
The ''Little House on the Prairie'' books is a series of American children's novels written by Laura Ingalls Wilder (b. Laura Elizabeth Ingalls). The stories are based on her childhood and adolescence in the American Midwest (Wisconsin, Kansas, ...
'', ''
Highway to Heaven
''Highway to Heaven'' is an American fantasy drama television series that ran on NBC from September 19, 1984, to August 4, 1989. The series starred Michael Landon as Jonathan Smith, an angel sent to Earth in order to help people in need. Victo ...
'', ''
Father Murphy
''Father Murphy'' is an American western drama television series that aired on the NBC network from November 3, 1981, to September 18, 1983. Michael Landon created the series, was the executive producer, and directed the show in partnership wi ...
'', ''
The Thorn Birds'', ''
Jericho'' and ''
Carnivàle''.
A fire in 2003 destroyed most of the standing sets, including a replica of the farm house from ''Little House on the Prairie'' and sets used in the TV series ''Gunsmoke'' and many movies.
, the ranch's web site indicated that it was still available as a filming location, "with rolling hills and great vistas and .. with secluded canyons, undulating valleys and a grand mesa. Credits in the past few years include "The Office", "Saving Mr. Banks", "Captain America", "Django Unchained", "Agents of SHIELD", "Hail Caesar", "The Revenant"
Corriganville Movie Ranch
![Actors in a death scene at Corriganville Movie Ranch, California, 1963](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d5/Actors_in_a_death_scene_at_Corriganville_Movie_Ranch%2C_California%2C_1963.jpg)
Circa 1937,
Ray "Crash" Corrigan
Ray "Crash" Corrigan (born Raymond Benitz; February 14, 1902 – August 10, 1976) was an American actor most famous for appearing in many B-Western movies (among these the Three Mesquiteers and Range Busters film series). He also was a st ...
invested in property on the western
Santa Susana Pass
The Santa Susana Pass, originally Simi Pass, is a low mountain pass in the Simi Hills of Southern California, connecting the San Fernando Valley and Los Angeles neighborhood of Chatsworth, to the city of Simi Valley and eponymous valley.
It h ...
in California's
Simi Valley
Simi Valley (; Chumash: ''Shimiyi'') is a city in the valley of the same name in the southeast region of Ventura County, California, United States. Simi Valley is from Downtown Los Angeles, making it part of the Greater Los Angeles Area. The ...
and
Santa Susana Mountains
The Santa Susana Mountains are a transverse range of mountains in Southern California, north of the city of Los Angeles, in the United States. The range runs east-west, separating the San Fernando and Simi valleys on its south from the Santa C ...
, developing his 'Ray Corrigan Ranch' into the '
Corriganville Movie Ranch
__NOTOC__
Corriganville Movie Ranch was a working film studio and movie ranch for outdoor location shooting, as well as a Western-themed tourist attraction. The ranch, owned by actor and stuntman Ray "Crash" Corrigan, was located in the foothills ...
.' Most of the Monogram ''
Range Busters
''The Range Busters'' was a 1940–1943 American Western film series of 24 films. They were about the adventures of a trio of cowboys, many filmed at the Corriganville Movie Ranch, produced by George W. Weeks and distributed by Monogram Picture ...
'' film series, which includes ''
Saddle Mountain Roundup'' (1941) and ''
Bullets and Saddles
''Bullets and Saddles'' is a 1943 American Western film produced by Monogram Pictures Corporation. The film is the twenty-fourth and final entry in Monogram Pictures' "Range Busters" series, and it stars Ray "Crash" Corrigan as Dusty, Dennis ...
'' (1943), were shot here, as well as features such as ''
Fort Apache'' (1948), ''
The Inspector General'' (1949), ''
Mysterious Island'' (1961), and hundreds more .
Corrigan opened portions of his vast movie ranch to the public in 1949 on weekends to explore such themed sets as a rustic western town, Mexican village, western ranch, outlaw hide-out shacks, cavalry fort, Corsican village, English hunting lodge, country schoolhouse, rodeo arena, mine-shaft, wooded lake, and interesting rock formations. This amusement park concept closed in 1966.
In spite of Corriganville's weekend tourist trade, production of films continued. The action TV series ''
The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin
''The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin'' is an American children's television series in the Western genre that aired from October 1954 to May 1959 on the ABC television network. In all, 164 episodes aired. The show starred Lee Aaker as Rusty, a boy o ...
'' used the Fort Apache set for many shots from 1954 to 1959.
Roy Rogers
Roy Rogers (born Leonard Franklin Slye; November 5, 1911 – July 6, 1998) was an American singer, actor, and television host. Following early work under his given name, first as co-founder of the Sons of the Pioneers and then acting, the rebra ...
,
Lassie, and ''
Emergency!
''Emergency!'' is an American action-adventure medical drama television series jointly produced by Mark VII Limited and Universal Television. Debuting on NBC as a midseason replacement on January 15, 1972, replacing the two short-lived situa ...
'' production units also filmed scenes on the ranch. In 1966, Corriganville became 'Hopetown' when it was purchased by
Bob Hope
Leslie Townes "Bob" Hope (May 29, 1903 – July 27, 2003) was a British-American comedian, vaudevillian, actor, singer and dancer. With a career that spanned nearly 80 years, Hope appeared in Bob Hope filmography, more than 70 short and ...
for real estate development. A wildfire destroyed the buildings in 1970.
About of the original is part of the Simi Valley Park system, open to the public as the Corriganville Regional Park. Though the original movie and TV sets are long gone, many of the building concrete foundations are still extant
Corriganville Regional Park
Parts of the movie
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood were filmed at Corriganville Park, as a stand-in for the Spahn Movie Ranch.
Iverson Movie Ranch
In the 1880s, Karl and Augusta Iverson homesteaded a family farm in the
Simi Hills
The Simi Hills are a low rocky mountain range of the Transverse Ranges in eastern Ventura County and western Los Angeles County, of southern California, United States.
Geography
The Simi Hills are aligned east-west and run for , and average aro ...
on
Santa Susana Pass
The Santa Susana Pass, originally Simi Pass, is a low mountain pass in the Simi Hills of Southern California, connecting the San Fernando Valley and Los Angeles neighborhood of Chatsworth, to the city of Simi Valley and eponymous valley.
It h ...
in what is now
Chatsworth, eventually expanding their land holdings to about . It has been said that they allowed a movie to be shot on the property as early as 1912, with the silent movies ''Man's Genesis'' (1912), ''
My Official Wife'' (1914), and ''
The Squaw Man'' (1914) being some of the productions often cited as among the earliest films shot on the site. However, many of the earliest citations have turned out to be incorrect. For example, "The Squaw Man" is now known to have filmed a scene elsewhere in Chatsworth, a short distance southwest of the Iverson property, but did not film on the Iverson Ranch.
By the late 1910s, what would become a long and fruitful association developed between Hollywood and the Iverson Movie Ranch, which became the go-to outdoor location for Westerns in particular and also appeared in many adventures, war movies, comedies, science-fiction films and other productions, standing in for Africa, the Middle East, the South Pacific and any number of exotic locations.
Buster Keaton's ''
Three Ages
''Three Ages'' is a 1923 black-and-white American feature-length silent comedy film starring comedian Buster Keaton and Wallace Beery. The first feature Keaton wrote, directed, produced, and starred in (unlike ''The Saphead'', in which he only ...
'' (1923),
Herman Brix
Bruce Bennett (born Harold Herman Brix, also credited Herman Brix; May 19, 1906February 24, 2007) was an American film and television actor who prior to his screen career was a highly successful college athlete in football and in both intercol ...
's ''
Hawk of the Wilderness
''Hawk of the Wilderness'' (1938) is a Republic movie serial based on the ''Kioga'' adventure novels written by pulp writer William L. Chester (1907-1971). Kioga was a Tarzanesque white child raised on a lost island in the Arctic Circle, somewh ...
'' (1938),
Laurel and Hardy's ''
The Flying Deuces
''The Flying Deuces'', also known as ''Flying Aces'', is a 1939 buddy comedy film starring Laurel and Hardy, in which the duo join the French Foreign Legion. It is a partial remake of their short film ''Beau Hunks'' (1931).
Plot
While the boys ...
'' (1939),
John Wayne's ''
The Fighting Seabees'' (1944), and
Richard Burton
Richard Burton (; born Richard Walter Jenkins Jr.; 10 November 1925 – 5 August 1984) was a Welsh actor. Noted for his baritone voice, Burton established himself as a formidable Shakespearean actor in the 1950s, and he gave a memorable pe ...
's ''
The Robe
''The Robe'' is a 1942 historical novel about the Crucifixion of Jesus, written by Lloyd C. Douglas. The book was one of the best-selling titles of the 1940s. It entered the ''New York Times'' Best Seller list in October 1942, four weeks later ...
'' (1953) are just a handful of the productions that were filmed at the ranch. The rocky terrain and narrow, winding roads frequently turned up in
Republic serials of the 1940s and were prominently featured in chases and shootouts throughout the golden era of action B-Westerns in the 1930s and 1940s. For the 1945 Western comedy ''
Along Came Jones'', producer and star
Gary Cooper
Gary Cooper (born Frank James Cooper; May 7, 1901May 13, 1961) was an American actor known for his strong, quiet screen persona and understated acting style. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor twice and had a further three nominations, ...
had a Western town built at the ranch; this set was subsequently used in many other productions until the town was dismantled in 1957.
Hollywood's focus began to shift to the medium of television beginning in the late 1940s, and Iverson became a mainstay of countless early television series, including ''
The Lone Ranger
The Lone Ranger is a fictional masked former Texas Ranger who fought outlaws in the American Old West with his Native American friend Tonto. The character has been called an enduring icon of American culture.
He first appeared in 1933 in ...
,'' ''
The Roy Rogers Show
''The Roy Rogers Show'' is an American western television series starring Roy Rogers. 100 episodes were broadcast on NBC for six seasons between December 30, 1951 and June 9, 1957. The episodes were set in the prevailing times (1950s) in the st ...
,'' ''
The Gene Autry Show
''The Gene Autry Show'' is an American western/cowboy television series which aired for 91 episodes on CBS from July 23, 1950 until August 7, 1956, originally sponsored by Wrigley's Doublemint chewing gum.
Overview
Series star Gene Autry had a ...
'', ''
The Cisco Kid
The Cisco Kid is a fictional character found in numerous film, radio, television and comic book series based on the fictional Western character created by O. Henry in his 1907 short story "The Caballero's Way", published in '' Everybody's Magaz ...
'', ''
Buffalo Bill, Jr.'', ''
Zorro
Zorro ( Spanish for 'fox') is a fictional character created in 1919 by American pulp writer Johnston McCulley, appearing in works set in the Pueblo of Los Angeles in Alta California. He is typically portrayed as a dashing masked vigilante w ...
'', and ''
Tombstone Territory
''Tombstone Territory'' is an American Western series starring Pat Conway and Richard Eastham. The series' first two seasons aired on ABC from 1957 to 1959. The first season was sponsored by Bristol-Myers (consumer products) and the second s ...
''.
An estimated total of 3,500 or more productions, about evenly split between movies and television episodes, were filmed at the ranch during its peak years. The long-running TV western ''
The Virginian'' filmed on location at Iverson in the ranch's later period, as did ''
Bonanza'' and ''
Gunsmoke.''
By the 1960s, the ownership of the ranch was split between two of Karl and Augusta's sons, with Joe Iverson, an African safari hunter married to Iva Iverson, owning the southern half of the ranch (the Lower Iverson) and Aaron Iverson, a farmer married to Bessie Iverson, owning the northern half (the Upper Iverson). In the mid-1960s the
state of California began construction on the
Simi Valley Freeway, which ran east and west, roughly following the dividing line between the Upper Iverson and Lower Iverson, cutting the movie ranch in half. That separated the ranch, and also produced noise, making the property less useful for movie-making. The waning popularity of the Western genre and the decline of the B-movie coincided with the arrival of the freeway, which opened in 1967, and greater development pressure, signaling the end for Iverson as a successful movie ranch. The last few movies that filmed some scenes here included ''
Support Your Local Sheriff'' (1968) and ''
Pony Express Rider'' (1976).
In 1982, Joe Iverson sold what remained of the Lower Iverson to Robert G. Sherman who almost immediately began subdividing the property. The former Lower Iverson now contains a mobile home park, the non-denominational Church at
Rocky Peak
Rocky Peak, located in Rocky Peak Park, is the fourth-highest point in the Santa Susana Mountains, and overlooks the San Fernando Valley and Chatsworth, the Simi Hills, and the Simi Valley in Southern California. The peak, which is in elevatio ...
, and a large condominium development. The Upper Iverson is also no longer open to the public as it is now a gated community consisting of high-end estates along with additional condos and an apartment building.
Part of the ranch has been preserved as parkland on both sides of Red Mesa Road, north of Santa Susana Pass Road in Chatsworth. This section includes the famous "Garden of the Gods" on the west side of Red Mesa, in which many rock formations seen in countless old movies and TV shows are accessible to the public.
[https://mrca.ca.gov/parks/park-listing/garden-of-the-gods/ , Garden of the Gods] This includes the area on the east side of Red Mesa that includes the popular Lone Ranger Rock, which appeared beside a rearing Silver, the Lone Ranger's horse, in the opening to each episode of ''
The Lone Ranger
The Lone Ranger is a fictional masked former Texas Ranger who fought outlaws in the American Old West with his Native American friend Tonto. The character has been called an enduring icon of American culture.
He first appeared in 1933 in ...
'' TV show. This area has been owned by the
Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy since 1987.
The location of the ranch was in the northwest corner of
Chatsworth, along the western side of
Topanga Canyon Boulevard where it currently intersects with the Simi Valley Freeway.
Jack Ingram Movie Ranch
Formerly the estate of
Charles Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin Jr. (16 April 188925 December 1977) was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, the Tramp, and is consid ...
, the ranch was purchased by
Jack Ingram
Jack Owen Ingram (born November 15, 1970) is an American country music artist formerly signed to Big Machine Records, an independent record label. He has released eleven studio albums, one extended play, six live albums, and 19 singles. Although ...
in 1944 from
James Newill
James Morris Newill (August 12, 1911 – July 31, 1975), sometimes credited as Jim Newill, was an American actor and singer.
Early life
Newill was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to Mayme Newill and her first husband. His parents divorced, ...
and
Dave O'Brien, who had purchased the goat ranch in order to avoid the draft during World War II. When they were declared 4F unfit for military service, they sold the ranch to Ingram. Ingram purchased a bulldozer, and with the help of his friends including actors
Pierce Lyden
Pierce W. Lyden (January 8, 1908 – October 10, 1998) was an American actor best known for his work in television and film Westerns.
Early life
Lyden was born in a sod house on a ranch near Hildreth, Nebraska on January 8, 1908. The son of a hor ...
and
Kenne Duncan
Kenne Duncan (February 17, 1903 – February 5, 1972) was a Canadian-born American B-movie character actor. Hyped professionally as "The Meanest Man in the Movies," the vast majority of his over 250 appearances on camera were Westerns, bu ...
built a western town of two streets on the site. The ranch included a house that Ingram lived in that could occasionally be seen in the background of some scenes shot at the ranch. In 1947 the Ingram ranch became the first movie ranch open to the public
In 1956, he sold the ranch to
Four Star Television
Four Star Television, also called Four Star International, was an American television production company. Founded in 1952 as Four Star Productions by prominent Hollywood actors Dick Powell, David Niven, Charles Boyer, and Joel McCrea, it was insp ...
Productions. Its current status is unknown.
Lasky Ranch – San Fernando Valley Providencia Ranch
![Warner Bros 1920](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d1/Warner_Bros_1920.jpg)
The First Lasky Ranch in the San Fernando Valley was located on the Providencia Ranch. In 1912, Universal purchased the property and named it Oak Crest Ranch. This old universal ranch was built for the production of Universal 101Bison Brand Westerns.
Hunkins Stables and Gopher Flats are close to Old Universal/Lasky Ranch in the San Fernando Valley.
Lasky Movie Ranch – Ahmanson 'Lasky Mesa' Ranch
This area is noted for
filming location historyof many important movies, including, ''
The Thundering Herd'' (Famous Players-Lasky Co. 1925), ''
Gone with the Wind
Gone with the Wind most often refers to:
* ''Gone with the Wind'' (novel), a 1936 novel by Margaret Mitchell
* ''Gone with the Wind'' (film), the 1939 adaptation of the novel
Gone with the Wind may also refer to:
Music
* ''Gone with the Wind'' ...
'' (Selznick 1939) and ''
They Died with Their Boots On
''They Died with Their Boots On'' is a 1941 American black-and-white Western film from Warner Bros. Pictures, produced by Hal B. Wallis and Robert Fellows, directed by Raoul Walsh, that stars Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland.
The film's sto ...
'', "
Santa Fe Trail" (Warner Bros. 1940), and many others.
From ''
The Moving Picture World
The ''Moving Picture World'' was an influential early trade journal for the American film industry, from 1907 to 1927. An industry powerhouse at its height, ''Moving Picture World'' frequently reiterated its independence from the film studios.
I ...
'', October 10, 1914 (page 622 relates to the Lasky ranch and page 1078 to the new Lasky Ranch):
"The Lasky company has acquired a 4,000-acre ranch in the great San Fernando valley on which they have built a large two-story Spanish casa which is to be used in The Rose of the Ranch" which has just been started. The new ground is to be used for big scenes and where a large location is needed. A stock farm is to be maintained on the ranch. It is planned to use 500 people in the story. There will be 150 people transported through Southern California for the mission scenes. The studio will be used for the largest scene ever set up, the whole state and ground space being utilized."
In 1963, the
Ahmanson family's Home Savings and Loan purchased the property and adjacent land. Home Savings and Loan was the parent company of
Ahmanson Land Company, and so the ranch became known as the Ahmanson Ranch.
Washington Mutual Bank
Washington Mutual (often abbreviated to WaMu) was the United States' largest savings and loan association until its collapse in 2008.
A savings bank holding company is defined in United States Code: Title 12: Banks and Banking; Section 1842: Def ...
(WAMU) took over ownership of Home Savings and proceeded with the development plans for the ranch.
The public advocacy for undeveloped open space pressure was very strong, and development was halted further by new
groundwater
Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in rock and soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. About 30 percent of all readily available freshwater in the world is groundwater. A unit of rock or an unconsolidated ...
tests showing migrating contamination of the
aquifer
An aquifer is an underground layer of water-bearing, permeable rock, rock fractures, or unconsolidated materials ( gravel, sand, or silt). Groundwater from aquifers can be extracted using a water well. Aquifers vary greatly in their characteris ...
with
toxic substances
Poison is a chemical substance that has a detrimental effect to life. The term is used in a wide range of scientific fields and industries, where it is often specifically defined. It may also be applied colloquially or figuratively, with a broa ...
from the adjacent Rocketdyne
Santa Susana Field Laboratory
The Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL), formerly known as Rocketdyne, is a complex of industrial research and development facilities located on a portion of Southern California in an unincorporated area of Ventura County in the Simi Hills betw ...
(SSFL)
experimental Nuclear Reactor and
Rocket Engine Test Facility
A rocket engine test facility is a location where rocket engines may be tested on the ground, under controlled conditions. A ground test program is generally required before the engine is certified for flight. Ground testing is very inexpensive i ...
. The
Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy and the
State of California purchased the land for public
regional park A regional park is an area of land preserved on account of its natural beauty, historic interest, recreational use or other reason, and under the administration of a form of local government.
Definition
A regional park can be a special park distri ...
. The Lasky Movie Ranch is now part of the very large
Upper Las Virgenes Canyon Open Space Preserve
The Upper Las Virgenes Canyon Open Space Preserve is a large open space nature preserve owned and operated by the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy spanning nearly in the Simi Hills of western Los Angeles County and eastern Ventura County.
Or ...
, with various trails to the Lasky Mesa locale.
The property was sold to a conservancy in 2003 but some filming was done there afterwards, including some scenes for the 2006 film
Mission: Impossible III. More recently, it has been a hiking area.
Monogram Ranch/Melody Ranch
![Gene Autry 1950](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d4/Gene_Autry_1950.jpg)
Originally known as 'Placeritos Ranch', the ranch in lower
Placerita Canyon
Placerita Canyon State Park is a California State Park located on the north slope of the western San Gabriel Mountains, in an unincorporated rural area of Los Angeles County, near the city of Santa Clarita. The park hosts a variety of historic a ...
was commonly referred to as the 'Monogram Ranch'. Russell Hickson owned the property from 1936 until his death in 1952, and built-reconstructed all original
sets on the ranch. A year later in 1937,
Monogram Pictures signed a long-term lease with Hickson for 'Placeritos Ranch', with terms that the ranch be renamed 'Monogram Ranch.'
After
Gene Autry purchased the property in 1953, he renamed it as 'Melody Ranch.' It is located near
Santa Clarita, California, just north of
Newhall Pass
Newhall Pass is a low mountain pass in Los Angeles County, California. Historically called Fremont Pass and San Fernando Pass, with Beale's Cut, it separates the Santa Susana Mountains from the San Gabriel Mountains. Although the pass was visite ...
. In 1962 a brush fire destroyed most of the western town
sets on the ranch, and Autry sold , most of Melody Ranch.
The remaining property was purchased by the Veluzats in 1990 for the new Melody Ranch Studios movie ranch.
From 1926, early silent films were often shot in Placerita Canyon, including
silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized Sound recording and reproduction, recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) ...
westerns featuring
Tom Mix
Thomas Edwin Mix (born Thomas Hezikiah Mix; January 6, 1880 – October 12, 1940) was an American film actor and the star of many early Western films between 1909 and 1935. He appeared in 291 films, all but nine of which were silent films. He w ...
. In 1931,
Monogram Pictures took out a five-year lease on a parcel of land in central Placerita Canyon. The western town constructed there was located just east of what is now the junction of the
Route 14 Antelope Valley Freeway and Placerita Canyon Road. Today this is part of
Disney
The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
's
Golden Oak Ranch
Golden Oak Ranch is an 890-acre (360 ha) movie ranch owned by the Walt Disney Studios subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company that serves as a filming location and backlot. The ranch is off of Placerita Canyon Road outside of Newhall, Santa ...
(see below) near
Placerita Canyon State Park
Placerita Canyon State Park is a California State Park located on the north slope of the western San Gabriel Mountains, in an unincorporated rural area of Los Angeles County, near the city of Santa Clarita. The park hosts a variety of historic and ...
.
In 1935, as a result of a Monogram-Republic studio merger, the 'Placerita Canyon Ranch' became owned by the newly formed
Republic Pictures. In 1936, when the lease expired, the entire western town was relocated a few miles to the north at Russell Hickson's 'Placeritos Ranch' in lower Placerita Canyon, near the junction of Oak Creek Road and Placerita Canyon Road. The property was leased by the newly independent
Monogram Pictures, and renamed as 'Monogram Ranch' in 1937.
[http://www.melodyranchstudio.com/virtualtours.html melodyranchstudio. 'Monogram-Melody Ranch History'; access date:5/15/2010.]
Gene Autry, actor, western singer, and producer, purchased the 'Monogram Ranch' property from the Hickson heirs in 1953. He renamed the property 'Melody Ranch' after his 1940
film of the same name, and his following Sunday afternoon CBS radio show (1940–1956) and . A
brushfire swept through 'Monogram Ranch' in August 1962, destroying most of the original standing western sets. The devastated landscape was useful for productions such as ''
Combat!
''Combat!'' is an American television drama series that originally aired on ABC from 1962 until 1967. The exclamation point in ''Combat!'' was depicted on-screen as a stylized bayonet. The show covered the grim lives of a squad of American so ...
''. A large Spanish hacienda, and a complete adobe village survived on the northeast section of the ranch.
In 1990, after the death of his horse '
Champion
A champion (from the late Latin ''campio'') is the victor in a challenge, contest or competition. There can be a territorial pyramid of championships, e.g. local, regional / provincial, state, national, continental and world championships, a ...
,' which Autry had kept in retirement there, the actor put the remaining ranch up for sale. It was purchased by Renaud and Andre Veluzat to be developed as an active movie ranch for
location shooting
Location shooting is the shooting of a film or television production in a real-world setting rather than a sound stage or backlot. The location may be interior or exterior.
The filming location may be the same in which the story is set (for ex ...
. The Veluzats have a complex of
sound stage
A sound stage (also written soundstage) is a soundproof, large structure, building, or room with large doors and high ceilings, used for the production of theatrical film-making and television productions, usually located on a secured movie or ...
s, western
sets, prop shop, and the
backlot
A backlot is an area behind or adjoining a movie studio containing permanent exterior buildings for outdoor scenes in filmmaking or television productions, or space for temporary set construction.
Uses
Some movie studios build a wide variety of ...
s. They call it the 'Melody Ranch Motion Picture Studio' and 'Melody Ranch Studios.'
The ranch has a museum open year-round. One weekend a year the entire ranch is open to the public during th
Cowboy Poetry & Music Festival held at the end of April.
The Melody Ranch Studio was used in 2012 for filming some scenes for
Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Jerome Tarantino (; born March 27, 1963) is an American film director, writer, producer, and actor. His films are characterized by stylized violence, extended dialogue, profanity, dark humor, non-linear storylines, cameos, ensembl ...
's ''
Django Unchained
''Django Unchained'' () is a 2012 American revisionist Western film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, starring Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kerry Washington, and Samuel L. Jackson, with Walton Goggins, Dennis Ch ...
''. The owners in 2019 were Renaud and Andre Veluzat.
[https://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2012/01/santa-clarita-movie-ranches-corral-tarantino-and-other-filmmakers-.html , Santa Clarita movie ranches corral Tarantino and other filmmakers]
Paramount Movie Ranch
![Paramount Movie Ranch February 2003](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bb/Paramount_Movie_Ranch_February_2003.JPG)
In 1927,
Paramount Studios
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production and distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldest film studio in the world, the second-oldest ...
purchased a ranch on Medea Creek in the
Santa Monica Mountains
The Santa Monica Mountains is a coastal mountain range in Southern California, next to the Pacific Ocean. It is part of the Transverse Ranges. Because of its proximity to densely populated regions, it is one of the most visited natural areas in ...
near
Agoura Hills
Agoura Hills () is a city in the Santa Monica Mountains region of Los Angeles County, California, United States. Its population was 20,330 at the 2010 census, which decreased to
20,299 in 2020. It is in the eastern Conejo Valley between the S ...
, between
Malibu and the
Conejo Valley
The Conejo Valley is a region spanning both southeastern Ventura County and northwestern Los Angeles County in Southern California, United States. It is located in the northwestern part of the Greater Los Angeles Area.
Communities in the Conejo ...
.
The studio built numerous large-scale
sets on the ranch, including a huge replica of early
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
, an Old West town, and a Welsh mining village (built by 20th Century Fox for (1941) ''
How Green Was My Valley
''How Green Was My Valley'' is a 1939 novel by Richard Llewellyn, narrated by Huw Morgan, the main character, about his Welsh family and the mining community in which they live. The author had claimed that he based the book on his own persona ...
'', and later redressed (with coal mine tipple removed) as a French village for use in (1943) ''
The Song of Bernadette'', and again used for (1949) ''
The Inspector General''). Western town sets posed as Tombstone, Arizona, and Dodge City, Kansas, as well as Tom Sawyer's Missouri, 13th-century China, and many other locales and eras around the world.
It is now Paramount Ranch Park in the
Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area
The Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area is a United States national recreation area containing many individual parks and open space preserves, located primarily in the Santa Monica Mountains of Southern California. The SMMNRA is in t ...
. The National Park Service took over a section of the lot in 1980 and restored the sets, working from old black and white photographs. The NPS website lists movie and TV productions filmed there.
The Western Town was constructed during 1954 when Paramount purchased (Academy Award-winning) sets previously used at RKO Pictures Encino Movie Ranch, and was a location for some of the era's popular TV Westerns, including ''
The Cisco Kid
The Cisco Kid is a fictional character found in numerous film, radio, television and comic book series based on the fictional Western character created by O. Henry in his 1907 short story "The Caballero's Way", published in '' Everybody's Magaz ...
'' and ''
Gunsmoke''.
This remaining set of buildings continued to be used in filming, notably for the ''
Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman
''Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman'' is an American Western drama television series created and executive produced by Beth Sullivan and starring Jane Seymour, who plays Dr. Michaela Quinn, a physician who leaves Boston in search of adventure in the O ...
'' television series and the
HBO series ''
Carnivàle'', and more recently ''
Westworld
''Westworld'' is an American science fiction-thriller media franchise that began with the 1973 film ''Westworld'', written and directed by Michael Crichton. The film depicts a technologically advanced Wild-West-themed amusement park populate ...
''.
Paramount Ranch was most recently used as a filming location for ''The Mentalist'', ''Weeds'', ''The X-Files'', Hulu's ''Quickdraw'', as well as season 1 and 2 of ''
Westworld
''Westworld'' is an American science fiction-thriller media franchise that began with the 1973 film ''Westworld'', written and directed by Michael Crichton. The film depicts a technologically advanced Wild-West-themed amusement park populate ...
'' and season 3 of ''
Escape the Night
''Escape the Night'' is an American reality television series created, hosted, produced, and owned by Joey Graceffa that was first broadcast on June 22, 2016, on YouTube Premium. The series follows fantasy plots based on horror and murder mys ...
'', a
YouTube Premium
YouTube Premium (formerly Music Key and YouTube Red) is a subscription service offered by the video platform YouTube. The service provides ad-free access to content across the service, as well as access to premium YouTube Originals programming ...
show by
Joey Graceffa
Joseph Michael Graceffa Jr. (; born May 16, 1991) is an American YouTuber, vlogger, actor, author, and producer. He runs four active YouTube channels, all named after him. His main channel is dedicated to vlogging, while the second features vide ...
.
The Paramount Ranch was also the home of the original
Renaissance Pleasure Faire of Southern California
The Renaissance Pleasure Faire of Southern California (RPFS) is a Renaissance faire that takes place in Irwindale, California. It opened in the spring of 1963 and has been an annual event since then. Presently owned by Renaissance Entertainment P ...
from 1966 to 1989, the home of the
Topanga Banjo•Fiddle Contest
Topanga Banjo•Fiddle Contest is a music festival and competition, held annually at Paramount Ranch, a unit of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, in Agoura Hills, California. It began in 1961 in Topanga Canyon, California. ...
, held each May, and the eponymously titled Paramount Ranch, an alternative art fair founded from 2014 to 2016.
The Paramount Ranch structures suffered near-total destruction during the November 2018
Woolsey Fire
The Woolsey Fire was a wildfire that burned in Los Angeles and Ventura Counties of the U.S. state of California. The fire ignited on November 8, 2018, and burned of land. The fire destroyed 1,643 structures, killed three people, and prompted th ...
.
By that time, it was managed by the
National Park Service
The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propert ...
but some filming had been done here for ''
Westworld (TV Series)
''Westworld'' is an American dystopian science fiction western television series created by Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy for HBO. It is based on the 1973 film of the same name written and directed by Michael Crichton, and, to a lesser extent ...
'' Seasons 1 and 2. Parts of the 2015 movie ''
Bone Tomahawk
''Bone Tomahawk'' is a 2015 American Western film written and directed by S. Craig Zahler in his directorial debut. It stars Kurt Russell, Patrick Wilson, Matthew Fox, Richard Jenkins, Lili Simmons, Evan Jonigkeit, David Arquette, and Sid Haig ...
'' were filmed here.
A campaign calle
The Paramount Projectwas launched as of November 16 to aid in the reconstruction efforts to rebuild Paramount Ranch.
Red Hills Ranch
Red Hills Ranch is a movie ranch in
Sonora, California
Sonora is the county seat of Tuolumne County, California. Founded during the California Gold Rush by Mexican miners from Sonora (after which the city is named), the city population was 5,226 during the 2020 Census, an increase of 221 from the ...
, which served as a location for ''
Bonanza'', ''
The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.'', ''
Little House on the Prairie
The ''Little House on the Prairie'' books is a series of American children's novels written by Laura Ingalls Wilder (b. Laura Elizabeth Ingalls). The stories are based on her childhood and adolescence in the American Midwest (Wisconsin, Kansas, ...
'' and other productions. The outdoor sets built for ''
Back to the Future Part III'' (1990) and used in ''
Bad Girls'' (1994) were destroyed by a lightning strike wildfire in 1996. It is no longer an area for filming.
Republic Pictures Ranch – Walt Disney Golden Oak Ranch
![Goldenoakranch](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dc/Goldenoakranch.jpg)
The former
Republic Pictures Movie Ranch off
Soledad Canyon
Soledad Canyon is a long narrow canyon/valley located in Los Angeles County, California between the cities of Palmdale and Santa Clarita. It is a part of the Santa Clara River Valley, and extends from the top of Soledad Pass to the open plain of ...
became the Walt Disney
Golden Oak Ranch
Golden Oak Ranch is an 890-acre (360 ha) movie ranch owned by the Walt Disney Studios subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company that serves as a filming location and backlot. The ranch is off of Placerita Canyon Road outside of Newhall, Santa ...
in 1959. The ranch is located in central
Placerita Canyon
Placerita Canyon State Park is a California State Park located on the north slope of the western San Gabriel Mountains, in an unincorporated rural area of Los Angeles County, near the city of Santa Clarita. The park hosts a variety of historic a ...
near
Santa Clarita, California in the northern
San Gabriel Mountains foothills. It was named for the
Gold discovery by Francisco Lopez in the wild onion roots under the "Oak of the Golden Dream", in present-day
Placerita Canyon State Park
Placerita Canyon State Park is a California State Park located on the north slope of the western San Gabriel Mountains, in an unincorporated rural area of Los Angeles County, near the city of Santa Clarita. The park hosts a variety of historic and ...
. The Ranch was still being used for occasional filming, when
Walt Disney
Walter Elias Disney (; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film p ...
took an interest in the property. In 1959, driven by concern that the ranches of other movie studios were gradually being sub-divided, Disney purchased the ranch. During the next five years, the
Walt Disney Studios also bought additional land which enlarged the property to .
The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Disney Stud ...
worked closely with the
State of California when a portion of the western border of the ranch was purchased for the
Antelope Valley Freeway
The term antelope is used to refer to many species of even-toed ruminant that are indigenous to various regions in Africa and Eurasia.
Antelope comprise a wastebasket taxon defined as any of numerous Old World grazing and browsing hoofed mammals ...
. This construction was carefully planned so that it didn't intrude into the film settings. In 2009, Disney announced the expansion of the studio complex, with master planning and environmental impact studies commencing. The expanded site would be called
Disney
The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
,
ABC Studios
ABC Signature is an American television production studio that is a subsidiary of Disney Television Studios, a division of Walt Disney Television, which is part of the Disney General Entertainment Content division of The Walt Disney Company. ...
at The Ranch.
Disney productions that have done filming at the Golden Oak Ranch over the past decades include Old Yeller, Toby Tyler, The Parent Trap, The Shaggy Dog, Follow Me Boys and more recently, The Santa Clause, Pearl Harbor, Princess Diaries II and Pirates of the Caribbean II & III.
[https://goldenoakranch.com/about/history/ , History]
Spahn Movie Ranch
The
Spahn Movie Ranch is a property located on
Santa Susana Pass
The Santa Susana Pass, originally Simi Pass, is a low mountain pass in the Simi Hills of Southern California, connecting the San Fernando Valley and Los Angeles neighborhood of Chatsworth, to the city of Simi Valley and eponymous valley.
It h ...
in the
Simi Hills
The Simi Hills are a low rocky mountain range of the Transverse Ranges in eastern Ventura County and western Los Angeles County, of southern California, United States.
Geography
The Simi Hills are aligned east-west and run for , and average aro ...
above
Chatsworth, California
Chatsworth is a suburban neighborhood in the City of Los Angeles, California, in the San Fernando Valley.
The area was home to Native Americans, some of whom left caves containing rock art. Chatsworth was explored and colonized by the Spanish b ...
. The Spahn Movie Ranch, once owned by silent film actor
William S. Hart
William Surrey Hart (December 6, 1864 – June 23, 1946) was an American silent film actor, screenwriter, director and producer. He is remembered as a foremost Western star of the silent era who "imbued all of his characters with honor and inte ...
, was used to film many westerns, particularly from the 1940s to the 1960s, including ''
Duel in the Sun'', and episodes of television's ''
Bonanza'' and ''
The Lone Ranger
The Lone Ranger is a fictional masked former Texas Ranger who fought outlaws in the American Old West with his Native American friend Tonto. The character has been called an enduring icon of American culture.
He first appeared in 1933 in ...
''. A western town set was located at the ranch.
Dairy farmer
George Spahn
George Christian Spahn (February 11, 1889 – September 22, 1974) was an American rancher who once owned the Spahn Ranch near Chatsworth, Los Angeles. Spahn rented the ranch to the movie industry to film Westerns, and later allowed Charle ...
purchased the in 1953, from former owners Lee and Ruth McReynolds. Spahn added more sets and rental horses, making it a popular location for horseback riding among locals. This continued to be the location for various B movie and TV series film until the late 1960s. As the westerns genre became less popular, however, the ranch became almost deserted. The Spahn Ranch was the primary headquarters of the infamous
Manson Family by 1968.
[https://www.cielodrive.com/spahn-movie-ranch.php , Spahn Movie Ranch]
Spahn allowed the Manson group to live there rent-free in exchange for housework and sexual favors from the group's women, according to TIME. The ranch was the base for the group's murder of
Sharon Tate and six others over a two-day period in August 1969. The ranch and some residents are depicted in the
Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Jerome Tarantino (; born March 27, 1963) is an American film director, writer, producer, and actor. His films are characterized by stylized violence, extended dialogue, profanity, dark humor, non-linear storylines, cameos, ensembl ...
film ''
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood''. The scenes for the movie were actually filmed at Corriganville Park in Simi Valley.
[https://variety.com/2019/film/news/once-upon-a-time-in-hollywood-locations-guide-musso-and-frank-1203284555/ , ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’: A Guide to the Los Angeles Area Landmarks]
A 1970 mountain
wildfire
A wildfire, forest fire, bushfire, wildland fire or rural fire is an unplanned, uncontrolled and unpredictable fire in an area of combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identi ...
destroyed the
film set
A set is artificially constructed scenery used in theatre, film and TV. In the latter two cases there are many reasons to build or use a set instead of travelling to a real location, such as budget, time, the need to control the environment, or ...
and the residential structures. The site that was the Spahn Movie Ranch is now part of the
Santa Susana Pass State Historic Park
Santa Susana Pass State Historic Park is a California State Park of approximately located on the boundary between Ventura and Los Angeles counties, between the communities of Chatsworth and Simi Valley. Geologically, the park is located where ...
. Spahn died in 1974.
20th Century Fox Movie Ranch
Located in the
Santa Monica Mountains
The Santa Monica Mountains is a coastal mountain range in Southern California, next to the Pacific Ocean. It is part of the Transverse Ranges. Because of its proximity to densely populated regions, it is one of the most visited natural areas in ...
, the 20th Century Fox Movie Ranch (aka: Century Movie Ranch & Fox Movie Ranch) was first purchased in 1946 by
20th Century Fox
20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...
. One of the first sets was a working New England farmhouse built for (1948) ''
Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House''. From 1956 to 1957, 20th Century Fox productions filmed their first
television series
A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, or cable, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are typically placed be ...
there: ''
My Friend Flicka
''My Friend Flicka'' is a 1941 novel by Mary O'Hara, about Ken McLaughlin, the son of a Wyoming rancher, and his mustang horse Flicka. It was the first in a trilogy, followed by ''Thunderhead'' (1943) and ''Green Grass of Wyoming'' (1946). The p ...
'' for
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
television.
The Fox Ranch was used for most exteriors of the CBS-TV series ''
Perry Mason
Perry Mason is a fictional character, an American criminal defense lawyer who is the main character in works of detective fiction written by Erle Stanley Gardner. Perry Mason features in 82 novels and 4 short stories, all of which involve a c ...
'' (1957–66).
The Century Movie Ranch was the main filming location with outdoor sets for the original 1970 ''
MASH'' film and subsequent ''
M*A*S*H (TV series)
''M*A*S*H'' (an acronym for Mobile Army Surgical Hospital) is an American war comedy-drama television series that aired on CBS from September 17, 1972 to February 28, 1983. It was developed by Larry Gelbart as the first original spin-off seri ...
''. It was used as a location in dozens of films, including a number of the ''
Tarzan
Tarzan (John Clayton II, Viscount Greystoke) is a fictional character, an archetypal feral child raised in the African jungle by the Mangani great apes; he later experiences civilization, only to reject it and return to the wild as a heroic adv ...
'' movies, ''
Robin Hood: Men in Tights'', the original ''
Planet of the Apes
''Planet of the Apes'' is an American science fiction media franchise consisting of films, books, television series, comics, and other media about a world in which humans and intelligent apes clash for control. The franchise is based on Frenc ...
'' film and subsequent
television series
A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, or cable, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are typically placed be ...
.
The Fox Movie Ranch property was purchased and preserved in the new state park,
Malibu Creek State Park
Malibu Creek State Park is a state park of California, United States, preserving the Malibu Creek canyon in the Santa Monica Mountains. The park was established in 1974. Opened to the public in 1976, the park is also a component of Santa Monic ...
, opened to the public in 1976. A few productions continued to be filmed there.
Other original locations
Bell Moving Picture Ranch
The Bell Moving Picture Ranch, later renamed the Bell Location Ranch, is off the
Santa Susana Pass
The Santa Susana Pass, originally Simi Pass, is a low mountain pass in the Simi Hills of Southern California, connecting the San Fernando Valley and Los Angeles neighborhood of Chatsworth, to the city of Simi Valley and eponymous valley.
It h ...
in the
Simi Hills
The Simi Hills are a low rocky mountain range of the Transverse Ranges in eastern Ventura County and western Los Angeles County, of southern California, United States.
Geography
The Simi Hills are aligned east-west and run for , and average aro ...
above the
Spahn Movie Ranch site and
Santa Susana Pass State Historic Park
Santa Susana Pass State Historic Park is a California State Park of approximately located on the boundary between Ventura and Los Angeles counties, between the communities of Chatsworth and Simi Valley. Geologically, the park is located where ...
.
Among the many movies to film at Bell Ranch were ''
Gunsight Ridge'' (1957), starring
Joel McCrea
Joel Albert McCrea (November 5, 1905 – October 20, 1990) was an American actor whose career spanned a wide variety of genres over almost five decades, including comedy, drama, romance, thrillers, adventures, and Westerns, for which he bec ...
; ''
Escort West
''Escort West'' is a 1959 American Western film directed by Francis D. Lyon, and starring Victor Mature, Faith Domergue, and Elaine Stewart. The movie is set after the U.S. Civil War, when a former Confederate officer, played by Victor Mature, a ...
'' (1959), starring
Victor Mature
Victor John Mature (January 29, 1913 – August 4, 1999) was an American stage, film, and television actor who was a leading man in Hollywood during the 1940s and 1950s. His best known film roles include ''One Million B.C.'' (1940), '' My Darlin ...
; ''
Hombre'' (1967), starring
Paul Newman; ''
Gun Fever'' (1958), starring
Mark Stevens; and ''
Love Me Tender'' (1956), the first movie of
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one ...
.
The climactic sequence in the Elvis movie ''Love Me Tender'', a Western that also starred
Richard Egan and
Debra Paget, was filmed on a rugged slope at Bell Ranch known as the "Rocky Hill," with its exact location remaining a mystery for almost 60 years until it was discovered on an expedition by film historians in early 2015. The
Victor Mature
Victor John Mature (January 29, 1913 – August 4, 1999) was an American stage, film, and television actor who was a leading man in Hollywood during the 1940s and 1950s. His best known film roles include ''One Million B.C.'' (1940), '' My Darlin ...
movie ''
Escort West
''Escort West'' is a 1959 American Western film directed by Francis D. Lyon, and starring Victor Mature, Faith Domergue, and Elaine Stewart. The movie is set after the U.S. Civil War, when a former Confederate officer, played by Victor Mature, a ...
'' (1959) filmed at the same location, and shots from the two movies were combined to help find the site.
Many of the television Westerns used the ranch, including ''
Bonanza'', ''
Gunsmoke'', ''
Zorro
Zorro ( Spanish for 'fox') is a fictional character created in 1919 by American pulp writer Johnston McCulley, appearing in works set in the Pueblo of Los Angeles in Alta California. He is typically portrayed as a dashing masked vigilante w ...
'', ''
The Monroes'', ''
How the West Was Won'', ''
Dundee and the Culhane
''Dundee and the Culhane'' is an American Western drama series starring John Mills and Sean Garrison that aired on CBS from September 6 to December 13, 1967.
Synopsis
''Dundee and the Culhane'' follows the exploits of two frontier lawyers who pro ...
'', ''
The Big Valley'' and ''
Have Gun – Will Travel
''Have Gun – Will Travel'' is an American Western series that was produced and originally broadcast by CBS on both television and radio from 1957 through 1963. The television version of the series starring Richard Boone was rated number t ...
''. Even ''
McCloud'' used the Western street and surrounding area for an episode with
Dennis Weaver
William Dennis Weaver (June 4, 1924 – February 24, 2006) was an American actor and former president of the Screen Actors Guild, best known for his work in television and films from the early 1950s until just before his death in 2006. Weave ...
. An episode of the original ''
Star Trek'' series, "
A Private Little War" (1968), was partly shot at Bell Ranch's Box Canyon using it to stand in for an alien world.
In 1990, all of the sets were removed but some filming continued.
Columbia Ranch – Warner Bros. Ranch
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the mu ...
purchased the original lot in 1934 as additional space to its Sunset Gower studio location, when Columbia was in need for more space and a true
backlot
A backlot is an area behind or adjoining a movie studio containing permanent exterior buildings for outdoor scenes in filmmaking or television productions, or space for temporary set construction.
Uses
Some movie studios build a wide variety of ...
/movie ranch. Through the years numerous themed sets were constructed across the movie ranch.
Formerly known as the ''
Columbia Ranch
The Warner Bros. Ranch is located at 411 North Hollywood Way in Burbank, California and was formerly called the Columbia Ranch. It was the backdrop for many Columbia Pictures films and Screen Gems/Columbia Pictures Television shows, includin ...
'' and now the "Warner Brothers Ranch", this ''movie ranch'' in
Burbank, California, served as the filming location for both obscure and well-known television series, such as ''
Father Knows Best
''Father Knows Best'' is an American sitcom starring Robert Young, Jane Wyatt, Elinor Donahue, Billy Gray and Lauren Chapin. The series, which began on radio in 1949, aired as a television show for six seasons and 203 episodes. Created by ...
'', ''
Hazel'', ''
The Flying Nun
''The Flying Nun'' is an American sitcom about a community of nuns which included one who could fly when the wind caught her cornette. It was produced by Screen Gems for ABC based on the 1965 book '' The Fifteenth Pelican,'' written by Tere ...
'', ''
Dennis the Menace'', ''
The Hathaways
''The Hathaways'' is a 26-episode situation comedy, which aired on ABC from October 6, 1961, to March 30, 1962, starring Peggy Cass and Jack Weston as suburban Los Angeles "parents" to a trio of performing chimpanzees. Weston portrayed Walter H ...
'', ''
The Iron Horse'', ''
I Dream of Jeannie'' (which also used the ''Father Knows Best'' house exterior), ''
Bewitched'', ''
The Monkees
The Monkees were an American rock and pop band, formed in Los Angeles in 1966, whose lineup consisted of the American actor/musicians Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork alongside English actor/singer Davy Jones. The group was con ...
'', ''
Apple's Way
''Apple's Way'' is an American drama television series that aired on CBS from February 10, 1974, to January 12, 1975. It was created by Earl Hamner Jr.
Premise
The Apples of Los Angeles—architect George, his wife Barbara, their children Paul ...
'', and ''
The Partridge Family
''The Partridge Family'' is an American musical sitcom starring Shirley Jones and featuring David Cassidy. Jones plays a widowed mother, and Cassidy plays the oldest of her five children, in a family who embarks on a music career. It ran from S ...
'' (which also filmed on ranch
sound stage
A sound stage (also written soundstage) is a soundproof, large structure, building, or room with large doors and high ceilings, used for the production of theatrical film-making and television productions, usually located on a secured movie or ...
s).
A short list of the many classic feature films which filmed scenes on the movie ranch would include; ''
Lost Horizon
''Lost Horizon'' is a 1933 novel by English writer James Hilton. The book was turned into a film, also called '' Lost Horizon'', in 1937 by director Frank Capra. It is best remembered as the origin of Shangri-La, a fictional utopian lamas ...
'', ''
Blondie'', ''Melody in Spring'', ''
You Were Never Lovelier
''You Were Never Lovelier'' is a 1942 American musical romantic comedy film directed by William A. Seiter and starring Fred Astaire and Rita Hayworth. The supporting cast also features Adolphe Menjou, Xavier Cugat and Adele Mara. The music was co ...
'', ''
Kansas City Confidential
''Kansas City Confidential'' is a 1952 American film noir and crime film directed by Phil Karlson starring John Payne and Coleen Gray. The film was released in the United Kingdom as ''The Secret Four''. Karlson and Payne teamed a year later fo ...
'', ''
High Noon'', ''
The Wild One
''The Wild One'' is a 1953 American crime film directed by László Benedek and produced by Stanley Kramer. The picture is most noted for the character of Johnny Strabler, portrayed by Marlon Brando, whose persona became a cultural icon of the 1 ...
'', ''
Autumn Leaves'', ''
3:10 to Yuma'', ''
The Last Hurrah'', ''
Cat Ballou
''Cat Ballou'' is a 1965 American western comedy film starring Jane Fonda and Lee Marvin, who won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his dual role. The story involves a woman who hires a notorious gunman to protect her father's ranch, and la ...
'', and ''
What's the Matter with Helen?
''What's the Matter With Helen?'' is a 1971 American exploitation horror film directed by Curtis Harrington and starring Debbie Reynolds and Shelley Winters.
Plot
Leonard Hill and Wesley Bruckner are seen being loaded into a paddy wagon to face ...
''.
It is commonly believed, though not the case, that ''
Leave It to Beaver'' was filmed here, ('Beaver' actually filmed (first season) at CBS Studio Center – née Radford Studios and later at Universal Studios). ''
The Waltons
''The Waltons'' is an American historical drama television series about a family in rural Virginia during the Great Depression and World War II. It was created by Earl Hamner Jr., based on his 1961 book '' Spencer's Mountain'' and the 1963 fil ...
'' originally filmed on the
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...
main lot where the recognizable house facade was located until it burned down in late 1991. A recreation of the Walton house was built on the Warner Bros. Ranch lot, utilizing the woodland mountain set originally utilized by ''
Apple's Way
''Apple's Way'' is an American drama television series that aired on CBS from February 10, 1974, to January 12, 1975. It was created by Earl Hamner Jr.
Premise
The Apples of Los Angeles—architect George, his wife Barbara, their children Paul ...
'', and later occasionally used by ''
Fantasy Island
''Fantasy Island'' is an American fantasy drama television series created by Gene Levitt. It aired on ABC from 1977 to 1984. The series starred Ricardo Montalbán as the mysterious Mr. Roarke and Hervé Villechaize as his assistant, Tattoo. ...
'' TV shows. The facade remains and has been used in numerous productions such as ''
NCIS'', ''
The Middle'', and ''
Pushing Daisies
''Pushing Daisies'' is an American comedy-drama television series created by Bryan Fuller that aired on ABC from October 3, 2007, to June 13, 2009. The series stars Lee Pace as Ned, a pie-maker with the ability to bring dead things back to li ...
''.
On April 15, 2019, it was announced that Warner Bros. will sell the property to Worthe Real Estate Group and Stockbridge Real Estate Fund as part of a larger real estate deal to be completed in 2023 which will see the studio get ownership of
The Burbank Studios
The Burbank Studios (formerly known as NBC Studios) is a television production facility located in Burbank, California. The studio is home to '' Days of Our Lives'', ''Extra'', the '' IHeartRadio Theater'', and was formerly home to the Blizza ...
in time to mark its 100th Anniversary.
Pioneertown
Pioneertown, California, in the
Morongo Basin
The Morongo Basin is an endorheic basin and valley region located in eastern San Bernardino County, in Southern California.
The Morongo basin is part of the Inland Empire region, and is considered to be the easternmost portion of the Greater Los ...
region of Southern California's
Mojave Desert
The Mojave Desert ( ; mov, Hayikwiir Mat'aar; es, Desierto de Mojave) is a desert in the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada mountains in the Southwestern United States. It is named for the indigenous Mojave people. It is located primarily ...
in
San Bernardino County, California
San Bernardino County (), officially the County of San Bernardino, is a county located in the southern portion of the U.S. state of California, and is located within the Inland Empire area. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, the population was 2,181, ...
. The town started as a live-in
Old West
The American frontier, also known as the Old West or the Wild West, encompasses the geography, history, folklore, and culture associated with the forward wave of American expansion in mainland North America that began with European colonial ...
motion picture set on a movie ranch, built in the 1940s. The movie set was designed to also provide a place for the actors to live, while having their homes used as part of the movie set.
[http://www.pioneertown.com/f-index.htm Pioneertown official website] A number of Westerns and early television shows were filmed in Pioneertown, including ''
The Cisco Kid
The Cisco Kid is a fictional character found in numerous film, radio, television and comic book series based on the fictional Western character created by O. Henry in his 1907 short story "The Caballero's Way", published in '' Everybody's Magaz ...
'' and
Edgar Buchanan
William Edgar Buchanan II (March 20, 1903 – April 4, 1979) was an American actor with a long career in both film and television. He is most familiar today as Uncle Joe Carson from the ''Petticoat Junction'', ''Green Acres'', and ''The ...
's ''
Judge Roy Bean
Phantly Roy Bean Jr. (c. 1825 – March 16, 1903) was an American saloon-keeper and Justice of the Peace in Val Verde County, Texas, who called himself "The Only Law West of the Pecos". According to legend, he held court in his saloon along the ...
''.
Roy Rogers
Roy Rogers (born Leonard Franklin Slye; November 5, 1911 – July 6, 1998) was an American singer, actor, and television host. Following early work under his given name, first as co-founder of the Sons of the Pioneers and then acting, the rebra ...
,
Dick Curtis
Richard Dye (May 11, 1902January 3, 1952), known professionally as Dick Curtis, was an American actor who made over 230 film and television appearances during his career.
Early years
Curtis was born in Newport, Kentucky, the son of Frank Dy ...
, and
Russell Hayden were among the original developers and investors, and
Gene Autry frequently filmed his show at the six-lane Pioneer Bowl bowling alley.
The sets have been retained as a tourist attraction which remained open as of April 2019.
RKO Encino Ranch
The
RKO Pictures Encino Ranch consisted of located on the outskirts of the City of
Encino,
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
, in the
San Fernando Valley, near
Los Angeles River
, name_etymology =
, image = File:Los Angeles River from Fletcher Drive Bridge 2019.jpg
, image_caption = L.A. River from Fletcher Drive Bridge
, image_size = 300
, map = LARmap.jpg
, map_size ...
and west of Sepulveda Basin Recreation Area on Burbank Boulevard.
RKO Radio Pictures
RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO, was an American film production and distribution company, one of the "Big Five" film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orph ...
purchased this property as a location to film their epic motion picture ''
Cimarron'' (1931), (winner of four
Academy Award
The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
s for Best Picture, Best Writing, Best Art Direction, and Best Make-Up).
Art Director Max Ree
Max or MAX may refer to:
Animals
* Max (dog) (1983–2013), at one time purported to be the world's oldest living dog
* Max (English Springer Spaniel), the first pet dog to win the PDSA Order of Merit (animal equivalent of OBE)
* Max (gorilla) ( ...
won his
Oscar
Oscar, OSCAR, or The Oscar may refer to:
People
* Oscar (given name), an Irish- and English-language name also used in other languages; the article includes the names Oskar, Oskari, Oszkár, Óscar, and other forms.
* Oscar (Irish mythology) ...
for creative design of the very first theme sets constructed on the movie ranch which consisted of a complete western town and a three block modern main street built as the Oklahoma (fictional) town of Osage.
In addition to ''
Cimarron'' scenery,
RKO
RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO, was an American film production and distribution company, one of the "Big Five" film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orpheu ...
continued to create a vast array of diverse sets for their ever-expanding movie ranch that included a New York avenue, brownstone street, English row houses, slum district, small town square, residential neighborhood, three working train depots, mansion estate, New England farm, western ranch, a mammoth
medieval
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...
City of Paris, European marketplace, Russian village, Yukon mining camp, ocean tank with sky backdrop, Moorish casbah, Mexican outpost, Sahara Desert fort, plaster mountain range
diorama, and a football field sized United States map on which
Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire (born Frederick Austerlitz; May 10, 1899 – June 22, 1987) was an American dancer, choreographer, actor, and singer. He is often called the greatest dancer in Hollywood film history.
Astaire's career in stage, film, and tele ...
and
Ginger Rogers
Ginger Rogers (born Virginia Katherine McMath; July 16, 1911 – April 25, 1995) was an American actress, dancer and singer during the Classical Hollywood cinema, Golden Age of Hollywood. She won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her starri ...
danced across in ''
The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle
''The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle'' is a 1939 American biographical musical comedy directed by H.C. Potter. The film stars Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Edna May Oliver, and Walter Brennan. The film is based on the stories ''My Husband'' and ...
'' (1939).
Also available were scene docks, carpentry shop, prop storage, greenhouse, and three fully equipped soundstages with an average of 11,000 square feet each.
A short list of classic movies that contain scenes shot on the
RKO Pictures Encino Ranch include: ''
What Price Hollywood?
''What Price Hollywood?'' is a 1932 American pre-Code drama film directed by George Cukor and starring Constance Bennett with Lowell Sherman. The screenplay by Gene Fowler, Rowland Brown, Jane Murfin and Ben Markson is based on a story by A ...
'' (1932), ''
King Kong
King Kong is a fictional giant monster resembling a gorilla, who has appeared in various media since 1933. He has been dubbed The Eighth Wonder of the World, a phrase commonly used within the franchise. His first appearance was in the novelizat ...
'' (1933), ''
Of Human Bondage
''Of Human Bondage'' is a 1915 novel by W. Somerset Maugham. The novel is generally agreed to be Maugham's masterpiece and to be strongly autobiographical in nature, although he stated, "This is a novel, not an autobiography; though much in i ...
'' (1934), ''
Becky Sharp
Rebecca "Becky" Sharp, later describing herself as Rebecca, Lady Crawley, is the main protagonist of William Makepeace Thackeray's 1847–48 novel ''Vanity Fair''. She is presented as a cynical social climber who uses her charms to fascinate an ...
'' (1935), ''
Walking on Air'' (1936), ''
Stage Door
''Stage Door'' is a 1937 RKO film directed by Gregory La Cava. Adapted from the play of the same name, it tells the story of several would-be actresses who live together in a boarding house at 158 West 58th Street in New York City. The film ...
'' (1937), ''
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
''The Hunchback of Notre-Dame'' (french: Notre-Dame de Paris, translation=''Our Lady of Paris'', originally titled ''Notre-Dame de Paris. 1482'') is a French Gothic novel by Victor Hugo, published in 1831. It focuses on the unfortunate story ...
'' (1939), ''
Kitty Foyle'' (1940), ''
Citizen Kane'' (1941), ''
Cat People'' (1942), ''
Murder, My Sweet
''Murder, My Sweet'' (released as ''Farewell, My Lovely'' in the United Kingdom) is a 1944 American film noir, directed by Edward Dmytryk and starring Dick Powell, Claire Trevor and Anne Shirley (in her final film before retirement). The film ...
'' (1944),
Dick Tracy film noir series (1945-1947), ''
It's a Wonderful Life
''It's a Wonderful Life'' is a 1946 American Christmas fantasy drama film produced and directed by Frank Capra, based on the short story and booklet ''The Greatest Gift'', which Philip Van Doren Stern self-published in 1943 and is in turn loos ...
'' (1946) (
Bedford Falls),''
They Live by Night'' (1948), and many more.
In 1953 ''
Dragnet'' was the last project to film on the ranch for an NBC 1954 broadcast of an episode entitled "The Big Producer" in which the crumbling lot played the part of a fictitious "Westside Studio". Standing sets exhibited on this particular ''
Dragnet'' program were a ranch security gate entrance with a background church and house facades ('George Bailey' wrecked his car there during a snow storm in ''
It's a Wonderful Life
''It's a Wonderful Life'' is a 1946 American Christmas fantasy drama film produced and directed by Frank Capra, based on the short story and booklet ''The Greatest Gift'', which Philip Van Doren Stern self-published in 1943 and is in turn loos ...
'' 1946), a cocktail lounge exterior on Modern Street, stucco desert mountain range used in ''
Stagecoach'' (1939), ocean tank & sky backdrop used in ''
Sinbad the Sailor
Sinbad the Sailor (; ar, سندباد البحري, Sindibādu al-Bahriyy; fa, سُنباد بحری, Sonbād-e Bahri or Sindbad) is a fictional mariner and the hero of a story-cycle of Persian origin. He is described as hailing from Baghdad ...
'' (1947), Notre Dame de Paris Carre built for ''
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
''The Hunchback of Notre-Dame'' (french: Notre-Dame de Paris, translation=''Our Lady of Paris'', originally titled ''Notre-Dame de Paris. 1482'') is a French Gothic novel by Victor Hugo, published in 1831. It focuses on the unfortunate story ...
'' (1939), and (the very first sets ever built on the ranch) the Academy Award-winning western town from ''
Cimarron'' (1931).
The ranch property was sold in 1954 to the Encino Park housing development. After all those unique themed sets were bulldozed in 1954, the 'Encino Village' subdivision was built on the property with modern home designs by architect
Martin Stern, Jr.
Will Rogers State Historic Park
![Will Rogers House, Pacific Palisades](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d4/Will_Rogers_House%2C_Pacific_Palisades.JPG)
The former estate of American humorist
Will Rogers: with his historic residence, equestrian ranch, and regulation
polo field; are now within the
Will Rogers State Historic Park
Will Rogers State Historic Park is the former estate of American humorist Will Rogers. It lies in the Santa Monica Mountains in Los Angeles, in the Pacific Palisades area.
Geography
In what is now the Los Angeles neighborhood of Pacific Palisade ...
beside Rustic Canyon in
Pacific Palisades. While not dedicated to location shoots in his era or now, the property has been used for movie, TV, and print ad filming since his death.
Located in the
Santa Monica Mountains
The Santa Monica Mountains is a coastal mountain range in Southern California, next to the Pacific Ocean. It is part of the Transverse Ranges. Because of its proximity to densely populated regions, it is one of the most visited natural areas in ...
in western
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...
, the property was given to the state in 1944, and is open to the public. Extensive restoration was underway in 2010.
Some filming has been done at the park over recent years, such as scenes for Mailbu Road, released in 2019, but it was closed indefinitely to filming because of fires in the area in November 2018.
Newer movie ranches
Santa Clarita ranches
According to the L.A. Times there were about 10 movie ranches in that valley at the time, including Melody Ranch, Blue Cloud Movie Ranch, the
Golden Oak Ranch
Golden Oak Ranch is an 890-acre (360 ha) movie ranch owned by the Walt Disney Studios subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company that serves as a filming location and backlot. The ranch is off of Placerita Canyon Road outside of Newhall, Santa ...
owned by Disney since 2013 and the Rancho Deluxe.
Productions that have done some filming at the Rancho Deluxe studio include "SWAT", "Timeless", "LA to Vegas", "MasterChef", and seasons one and two of HBO's "Westworld". A 2016 fire destroyed trees and brush but not the structures.
Sable Ranch is a 400-acre property in Santa Clarita that featured lakes, a western town, a hacienda, barn, fields, and a train. The large field enabled the construction of large sets and has been used by numerous film and television series including ''
The A-Team
''The A-Team'' is an American action-adventure television series that ran on NBC from January 1983 to March 1987 about former members of a fictitious United States Army Special Forces unit. The four members of the team were tried by court ma ...
'' and in subsequent years ''
24'' and ''
Wipeout''. The ranch was destroyed in the Sand Fire wildfire on July 24, 2016.
However, by 2019, Sable Ranch was at least partially back in business, serving as the filming site for the ''Wipeout''-inspired mini-golf competition ''
Holey Moley
''Holey Moley'' is an American sports reality competition television series created for ABC by Chris Culvenor. The series is produced by Eureka Productions and Unanimous Media, with Culvenor, Paul Franklin, Wesley Dening, Stephen Curry, Jero ...
''. In May 2019, fires caused additional damage to some of the movie sets.
J.W. Eaves Movie Ranch
Located in
Santa Fe, New Mexico, the J.W. Eaves Movie Ranch was opened in the early 1960s with their first production being the
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
television series
Empire
An empire is a "political unit" made up of several territories and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the empire (sometimes referred to as the metropole) ex ...
in 1962. Over 250 other productions have filmed here over the years including ''
The Cheyenne Social Club
''The Cheyenne Social Club'' is a 1970 American Western comedy film written by James Lee Barrett, directed and produced by Gene Kelly, and starring James Stewart, Henry Fonda and Shirley Jones. The film is about an aging cowboy who inherits a b ...
'', ''
Chisum
''Chisum'' is a 1970 American Western film directed by Andrew McLaglen, starring John Wayne in the titular role, and adapted for the screen by Andrew J. Fenady from his short story "Chisum and the Lincoln County War." The supporting cast featu ...
'', ''
Easy Rider
''Easy Rider'' is a 1969 American independent drug culture road drama film written by Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, and Terry Southern, produced by Fonda, and directed by Hopper. Fonda and Hopper play two bikers who travel through the American So ...
'' and ''
Young Guns II
''Young Guns II'' is a 1990 American Western film and a sequel to '' Young Guns'' (1988). It stars Emilio Estevez, Kiefer Sutherland, Lou Diamond Phillips, and Christian Slater, and features William Petersen as Pat Garrett. It was written ...
''. In 1998, a tornado touched down one mile from the film crew of ''
Wishbone's Dog Days of the West
''Wishbone's Dog Days of the West'' is a PBS feature-length telefilm that aired on March 13, 1998. It was shot in Galisteo and Santa Fe, New Mexico. The film was aired on PBS stations on March 13, 1998 and released to video on June 9, 1998. It ...
'' as they were shooting the western scenes. It dissipated as it headed toward the set.
The Eaves Ranch is open to the public and has been home to the Thirsty Ear roots music festival. Other festivals have also been held here, but some movie-making continues. For example, some scenes for the 2018 Cohen Brothers anthology film,
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
''The Ballad of Buster Scruggs'' is a 2018 American Western anthology film written, directed, and produced by the Coen brothers. It had a limited theatrical release, being primarily intended for Netflix television. It stars Tim Blake Nelson, ...
, were filmed here.
Skywalker Ranch
![Skywalker Ranch Main House](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/27/Skywalker_Ranch_Main_House.jpg)
The
Skywalker Ranch
Skywalker Ranch is a movie ranch and workplace of film director, writer and producer George Lucas located in a secluded area near Nicasio, California, in Marin County. The ranch is located on Lucas Valley Road, named for an early-20th-century l ...
is not a movie ranch in the conventional sense, but rather is the location of the production facilities for film and television producer
George Lucas in
Marin County, California. Based in secluded but open land near
Nicasio
Nicasio ( ; Spanish for " Nicasius") is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Marin County, California, United States. It is located west-southwest of Novato, at an elevation of . As of the 2020 census the CDP population w ...
in
Northern California, the property encompasses over , of which all but remain undeveloped.
In 2019, the Skywalker Ranch web site stated that it "occupied the Technical Building, which features a world-class scoring stage, six feature mix stages, 15 sound design suites, 50 editing suites, an ADR stage, two Foley stages, and the 300-seat Stag Theater. The property also includes the iconic Main House and the beautiful Lake Ewok".
Southfork Ranch
Southfork Ranch is a working ranch in
Parker, Texas
Parker is a city in Collin County, Texas, United States. The population was 5,462 in 2020.
History
The first settlers arrived in the area that is now Parker in the early 1840s. The town was named after William C. Parker, the son of the area's fi ...
, a northern suburb of Dallas, that is used for some location filming. It was the backdrop for the 1980s prime time soap opera ''
Dallas
Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...
'' and
its 2010s continuation.
As of 2019, it was a tourist attraction.
Circle M City
Circle M City, in
Sanford, North Carolina
Sanford is a city in Lee County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 30,261 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Lee County.
History
Sanford was named for C.O. Sanford, a railroad civil engineer instrumental in the building ...
, is the set for the Christian movie ''Cowboy Trail''. Backing up to of land, this town features a church that seats 50 people, a mercantile, bank, saloon, livery, jail, costumes, and horses.
In 2019, it was a venue for various events and weddings.
[https://www.weddingwire.com/biz/circlemcity-sanford/26fd3e8ffde62d8c.html , Sanford Barn & Farm Wedding Venues]
See also
*
Studio zone
The studio zone, also known as the thirty-mile zone (TMZ), is an area defined by a radius of "Hollywood" used by the American entertainment industry to determine employee benefits for filmwork done within it. Its center has traditionally been ...
*
History of cinema
The history of film chronicles the development of a visual art form created using film technologies that began in the late 19th century.
The advent of film as an artistic medium is not clearly defined. However, the commercial, public scree ...
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Cinema & Film
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Sound stage
A sound stage (also written soundstage) is a soundproof, large structure, building, or room with large doors and high ceilings, used for the production of theatrical film-making and television productions, usually located on a secured movie or ...
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Backlot
A backlot is an area behind or adjoining a movie studio containing permanent exterior buildings for outdoor scenes in filmmaking or television productions, or space for temporary set construction.
Uses
Some movie studios build a wide variety of ...
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Location shooting
Location shooting is the shooting of a film or television production in a real-world setting rather than a sound stage or backlot. The location may be interior or exterior.
The filming location may be the same in which the story is set (for ex ...
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References
Further reading
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External links
Apacheland Movie Ranch official websiteColumbia Ranch history websiteSanta Fe movie ranchCircle M City movie ranchIverson Movie Ranch: History, vintage photos.Iverson Movie Ranch: Filmography.Analyzes virtually every rock seen in a movie, includes pictures of the site today.
ProductionHUB : Directory : Apacheland Movie Ranchof the Iverson Movie Ranch 1955 and before.
Will Rogers State Historical ParkLasky Mesa''Red Hills Ranch'' at The Internet Movie Database
Melody Ranch:
IMDB: Melody Ranch; Cinema & TV Filmography.*
ttp://www.melodyranchstudio.com/ contemporary 'Melody Ranch Motion Picture Studio' websitewww.melodyranchstudio. Melody Ranch Studio Museum
Paramount Movie Ranch Links:
Paramount Ranch visitor guideIMDB: Paramount Movie Ranch: Cinema & TV Filmography.Paramount Movie Ranch: filming historyParamount Ranch history website
{{Stagecraft
Film location shooting
Film production
Scenic design
Cinema of Southern California
Cinema of the United States
Ranches in the United States
San Fernando Valley
Culture of Hollywood, Los Angeles
History of Simi Valley, California
History of Los Angeles County, California
History of Ventura County, California