Old Tucson Studios

Old Tucson (formerly Old Tucson Studios) is an American movie studio and theme park just west of Tucson, Arizona, adjacent to the Tucson Mountains and close to the western portion of Saguaro National Park. Built in 1939 for the movie ''Arizona'' (1940), it has been used for the filming location of many movies and television westerns since then, such as '' Gunfight at the O.K. Corral'' (1957), '' Rio Bravo ''(1959), '' El Dorado'' (1966), ''Little House on the Prairie'' TV series of the 1970s–1980s, the film ''Three Amigos!'' (1986) and the popular film ''Tombstone'' (1993). It was opened to the public in 1960 as a theme park with historical tours offered about the movies filmed there, along with live cast entertainment featuring stunt shows, shootouts, can-can shows...as well as themed events. It is still a popular filming location used by Hollywood.

Early history

Old Tucson was originally built in 1939 by Columbia Pictures on a Pima County-owned site as a replica of 1860s’ era Tucson for the movie ''Arizona'' (1940), starring William Holden and Jean Arthur. Workers built more than 50 buildings in 40 days. Many of those structures are still standing.

After ''Arizona'' completed filming, the location lay dormant for several years, until the filming of ''The Bells of St. Mary's'' (1945), starring Bing Crosby and Ingrid Bergman. Other early movies filmed on this set included '' The Last Round-Up'' (1947) with Gene Autry and ''Winchester '73'' (1950) with James Stewart and '' The Last Outpost'' (1951) with Ronald Reagan. The 1950s saw the filming of '' Gunfight at the O.K. Corral'' (1957), ''The Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold'' (1958), '' Cimarron'' (1960), '' Last Train from Gun Hill'' (1959), and '' Rio Bravo'' (1959) among others.

Open to the public

In 1959, entrepreneur Robert Shelton leased the property from Pima County and began to restore the aging facility. Old Tucson re-opened in 1960, as both a film studio and a theme park. The park grew building by building with each movie filmed on its dusty streets. John Wayne starred in four movies at Old Tucson. '' Rio Bravo'' (1959) added a saloon, bank building and doctor's office; '' McClintock!'' (1963) added the McClintock Hotel; '' El Dorado'' (1966) brought a renovation of the storefronts on Front Street; and with '' Rio Lobo'' (1970) came a cantina, a granite-lined creek, a jail and a ranch house.

In 1968, a 13,000 square foot (1,208 square meter) soundstage was built to give Old Tucson greater movie-making versatility. The first film to use the soundstage was '' Young Billy Young'' (1968), starring Robert Mitchum and Angie Dickinson.

The park also began adding tours, rides and shows for the entertainment of visitors, most notably gunfights staged in the "streets" by stunt performers. One of the rides is a narrow gauge railroad powered by two Chance Rides C.P. Huntington train sets, which encircles most of the property.

Old Tucson served as an ideal location for shooting scenes for TV series like NBC's ''The High Chaparral'' (1967–1971) with Leif Erickson and Cameron Mitchell where the ranch house survived the 1995 fire; the 1970s–1980s series ''Little House on the Prairie'' with Michael Landon, ''Kung Fu'', and later '' Father Murphy'', featuring Merlin Olsen and ''Petrocelli'' (1974–76) used the site. '' Three Amigos'' was a popular comedy movie shot there in the 1980s with Steve Martin, utilizing the church set. From 1989 to 1992, the western show ''The Young Riders'' filmed here and at the Mescal, Arizona sister site. The main street appears prominently in 1990s westerns such as '' Tombstone'' (1993) with Kurt Russell and Val Kilmer. A partial mirror set exists at Mescal and is featured in '' The Quick and the Dead'' (1995), with Sharon Stone and Gene Hackman which filmed all of the town of Redemption scenes at the studios.

Fire

On April 24, 1995, a fire destroyed much of Old Tucson Studios. Buildings, costumes, and memorabilia were lost in the blaze. Among the memorabilia destroyed was the wardrobe from ''Little House on the Prairie''. Also lost in the blaze was the only copy of a short film about the history of Old Tucson Studios. This film included rare behind-the-scenes footage of stars such as William Holden, John Wayne, and Angie Dickinson. The ''Reno'', a steam locomotive from the Virginia and Truckee Railroad on static display in the park, was also badly damaged.

The fire originated inside building 74, which was a sign shop. This building backed up to an entertainment venue and was located on Kansas Street across from the sound stage. A show had just finished there and the crowd was being escorted by the actors from the show. Within minutes, flames were discovered inside the shop and security radioed the front gate, which called 911. In the meantime, someone pulled a fire hose from just north of this location (outside the Rio Bravo Jail building). When it was discovered that the hose was not long enough, it was dropped and another hose was pulled from the area of Chinese Alley. However, the original hose was not turned off, which bled off the pressure to the second hose. 300 guests and employees were forced to evacuate the park. Tucson Estates Fire Department arrived in less than 10 minutes with one truck and two firemen. However, by this time the fire had progressed too quickly to be suppressed by this basic equipment. A multiple-alarm call was put out to dispatch more fire units. 100 pieces of equipment and over 200 firefighters were deployed from every fire department in the Tucson metro area, including Davis Monthan Air Force Base and the Arizona National Guard.

The wind was out of the west, pushing the fire into the sound stage and west along Kansas Street. Approaches to the fire were restricted by three propane tanks that had vented and were burning. The fire quickly turned into a firestorm with vortices of flames carrying burning shingles and wood throughout the park. Fire control efforts were hampered by high winds. Most of the buildings in the studio were classified as "Temporary Structures," meaning fire prevention devices such as sprinklers were not required. A large propane tank, stashes of black powder used in staging gunfights, and a diesel fuel tank demanded the attention of firefighters and much of the scarce water supply. So much water was used in the attempt to prevent an explosion that the surrounding areas became flooded, further impeding the firefighters as they attempted to wade through the mud. After four hours of firefighting, the flames were extinguished. The loss included all of Kansas Street and Front Street to the wash on the east side, the corner store on the west, and the sound stage. The Mission area was destroyed along with the Greer Garson house and the cantina from Rio Lobo. The south end of town and the Silverlake area were not affected. Damages were estimated to be in excess of $10 million ($15 million in 2013), with 25 buildings destroyed. Fortunately, there were no human casualties.

The remains of the sign shop building showed that the point of origin was in a trash can located in the building. Samples of items in the trash can and in the immediate area were collected and tested, and the tests were negative for any type of accelerant. There were no electrical lines or other sources of ignition in the immediate area, and it was too short of a time span to have been caused by a discarded cigarette. It was ruled that some person unknown had started the fire in the area of the waste basket, and that the person had intentionally set the fire with some source of open flame (such as a match).

The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives sent in a team of forensic accountants to look into a financial motive for the fire. It was determined that the owners and management of Old Tucson did not stand to get a financial benefit but would lose a considerable amount of money due to the fire. These facts ruled the owners out of any conspiracy to set the fire. The employees were then questioned and their backgrounds checked; however, nothing suspicious was found to implicate any employee in the fire. That left the motive as either revenge for some personal offense, or an amateur thrill arsonist. Because of where the fire started, it was felt that the person starting it must have some knowledge of the layout of Old Tucson. Employment records were checked and one individual was identified as having recently attempted to get a job at Old Tucson, but was turned down. This person became the primary suspect. The subject lived in the nearby area and frequented Old Tucson.

In the month following the Old Tucson fire, several other fires were started in the area of Tucson Estates, down the road from Old Tucson; this subject was identified as the primary suspect in those fires. He was located and questioned by detectives, and faced with the evidence from the Tucson Estates fires, at which point he confessed to having started those fires. However, before he could be questioned about the Old Tucson fire, he invoked his Miranda Rights, effectively stopping any further questioning. Not enough evidence could be collected to positively identify this suspect as the arsonist in the Old Tucson fire. No other information pointing to any other individual was ever found, and the case remains open to this day.

After 20 months of reconstruction, Old Tucson re-opened its doors on January 2, 1997. The sets that were lost were not recreated; instead, entirely new buildings were constructed, and the streets were widened. The ''Reno'' locomotive was cosmetically restored before the filming of ''Wild Wild West'', in which it was featured as Union Pacific 119 in the scene at the driving of the final spike of the First transcontinental railroad, but was subsequently used in an explosion in the scene and is in need of additional restoration. The soundstage was not rebuilt. Film production at Old Tucson was seriously affected by the fire. In 2003, Old Tucson reduced its hours of operation, opening from 10am to 4pm. Focusing on seasonal events, Old Tucson hosts the popular Nightfall event for Halloween which runs through the month of October, Wednesday through Sunday nights.

Recent history

In 2011, Old Tucson embarked on a project to build new movie-quality sets that fill out the park, and restore the pre-fire feel of close-together buildings, providing the look and depth of a genuine old west town circa 1865–1900. “After the rebuild of Old Tucson following the 1995 fire, the town just didn’t have the same look and feel,” says Old Tucson CEO and General Manager Pete Mangelsdorf. “We started discussions with Bob Shelton several years ago to develop a plan to fill the empty space in Town Square with movie quality sets that bring the magic back.”

The Heritage Square Project, a 5,000-square-foot spread with three new streets lined with 12 new buildings, was completed in November 2011 at an estimated cost of $300,000. The design and construction of the new sets was led by Production Designer Gene Rudolf, credited with creating sets for movies including '' Young Guns II'' (1990), ''The Great Gatsby'' (1974), '' The Right Stuff'' (1983), '' Raging Bull'' (1980), '' Marathon Man'' (1976), and '' Three Days of the Condor'' (1975). The project added dressmaker shops, a general store and a blacksmith, and are part of "living history" presentations. One of the goals of the Heritage Project was to add "more programs that have to do with the different cultural aspects, the Hispanic culture, the Chinese culture, the Native American culture," said Mangelsdorf. Along those lines, another new exhibit now open to the public features a Tohono O'odham village as it would have appeared in the 1860s. It includes traditional houses, a garden and other facets of village life.

On Tuesday, September 8, 2020, Old Tucson, the Western-themed attraction that was the filming location of more than 400 feature-films and TV shows, closed indefinitely, with its future to be determined by Pima County.

The decision to close the Arizona landmark "was made with a heavy heart," according to Old Tucson general manager Terry Verhage, who said in a news release that the theme park would have remained in business "if not for the COVID-19 pandemic."

“We know how important Old Tucson is to our community, guests and employees,” he said. “We did everything possible to keep our loyal fans safe when we were open, but the ongoing COVID-19 public health protocols and restrictions limited park attendance to the point where Old Tucson could no longer stay in business.”

Pima County took over responsibility for the theme park on September 14, 2020, and "will seek ideas from potential operators and lessors about what Old Tucson could be in the future," the news release said.

On August 24, 2021, the ''Reno'' locomotive was acquired by the revived Virginia & Truckee Railroad and was trucked off the property. She arrived in Virginia City, Nevada for the first time since 1938 two days later.

While closed, Pima County Administrator said the county has invested over $1M on upgrading the site and repairing neglected items to prepare the facility for a new operator.

On April 5, 2022, Pima County selected American Heritage Railways (AHR) as the new operators of Old Tucson (aka Old Tucson Studios). It would be operated as Old Tucson Entertainment, LLC. The famous sister-site, Mescal Movie Set, was not part of the deal and will not be operated by the new AHR operators.

This historic movie location and theme park will reopen on Oct 6, 2022 with the popular "Nightfall at Old Tucson" event followed by a new Christmas-themed event called "Yuletide at Old Tucson" on Nov 25, 2022. John Harper serves as Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of American Heritage Railways and will oversee the property’s Executive Team, General Managers, and key employees. John has over 10 years in the historic preservation industry as well. They plan to utilize the facility not only as a theme-park but also reinstate its history as a filming location with the addition of sets, backdrops, sound stage, and pre and post-production facilities in 2023.

In July 2022, the Arizona State legislature passed the Arizona Film Tax Incentive bill which would encourage productions to return to facilities like Old Tucson. The passage of this bill is likely to increase film production at Old Tucson. As of Sept. 2022, they have been fielding offers for film and tv series to resume.

Movies filmed at Old Tucson

Many films, not all of them Westerns, were shot at Old Tucson Studios in whole or in part including the following:

* 1940: ''Arizona''
* 1945: ''The Bells of St. Mary's''
* 1947: ''The Last Round-up''
* 1950: ''Winchester '73''
* 1950: '' Broken Arrow''
* 1951: '' The Last Outpost''
* 1955: '' Strange Lady in Town''
* 1955: '' Ten Wanted Men''
* 1955: '' The Violent Men''
* 1956: ''Backlash''
* 1956: ''The Broken Star''
* 1956: ''Walk the Proud Land''
* 1957: '' 3:10 to Yuma''
* 1957: '' Gunfight at the O.K. Corral''
* 1957: '' The Guns of Fort Petticoat''
* 1957: ''Carbine Webb and the Four Sisters''
* 1957: ''Tale of Consequence''
* 1958: '' Buchanan Rides Alone''
* 1958: '' The Badlanders''
* 1958: ''Gunsmoke in Tucson''
* 1958: ''The Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold''
* 1959: '' Last Train from Gun Hill''
* 1959: '' Rio Bravo''
* 1959: '' The Hangman''
* 1960: '' Cimarron''
* 1960: ''Heller in Pink Tights''
* 1961: '' The Deadly Companions''
* 1961: ''Sounds of Arizona''
* 1961: ''A Thunder of Drums''
* 1962: '' Young Guns of Texas''
* 1963: ''McLintock!''
* 1963: '' Lilies of the Field''
* 1964: '' The Outrage''
* 1965: ''Arizona Raiders

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