Movie ranch
Encyclopedia
A movie ranch is a ranch
that is at least partially dedicated to being used as a site for the creation and production of motion pictures, and television
productions. Originally they were within the union 30 miles (48.3 km) Studio zone
, often in the San Fernando Valley
foothills.
Movie ranches first came into use in Southern California
for location shooting
in the 1920s when westerns
had become increasingly popular. Hollywood based studios found it difficult to recreate the wide expanses of the old West on sound stage
s, or in studio back lots
. Other large scale themed productions also needing large outdoor settings, such as battle scenes for war films, also needed undeveloped areas and began using the countryside and movie ranches in the region near their Hollywood studios.
in yonder parts of California
, Arizona
, and Nevada
, but travel expenses for production staff created a dispute 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 specifically referred to a distance of greater than 30 miles (48.3 km) from the studio, or beyond the studio zone
.
To solve this problem, many movie studios invested in large tracts of undeveloped rural land, in many cases existing ranch
es, located closer to Hollywood. In most cases, the ranches were located just within the 30 miles (48.3 km) perimeter, specifically in the Simi Hills
in the western San Fernando Valley
, the Santa Monica Mountains
, and the Canyon Country area of the Greater Los Angeles Area
. The natural California landscape proved a suitable for western locations and other settings.
As a result of the post-war (WWII)
era suburban development raising property values and resulting the urban sprawl
of Los Angeles
, most of these movie ranches have since been sold and subdivided. A few of these have survived as Regional Parks
, and are still used for filming. Movie ranches have gradually moved to other regions, notably New Mexico
, Arizona
, and Texas
.
Below is a partial listing of some of the famous classic Southern California
movie ranches from the first half of the 20th century, including some other and newer locations.
on Santa Susana Pass
above Chatsworth, California, first allowed a movie to be shot on their property in 1912, which was likely a western called The Squaw Man
. This began a long association of the ranch with Hollywood. Buster Keaton
's Three Ages, The Flying Deuces
, The Fighting Seabees
and Lives of a Bengal Lancer are just a few of the productions that filmed here. The rocky terrain and narrow, winding roads frequently turned up in Republic
serials of the 1940s.
By 1962, the ownership of the ranch was divided, with Joe Iverson, an African safari hunter married to Eva Iverson, owning the lower portion of the ranch and Aaron Iverson, a farmer married to Bessie Iverson, owning the upper part. Approximately 3000 movies were filmed at the ranch during its heyday. The long running TV Western The Virginian
filmed on location during these years. In 1966, the State of California began construction on the Simi Valley Freeway which cut the Iverson ranch in half. This freeway ended the use of the ranch as a viable movie location because of the traffic noise. Part of the ranch remains as parkland on both sides of Redmesa and fronting on Santa Susana Pass. This includes the famous "Garden of the Gods" in which many rock formations, seen in old westerns and many classics, are accessible to the public. The Iverson homestead is a private residence on Iverson Lane.
In 1982, Joe Iverson sold the lower Iverson ranch to Robert G. Sherman, who almost immediately began subdividing the property. The upper Iverson is also no longer open to the public, as it is now a gated community.
The location of the ranch was in the northwest corner of Chatsworth, California and was roughly where Topanga Canyon Boulevard currently exits from the 118.
LINKS:
purchased the property. It is located in lower Placerita Canyon
near Newhall, California
in the Sierra Pelona Mountains
just north of the San Gabriel Mountains
. Ernie Hickson was the original owner from 1936 until his death in 1952, and built-reconstructed all the 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 being renamed 'Monogram Ranch.' Gene Autry
purchased the property in 1953, renaming it after his film "Melody Ranch
". A brush fire destroyed most of the western sets
on the ranch in 1962, and Autry sold 98 acre (0.39659228 km²), most of Melody Ranch. The remaining 12 acre (0.04856232 km²) property was purchased by the Veluzats in 1990 for the new 'Melody Ranch Studios' movie ranch.
The Melody Ranch follows in the tradition of early silent film shoots which were done in Placerita Canyon
dating back to 1926. Tom Mix
silent film
westerns were shot in the canyon at that time. In 1931, Monogram Pictures
took out a five year lease on a parcel of land in central Placerita Canyon. The location of the western town that was constructed there was just east of what is now the junction of the Route 14
Antelope Valley Freeway and Placerita Canyon Road, on what is today part of Disney's Golden Oak Ranch
(see below) near Placerita Canyon State Park
. In 1935, as a result of a Monogram-Republic merger, the 'Placerita Canyon Ranch' became owned by the newly formed Republic Pictures
. In 1936, when the lease wound up, the entire town was relocated and rebuilt a few miles to the north at Ernie Hickson's 'Placeritos Ranch' in lower Placerita Canyon near the junction of Oak Creek Road and Placerita Canyon Road, renamed 'Monogram Ranch,' leased by again independent Monogram Pictures
in 1937.
Gene Autry
, actor, cowboy singer, and producer, purchased the 110 acre (0.4451546 km²) 'Monogram Ranch' property from the Hickson heirs in 1953, renaming it after his film 'Melody Ranch
'. Autry sold 98 acre (0.39659228 km²) of the property, most of the original ranch. From 1940 to 1956 many radio listeners tuned in Sunday afternoons to hear CBS program "Gene Autry's Melody Ranch." A decade after Gene Autry purchased 'Melody Ranch,' a brushfire
swept through in August 1962, destroying most of the original standing sets. However, the devastated landscape did prove useful for productions such as Combat!. A complete adobe ranch survived at the northeast section of the ranch.
In 1990, after his horse 'Champion
,' who lived in retirement there died, Autry put the remaining 12 acre (0.04856232 km²) ranch up for sale. It was purchased by Rene and Andre Veluzat to recreate an active movie ranch for location shooting
. The Veluzats have a 22 acres (89,030.9 m²) complex of sound stage
s, western sets
, prop shop, and the backlot
s, now known as the 'Melody Ranch Motion Picture Studio' and 'Melody Ranch Studios.'
The ranch has Museum open year-round; and one weekend a year the entire ranch is open to the public during the Cowboy Poetry & Music Festival, held at the end of April.
Melody Ranch Links:
in the Santa Monica Mountains
, between Malibu, California and the San Fernando Valley
. The studio built numerous large-scale sets
on the ranch, including a huge replica of early San Francisco and an Old West town. It posed as Tombstone, Arizona and Dodge City, Kansas, as well as and 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
.
Since then, the older sets have been removed, but there is a western town at the location for visitors to view. This remaining set of buildings continued to be used in filming, notably for the Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman
television series and the short lived HBO series Carnivàle
.
The Paramount Movie Ranch was also was the home of the original Renaissance Faire from 1966 to 1989, and continues to be the home of the Topanga Banjo Fiddle Contest, held each May.
Paramount Movie Ranch Links:
in California's Simi Valley
and Santa Susana Mountains
, developing his 'Ray Corrigan Ranch' into the 'Corriganville Movie Ranch
.' Most of the Range Busters
film series were shot here, as well as features, such as "Fort Apache
" (1948) "Bullets and Saddles" (1943), and "Saddle Mountain Roundup" (1941).
Corrigan opened the ranch to the public in 1949. In 1966, Corriganville became 'Hopetown' when it was purchased by Bob Hope
. It is now part of the Simi Valley Park system, open to the public as the Corriganville Regional Park. Corriganville Regional Park.
LINKS:
was in the area known as Lasky Mesa in the southern Simi Hills
, in eastern Ventura County, above Hidden Hills
and West Hills in the San Fernando Valley
of Southern California
.
This area is noted for a filming location history of many important movies, including, The Thundering Herd
(Famous Players-Lasky Co. 1925), Gone with the Wind
(Selznick 1939) and They Died with Their Boots On
, "Santa Fe Trail
" (Warner Bros. 1940), and many others.
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 (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
tests showing migrating contamination of the aquifer
with toxic substances from the adjacent Rocketdyne Santa Susana Field Laboratory
(SSFL) experimental Nuclear Reactor and Rocket Engine Test Facility
. The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy
and the State of California purchased the land for public regional park
. It Lasky Movie Ranch is now part of the very large Upper Las Virgenes Canyon Open Space Preserve
, with various trails to the Lasky Mesa locale.
, the 20th Century Fox Movie Ranch (aka: Century Movie Ranch & Fox Movie Ranch) was first purchased in 1946 by 20th Century Fox Studios
. From 1956-1957, 20th Century Fox productions filmed their first television series there: My Friend Flicka
for CBS television.
The Century Movie Ranch was the main filming location with outdoor sets for the original MASH (film)
and subsequent M*A*S*H (TV series). It was used as a location in dozens of films, including a number of the Tarzan
movies, Robin Hood: Men in Tights
, the original Planet of the Apes
film and subsequent television series
.
The Fox Movie Ranch property was purchased and preserved in the new state park, Malibu Creek State Park
, opened to the public in 1976. Productions have continued to be filmed there since that time.
is a 500 acres (2 km²) property located on Santa Susana Pass
in the Simi Hills
above Chatsworth, California.
The Spahn Movie Ranch, once owned by silent film actor William S. Hart
, 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
. A western town set was located at the ranch.
The Spahn Ranch was once home for the infamous Manson Family. A 1970 mountain wildfire
destroyed the film set and the residential structures.
The Spahn Movie Ranch is now part of the Santa Susana Pass State Historic Park
.
LINKS:
Movie Ranch off Soledad Canyon
became the Walt Disney Golden Oak Ranch
in 1959. The ranch is located in central Placerita Canyon
near Newhall, California
in the northern San Gabriel Mountains
foothills. It was named for the Gold discovery of Francisco Lopez in wild onion roots under the "Oak of the Golden Dream", in present day Placerita Canyon State Park
. The Ranch was still being used for occasional filming, when Walt Disney
took an interest in the property. In 1959, driven by concern that the ranches of other movie studios were gradually being sub-divided, Walt Disney purchased the 315 acres (1.3 km²) ranch. During the next five years, the Walt Disney Studios
also bought additional land which enlarged the property to 691 acres (2.8 km²).
The Walt Disney Company worked closely with the State of California when a portion of the western border of the ranch was purchased for the Antelope Valley Freeway. This construction was carefully planned so that it didn't intrude into the film settings. In 2009 the Disney Company announced expanding the studio complex, with master planning and environmental impact studies commencing. Golden Oak Ranch is located in Newhall, California.
is a Movie ranch located in Simi Valley, California
. It has been widely used for the filming of Western television
and film productions. Some of the past television episodes and productions filmed there include: Rawhide
, Gunsmoke
, Bonanza
, Little House on the Prairie
, Highway to Heaven
, Father Murphy
, The Thorn Birds (TV miniseries)
, Jericho (TV Series)
and Carnivàle
.
A more complete list of productions can be found at the Internet Movie Database
Big Sky Ranch
is one of the oldest and largest Movie Ranches still in
operation in Southern California
. The Ranch has been host to countless feature films,
television shows, television commercials, music videos, photo shoots
and special events over the past fifty years. Big Sky Ranch
is a private Movie Ranch
located within the Los Angeles
30 Mile Studio Zone
. The land was
originally owned by J. Paul Getty
. The ranch is extremely diverse with hills, valleys, and
secluded meadows making it a perfect location for filming. Big Sky Ranch
was host to many television series and motion pictures over the years making it one of the most historic movie ranches in the Los Angeles Studio Zone.
, which served as a location for Bonanza
, The Adventures of Brisco County Jr., Little House on the Prairie and other productions.
LINKS:
in the Simi Hills
above the Spahn Movie Ranch
site and Santa Susana Pass State Historic Park
. Many of the television westerns used the ranch including: "Gunsmoke", "Zorro", "The Monroes", "How the West Was Won", "Dundee and the Culhane", "The Big Valley", and "Have Gun Will Travel". Even "McCloud" used the western street and surrounding area for an episode with Dennis Weaver.
and now the "Warner Brothers Ranch", this 32 acres (129,499.5 m²) backlot in Burbank, California
served as the filming location for many well-known TV shows, such as I Dream of Jeannie
, Bewitched
and The Partridge Family
, as well as numerous feature films, such as High Noon
, The Wild One
, 3:10 to Yuma
and Cat Ballou
. Columbia Pictures
purchased the original 40 acres (161,874.4 m²) lot in 1934 as additional space to its Sunset Gower location, when the studio was in need for more space and a true backlot. By 1965 the Ranch consisted of 6 main sound stages and numerous large standing sets.
It is commonly believed, though not the case that Leave It to Beaver
was filmed here. The Waltons
was originally filmed on the Warner Bros.
main lot where the main 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 set occasionally used in the original Fantasy Island
series, and as of October, 2009 the facade remains and is sometimes used in other Warner Bros. productions.
, in the Morongo Basin
region of Southern California's Mojave Desert
in San Bernardino County, California
. The town started as a live-in Old West 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. A number of Westerns and early television shows were filmed in Pioneertown, including The Cisco Kid
and Edgar Buchanan
's Judge Roy Bean
. Roy Rogers
, Dick Curtis
, and Russell Hayden
were among the original developers and investors, and Gene Autry
frequently taped his show at the six-lane Pioneer Bowl bowling alley.
'Encino Ranch' was located in present day Encino in the San Fernando Valley, California
. It was 89 acres (360,170.5 m²) near the Los Angeles River
and the west of the current Sepulveda Basin Recreation Area on Burbank Boulevard. RKO sold the Encino Ranch in 1954, and the 'Encino Village' subdivision was built there with homes designed by architect Martin Stern, Jr.
. The movie ranch included a New York street and western town sets. Movies filmed here include "It's a Wonderful Life
" (1946) and "The Hunchback of Notre Dame
" (1939).
in central Arizona
, and intended to be the "Western Movie Capitol of the World", construction on the Apacheland Studio 'western town' began on February 12, 1959 by Superstition Mountain Enterprises and associates. By June 1960 Apacheland Studio was open for business and filmed its first TV western Stagecoach West and full length movie The Purple Hills.
Actors such as Elvis Presley, Jason Robards, Stella Stevens, Ronald Reagan, Steve McQueen, Clint Eastwood and Audie Murphy filmed western television shows and movies, such as Gambler II, Wanted: Dead or Alive, Death Valley Days, Blind Justice, Charro!, Have Gun, Will Travel and Ballad of Cable Hogue at the western movie studio for some or all of the filming.
The last full length movie to be filmed was the 1994 HBO movie Blind Justice with Armand Assante, Elizabeth Shue and Jack Black.
On May 29, 1969, a suspicious fire destroyed most of the ranch. Only 7 buildings survived. The sets were soon rebuilt but then almost 35 years later on February 14, 2004, 2 days after its 45th anniversary, another suspicious fire destroyed most of the Apacheland. On October 16, 2004 Apacheland closed its doors to the public permanently. The cause of both fires remain a mystery.
: with his historic residence, equestrian ranch, and regulation polo
field; are now within the Will Rogers State Historic Park
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
in western Los Angeles
, the property was given to the state for the in 1944, is and open to the public. Extensive restoration is underway. The park link to the
LINKS:
, the J.W. Eaves Movie Ranch was opened in the early 1960s with their first production being the CBS
television series Empire
in 1962. Over 250 other productions have filmed here over the years including The Cheyenne Social Club
, Chisum
, Easy Rider
and Young Guns II
.
The Eaves Ranch is open to the public.
J.W.Eaves at Monument Gallery
For the last eleven years, the Eaves ranch has been home to the Thirsty Ear roots music festival.
is not a movie ranch in the traditional sense, but rather is the location of the production facilities for George Lucas
and Lucasfilm
. Few productions have used this area for location shooting. Based in secluded but open land near Nicasio
in Northern California
, the property encompasses over 4700 acres (19 km²), of which all but 15 acres (60,702.9 m²) remain undeveloped in Marin County.
, a northern suburb of Dallas, that is used for some location filming. Notably, it was the backdrop for the 1980s prime time soap Dallas
.
, is the set for the Christian movie Cowboy Trail. Backing up to 50 acres (202,343 m²) of land, this town features a church that seats 50 people, a mercantile, bank, saloon, livery, jail, costumes, and horses, and family events.
, featuring lakes, a western town, a hacienda, barn, fields, and a train. The large field enables the construction of large sets and has been used by numerous film and television series including The A-Team
and more recently 24
and Wipeout.
Ranch
A ranch is an area of landscape, including various structures, given primarily to the practice of ranching, the practice of raising grazing livestock such as cattle or sheep for meat or wool. The word most often applies to livestock-raising operations in the western United States and Canada, though...
that is at least partially dedicated to being used as a site for the creation and production of motion pictures, and television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
productions. Originally they were within the union 30 miles (48.3 km) Studio zone
Studio zone
In the American entertainment industry, the studio zone, also known as the thirty-mile zone or the TMZ, is the area within a 30-mile radius from the intersection of West Beverly Boulevard and North La Cienega Boulevard in Los Angeles, California...
, often in the San Fernando Valley
San Fernando Valley
The San Fernando Valley is an urbanized valley located in the Los Angeles metropolitan area of southern California, United States, defined by the dramatic mountains of the Transverse Ranges circling it...
foothills.
Movie ranches first came into use in Southern California
Southern California
Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...
for location shooting
Location shooting
Location shooting is the practice of filming in an actual setting rather than on a sound stage or back lot. In filmmaking a location is any place where a film crew will be filming actors and recording their dialog. A location where dialog is not recorded may be considered as a second unit...
in the 1920s when westerns
Western (genre)
The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...
had become increasingly popular. Hollywood based studios found it difficult to recreate the wide expanses of the old West on sound stage
Sound stage
In common usage, a sound stage is a soundproof, hangar-like structure, building, or room, used for the production of theatrical filmmaking and television production, usually located on a secure movie studio property.-Overview:...
s, or in studio back lots
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....
. Other large scale themed productions also needing large outdoor settings, such as battle scenes for war films, also needed undeveloped areas and began using the countryside and movie ranches in the region near their Hollywood studios.
History
To achieve greater scope, productions would conduct location shootingLocation shooting
Location shooting is the practice of filming in an actual setting rather than on a sound stage or back lot. In filmmaking a location is any place where a film crew will be filming actors and recording their dialog. A location where dialog is not recorded may be considered as a second unit...
in yonder parts of California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
, and Nevada
Nevada
Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...
, but travel expenses for production staff created a dispute 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 specifically referred to a distance of greater than 30 miles (48.3 km) from the studio, or beyond the studio zone
Studio zone
In the American entertainment industry, the studio zone, also known as the thirty-mile zone or the TMZ, is the area within a 30-mile radius from the intersection of West Beverly Boulevard and North La Cienega Boulevard in Los Angeles, California...
.
To solve this problem, many movie studios invested in large tracts of undeveloped rural land, in many cases existing ranch
Ranch
A ranch is an area of landscape, including various structures, given primarily to the practice of ranching, the practice of raising grazing livestock such as cattle or sheep for meat or wool. The word most often applies to livestock-raising operations in the western United States and Canada, though...
es, located closer to Hollywood. In most cases, the ranches were located just within the 30 miles (48.3 km) perimeter, specifically in the Simi Hills
Simi Hills
The Simi Hills are a low rocky mountain range of the Transverse Ranges, located in eastern Ventura County and western Los Angeles County, of southern California, United States.-Geography:...
in the western San Fernando Valley
San Fernando Valley
The San Fernando Valley is an urbanized valley located in the Los Angeles metropolitan area of southern California, United States, defined by the dramatic mountains of the Transverse Ranges circling it...
, the Santa Monica Mountains
Santa Monica Mountains
The Santa Monica Mountains are a Transverse Range in Southern California, along the coast of the Pacific Ocean in the United States.-Geography:...
, and the Canyon Country area of the Greater Los Angeles Area
Greater Los Angeles Area
The Greater Los Angeles Area, or the Southland, is a term used for the Combined Statistical Area sprawled over five counties in the southern part of California, namely Los Angeles County, Orange County, San Bernardino County, Riverside County and Ventura County...
. The natural California landscape proved a suitable for western locations and other settings.
As a result of the post-war (WWII)
Post-war
A post-war period or postwar period is the interval immediately following the ending of a war and enduring as long as war does not resume. A post-war period can become an interwar period or interbellum when a war between the same parties resumes at a later date...
era suburban development raising property values and resulting the urban sprawl
Urban sprawl
Urban sprawl, also known as suburban sprawl, is a multifaceted concept, which includes the spreading outwards of a city and its suburbs to its outskirts to low-density and auto-dependent development on rural land, high segregation of uses Urban sprawl, also known as suburban sprawl, is a...
of Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, most of these movie ranches have since been sold and subdivided. A few of these have survived as Regional Parks
Regional park
Regional park is a term used for 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:...
, and are still used for filming. Movie ranches have gradually moved to other regions, notably New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
, Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
, and Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
.
Below is a partial listing of some of the famous classic Southern California
Southern California
Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...
movie ranches from the first half of the 20th century, including some other and newer locations.
Iverson Movie Ranch
The Iverson family ranch, in the Simi HillsSimi Hills
The Simi Hills are a low rocky mountain range of the Transverse Ranges, located in eastern Ventura County and western Los Angeles County, of southern California, United States.-Geography:...
on Santa Susana Pass
Santa Susana Pass
The Santa Susana Pass is a Southern California mountain pass in the Simi Hills connecting the San Fernando Valley and town of Chatsworth, to the Simi Valley and city of Simi Valley.-Natural history:...
above Chatsworth, California, first allowed a movie to be shot on their property in 1912, which was likely a western called The Squaw Man
The Squaw Man
The Squaw Man is a 1914 silent western drama motion picture starring Dustin Farnum.Directed by Oscar Apfel and Cecil B. DeMille and produced by DeMille and Jesse L...
. This began a long association of the ranch with Hollywood. Buster Keaton
Buster Keaton
Joseph Frank "Buster" Keaton was an American comic actor, filmmaker, producer and writer. He was best known for his silent films, in which his trademark was physical comedy with a consistently stoic, deadpan expression, earning him the nickname "The Great Stone Face".Keaton was recognized as the...
's Three Ages, The Flying Deuces
The Flying Deuces
The Flying Deuces, also known as Flying Aces, is a 1939 comedy film starring Laurel and Hardy, in which the duo join the French Foreign Legion. It is a partial remake of their 1931 short film Beau Hunks.- Plot :...
, The Fighting Seabees
The Fighting Seabees
The Fighting Seabees is a 1944 war film starring John Wayne and Susan Hayward. The picture portrays a heavily fictionalized account of the dilemma that led to the creation of the U.S. Navy's "Seabees" in World War II...
and Lives of a Bengal Lancer are just a few of the productions that filmed here. The rocky terrain and narrow, winding roads frequently turned up in Republic
Republic
A republic is a form of government in which the people, or some significant portion of them, have supreme control over the government and where offices of state are elected or chosen by elected people. In modern times, a common simplified definition of a republic is a government where the head of...
serials of the 1940s.
By 1962, the ownership of the ranch was divided, with Joe Iverson, an African safari hunter married to Eva Iverson, owning the lower portion of the ranch and Aaron Iverson, a farmer married to Bessie Iverson, owning the upper part. Approximately 3000 movies were filmed at the ranch during its heyday. The long running TV Western The Virginian
The Virginian (TV series)
The Virginian is an American Western television series starring James Drury and Doug McClure, which aired on NBC from 1962 to 1971 for a total of 249 episodes. Filmed in color, The Virginian became television's first 90-minute western series...
filmed on location during these years. In 1966, the State of California began construction on the Simi Valley Freeway which cut the Iverson ranch in half. This freeway ended the use of the ranch as a viable movie location because of the traffic noise. Part of the ranch remains as parkland on both sides of Redmesa and fronting on Santa Susana Pass. This includes the famous "Garden of the Gods" in which many rock formations, seen in old westerns and many classics, are accessible to the public. The Iverson homestead is a private residence on Iverson Lane.
In 1982, Joe Iverson sold the lower Iverson ranch to Robert G. Sherman, who almost immediately began subdividing the property. The upper Iverson is also no longer open to the public, as it is now a gated community.
The location of the ranch was in the northwest corner of Chatsworth, California and was roughly where Topanga Canyon Boulevard currently exits from the 118.
LINKS:
Monogram Ranch - Melody Ranch
Originally known as 'Placeritos Ranch', the 110 acre (0.4451546 km²) ranch was commonly referred to as the 'Monogram Ranch', and renamed 'Melody Ranch' when Gene AutryGene Autry
Orvon Grover Autry , better known as Gene Autry, was an American performer who gained fame as The Singing Cowboy on the radio, in movies and on television for more than three decades beginning in the 1930s...
purchased the property. It is located in lower Placerita Canyon
Placerita Canyon State Park
Placerita Canyon State Park is a California State Park in the San Gabriel Mountains, in an unincorporated rural area of Los Angeles County, north of Los Angeles near Santa Clarita, California.-Cultural History:...
near Newhall, California
Newhall, California
Newhall is the southernmost and oldest district of Santa Clarita, California. Prior to the 1987 consolidation of Valencia, Canyon Country, Saugus, Newhall, and other geographically proximate settlements into the conglomerate city of Santa Clarita, it was an independent but unincorporated town...
in the Sierra Pelona Mountains
Sierra Pelona Mountains
The Sierra Pelona Mountains , or the Sierra Pelona Ridge, is a mountain range in the Transverse Ranges of Southern California.. They are located within Los Angeles and Kern Counties.-Geography:...
just north of the San Gabriel Mountains
San Gabriel Mountains
The San Gabriel Mountains Range is located in northern Los Angeles County and western San Bernardino County, California, United States. The mountain range lies between the Los Angeles Basin and the Mojave Desert, with Interstate 5 to the west and Interstate 15 to the east...
. Ernie Hickson was the original owner from 1936 until his death in 1952, and built-reconstructed all the original sets
Set construction
Set construction is the process by which a set designer works in collaboration with the director of a production to create the set for a theatrical, film or television production...
on the ranch. A year later in 1937 Monogram Pictures
Monogram Pictures
Monogram Pictures Corporation is a Hollywood studio that produced and released films, most on low budgets, between 1931 and 1953, when the firm completed a transition to the name Allied Artists Pictures Corporation. Monogram is considered a leader among the smaller studios sometimes referred to...
signed a long term lease with Hickson for 'Placeritos Ranch', with terms that the ranch being renamed 'Monogram Ranch.' Gene Autry
Gene Autry
Orvon Grover Autry , better known as Gene Autry, was an American performer who gained fame as The Singing Cowboy on the radio, in movies and on television for more than three decades beginning in the 1930s...
purchased the property in 1953, renaming it after his film "Melody Ranch
Melody Ranch
Melody Ranch is a 1940 Western film which tells the story of a singing cowboy who returns to his hometown to restore order when his former childhood enemies take over the frontier town.-Movie:...
". A brush fire destroyed most of the western sets
Set construction
Set construction is the process by which a set designer works in collaboration with the director of a production to create the set for a theatrical, film or television production...
on the ranch in 1962, and Autry sold 98 acre (0.39659228 km²), most of Melody Ranch. The remaining 12 acre (0.04856232 km²) property was purchased by the Veluzats in 1990 for the new 'Melody Ranch Studios' movie ranch.
The Melody Ranch follows in the tradition of early silent film shoots which were done in Placerita Canyon
Placerita Canyon State Park
Placerita Canyon State Park is a California State Park in the San Gabriel Mountains, in an unincorporated rural area of Los Angeles County, north of Los Angeles near Santa Clarita, California.-Cultural History:...
dating back to 1926. Tom Mix
Tom Mix
Thomas Edwin "Tom" Mix was an American film actor and the star of many early Western movies. He made a reported 336 films between 1910 and 1935, all but nine of which were silent features...
silent film
Silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
westerns were shot in the canyon at that time. In 1931, Monogram Pictures
Monogram Pictures
Monogram Pictures Corporation is a Hollywood studio that produced and released films, most on low budgets, between 1931 and 1953, when the firm completed a transition to the name Allied Artists Pictures Corporation. Monogram is considered a leader among the smaller studios sometimes referred to...
took out a five year lease on a parcel of land in central Placerita Canyon. The location of the western town that was constructed there was just east of what is now the junction of the Route 14
California State Route 14
State Route 14 is a north–south state highway in the U.S. state of California, largely in the Mojave Desert. The southern portion of the highway is signed as the Antelope Valley Freeway. The route connects Interstate 5, or Golden State Freeway, near Santa Clarita and with U.S. Route 395 near...
Antelope Valley Freeway and Placerita Canyon Road, on what is today part of Disney's Golden Oak Ranch
Golden Oak Ranch
The Walt Disney Company’s Golden Oak Ranch is a movie ranch that serves as an interior and exterior filming location. The ranch is off of Placerita Canyon Road in Canyon Country, California, less than an hour north of Los Angeles; its entrance is about from Placerita Canyon Road's intersection...
(see below) near Placerita Canyon State Park
Placerita Canyon State Park
Placerita Canyon State Park is a California State Park in the San Gabriel Mountains, in an unincorporated rural area of Los Angeles County, north of Los Angeles near Santa Clarita, California.-Cultural History:...
. In 1935, as a result of a Monogram-Republic merger, the 'Placerita Canyon Ranch' became owned by the newly formed Republic Pictures
Republic Pictures
Republic Pictures was an independent film production-distribution corporation with studio facilities, operating from 1934 through 1959, and was best known for specializing in westerns, movie serials and B films emphasizing mystery and action....
. In 1936, when the lease wound up, the entire town was relocated and rebuilt a few miles to the north at Ernie Hickson's 'Placeritos Ranch' in lower Placerita Canyon near the junction of Oak Creek Road and Placerita Canyon Road, renamed 'Monogram Ranch,' leased by again independent Monogram Pictures
Monogram Pictures
Monogram Pictures Corporation is a Hollywood studio that produced and released films, most on low budgets, between 1931 and 1953, when the firm completed a transition to the name Allied Artists Pictures Corporation. Monogram is considered a leader among the smaller studios sometimes referred to...
in 1937.
Gene Autry
Gene Autry
Orvon Grover Autry , better known as Gene Autry, was an American performer who gained fame as The Singing Cowboy on the radio, in movies and on television for more than three decades beginning in the 1930s...
, actor, cowboy singer, and producer, purchased the 110 acre (0.4451546 km²) 'Monogram Ranch' property from the Hickson heirs in 1953, renaming it after his film 'Melody Ranch
Melody Ranch
Melody Ranch is a 1940 Western film which tells the story of a singing cowboy who returns to his hometown to restore order when his former childhood enemies take over the frontier town.-Movie:...
'. Autry sold 98 acre (0.39659228 km²) of the property, most of the original ranch. From 1940 to 1956 many radio listeners tuned in Sunday afternoons to hear CBS program "Gene Autry's Melody Ranch." A decade after Gene Autry purchased 'Melody Ranch,' a brushfire
Wildfire
A wildfire is any uncontrolled fire in combustible vegetation that occurs in the countryside or a wilderness area. Other names such as brush fire, bushfire, forest fire, desert fire, grass fire, hill fire, squirrel fire, vegetation fire, veldfire, and wilkjjofire may be used to describe the same...
swept through in August 1962, destroying most of the original standing sets. However, the devastated landscape did prove useful for productions such as Combat!. A complete adobe ranch survived at the northeast section of the ranch.
In 1990, after his horse 'Champion
The Adventures of Champion
The Adventures of Champion is a 15-minute adventure serial radio drama directed by William Burch and heard weekday afternoons on the Mutual Broadcasting System in 1949-50.-Radio:...
,' who lived in retirement there died, Autry put the remaining 12 acre (0.04856232 km²) ranch up for sale. It was purchased by Rene and Andre Veluzat to recreate an active movie ranch for location shooting
Location shooting
Location shooting is the practice of filming in an actual setting rather than on a sound stage or back lot. In filmmaking a location is any place where a film crew will be filming actors and recording their dialog. A location where dialog is not recorded may be considered as a second unit...
. The Veluzats have a 22 acres (89,030.9 m²) complex of sound stage
Sound stage
In common usage, a sound stage is a soundproof, hangar-like structure, building, or room, used for the production of theatrical filmmaking and television production, usually located on a secure movie studio property.-Overview:...
s, western sets
Set construction
Set construction is the process by which a set designer works in collaboration with the director of a production to create the set for a theatrical, film or television production...
, prop shop, and the backlot
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....
s, now known as the 'Melody Ranch Motion Picture Studio' and 'Melody Ranch Studios.'
The ranch has Museum open year-round; and one weekend a year the entire ranch is open to the public during the Cowboy Poetry & Music Festival, held at the end of April.
Melody Ranch Links:
- Melody Ranch: historical sets and filming photos
- IMDB: Melody Ranch; Cinema & TV Filmography.
- "Movie Magic in Placerita Canyon" Melody Ranch history website
- contemporary 'Melody Ranch Motion Picture Studio' website
- www.melodyranchstudio. Melody Ranch Studio Museum
Paramount Movie Ranch
In 1927, Paramount Studios purchased a 2700 acres (10.9 km²) ranch on Malibu CreekMalibu Creek
Malibu Creek is a year-round stream in western Los Angeles County, California. It drains the southern Simi Hills and the westernmost San Fernando Valley, flows south through the Santa Monica Mountains, and enters Santa Monica Bay east of Malibu. The Malibu Creek watershed drains and its tributary...
in the Santa Monica Mountains
Santa Monica Mountains
The Santa Monica Mountains are a Transverse Range in Southern California, along the coast of the Pacific Ocean in the United States.-Geography:...
, between Malibu, California and the San Fernando Valley
San Fernando Valley
The San Fernando Valley is an urbanized valley located in the Los Angeles metropolitan area of southern California, United States, defined by the dramatic mountains of the Transverse Ranges circling it...
. The studio built numerous large-scale sets
Set construction
Set construction is the process by which a set designer works in collaboration with the director of a production to create the set for a theatrical, film or television production...
on the ranch, including a huge replica of early San Francisco and an Old West town. It posed as Tombstone, Arizona and Dodge City, Kansas, as well as and 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
Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area
The Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area or SMMNRA, 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...
.
Since then, the older sets have been removed, but there is a western town at the location for visitors to view. This remaining set of buildings continued to be used in filming, notably for the Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman
Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman
Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman is an American post-Civil War western/drama series created by Beth Sullivan. Dr. Michaela "Mike" Quinn, played by Jane Seymour, left Boston in search of adventure. She goes to Colorado Springs, Colorado where she establishes herself as doctor/adviser.The show ran on CBS...
television series and the short lived HBO series Carnivàle
Carnivàle
Carnivàle is an American television series set in the United States during the Great Depression and Dust Bowl. In tracing the lives of two disparate groups of people, its overarching story depicts the battle between good and evil and the struggle between free will and destiny; the storyline mixes...
.
The Paramount Movie Ranch was also was the home of the original Renaissance Faire from 1966 to 1989, and continues to be the home of the Topanga Banjo Fiddle Contest, held each May.
Paramount Movie Ranch Links:
- National Park Service: 'Paramount Ranch'
- Paramount Ranch visitor guide
- IMDB: Paramount Movie Ranch: Cinema & TV Filmography.
- Paramount Movie Ranch: filming history
- Paramount Ranch history website
Corriganville Movie Ranch
Circa 1937, Ray "Crash" Corrigan invested in property on the western Santa Susana PassSanta Susana Pass
The Santa Susana Pass is a Southern California mountain pass in the Simi Hills connecting the San Fernando Valley and town of Chatsworth, to the Simi Valley and city of Simi Valley.-Natural history:...
in California's Simi Valley
Simi Valley
Simi Valley is a synclinal valley in Southern California in the United States. It is an enclosed or hidden valley surrounded by mountains and hills. It is connected to the San Fernando Valley to the east by the Santa Susana Pass & 118 freeway, and in the west the narrows of the Arroyo Simi and 118...
and Santa Susana Mountains
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 Valley and Simi Valley on its south, from Santa Clara River Valley to the north, and Santa Clarita...
, developing his 'Ray Corrigan Ranch' into the 'Corriganville Movie Ranch
Corriganville Movie Ranch
Corriganville Movie Ranch was a working film studio and movie ranch for outdoor location shooting, as well as a Western-themed tourist attraction...
.' Most of the Range Busters
Range Busters
The Range Busters were a film series of 25 Westerns of the adventures of a trio of cowboys, many filmed at the Corriganville Movie Ranch, produced by George W. Weeks and distributed by Monogram Pictures.-Production:...
film series were shot here, as well as features, such as "Fort Apache
Fort Apache (film)
Fort Apache is a 1948 Western film directed by John Ford and starring John Wayne and Henry Fonda. The film was the first of the director's "cavalry trilogy" and was followed by She Wore a Yellow Ribbon and Rio Grande , both also starring Wayne...
" (1948) "Bullets and Saddles" (1943), and "Saddle Mountain Roundup" (1941).
Corrigan opened the ranch to the public in 1949. In 1966, Corriganville became 'Hopetown' when it was purchased by Bob Hope
Bob Hope
Bob Hope, KBE, KCSG, KSS was a British-born American comedian and actor who appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in radio, television and movies. He was also noted for his work with the US Armed Forces and his numerous USO shows entertaining American military personnel...
. It is now part of the Simi Valley Park system, open to the public as the Corriganville Regional Park. Corriganville Regional Park.
LINKS:
Famous Players-Lasky Movie Ranch - Ahmanson 'Lasky Mesa' Ranch
The location of the Famous Players-Lasky Movie RanchFamous Players-Lasky
Famous Players-Lasky Corporation was an American motion picture and distribution company created on July 19, 1916 from the merger of Adolph Zukor's Famous Players Film Company -- originally formed by Zukor as Famous Players in Famous Plays -- and Jesse L...
was in the area known as Lasky Mesa in the southern Simi Hills
Simi Hills
The Simi Hills are a low rocky mountain range of the Transverse Ranges, located in eastern Ventura County and western Los Angeles County, of southern California, United States.-Geography:...
, in eastern Ventura County, above Hidden Hills
Hidden Hills, California
Hidden Hills is an incorporated city, and also a gated development in Los Angeles County, California, United States. The population was 1,856 at the 2010 census, down from 1,875 at the 2000 census.It is located in the westernmost San Fernando Valley...
and West Hills in the San Fernando Valley
History of the San Fernando Valley to 1915
The history of the San Fernando Valley from its exploration by the 1769 Portola expedition to the annexation of much of it by the City of Los Angeles in 1915 is a story of booms and busts, as cattle ranching, sheep ranching, large-scale wheat farming, and fruit orchards flourished and faded...
of Southern California
Southern California
Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...
.
" The Lasky company has acquired a 4,000-acre ranch in the great San Fernando valley of 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. "
The Moving Picture WorldThe Moving Picture WorldThe Moving Picture World was an influential early trade journal for the American film industry, from 1907 to 1927. By 1914, it had a reported circulation of approximately 15,000.The publication was founded by James Petrie Chalmers, Jr...
, October 10, 1914.
This area is noted for a filming location history of many important movies, including, The Thundering Herd
The Thundering Herd
The Thundering Herd is a 1933 Western film starring Randolph Scott, Buster Crabbe, Noah Beery, Raymond Hatton, and Harry Carey. The movie is a remake of a 1925 version, and both Noah Beery and Raymond Hatton reprised their roles...
(Famous Players-Lasky Co. 1925), Gone with the Wind
Gone with the Wind (film)
Gone with the Wind is a 1939 American historical epic film adapted from Margaret Mitchell's Pulitzer-winning 1936 novel of the same name. It was produced by David O. Selznick and directed by Victor Fleming from a screenplay by Sidney Howard...
(Selznick 1939) and They Died with Their Boots On
They Died with Their Boots On
They Died with Their Boots On is a 1941 western film directed by Raoul Walsh and starring Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland. Despite being rife with historical inaccuracies, the film was one of the top-grossing films of the year, being the last of eight Flynn–de Havilland collaborations.Like...
, "Santa Fe Trail
Santa Fe Trail (film)
Santa Fe Trail is a 1940 western film directed by Michael Curtiz and starring Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland. The film was one of the top-grossing films of the year, being the seventh Flynn-de Havilland collaboration. The film also has nothing to do with its namesake, the famed Santa Fe Trail...
" (Warner Bros. 1940), and many others.
In 1963, the Ahmanson family
Howard F. Ahmanson, Sr
Howard F. Ahmanson, Sr. , born in Omaha, Nebraska.Financier and founder of an insurance and savings and loan association, H.F. Ahmanson & Co., Howard F. Ahmanson, Sr. was also a philanthropist who made his fortune during the Great Depression selling fire insurance for property under foreclosure. He...
's Home Savings and Loan purchased the property and adjacent land. Home Savings and Loan was the parent company of Ahmanson Land Company
Howard Ahmanson, Jr.
Howard Fieldstead Ahmanson, Jr. is an heir of the Home Savings bank fortune built by his father Howard Fieldstead Ahmanson, Sr.. Ahmanson Jr. is a multi-millionaire philanthropist and financier of many Christian conservative cultural, religious and political causes.- Biography :Ahmanson is the son...
, and so the ranch became known as the Ahmanson Ranch. Washington Mutual Bank (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
Groundwater is water located beneath the ground surface in soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. A unit of rock or an unconsolidated deposit is called an aquifer when it can yield a usable quantity of water. The depth at which soil pore spaces or fractures and voids in rock...
tests showing migrating contamination of the aquifer
Aquifer
An aquifer is a wet underground layer of water-bearing permeable rock or unconsolidated materials from which groundwater can be usefully extracted using a water well. The study of water flow in aquifers and the characterization of aquifers is called hydrogeology...
with toxic substances from the adjacent Rocketdyne Santa Susana Field Laboratory
Santa Susana Field Laboratory
The Santa Susana Field Laboratory is a complex of industrial research and development facilities located on a 2,668 acre portion of the Southern California Simi Hills in Simi Valley, California, used mainly for the testing and development of Liquid-propellant rocket engines for the United States...
(SSFL) experimental Nuclear Reactor and Rocket Engine Test Facility
Rocket Engine Test Facility
Rocket Engine Test Facility was the name of a facility at the NASA Glenn Research Center, formerly known as the Lewis Research Center, in Ohio....
. The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy
Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy
The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy is an agency of the state of California in the United States founded in 1980 and dedicated to the acquisition of land for preservation as open space, for wildlife and California native plants habitat Nature Preserves, and for public recreation...
and the State of California purchased the land for public regional park
Regional park
Regional park is a term used for 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:...
. It Lasky Movie Ranch is now part of the very large Upper Las Virgenes Canyon Open Space Preserve
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....
, with various trails to the Lasky Mesa locale.
- See Also:
20th Century Fox Movie Ranch
Located near Malibu, in CalabasasCalabasas, California
Calabasas is an affluent city in Los Angeles County, California in the western United States. It is located in the hills in the southwestern San Fernando Valley and the Santa Monica Mountains between Woodland Hills, Agoura Hills, West Hills, and Malibu, California. As of the 2010 census, the city...
, the 20th Century Fox Movie Ranch (aka: Century Movie Ranch & Fox Movie Ranch) was first purchased in 1946 by 20th Century Fox Studios
20th Century Fox
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...
. From 1956-1957, 20th Century Fox productions filmed their first television series there: My Friend Flicka
My Friend Flicka (TV series)
My Friend Flicka is a 39-episode western television series set at the fictitious Goose Bar Ranch in Wyoming at the turn of the 20th century. The program was filmed in color but initially aired in black and white on CBS at 7:30 p.m. Fridays from February 10, 1956, to February 1, 1957. It was a...
for CBS television.
The Century Movie Ranch was the main filming location with outdoor sets for the original MASH (film)
MASH (film)
MASH is a 1970 American satirical dark comedy film directed by Robert Altman and written by Ring Lardner, Jr., based on Richard Hooker's novel MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors. It is the only feature film in the M*A*S*H franchise...
and subsequent M*A*S*H (TV series). It was used as a location in dozens of films, including a number of the Tarzan
Tarzan
Tarzan is a fictional character, an archetypal feral child raised in the African jungles by the Mangani "great apes"; he later experiences civilization only to largely reject it and return to the wild as a heroic adventurer...
movies, Robin Hood: Men in Tights
Robin Hood: Men in Tights
Robin Hood: Men in Tights is a 1993 French-American adventure comedy film and a parody of the Robin Hood story. Produced and directed by Mel Brooks, the film stars Cary Elwes, Richard Lewis, and Dave Chappelle in his film debut...
, the original Planet of the Apes
Planet of the Apes (1968 film)
Planet of the Apes is a 1968 American science fiction film directed by Franklin J. Schaffner, based on the 1963 French novel La Planète des singes by Pierre Boulle. The film stars Charlton Heston, Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter, Maurice Evans, James Whitmore, James Daly and Linda Harrison...
film and subsequent television series
Planet of the Apes (TV series)
Planet of the Apes was a short-lived American science fiction television series that aired on Friday evenings at 8:00 PM Eastern/7:00 PM Central on CBS in 1974. The series starred Roddy McDowall, Ron Harper, and James Naughton, Mark Lenard and Booth Colman...
.
The Fox Movie Ranch property was purchased and preserved in the new state park, Malibu Creek State Park
Malibu Creek State Park
Malibu Creek State Park is a California state park in the Santa Monica Mountains near Malibu, in Calabasas. It opened to the public in 1976.-Location:Malibu Creek State Park stretches from below Malibu Lake in the west to Piuma Road in the east...
, opened to the public in 1976. Productions have continued to be filmed there since that time.
Spahn Movie Ranch
The Spahn Movie RanchSpahn Ranch
Spahn Ranch, also known as the Spahn Movie Ranch, was a movie ranch used for filming generally Western-themed movies and television programs. With mountainous terrain, boulder-strewn scenery, and an 'old Western town' set, Spahn Ranch was a versatile filming site for many scripts...
is a 500 acres (2 km²) property located on Santa Susana Pass
Santa Susana Pass
The Santa Susana Pass is a Southern California mountain pass in the Simi Hills connecting the San Fernando Valley and town of Chatsworth, to the Simi Valley and city of Simi Valley.-Natural history:...
in the Simi Hills
Simi Hills
The Simi Hills are a low rocky mountain range of the Transverse Ranges, located in eastern Ventura County and western Los Angeles County, of southern California, United States.-Geography:...
above Chatsworth, California.
The Spahn Movie Ranch, once owned by silent film actor William S. Hart
William S. Hart
William Surrey Hart was an American silent film actor, screenwriter, director and producer. He is remembered for having "imbued all of his characters with honor and integrity."-Biography:...
, was used to film many westerns, particularly from the 1940s to the 1960s, including Duel in the Sun, and episodes of television's Bonanza
Bonanza
Bonanza is an American western television series that both ran on and was a production of NBC from September 12, 1959 to January 16, 1973. Lasting 14 seasons and 430 episodes, it ranks as the second longest running western series and still continues to air in syndication. It centers on the...
and The Lone Ranger
The Lone Ranger
The Lone Ranger is a fictional masked Texas Ranger who, with his Native American companion Tonto, fights injustice in the American Old West. The character has become an enduring icon of American culture....
. A western town set was located at the ranch.
The Spahn Ranch was once home for the infamous Manson Family. A 1970 mountain wildfire
Wildfire
A wildfire is any uncontrolled fire in combustible vegetation that occurs in the countryside or a wilderness area. Other names such as brush fire, bushfire, forest fire, desert fire, grass fire, hill fire, squirrel fire, vegetation fire, veldfire, and wilkjjofire may be used to describe the same...
destroyed the film set and the residential structures.
The Spahn Movie Ranch is now part of the Santa Susana Pass State Historic Park
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 Simi Hills meet the Santa Susana Mountains...
.
LINKS:
Republic Pictures Ranch - Walt Disney Golden Oak Ranch
The former Republic PicturesRepublic Pictures
Republic Pictures was an independent film production-distribution corporation with studio facilities, operating from 1934 through 1959, and was best known for specializing in westerns, movie serials and B films emphasizing mystery and action....
Movie Ranch off Soledad Canyon
Soledad Canyon
Soledad Canyon is a long narrow canyon / valley located in Los Angeles County, California between the cities of Palmdale and Santa Clarita. Soledad Canyon contains the localities of Vincent, Acton, Ravenna, Russ, and Agua Dulce....
became the Walt Disney Golden Oak Ranch
Golden Oak Ranch
The Walt Disney Company’s Golden Oak Ranch is a movie ranch that serves as an interior and exterior filming location. The ranch is off of Placerita Canyon Road in Canyon Country, California, less than an hour north of Los Angeles; its entrance is about from Placerita Canyon Road's intersection...
in 1959. The ranch is located in central Placerita Canyon
Placerita Canyon State Park
Placerita Canyon State Park is a California State Park in the San Gabriel Mountains, in an unincorporated rural area of Los Angeles County, north of Los Angeles near Santa Clarita, California.-Cultural History:...
near Newhall, California
Newhall, California
Newhall is the southernmost and oldest district of Santa Clarita, California. Prior to the 1987 consolidation of Valencia, Canyon Country, Saugus, Newhall, and other geographically proximate settlements into the conglomerate city of Santa Clarita, it was an independent but unincorporated town...
in the northern San Gabriel Mountains
San Gabriel Mountains
The San Gabriel Mountains Range is located in northern Los Angeles County and western San Bernardino County, California, United States. The mountain range lies between the Los Angeles Basin and the Mojave Desert, with Interstate 5 to the west and Interstate 15 to the east...
foothills. It was named for the Gold discovery of Francisco Lopez in wild onion roots under the "Oak of the Golden Dream", in present day Placerita Canyon State Park
Placerita Canyon State Park
Placerita Canyon State Park is a California State Park in the San Gabriel Mountains, in an unincorporated rural area of Los Angeles County, north of Los Angeles near Santa Clarita, California.-Cultural History:...
. The Ranch was still being used for occasional filming, when Walt Disney
Walt Disney
Walter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon, and philanthropist, well-known for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. Along with his brother Roy O...
took an interest in the property. In 1959, driven by concern that the ranches of other movie studios were gradually being sub-divided, Walt Disney purchased the 315 acres (1.3 km²) ranch. During the next five years, the Walt Disney Studios
Walt Disney Pictures
Walt Disney Pictures is an American film studio owned by The Walt Disney Company. Walt Disney Pictures and Television, a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Studios and the main production company for live-action feature films within the Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group, based at the Walt Disney...
also bought additional land which enlarged the property to 691 acres (2.8 km²).
The Walt Disney Company worked closely with the State of California when a portion of the western border of the ranch was purchased for the Antelope Valley Freeway. This construction was carefully planned so that it didn't intrude into the film settings. In 2009 the Disney Company announced expanding the studio complex, with master planning and environmental impact studies commencing. Golden Oak Ranch is located in Newhall, California.
Big Sky Movie Ranch
Big Sky RanchBig Sky Ranch
Big Sky Ranch is a movie ranch located in Simi Valley, California. It has been widely used for the filming of Western television and film productions....
is a Movie ranch located in Simi Valley, California
Simi Valley, California
-2010:The 2010 United States Census reported that Simi Valley had a population of 124,237. The population density was 2,940.8 people per square mile...
. It has been widely used for the filming of Western television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
and film productions. Some of the past television episodes and productions filmed there include: Rawhide
Rawhide (TV series)
Rawhide is an American Western series that aired for eight seasons on the CBS network on Friday nights, from January 9, 1959 to September 3, 1965, before moving to Tuesday nights from September 14, 1965 until January 4, 1966, with a total of 217 black-and-white episodes...
, Gunsmoke
Gunsmoke
Gunsmoke is an American radio and television Western drama series created by director Norman MacDonnell and writer John Meston. The stories take place in and around Dodge City, Kansas, during the settlement of the American West....
, Bonanza
Bonanza
Bonanza is an American western television series that both ran on and was a production of NBC from September 12, 1959 to January 16, 1973. Lasting 14 seasons and 430 episodes, it ranks as the second longest running western series and still continues to air in syndication. It centers on the...
, Little House on the Prairie
Little House on the Prairie
Little House is a series of children's books by Laura Ingalls Wilder that was published originally between 1932 and 1943, with four additional books published posthumously, in 1962, 1971, 1974 and 2006.-History:...
, Highway to Heaven
Highway to Heaven
Highway to Heaven is an American television drama series which ran on NBC from 1984 to 1989.- Season 1 :- Season 2 :- Season 3 :- Season 4 :- Season 5 :...
, Father Murphy
Father Murphy
Father Murphy is an American television drama 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 also directed the show in partnership with William F...
, The Thorn Birds (TV miniseries)
The Thorn Birds (TV miniseries)
The Thorn Birds is a television mini-series broadcast on ABC between 27 and 30 March 1983. It starred Richard Chamberlain, Rachel Ward, Barbara Stanwyck, Christopher Plummer, Richard Kiley, Bryan Brown, Mare Winningham, Philip Anglim and Jean Simmons...
, Jericho (TV Series)
Jericho (TV series)
Jericho is an American action/drama series that centers on the residents of the fictional town of Jericho, Kansas, in the aftermath of nuclear attacks on 23 major cities in the contiguous United States...
and Carnivàle
Carnivàle
Carnivàle is an American television series set in the United States during the Great Depression and Dust Bowl. In tracing the lives of two disparate groups of people, its overarching story depicts the battle between good and evil and the struggle between free will and destiny; the storyline mixes...
.
A more complete list of productions can be found at the Internet Movie Database
Big Sky Ranch
Big Sky Ranch
Big Sky Ranch is a movie ranch located in Simi Valley, California. It has been widely used for the filming of Western television and film productions....
is one of the oldest and largest Movie Ranches still in
operation in Southern California
Southern California
Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...
. The Ranch has been host to countless feature films,
television shows, television commercials, music videos, photo shoots
and special events over the past fifty years. Big Sky Ranch
Big Sky Ranch
Big Sky Ranch is a movie ranch located in Simi Valley, California. It has been widely used for the filming of Western television and film productions....
is a private Movie Ranch
located within the Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
30 Mile Studio Zone
Studio zone
In the American entertainment industry, the studio zone, also known as the thirty-mile zone or the TMZ, is the area within a 30-mile radius from the intersection of West Beverly Boulevard and North La Cienega Boulevard in Los Angeles, California...
. The land was
originally owned by J. Paul Getty
J. Paul Getty
Jean Paul Getty was an American industrialist. He founded the Getty Oil Company, and in 1957 Fortune magazine named him the richest living American, whilst the 1966 Guinness Book of Records named him as the world's richest private citizen, worth an estimated $1,200 million. At his death, he was...
. The ranch is extremely diverse with hills, valleys, and
secluded meadows making it a perfect location for filming. Big Sky Ranch
Big Sky Ranch
Big Sky Ranch is a movie ranch located in Simi Valley, California. It has been widely used for the filming of Western television and film productions....
was host to many television series and motion pictures over the years making it one of the most historic movie ranches in the Los Angeles Studio Zone.
- Big Sky Movie Ranch
- Big Sky Ranch at The Internet Movie Database
- Big Sky Ranch at Bonanza: Scenery of The Ponderosa
Red Hills Ranch
Red Hills Ranch is a movie ranch in Sonora, CaliforniaSonora, California
Sonora is the county seat of Tuolumne County, California. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 4,903, up from 4,423 at the 2000 census. Sonora is the only incorporated community in Tuolumne County.-Geography:...
, which served as a location for Bonanza
Bonanza
Bonanza is an American western television series that both ran on and was a production of NBC from September 12, 1959 to January 16, 1973. Lasting 14 seasons and 430 episodes, it ranks as the second longest running western series and still continues to air in syndication. It centers on the...
, The Adventures of Brisco County Jr., Little House on the Prairie and other productions.
LINKS:
Bell Moving Picture Ranch
The Bell Moving Picture Ranch, renamed the Bell Location Ranch, is off the Santa Susana PassSanta Susana Pass
The Santa Susana Pass is a Southern California mountain pass in the Simi Hills connecting the San Fernando Valley and town of Chatsworth, to the Simi Valley and city of Simi Valley.-Natural history:...
in the Simi Hills
Simi Hills
The Simi Hills are a low rocky mountain range of the Transverse Ranges, located in eastern Ventura County and western Los Angeles County, of southern California, United States.-Geography:...
above the Spahn Movie Ranch
Spahn Ranch
Spahn Ranch, also known as the Spahn Movie Ranch, was a movie ranch used for filming generally Western-themed movies and television programs. With mountainous terrain, boulder-strewn scenery, and an 'old Western town' set, Spahn Ranch was a versatile filming site for many scripts...
site and Santa Susana Pass State Historic Park
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 Simi Hills meet the Santa Susana Mountains...
. Many of the television westerns used the ranch including: "Gunsmoke", "Zorro", "The Monroes", "How the West Was Won", "Dundee and the Culhane", "The Big Valley", and "Have Gun Will Travel". Even "McCloud" used the western street and surrounding area for an episode with Dennis Weaver.
Columbia Ranch – Warner Brothers Ranch
Formerly known as the Columbia RanchColumbia Ranch
Columbia Ranch is located in Burbank, California and is now called Warner Ranch .It was the backdrop for many of the Columbia Pictures movies and Screen Gems television shows, including Dennis the Menace, The Donna Reed Show, High Noon, The Wild One, Mr...
and now the "Warner Brothers Ranch", this 32 acres (129,499.5 m²) backlot in Burbank, California
Burbank, California
Burbank is a city in Los Angeles County in Southern California, United States, north of downtown Los Angeles. The estimated population in 2010 was 103,340....
served as the filming location for many well-known TV shows, such as I Dream of Jeannie
I Dream of Jeannie
I Dream of Jeannie is a 1960s American sitcom with a fantasy premise. The show starred Barbara Eden as a 2,000-year-old genie, and Larry Hagman as an astronaut who becomes her master, with whom she falls in love and eventually marries...
, Bewitched
Bewitched
Bewitched is an American situation comedy originally broadcast for eight seasons on ABC from 1964 to 1972, starring Elizabeth Montgomery, Dick York and Dick Sargent , Agnes Moorehead, and David White. The show is about a witch who marries a mortal and tries to lead the life of a typical suburban...
and The Partridge Family
The Partridge Family
The Partridge Family is an American television sitcom about a widowed mother and her five children who embark on a music career. The series originally ran from September 25, 1970 until August 31, 1974, the last new episode airing on March 23, 1974, on the ABC network, as part of a Friday-night lineup...
, as well as numerous feature films, such as High Noon
High Noon
High Noon is a 1952 American Western film directed by Fred Zinnemann and starring Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly. The film tells in real time the story of a town marshal forced to face a gang of killers by himself...
, The Wild One
The Wild One
The Wild One is a 1953 outlaw biker film directed by László Benedek and produced by Stanley Kramer. It is famed for Marlon Brando's iconic portrayal of the gang leader Johnny Strabler.-Basis:...
, 3:10 to Yuma
3:10 to Yuma (2007 film)
3:10 to Yuma is the 2007 remake of the 1957 film of the same name, making it the second adaptation of Elmore Leonard's short story Three-Ten to Yuma. It is directed by James Mangold and produced by Cathy Konrad, and stars Academy Award winners Russell Crowe and Christian Bale in the lead roles. ...
and Cat Ballou
Cat Ballou
Cat Ballou is a 1965 comedy/Western film which tells the story of a woman who hires a famous gunman to protect her father's ranch, and later to avenge his murder, but finds that the man she hires is not what she expected...
. Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...
purchased the original 40 acres (161,874.4 m²) lot in 1934 as additional space to its Sunset Gower location, when the studio was in need for more space and a true backlot. By 1965 the Ranch consisted of 6 main sound stages and numerous large standing sets.
It is commonly believed, though not the case that Leave It to Beaver
Leave It to Beaver
Leave It to Beaver is an American television situation comedy about an inquisitive but often naïve boy named Theodore "The Beaver" Cleaver and his adventures at home, in school, and around his suburban neighborhood...
was filmed here. The Waltons
The Waltons
The Waltons is an American television series created by Earl Hamner, Jr., based on his book Spencer's Mountain, and a 1963 film of the same name. The show centered on a family growing up in a rural Virginia community during the Great Depression and World War II. The series pilot was a television...
was originally filmed on the Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
main lot where the main 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 set occasionally used in the original Fantasy Island
Fantasy Island
Fantasy Island is the title of two separate but related American fantasy television series, both originally airing on the ABC television network.-Original series:...
series, and as of October, 2009 the facade remains and is sometimes used in other Warner Bros. productions.
Pioneertown
Pioneertown, CaliforniaPioneertown, California
Pioneertown, California is an unincorporated village in the Morongo Basin region of Southern California's Inland Empire Metropolitan Area. It is located approximately 56 miles east of San Bernardino.-History:...
, in the Morongo Basin
Morongo Basin
The Morongo Basin is located centrally in the southern portion of the state of California in the United States. The Morongo basin is part of the Inland Empire metropolitan statistical area, the 13th largest in the United States. Joshua Tree National Park lies within the basin. The basin stretches...
region of Southern California's Mojave Desert
Mojave Desert
The Mojave Desert occupies a significant portion of southeastern California and smaller parts of central California, southern Nevada, southwestern Utah and northwestern Arizona, in the United States...
in San Bernardino County, California
San Bernardino County, California
San Bernardino County is a county in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2010 census, the population was 2,035,210, up from 1,709,434 as of the 2000 census...
. The town started as a live-in Old West 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. A number of Westerns and early television shows were filmed in Pioneertown, including The Cisco Kid
The Cisco Kid
The Cisco Kid refers to a 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 the collection Heart of the West...
and Edgar Buchanan
Edgar Buchanan
Edgar Buchanan was an American actor with a long career in both film and television, most familiar today as Uncle Joe Carson from the Petticoat Junction, Green Acres and The Beverly Hillbillies television sitcoms of the 1960s...
's Judge Roy Bean
Judge Roy Bean (TV series)
Judge Roy Bean is a syndicated American Western series starring Edgar Buchanan as the legendary Kentucky-born Judge Roy Bean, a justice of the peace known as "The law west of the Pecos".-Synopsis:...
. Roy Rogers
Roy Rogers
Roy Rogers, born Leonard Franklin Slye , was an American singer and cowboy actor, one of the most heavily marketed and merchandised stars of his era, as well as being the namesake of the Roy Rogers Restaurants franchised chain...
, Dick Curtis
Dick Curtis
Dick Curtis was an American actor who made over 230 film and television appearances during his career.-Career:Curtis was born Richard Dye in Newport, Kentucky. A tall, hulking actor, standing at 6' 3", Curtis appeared in films stretching from Charles Starrett to The Three Stooges. In most of his...
, and Russell Hayden
Russell Hayden
Russell "Lucky" Hayden was an American film and television actor.He was born as Hayden Michael "Pate" Lucid, son of Francis J...
were among the original developers and investors, and Gene Autry
Gene Autry
Orvon Grover Autry , better known as Gene Autry, was an American performer who gained fame as The Singing Cowboy on the radio, in movies and on television for more than three decades beginning in the 1930s...
frequently taped his show at the six-lane Pioneer Bowl bowling alley.
RKO 'Encino Ranch'
The RKO PicturesRKO Pictures
RKO Pictures is an American film production and distribution company. As RKO Radio Pictures Inc., it was one of the Big Five studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orpheum theater chains and Joseph P...
'Encino Ranch' was located in present day Encino in the San Fernando Valley, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
. It was 89 acres (360,170.5 m²) near the Los Angeles River
Los Angeles River
The Los Angeles River is a river that starts in the San Fernando Valley, in the Simi Hills and Santa Susana Mountains, and flows through Los Angeles County, California, from Canoga Park in the western end of the San Fernando Valley, nearly southeast to its mouth in Long Beach...
and the west of the current Sepulveda Basin Recreation Area on Burbank Boulevard. RKO sold the Encino Ranch in 1954, and the 'Encino Village' subdivision was built there with homes designed by architect Martin Stern, Jr.
Martin Stern, Jr.
Martin Stern, Jr. was an American architect who was most widely known for his large scale designs and structures in Las Vegas, Nevada. He is credited with originating the concept of the structurally integrated casino resort complex in Las Vegas.The International Hotel and the first MGM Grand...
. The movie ranch included a New York street and western town sets. Movies filmed here include "It's a Wonderful Life
It's a Wonderful Life
It's a Wonderful Life is a 1946 American Christmas drama film produced and directed by Frank Capra and based on the short story "The Greatest Gift" written by Philip Van Doren Stern....
" (1946) and "The Hunchback of Notre Dame
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939 film)
The Hunchback of Notre Dame is a 1939 American monochrome film starring Charles Laughton as Quasimodo and Maureen O'Hara as Esmeralda. It was directed by William Dieterle and produced by Pandro S. Berman...
" (1939).
Apacheland Movie Ranch
Located in the Superstition MountainsSuperstition Mountains
The Superstition Mountains , popularly referred to as "The Superstitions", are a range of mountains in Arizona located to the east of the Phoenix metropolitan area...
in central Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
, and intended to be the "Western Movie Capitol of the World", construction on the Apacheland Studio 'western town' began on February 12, 1959 by Superstition Mountain Enterprises and associates. By June 1960 Apacheland Studio was open for business and filmed its first TV western Stagecoach West and full length movie The Purple Hills.
Actors such as Elvis Presley, Jason Robards, Stella Stevens, Ronald Reagan, Steve McQueen, Clint Eastwood and Audie Murphy filmed western television shows and movies, such as Gambler II, Wanted: Dead or Alive, Death Valley Days, Blind Justice, Charro!, Have Gun, Will Travel and Ballad of Cable Hogue at the western movie studio for some or all of the filming.
The last full length movie to be filmed was the 1994 HBO movie Blind Justice with Armand Assante, Elizabeth Shue and Jack Black.
On May 29, 1969, a suspicious fire destroyed most of the ranch. Only 7 buildings survived. The sets were soon rebuilt but then almost 35 years later on February 14, 2004, 2 days after its 45th anniversary, another suspicious fire destroyed most of the Apacheland. On October 16, 2004 Apacheland closed its doors to the public permanently. The cause of both fires remain a mystery.
Will Rogers State Historic Park
The former estate of American humorist Will RogersWill Rogers
William "Will" Penn Adair Rogers was an American cowboy, comedian, humorist, social commentator, vaudeville performer, film actor, and one of the world's best-known celebrities in the 1920s and 1930s....
: with his historic residence, equestrian ranch, and regulation polo
Polo
Polo is a team sport played on horseback in which the objective is to score goals against an opposing team. Sometimes called, "The Sport of Kings", it was highly popularized by the British. Players score by driving a small white plastic or wooden ball into the opposing team's goal using a...
field; are now within the Will Rogers State Historic Park
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:...
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
Santa Monica Mountains
The Santa Monica Mountains are a Transverse Range in Southern California, along the coast of the Pacific Ocean in the United States.-Geography:...
in western Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, the property was given to the state for the in 1944, is and open to the public. Extensive restoration is underway. The park link to the
LINKS:
J.W. Eaves Movie Ranch
Located in Santa Fe, New MexicoSanta Fe, New Mexico
Santa Fe is the capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico. It is the fourth-largest city in the state and is the seat of . Santa Fe had a population of 67,947 in the 2010 census...
, the J.W. Eaves Movie Ranch was opened in the early 1960s with their first production being the CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
television series Empire
Empire (1962 TV series)
Empire, an hour-long Western television series set on a 1960s ranch in New Mexico, starred Richard Egan , Terry Moore , and Ryan O'Neal . It ran on NBC for a season between September 25, 1962, and May 14, 1963...
in 1962. Over 250 other productions have filmed here over the years including The Cheyenne Social Club
The Cheyenne Social Club
The Cheyenne Social Club is a 1970 Western comedy film written by James Lee Barrett and directed and produced by Gene Kelly, starring James Stewart, Henry Fonda, and Shirley Jones....
, Chisum
Chisum
Chisum is a 1970 Warner Bros. Technicolor western motion picture starring John Wayne, Forrest Tucker, Christopher George, Ben Johnson, Glenn Corbett, Geoffrey Deuel, Andrew Prine, Bruce Cabot, Patric Knowles, and Richard Jaeckel....
, Easy Rider
Easy Rider
Easy Rider is a 1969 American road movie written by Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, and Terry Southern, produced by Fonda and directed by Hopper. It tells the story of two bikers who travel through the American Southwest and South with the aim of achieving freedom...
and Young Guns II
Young Guns II
Young Guns II is a 1990 western film, and the sequel to Young Guns . It stars Emilio Estevez, Kiefer Sutherland, Lou Diamond Phillips, Christian Slater, and features William Petersen as Pat Garrett. It was written and produced by John Fusco and directed by Geoff Murphy.It follows the life of...
.
The Eaves Ranch is open to the public.
J.W.Eaves at Monument Gallery
For the last eleven years, the Eaves ranch has been home to the Thirsty Ear roots music festival.
Skywalker Ranch
The Skywalker RanchSkywalker Ranch
Skywalker Ranch is the name of the workplace of film director and producer George Lucas. It is located in a secluded, but open area near Nicasio, California, in Marin County. The ranch is located on Lucas Valley Road, although Lucas is not related to the road's namesake, who was a...
is not a movie ranch in the traditional sense, but rather is the location of the production facilities for George Lucas
George Lucas
George Walton Lucas, Jr. is an American film producer, screenwriter, and director, and entrepreneur. He is the founder, chairman and chief executive of Lucasfilm. He is best known as the creator of the space opera franchise Star Wars and the archaeologist-adventurer character Indiana Jones...
and Lucasfilm
Lucasfilm
Lucasfilm Limited is an American film production company founded by George Lucas in 1971, based in San Francisco, California. Lucas is the company's current chairman and CEO, and Micheline Chau is the president and COO....
. Few productions have used this area for location shooting. Based in secluded but open land near Nicasio
Nicasio, California
Nicasio is a census-designated place in Marin County, California. It is located west-southwest of Novato, at an elevation of 194 feet . The population was 96 at the 2010 census....
in Northern California
Northern California
Northern California is the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. The San Francisco Bay Area , and Sacramento as well as its metropolitan area are the main population centers...
, the property encompasses over 4700 acres (19 km²), of which all but 15 acres (60,702.9 m²) remain undeveloped in Marin County.
Southfork Ranch
Southfork Ranch is a working ranch in Parker, TexasParker, Texas
Parker is a city in Collin County, Texas, United States. The population was 1,379 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Parker is located at .According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , all of it land...
, a northern suburb of Dallas, that is used for some location filming. Notably, it was the backdrop for the 1980s prime time soap Dallas
Dallas (TV series)
Dallas is an American serial drama/prime time soap opera that revolves around the Ewings, a wealthy Texas family in the oil and cattle-ranching industries. Throughout the series, Larry Hagman stars as greedy, scheming oil baron J. R. Ewing...
.
Circle M City
Circle M City, in Sanford, North CarolinaSanford, North Carolina
Sanford is a city in Lee County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 23,220 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Lee County.-Geography:Sanford is located at ....
, is the set for the Christian movie Cowboy Trail. Backing up to 50 acres (202,343 m²) of land, this town features a church that seats 50 people, a mercantile, bank, saloon, livery, jail, costumes, and horses, and family events.
Sable Ranch
A 400 acres (1.6 km²) ranch in Santa ClaritaSanta Clarita, California
Santa Clarita is the fourth largest city in Los Angeles County, California, United States and the twenty-fourth largest city in the state of California. The 2010 US Census reported the city's population grew 16.7% from the year 2000 to 176,320 residents. It is located about northwest of downtown...
, featuring lakes, a western town, a hacienda, barn, fields, and a train. The large field enables the construction of large sets and has been used by numerous film and television series including The A-Team
The A-Team
The A-Team is an American action adventure television series about a fictional group of ex-United States Army Special Forces personnel who work as soldiers of fortune, while on the run from the Army after being branded as war criminals for a "crime they didn't commit". The A-Team was created by...
and more recently 24
24 (TV series)
24 is an American television series produced for the Fox Network and syndicated worldwide, starring Kiefer Sutherland as Counter Terrorist Unit agent Jack Bauer. Each 24-episode season covers 24 hours in the life of Bauer, using the real time method of narration...
and Wipeout.
See also
- Studio zoneStudio zoneIn the American entertainment industry, the studio zone, also known as the thirty-mile zone or the TMZ, is the area within a 30-mile radius from the intersection of West Beverly Boulevard and North La Cienega Boulevard in Los Angeles, California...
- History of cinema
- Cinema & FilmFilmA film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
- Sound stageSound stageIn common usage, a sound stage is a soundproof, hangar-like structure, building, or room, used for the production of theatrical filmmaking and television production, usually located on a secure movie studio property.-Overview:...
- BacklotBacklotA 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....
- Location shootingLocation shootingLocation shooting is the practice of filming in an actual setting rather than on a sound stage or back lot. In filmmaking a location is any place where a film crew will be filming actors and recording their dialog. A location where dialog is not recorded may be considered as a second unit...
- Role of the Vasquez Rocks in entertainmentRole of the Vasquez Rocks in entertainmentThe Vasquez Rocks have been used as a setting for key scenes in many motion pictures, television shows, music videos, and video games, including:-Films:* A Single Man * Princess of Mars * Star Trek * Alpha Dog...
External links
- Columbia Ranch history website
- Corriganville history website
- Iverson Movie Ranch history website
- Golden Ranch
- nps.gov-SMMNRA: Maps
- The Old Corral - Homepage
- http://productionhub.com/directory/description.asp?item=143278
- http://www.kalamazooshow.com/2002/Articles_html/KLHS_Articles_JW_page.html
- Santa Fe movie ranch
- Official Apacheland Movie Ranch website
- Panoramic and aerial views of the Iverson Movie Ranch 1955 and before.