| North American cinema |
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-mile (48 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 stages, 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.
To achieve greater scope, productions would conduct location shooting 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 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 ranches, located closer to Hollywood. In most cases, the ranches were located just within the 30-mile (48 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.
The Iverson family ranch, in the Simi Hills on Santa Susana Pass above Chatsworth, Calif., first allowed a movie to be shot on the property as early as 1912, with the silent movies Man's Genesis (1912) My Official Wife (1914) and The Squaw Man (1914) among the features most often cited as the earliest to be filmed at the site. A long and fruitful association soon evolved between Hollywood and the Iverson Ranch, which became the go-to outdoor location for Westerns in particular and also appeared in many adventures, war movies, comedies and other films, standing in for Africa, the Middle East, the South Pacific and any number of exotic locations.
Buster Keaton's Three Ages (1923), Laurel and Hardy's The Flying Deuces (1939), John Wayne's The Fighting Seabees (1944) and Gary Cooper's The Lives of a Bengal Lancer (1935) are just a few of the productions that filmed at the ranch. The rocky terrain and narrow, winding roads frequently turned up in the Republic serials of the 1940s and were prominently featured in chases and shootouts throughout the heyday of the B-Western in the 1930s and 1940s.
As Hollywood's focus began to shift to the new medium of television during the late 1940s and throughout the 1950s, Iverson became a mainstay of countless early television series, including The Lone Ranger, The Roy Rogers Show, The Gene Autry Show and The Cisco Kid.[1]
As many as 2,000 movies, along with thousands of television episodes, were filmed at the ranch during its heyday. The long-running TV Western The Virginian filmed on location at Iverson in the ranch's later period, as did Bonanza and Gunsmoke.
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. In 1966, the State of California began construction on the Simi Valley Freeway, which cut the Iverson Movie Ranch in half. The waning popularity of the Western and the decline of the B-movie as an important business model for the studios coincided with the arrival of the freeway and other development, signaling the end for Iverson as a working movie ranch.
Part of the ranch remains as parkland on both sides of Redmesa, north of Santa Susana Pass Road. 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 original 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, Calif., along the western side of Topanga Canyon Boulevard where it currently intersects with the 118 Freeway.[2]
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Originally known as 'Placeritos Ranch', the 110-acre (0.45 km2) ranch was commonly referred to as the 'Monogram Ranch', and renamed 'Melody Ranch' when Gene Autry 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 (0.40 km2), most of Melody Ranch. The remaining 12-acre (0.049 km2) property was purchased by the Veluzats in 1990 for the new 'Melody Ranch Studios' movie ranch.[3]Leon Worden. "Melody Ranch: Movie Magic in Placerita Canyon". Santa Clarita Valley Historical Society. http://www.scvhistory.com/scvhistory/sg032903.htm. Retrieved 2003-03-29. [4]
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.[5]
Gene Autry, actor, cowboy singer, and producer, purchased the 110-acre (0.45 km2) 'Monogram Ranch' property from the Hickson heirs in 1953, renaming it after his film 'Melody Ranch'. Autry sold 98-acre (0.40 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.[6]
In 1990, after his horse 'Champion,' who lived in retirement there died, Autry put the remaining 12-acre (0.049 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-acre (89,000 m2) complex of sound stages, western sets, prop shop, and the backlots, now known as the 'Melody Ranch Motion Picture Studio' and 'Melody Ranch Studios.' [7]
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.[8][9]
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In 1927, Paramount Studios purchased a 2,700-acre (11 km2) ranch on Medea Creek in the Santa Monica Mountains, between Malibu, California and the San Fernando Valley.[10] 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.[11][12]
It is now Paramount Ranch Park in the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area.[13]
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.[14]
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.[15]
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Circa 1937, Ray "Crash" Corrigan invested in property on the western Santa Susana Pass 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).[16]
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.[17]
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The location of the Famous Players-Lasky Movie Ranch 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.[18]
" 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 World, October 10, 1914.[19]
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.[20]
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.[21]
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.
Located near Malibu, in Calabasas, 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.[22][23]
The Spahn Movie Ranch is a 500-acre (2.0 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.[24][25]
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The former Republic Pictures 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-acre (1.27 km2) ranch. During the next five years, the Walt Disney Studios also bought additional land which enlarged the property to 691 acres (2.80 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 Ranch 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.
Red Hills Ranch is a movie ranch in Sonora, California, which served as a location for Bonanza, The Adventures of Brisco County Jr., Little House on the Prairie and other productions.
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The Bell Moving Picture Ranch, renamed the Bell Location Ranch, is off the Santa Susana Pass 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.[26]
Formerly known as the Columbia Ranch and now the "Warner Brothers Ranch", this 32-acre (130,000 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-acre (160,000 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.[27]
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.
Pioneertown, California, 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.[28] 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.
The RKO Pictures 'Encino Ranch' was located in present day Encino in the San Fernando Valley, California. It was 89 acres (360,000 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..[29] 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).[30]
Located in the Superstition Mountains 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.
The former estate of American humorist Will Rogers: with his historic residence, equestrian ranch, and regulation polo field; are now within the Will Rogers State Historic Park 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.[31] The park link to the [32]
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Located in Santa Fe, New Mexico, the J.W. Eaves Movie Ranch was opened in the early 1960s with their first production being the CBS 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.
The Skywalker Ranch 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 4,700 acres (19 km2), of which all but 15 acres (61,000 m2) remain undeveloped in Marin County.
Southfork Ranch is a working ranch in Parker, Texas, a northern suburb of Dallas, that is used for some location filming. Notably, it was the backdrop for the 1980s prime time soap Dallas.
Circle M City, in Sanford, North Carolina, is the set for the Christian movie Cowboy Trail. Backing up to 50 acres (200,000 m2) of land, this town features a church that seats 50 people, a mercantile, bank, saloon, livery, jail, costumes, and horses, and family events.
A 400-acre (1.6 km2) ranch in Santa Clarita, 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.[33]
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