Old Tucson Studios … Part 5

Old Tucson Studios

Old Tucson 2

Our last stop on Main Street was the Western Movie Museum

Below: Cannon used in The Alamo (1960)

Old Tucson Studio Alamo Cannon

Below: The Alamo trailer – includes Wayne’s classic Coonskin quote
which pretty well summed up Wayne’s personal philosophy.

Old Tucson bar

Below: the great Western Film Director: Cecil Wanna B Ford

Old Tucson Studio clown

“It is easier to get an actor to be a cowboy
than to get a cowboy to be an actor.”
– John Ford

Good, I still have a chance.

Old Tucson bar

Below: Gunfight at the OK Corral (1957) poster. (My Favorite Western).
Note the uncanny resemblance between me and Burt Lancaster!
Uncanny I tell ya!

Old Tucson Studios OK Corral Poster

Old Tucson Studios OK Corral Poster 2

Old Tucson bar

Old Tucson Studios Law and Order

You must be the one they call ‘The Kid’.

Old Tucson Studios Billy the Kid

Earps and Wesson

Old Tucson Studios Earps

Old Tucson bar

Old Tucson Fire / 1995

Nearly 40-percent of Old Tucson, including many of the most-famous wood structures, was destroyed by fire on April 24, 1995.
The park was rebuilt for tourists, (re-opened in 1997) but never regained the magic of its heyday as a Old West filmmaking mecca.

Old Tucson Fire

Fire Ravages Old Tucson Film Studios : Blaze:
Three-fourths of facility’s wooden buildings, seen in hundreds of TV and movie Westerns, are destroyed or damaged. Priceless artifacts are also lost.
April 26, 1995|STEPHANIE SIMON | TIMES STAFF WRITER

A sizzling fire has gutted most of Arizona’s famed Old Tucson Studios, which provided the ramshackle saloons, dusty hitching posts and glorious sunsets for countless Western movies and television shows.

The Monday evening blaze, so hot that it melted an antique fire engine, destroyed or damaged more than three-fourths of the park’s wooden buildings, from an old-time barber shop to an adobe mission to a mock city hall. An elaborate sound stage also burned, increasing the damage estimate to at least $10 million, officials said.

Even more traumatic for Western fans, the fire consumed revered one-of-a-kind artifacts: the dress Laura wore in “Little House on the Prairie,” the hat Hoss clapped on his head for “Bonanza,” the set designed for the television series “Young Riders.” A priceless doll collection, Michael Landon’s wardrobe and stacks of old photos also vanished in the flames.

“The sad part,” Tucson Fire Department spokesman Randy Ogden said, “is that much history and so many memories are gone.”

By Tuesday afternoon, officials still had not determined the cause of the fire, which started about 6:30 p.m. Monday and rushed through the three-block main street, fueled by dry wood and stored paint.

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

Old Tucson bar

Next: Old Tucson Studios: Part 6

Author: jcalberta

Howdy! I love Westerns. ... and the intent of MyFavoriteWesterns.com is to celebrate Western Movies/Film - old and new. This site will eventually show my top 30 favorite Westerns - or more. I will have original graphic work with regular updates. All this - and more ... Yee Haw ... !! - jcablerta / Moderator / Administrator

2 thoughts on “Old Tucson Studios … Part 5”

    1. “Prior to making The Searchers (1956), Ford entered the hospital for the removal of cataracts. While recuperating after the surgery, he became impatient with the bandages covering his eyes and tore them off earlier than his doctors told him to. The result of that rash action was that Ford suffered a total loss of sight in one eye, which is how he came to wear his famous eyepatch.”
      I’ll try not to be so rash.

Leave a Reply