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Description
Paramount Ranch
In 1927 Paramount Pictures purchased 2,400 acres for use as a "movie ranch." After World War II the studio sold the property where parcels were sold to private investors. In 1952 Bill Hertz bought 326 acres that still bear the Paramount name, where he turned the land into a western town. In 1980 the National Park Service purchased the land and revitalized the old movie ranch.

There were far too many movies made at the Ranch to list here, but some of the more notable ones included: "Paleface" (1948) and "Son of Paleface" (1952), "Gunfight at the OK Corral" (1957), "Fancy Pants" (1950), "The Virginian" (1946), "Whispering Smith" (1948), "The Forest Rangers" (1942), "Miracle of Morgan's Creek" (1944), "The Perils of Pauline" (1947), "Geronimo" (1939), "The Streets of Laredo" (1949), "Buck Benny Rides Again" (1040), "Ruggles of Red Gap" (1935)," "Gunsmoke" (1931), "The Plainsman" (1936), "Hopalong Cassidy Returns" (1936), "Wells Fargo" (1937), "Union Pacific" (1938), "The Adventures of Marco Polo" (1938), "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" (1938) and "Reds" (1981).

Many classic TV westerns such as "The Cisco Kid," "Gunsmoke," "Have Gun Will Travel," "The Rifleman" and "Bat Masterson" were shot here, plus more recent TV series such as "Charlie's Angels," "CHIPs" and "The Dukes of Hazard."

In its sixty plus years of film history, this site has posed as Tombstone, Arizona and Dodge City, Kansas. It has stood in for the rolling hills of Montana and the dusty streets of Laredo. Movie-goers have been fooled into mistaking it for the Royal Gorge of Colorado, the Ozark Mountains, Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Tom Sawyer's Missouri. Producers have even passed it off as 13th century China, colonial Salem, and the island of Java.

What is it? It's the Paramount Ranch, and its located in the hills just a few miles northwest of Los Angeles.

Westerns used to be a very popular staple for most Hollywood studios, and it's hard to recreate the wide-open spaces needed for cowboy shoot 'em ups on a studio back lot. So rather than trek out to Arizona or Colorado for authentic location shooting, many Hollywood movie studios simply invested in large stretches of undeveloped land closer to home, where the natural terrain could pass for the open ranges of the Old West.

They called them "movie ranches," and many of the films you thought were shot in some exotic locale were actually done right in your own back yard. The studios had to pay the union workers extra if they worked "out of town" (meaning farther than 35 miles from Hollywood), and these studio ranches were within that magic 35-mile circle, saving the studios big bucks. As a result, you once found movie ranches scattered throughout both the Santa Monica Mountains and the San Fernando Valley. A few of these have survived.

One such location was the old Paramount Ranch - and lucky for you, it is now open to the public.

In 1927, just as "talkies" were catching on, Paramount Studios acquired a 2,700 acre parcel of land in the hills between Malibu and the Valley. The property had rolling grasslands, oak & walnut groves, streams, and canyons - everything they needed to create the illusion of wilderness. The studio built numerous large-scale sets on the ranch, including a huge replica of early San Francisco, European village streets, and a Old West town.

Today, those old sets are gone, but a Western Town is here for visitors to admire, complete with a Main Street lined with typical storefronts, such with a Sheriff's office, a blacksmith/livery, a surveyors office, a saloon, a Post Office, barns, and a Wells Fargo office.

Paramount used this ranch and its former sets for making movies from the 1920's through the mid-1940's. Well over a hundred movies were shot there; most of them Westerns.

The dusty streets were filled with the sound of jingling spurs, the smell of gunsmoke, and the sight of horse-drawn stagecoaches rolling by. The tall peaks rising behind the ranch made the perfect backdrop for these sagebrush sagas, and even somewhat resembled the Paramount mountain logo!

The streets were also filled with the numerous Hollywood stars who made movies here at Paramount Ranch, including Gary Cooper, John Wayne, Randolph Scott, Cary Grant, Henry Fonda, Alan Ladd, Burt Lancaster, Roy Rogers, Kirk Douglas, William Holden, Bob Hope, Jack Benny, Fred MacMurray, Charles Laughton, Glenn Ford, Robert Cummings, Basil Rathbone, Charles Ruggles, Cornel Wilde, Eddie Bracken, Joel McCrea, Ray Milland, Walter Brennan, Claude Rains, Robert Preston, James Garner and Warren Beatty. Actresses who worked along side them at the Ranch included Lucille Ball, Barbara Stanwyck, Marlene Dietrich, Jane Russell, Helen Hayes, Susan Hayward, Paulette Goddard, Betty Hutton, Rhonda Fleming, Polly Bergen, and Diane Keaton.

There were far too many movies made at the Ranch to list here, but some of the more notable ones included: "Paleface" (1948) and "Son of Paleface" (1952), "Gunfight at the OK Corral" (1957), "Fancy Pants" (1950), "The Virginian" (1946), "Whispering Smith" (1948), "The Forest Rangers" (1942), "Miracle of Morgan's Creek" (1944), "The Perils of Pauline" (1947), "Geronimo" (1939), "The Streets of Laredo" (1949), "Buck Benny Rides Again" (1040), "Ruggles of Red Gap" (1935)," "Gunsmoke" (1931), "The Plainsman" (1936), "Hopalong Cassidy Returns" (1936), "Wells Fargo" (1937), "Union Pacific" (1938), "The Adventures of Marco Polo" (1938), "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" (1938) and "Reds" (1981).

As the public's love affair with Western heroes waned, Paramount abandoned its old movie ranch. Since 1980, the site has been part of a national park, and has been reduced to 436 acres in size. But the ranch itself has survived, and the Western Town was rebuilt in 1984, and is still frequently used for Western filming.

Best of all, the movie ranch is now open to the public, free of charge. In fact, this picturesque mountain ranch is also available for rent for weddings, group picnics, and other gatherings.

Don't be surprised if the place looks familiar when you visit; the ranch and its surrounding hills have been seen by untold millions in movies and on TV.

Many classic TV westerns such as "The Cisco Kid," "Gunsmoke," "Have Gun Will Travel," "The Rifleman" and "Bat Masterson" were shot here, plus more recent TV series such as "Charlie's Angels," "CHIPs" and "The Dukes of Hazard."

And the history continues. Paramount ranch is still a working movie ranch. For the several years, the Western Town was used on weekdays by CBS for shooting its recent Western hit, "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman" (starring Jane Seymour). Many of the "Dr. Quinn" sets remain to be seen today.

Description
Paramount Ranch
In 1927 Paramount Pictures purchased 2,400 acres for use as a "movie ranch." After World War II the studio sold the property where parcels were sold to private investors. In 1952 Bill Hertz bought 326 acres that still bear the Paramount name, where he turned the land into a western town. In 1980 the National Park Service purchased the land and revitalized the old movie ranch.

There were far too many movies made at the Ranch to list here, but some of the more notable ones included: "Paleface" (1948) and "Son of Paleface" (1952), "Gunfight at the OK Corral" (1957), "Fancy Pants" (1950), "The Virginian" (1946), "Whispering Smith" (1948), "The Forest Rangers" (1942), "Miracle of Morgan's Creek" (1944), "The Perils of Pauline" (1947), "Geronimo" (1939), "The Streets of Laredo" (1949), "Buck Benny Rides Again" (1040), "Ruggles of Red Gap" (1935)," "Gunsmoke" (1931), "The Plainsman" (1936), "Hopalong Cassidy Returns" (1936), "Wells Fargo" (1937), "Union Pacific" (1938), "The Adventures of Marco Polo" (1938), "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" (1938) and "Reds" (1981).

Many classic TV westerns such as "The Cisco Kid," "Gunsmoke," "Have Gun Will Travel," "The Rifleman" and "Bat Masterson" were shot here, plus more recent TV series such as "Charlie's Angels," "CHIPs" and "The Dukes of Hazard."

In its sixty plus years of film history, this site has posed as Tombstone, Arizona and Dodge City, Kansas. It has stood in for the rolling hills of Montana and the dusty streets of Laredo. Movie-goers have been fooled into mistaking it for the Royal Gorge of Colorado, the Ozark Mountains, Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Tom Sawyer's Missouri. Producers have even passed it off as 13th century China, colonial Salem, and the island of Java.

What is it? It's the Paramount Ranch, and its located in the hills just a few miles northwest of Los Angeles.

Westerns used to be a very popular staple for most Hollywood studios, and it's hard to recreate the wide-open spaces needed for cowboy shoot 'em ups on a studio back lot. So rather than trek out to Arizona or Colorado for authentic location shooting, many Hollywood movie studios simply invested in large stretches of undeveloped land closer to home, where the natural terrain could pass for the open ranges of the Old West.

They called them "movie ranches," and many of the films you thought were shot in some exotic locale were actually done right in your own back yard. The studios had to pay the union workers extra if they worked "out of town" (meaning farther than 35 miles from Hollywood), and these studio ranches were within that magic 35-mile circle, saving the studios big bucks. As a result, you once found movie ranches scattered throughout both the Santa Monica Mountains and the San Fernando Valley. A few of these have survived.

One such location was the old Paramount Ranch - and lucky for you, it is now open to the public.

In 1927, just as "talkies" were catching on, Paramount Studios acquired a 2,700 acre parcel of land in the hills between Malibu and the Valley. The property had rolling grasslands, oak & walnut groves, streams, and canyons - everything they needed to create the illusion of wilderness. The studio built numerous large-scale sets on the ranch, including a huge replica of early San Francisco, European village streets, and a Old West town.

Today, those old sets are gone, but a Western Town is here for visitors to admire, complete with a Main Street lined with typical storefronts, such with a Sheriff's office, a blacksmith/livery, a surveyors office, a saloon, a Post Office, barns, and a Wells Fargo office.

Paramount used this ranch and its former sets for making movies from the 1920's through the mid-1940's. Well over a hundred movies were shot there; most of them Westerns.

The dusty streets were filled with the sound of jingling spurs, the smell of gunsmoke, and the sight of horse-drawn stagecoaches rolling by. The tall peaks rising behind the ranch made the perfect backdrop for these sagebrush sagas, and even somewhat resembled the Paramount mountain logo!

The streets were also filled with the numerous Hollywood stars who made movies here at Paramount Ranch, including Gary Cooper, John Wayne, Randolph Scott, Cary Grant, Henry Fonda, Alan Ladd, Burt Lancaster, Roy Rogers, Kirk Douglas, William Holden, Bob Hope, Jack Benny, Fred MacMurray, Charles Laughton, Glenn Ford, Robert Cummings, Basil Rathbone, Charles Ruggles, Cornel Wilde, Eddie Bracken, Joel McCrea, Ray Milland, Walter Brennan, Claude Rains, Robert Preston, James Garner and Warren Beatty. Actresses who worked along side them at the Ranch included Lucille Ball, Barbara Stanwyck, Marlene Dietrich, Jane Russell, Helen Hayes, Susan Hayward, Paulette Goddard, Betty Hutton, Rhonda Fleming, Polly Bergen, and Diane Keaton.

There were far too many movies made at the Ranch to list here, but some of the more notable ones included: "Paleface" (1948) and "Son of Paleface" (1952), "Gunfight at the OK Corral" (1957), "Fancy Pants" (1950), "The Virginian" (1946), "Whispering Smith" (1948), "The Forest Rangers" (1942), "Miracle of Morgan's Creek" (1944), "The Perils of Pauline" (1947), "Geronimo" (1939), "The Streets of Laredo" (1949), "Buck Benny Rides Again" (1040), "Ruggles of Red Gap" (1935)," "Gunsmoke" (1931), "The Plainsman" (1936), "Hopalong Cassidy Returns" (1936), "Wells Fargo" (1937), "Union Pacific" (1938), "The Adventures of Marco Polo" (1938), "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" (1938) and "Reds" (1981).

As the public's love affair with Western heroes waned, Paramount abandoned its old movie ranch. Since 1980, the site has been part of a national park, and has been reduced to 436 acres in size. But the ranch itself has survived, and the Western Town was rebuilt in 1984, and is still frequently used for Western filming.

Best of all, the movie ranch is now open to the public, free of charge. In fact, this picturesque mountain ranch is also available for rent for weddings, group picnics, and other gatherings.

Don't be surprised if the place looks familiar when you visit; the ranch and its surrounding hills have been seen by untold millions in movies and on TV.

Many classic TV westerns such as "The Cisco Kid," "Gunsmoke," "Have Gun Will Travel," "The Rifleman" and "Bat Masterson" were shot here, plus more recent TV series such as "Charlie's Angels," "CHIPs" and "The Dukes of Hazard."

And the history continues. Paramount ranch is still a working movie ranch. For the several years, the Western Town was used on weekdays by CBS for shooting its recent Western hit, "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman" (starring Jane Seymour). Many of the "Dr. Quinn" sets remain to be seen today.