The Lone Ranger (1949 – 1957) Death Valley Days (1952 – 1975) Have … ... as superintendent of the transportation company and subsequently designated as a special agent for the promotion of movies in Utah.3 Gronway also was retained as a superintendent and both continued their employment with Union Pacific for 17 years. Due to the popularity cowboy movies and Westerns enjoyed during the turn of the 20th century, and Hollywood directors’ desires to find new set locations, more than 100 motion pictures have … One grand departure was “The Girl in Black Stockings,” a movie whose plot was much like Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho,” but predated it. ... Kanab Little Hollywood history Ken Gotzen-Berg. “A flock of screen stars strolling down Kanab’s dusty main street excites no more curiosity than a stray sheep dog chasing its tail,” she wrote. Grant, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at the time, called the movie a “friendmaker,” D’Arc wrote. Also in the late 1930s, a group of 14 prominent Kanab residents became investors in the newly incorporated Security National Pictures, which constructed a 40 by 60 foot covered stage with an adjacent Western street in 1939, D’Arc noted. The Parrys even invested some of their own money in the first movie filmed completely in the Kanab area, “Feud on the Range,” in 1939, which was followed by three other low-budget movies, one of which, “The Mormon Conquest,” was based on the settlement of Kane County. “The region has more than 1,500 experienced film players on call including the neighboring Paiute and Navajo Indians.”. Business wasn’t brisk at first, but Chauncey Parry made frequent trips to Hollywood with pictures of Kanab and the surrounding area in hand to meet with location scouts and studio executives to convince them to make their movies in Southern Utah. Enter your email below to start! His most important role, however, is as husband to his wife, Melissa, and three daughters, with whom he enjoys taking excursions to enjoy Southern Utah's astounding beauty. Guests today can stay in the “Ronald Reagan” or “James Arness” rooms. On the back lot are memorabilia displayed from original sets from Desperate Hours, One Little Indian and Outlaw Josey Wales – real sets from the reel west! Before Hollywood arrived, Kanab, Utah was a sleepy little ranching community, located in the high deserts of southern Utah. Movie making was a large part of the area’s history and economy from the 1930s-1990s, when over 300 movies and TV shows were filmed here. D’Arc wrote that the filming of Disney’s satirical Western proved a symbol of the demise of the Western and Kanab’s place as a significant filming location for the genre, as a movie fort built in 1953 was severely damaged during production and never repaired. I traveled from St. George, Utah to Kanab, Utah. Paria Movie Set This set was nestled at the bottom of a multi-colored sandstone canyon in what locals refer to as ‘the Paria.’ Take Highway 89 east of Kanab for 35 miles, and turn north into a dirt parking lot with a stone monument to the Pareah Townsite. Read more: See all of the features in the “Days” series. Parry Lodge is still going strong and boasts a large gallery of portraits of movie stars who once stayed there during its heyday. Route 66 day; the history and nostalgia of Arizona's stretch of the 'Mother Road', As he prepares to leave office, Herbert reflects on 11-year governor term, pandemic, Washington County Commission adopts 2021 budget, takes cemetery off school district's hands, Man who allegedly struggled with officers in remote area of Iron County faces multiple charges. shows that have been filmed right here near Kanab Utah. Reuben Wadsworth's day job is teaching English to eighth and ninth graders at Hurricane Middle School. The first major studio to do a movie in Kanab was MGM, who filmed “The Bad Man of Brimstone” there in 1938 and followed that up a few years later with “Billy the Kid.” Click on photo to enlarge it, then use your left-right arrow keys to cycle through the gallery. A 1945 “Saturday Evening Post” article titled “The Town that Learned to Act” by Florabel Muir called Kanab “Hollywood’s main factory branch.”, “It’s facilities, elaborate and constantly expanding, are available to all studios,” Muir touted in her article. While this may be your first trip, you’ve probably already visited via TV or the silver screen! However, all movies filmed in the Kanab area were not Westerns. Since the 1920s hundreds of movies have been filmed locally. The geologic history of the Grand Canyons region is remarkable as this area has been impacted significantly by earthquakes, volcanoes, and the erosion of lakes, rivers, wind and time. Although the railroad never came as far south and east as Kanab, the Deseret Telegraph line came to town in 1871 and connected the area to the rest of the world. In addition to the physical reminders of the Western moviemaking legacy is the annual Western Legends Heritage and Music Festival Kanab hosts every August that features a variety of events with actors who once starred in Western films as well as a parade with longhorn cattle, a wagon train, historic movie bus tours and a barbecue contest, among others. It’s in the town on placards. For previews on Days Series stories, insights on local history and information on upcoming historical presentations, please “like” Wadsworth’s author Facebook page. Frontier Movie Town consists of a well stocked Native American and Made in the USA gift shop and delicious Chuckwagon Cookout western meals. This site is home to an old town settlement (called Pahreah). Kanab Utah area vacation guide - Kane County and Kanab, UT visitor information from the Southern Utah News, Kanab, Utah Tourism History | Kanab, Utah information :: KanabGuide.com Home Within an hour’s drive of Kanab, you have a diversity of landscape – from sand dunes – to western sagebrush and tumbleweed – to high country forests – to an enormous body of water. He started expanding the home in March 1931, constructing what he called “summer cabins” just north and west of the central building and opened for its first tourist season in June 1931, at which time only two movies had been filmed in the Kanab area, “Deadwood Coach” and “The Big Trail.”. updated: November 13, 2019. “Days” is a series of stories about people, places, industry and history in and surrounding the region of southwestern Utah. Kane County is rich in history ranging from pre-historic dinosaurs, native peoples in the region, early explorers and settlers, western movie history, and modern day pioneers. Check your spurs at the door. Kanab Movie Fort and Movie Filmed There (1952-1979) The Kanab Movie Fort was built in 1952 by Paramount for the move Pony Express. A mini museum of signed autographs and photos can be viewed in the lobby and dining room of Parry Lodge. Would you like to have the day's news stories delivered right to your inbox every evening? The old Kanab Fort was used in old western movies. Some of the sets in Johnson Canyon are still standing but are on private land and very dilapidated after years of neglect. Kanab is a city in and the county seat of Kane County, Utah, United States. WATCH BELOW - Kanab's New Skatepark/Pump Track! § previous Utah Stories’ article on Kanab documentary from 2009 Thanks to the three Parry brothers who assisted with the transportation needs for the crew, Southern Utah made its initial mark in the Hollywood movie scene. However, in the 1930s, Kanab was the town in the U.S. farthest away from a railroad for its size and had a population of less than 1,300 residents — not a place that seemed destined for movie setting stardom. Several other big movies were filmed in the area soon after, including “Western Union,” based on Zane Grey’s final novel, “Can’t Stop Singing,” a Western musical, and “Arabian Nights,” in which the area served as a stand-in for the Middle East, with the Coral Pink Sand Dunes as one of the “stars” of the show. “Kanab can take ‘em or leave ‘em, and it does both with the utmost nonchalance.”. Kanab Canyon Movie Set Located about five miles north of Kanab, near Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, Kanab Canyon was the location for a number of movies including The Lone Ranger, Westward the Women and The Apple Dumpling Gang. Jacob Hamblin built a crude dugout on Kanab Creek in 1858, the name ‘Kanab’ being derived from an Indian word meaning ‘place of willows.’. Kanab. Sandstone cliffs surround the Western adventure base camp town of Kanab, Utah. Businesses on Kanab’s main drag sell many different wares as remembrances of its former glory, and one in particular, Denny’s Wigwam, plays up the Western-film backlot motif with everything from a horse-drawn carriage ideal for a photo opp to wisecracks emanating from a mannequin in an outhouse. Muir, like D’Arc, was clear, however, that Kanab’s fame as a movie-making mecca did not come by chance, but by the hard work of the Parry brothers, who with their package deals gave any studio filming in Kanab a major bang for their buck. “If you’re a movie fan, you’ve visited this grandiose fairyland by proxy many times.”. Our movies are Kanab's best entertainment value. For their efforts in facilitating moviemaking, the Parry Brothers made approximately $30,000 in 1944, according to Muir’s story, which doesn’t sound like much, but would be about $433,000 in today’s dollars. Due to the popularity cowboy movies and Westerns enjoyed during the turn of the 20th century, and Hollywood directors’ desires to find new set locations, more than 100 motion pictures have … The homestead from the 1973 Disney film One Little Indian Hollywood first came to Utah back in the 1920s, and it’s thanks to the three Parry brothers. What Movies Were Filmed in Kanab? Townspeople even hosted movie stars and crew members when the town’s few motels had no vacancy. Another local who was good with stock served as an extra in numerous films over the years and made many of the arrangements with the studios was Fay Hamblin, a grandson of early pioneer leader Jacob Hamblin. The city of Kanab, county seat of Kane County, is often called "Little Hollywood" because of its film-making history over the years. This area was first settled in 1864, and the town was founded in 1870 when ten Latter-Day Saint families moved into the area. They called it “Utah’s Hollywood,” which was added to the masthead of the “Kane County Standard” newspaper beginning with the Sept. 1, 1939, issue. The movie set was used to film western movies and TV shows from 1963-1991. Kanab had always been a cattle town, but its landscape became favored in many cowboy movies. The two staple backdrops for filming in the area, where numerous set pieces went up and down over the years, were Angel Canyon, also known as Kanab Movie Ranch (north of town and now home to Best Friends Animal Sanctuary) and Johnson Canyon, located northeast of town. The movie set was used to film western movies and TV shows from 1963-1991. The population of Kanab grew because of the boost to the economy. Dating back to the 1920’s, Hollywood headed west to Utah to film “Deadwood Coach” starring Tom Mix. Numerous movies have been filmed in Kanab and Southern Utah. One movie filmed in the area with a lot of fanfare — a huge premier in Salt Lake City with the stars of the show speaking to sold out theaters — was “Brigham Young” in 1940 with Dean Jagger in the title role. Web Hosting by GoWest Web Design, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Western Legends Heritage and Music Festival. Reuben also blogs about fatherhood, teaching, history, the outdoors and life in general at Wadsworth Longfellow: http://wadsworthlongfellow.com/. The film was primarily shot at Parry Lodge itself and a few other locations around Kanab. Kanab even had its own casting office, housed in an old gas station, where any type of actor, “from an Indian chief to a bathing beauty,” could be provided at a moment’s notice, she wrote. Even Heber J. Check out this amazing list of movies and T.V. Even though Kanab’s golden age of moviemaking is over (there have been parts of a few films shot in the area since the late 1970s), the legacy of that golden age lives on. Nearly the entire town chipped in, serving as extras, wranglers, drivers and laborers. Western Legends Heritage and Music Festival Kanab hosts every August that features a variety of events with actors who once starred in Western films as well as a parade with longhorn cattle, a wagon train, historic movie bus tours and a barbecue contest, among others. In the 1950s, Westerns were as popular as ever. “Whether teaching young Roddy McDowall how to rope for the ‘Flicka’ pictures or working with Fred MacMurray on ‘Smoky,’ Cowhide Adams was a favorite of Hollywood movie crews and executives alike.”. “But that movie history is still here. Click the image above to learn about the theater's unique history as a cornerstone of Kanab. Agendas & Minutes; Facebook; Kanab Area Events Calendar; Contact Us; Document Center; Recreation ; Parks & Facility Reservations; Swimming Pool; Kanab City Ordinances; Contact Us. The film was primarily shot at Parry Lodge itself and a few other locations around Kanab. Kanab, 1921 Kanab, Utah, is a city celebrated for its breathtaking scenery, temperate climate, and sturdy settlers. This is just one of the reasons why movie history of Kanab Utah is so extensive. ”People want experiential vacations with history,” says Browning. It is located on Kanab Creek just north of the Arizona state line.