History
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 to be 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.
Read more about this topic: Movie Ranch
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