Friday we visited the Old Tucson Studio up in the mountains very near to the Desert Museum.
We arrived fairly early as there was not a cloud in the sky and it promised to be a hot day. The studio was built in 1939 for the film 'Arizona' and for various political and financial reasons was not removed, but other bits were added on. The studios became one of the larger cowboy film studios and even though a lot of it was lost in a fire in 1997 it still has an impressive number of recognizable film sets.
Following a brief orientation tour we set off to see the set of High Chapparal, which Sally remembers from her childhood, meanwhile just across from there is the adobe wall and ruin used to good effect in Rio Bravo.
We stopped in at the Crystal Saloon to see a music hall show, what appears to be a wooden saloon is in fact a steel constructed studio, with a saloon and stage inside it. We enjoyed the short show.
We now walked down Main Street, stopping at the Old Mission, which was used for a lot of films, notably the Three Amigos and Tombstone. While there we watched a demonstration of a restored 1830's gatling gun, very impressive as it fired its 40 rounds in about 5 seconds.
After going to the courthouse to see a short movie showing the many films made there we picnicked outside a saloon and then had a wander past the old mine and schoolhouse before deciding that we had seen enough.
An interesting place, though a little short on information.
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