PC: Official website
Melody Ranch began as a Hollywood Western film studio in 1915
The Newhall property opened in 1915 as Monogram Studios, providing a ready-made setting for Western films at a time when the genre was becoming a staple of American cinema. Autry had filmed there himself before purchasing it in 1952. Then a fire swept through Placerita Canyon in 1962. Known as Monogram Studios, the Newhall ranch had opened in 1915, during the formative years of the Western film industry. His 1935 film Tumbling Tumbleweeds, made for Republic Pictures, was among the productions associated with the ranch. By the time Autry bought the property in 1952, the place had accumulated a useful collection of Western settings. Feature films continued to use its sets, including Fred MacMurray’s At Gunpoint in 1955, as reported. The original ranch covered 110 acres; eventually only a small remnant remained in Autry’s hands. The horse remained at Melody Ranch until his death in 1990. The 110-acre ranch that once accommodated a busy collection of film and television productions was progressively reduced through development and sale, leaving only a small portion of the original property. Since 1994, it has hosted the Santa Clarita Cowboy Poetry and Music Festival each March. What remains is not the 110-acre property Autry bought.
The surviving site is therefore considerably smaller than the place Autry purchased in 1952. Before Melody Ranch became associated with Gene Autry, it was already part of the machinery of early Hollywood. John Wayne was among the performers whose early productions used the site. Under his ownership, the ranch was renamed Melody Ranch and adapted to the demands of television, with several Flying A Pictures series made on its sets. The property later hosted a long list of Western programmes, from Hopalong Cassidy to Gunsmoke. Fifty-four structures were destroyed, along with much of Autry’s collection. What followed was not a clean ending, but decades of selling, rebuilding and changing use. The property was already established as a movie location when Gene Autry acquired it. Its sets were used for early Western productions, including a number of John Wayne’s Lone Star Monogram films. Autry himself had a connection to the site before he owned it. That made it suitable for the new television market, where producers needed locations that could be redressed and reused without building an entire town for every production. Autry renamed the property Melody Ranch and turned much of its attention towards television. The ranch became the base for several of Autry’s Flying A Pictures productions. The Gene Autry Show was filmed there, as were The Range Rider, Annie Oakley, Buffalo Bill, Jr. and The Adventures of Champion. Other Western series passed through the gates. Hopalong Cassidy, Wild Bill Hickok, Wyatt Earp, The Cisco Kid, Sheriff of Cochise and Gunsmoke all used Melody Ranch at various points. The property was not limited to television either. The ranch offered a ready-made Western environment, with streets, buildings and open areas that could serve different productions. Camera crews could find useful angles without having to construct an entirely new setting. Autry also appeared there with Champion, the horse who became one of the most recognisable animals associated with his career. Photographs from the 1950s show the pair on the ranch’s Western street. PC: CLUI The fire effectively ended Melody Ranch’s period as a large working film and television property under Autry. Autry abandoned his plans for a museum and the ranch entered a much quieter period. Over the following three decades, he gradually sold most of the property to developers. The landholding became a fraction of what it had been. Champion Three, rather than film production, became an important part of the property’s later story. After that, Autry sold the remaining ranch to brothers Renaud and Andre Veluzat. The Veluzat family already had deep connections with film locations in the Santa Clarita Valley. Their family had operated a film ranch in Saugus since the early 1950s, and the brothers took on the task of bringing Melody Ranch back into use. The property also retains a museum devoted to its film history. Its collection includes vintage automobiles, photographs, Champion’s training hoop and other material from the ranch’s years in the entertainment business. Visits are arranged by appointment rather than through ordinary daily opening hours. Yet the surviving sets preserve something of the ranch’s working appearance. Buildings that were once scenery for weekly television programmes became historic pieces of a California film landscape. Melody Ranch also developed a life outside film production. The event brings performers, musicians and visitors to the ranch, alongside Western-themed displays, food and merchandise. The ranch’s history is unusually layered for a surviving film location. It began in the silent-era and early Hollywood period, became part of Autry’s television operation, was heavily damaged by fire, passed out of his ownership and was eventually restored by a family already familiar with the business of maintaining film ranches. It is a much smaller piece of it, shaped by decades of production, fire, development and restoration. The Western street, rebuilt from photographs and old footage, provides the most visible reminder of the ranch’s former role. Beneath that scenery is a longer story about how quickly a working Hollywood location can disappear, and how parts of it can still be reconstructed many years later. Catch the latest World News and Live updates. Download the TOI app.
That plan changed on August 28, 1962, according to the official website of Gene Autry. Fifty-four structures on the 110-acre property were destroyed. An archive containing about 17,000 recordings was also lost.
For Autry, Melody Ranch was more than a place where productions could be made. He had accumulated a substantial collection connected with his career, including antique automobiles, stagecoaches, costumes, documents, recordings and other memorabilia. He was considering turning the property into a Western museum. A major fire swept through Placerita Canyon in Newhall and reached the ranch. The losses extended well beyond the buildings themselves. Autry’s collection of vehicles and stagecoaches was badly affected, as were his wardrobe and costumes, papers and other material. Several parts of the ranch escaped the destruction. The adobe house survived, along with another house, the adobe village, a schoolhouse, a cabin and the main entrance. The Veluzats used old photographs and videotapes to reconstruct the Western street and church sets, aiming to recreate their appearance from the early television period. There was one practical alteration. The rebuilt street sits slightly higher than the original version. That change was made for the camera rather than historical accuracy, helping keep the residential development on the hill north of the ranch out of shots. The restored street eventually returned to television production. Among the programmes to use the setting was HBO’s Deadwood, giving the old ranch another connection with Western screen history decades after Autry’s productions had ended.
Restoration meant working from what little remained and from the visual record of the ranch’s earlier years.