Qualla: Old Tucson Studios https://qualla.com/old-tucson-studios en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:03 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/9/t/8/z/old-tucson-studios-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Old Tucson Studios https://qualla.com/old-tucson-studios Old Tucson Studios: Introduction https://qualla.com/old-tucson-studios/ Photo credit Photo by Karen Funk Blocher (User:Mavarin on en.wikipedia), CC BY-SA 3.0. Workers built more than fifty buildings in forty days. It was 1939, and Columbia Pictures needed 1860s Tucson for a film called Arizona. What they created in the Sonoran Desert, nestled against the Tucson Mountains and within sight of the towering saguaros, would become something far more lasting than a temporary film set. Old Tucson Studios has hosted over four hundred productions, from John Wayne classics to Kurt Russell's Tombstone, transforming a replica ghost town into hallowed ground for the American Western.

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Image: Photo by Karen Funk Blocher (User:Mavarin on en.wikipedia) | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Wed, 04 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/t/8/z/old-tucson-studios-wp/9t8z-old-tucson-studios-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Old Tucson Studios: The Hotel Manager's Gamble https://qualla.com/old-tucson-studios/ Photo credit Larry D. Moore, CC BY 4.0. Nick C. Hall arrived in Tucson in late 1934 to manage the Santa Rita Hotel during the depths of the Great Depression. He saw opportunity in the desert landscape and started making trips to Hollywood, pitching the Old Pueblo to film producers hungry for authentic Western scenery. ...

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Image: Larry D. Moore | CC BY 4.0

]]> Wed, 04 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/t/8/z/old-tucson-studios-wp/9t8z-old-tucson-studios-the-hotel-managers-gamble.mp3 0:06 2 full Old Tucson Studios: Building a Legend https://qualla.com/old-tucson-studios/ Photo credit Larry D. Moore, CC BY 4.0. The park grew building by building with each production. John Wayne alone starred in four films here, each one adding structures that remain today. Rio Bravo brought a saloon, bank, and doctor's office. McLintock! added its namesake hotel. El Dorado renovated Front Street's store...

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Image: Larry D. Moore | CC BY 4.0

]]> Wed, 04 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/t/8/z/old-tucson-studios-wp/9t8z-old-tucson-studios-building-a-legend.mp3 0:06 3 full Old Tucson Studios: Trial by Fire https://qualla.com/old-tucson-studios/ Photo credit Larry D. Moore, CC BY 4.0. On April 24, 1995, flames swept through Old Tucson Studios. High winds fed the blaze while firefighters faced an impossible choice: propane tanks, black powder stores used for gunfight effects, and diesel fuel all demanded attention. They flooded surrounding areas to prevent expl...

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Image: Larry D. Moore | CC BY 4.0

]]> Wed, 04 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/t/8/z/old-tucson-studios-wp/9t8z-old-tucson-studios-trial-by-fire.mp3 0:06 4 full Old Tucson Studios: Phoenix Rising https://qualla.com/old-tucson-studios/ Photo credit Larry D. Moore, CC BY 4.0. Twenty months later, on January 2, 1997, Old Tucson reopened. The new design featured wider streets and entirely new buildings rather than recreations of what had burned. The Reno locomotive received cosmetic restoration and appeared in Wild Wild West before suffering damage in a...

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Image: Larry D. Moore | CC BY 4.0

]]> Wed, 04 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/t/8/z/old-tucson-studios-wp/9t8z-old-tucson-studios-phoenix-rising.mp3 0:06 5 full Old Tucson Studios: Where Westerns Live https://qualla.com/old-tucson-studios/ Photo credit Larry D. Moore, CC BY 4.0. The filmography reads like a course in Western cinema: Winchester '73 with James Stewart, Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, 3:10 to Yuma, The Outlaw Josey Wales, Three Amigos, and the definitive Tombstone. Ronald Reagan made The Last Outpost here. Elvis Presley shot Charro! among the ...

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Image: Larry D. Moore | CC BY 4.0

]]> Wed, 04 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/t/8/z/old-tucson-studios-wp/9t8z-old-tucson-studios-where-westerns-live.mp3 0:06 6 full