Santa Clarita Valley History In Pictures
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Joel McCrea Stars in "Wichita"
Melody Ranch | Placerita Canyon


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Marshal Wyatt Earp (actor Joel McCrea, seen at right) brings law and order to Gene Autry's Melody Ranch movie studio in Placerita Canyon in the 1955 feature film, "Wichita."

8x10 glossy promotional still. This one is from a 1961 re-release, but the same image was also used in 1955.

"Wichita" (Allied Artists 1955) is directed by Jacques Tourneur and produced by Walter Mirisch. Credited players include Vera Miles, Lloyd Bridges, Wallace Ford, Edgar Buchanan, Peter Graves, Keith Larsen, Carl Benton Reid, John Smith, Walter Coy, Robert J. Wilke, Jack Elam, Mae Clarke and Walter Sande.

Some interiors were filmed at Monogram/Allied Artists' Poverty Row studio in East Hollywood.

Trivia: Peter Graves is the brother of James Arness, aka Marshal Matt Dillon of the long-running "Gunsmoke" TV series, which shot in part at Melody Ranch.

Kermit Maynard, Ken's stuntman brother, has a bit part in this film, as does a young Sam Peckinpah, who went on to become a hard-boiled producer. In fact, Peckinpah would direct McCrea and another old Melody Ranch "regular," Randolph Scott, in 1962's "Ride the High Country" (which was not shot locally).

In 2009, McCrea (1905-1990) was inducted posthumously into the Newhall Walk of Western Stars.


LW2489: 19200 dpi jpeg from original print purchased 2013 by Leon Worden from a dealer in France.
WICHITA (1955)
Filmed at Melody Ranch

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Lobby Card

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Main Street

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Main Street

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At Hacienda

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Still from Sweden

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Still from Sweden

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Yugoslavian Herald

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Mexican Lobby Card

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Japan 1957

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Spain 1958

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