Santa Clarita Valley History In Pictures
> MELODY RANCH   > JOEL McCREA
Joel McCrea Stars in "The Virginian"
Placeritos Ranch & Other SCV Locations


Click image to enlarge

Joel McCrea, Brian Donlevy and Sonny Tufts star in Paramount's 1946 feature film adaptation of Owen Wister's "The Virginian."

Locally, this production used Ernie Hickson's Placeritos Ranch (aka Monogram Ranch, later Melody Ranch) and the Andy Jauregui Ranch in Placerita Canyon. It also used the Paramount Ranch in Agoura, Wildwood Regional Park in Thousand Oaks, and a location in Kernville.

We don't know where this 8x10 publicity still was shot. It would make sense for it to be the Jauregui Ranch, because Jauregui was a big-time livestock provider. But he could have provided stock anywhere.

We're unaware of Hickson owning locomotives, and no locomotive was listed among the inventory when his ranch was sold to Gene Autry in 1953 (Schneider 2011:474-475). It could the twin of Autry's 2-8-2 Engine No. 463, but that's just coincidence. Autry wasn't in the equation in 1946, and it wasn't until 1955 that he bought the locomotive.

The television version of "The Virginian" (9 seasons, 1962-1971) didn't use Melody Ranch, probably because its Western street burned down in August 1962.

Rounding out the credited cast of the 1946 film are Barbara Britton, Fay Bainter, Tom Tully, Henry O'Neill, Bill Edwards, William Frawley, Paul Guilfoyle, Marc Lawrence and Vince Barnett.


LW2957: 9600 dpi jpeg from original photograph purchased 2017 by Leon Worden.
THE VIRGINIAN
Paramount 1946

thumbnail

Placerita Canyon Set

thumbnail

thumbnail

thumbnail

El Virginiano

thumbnail

thumbnail

thumbnail

thumbnail

RETURN TO TOP ]   RETURN TO MAIN INDEX ]   PHOTO CREDITS ]   BIBLIOGRAPHY ]   BOOKS FOR SALE ]
SCVHistory.com is another service of SCVTV, a 501c3 Nonprofit • Site contents ©SCVTV
The site owner makes no assertions as to ownership of any original copyrights to digitized images. However, these images are intended for Personal or Research use only. Any other kind of use, including but not limited to commercial or scholarly publication in any medium or format, public exhibition, or use online or in a web site, may be subject to additional restrictions including but not limited to the copyrights held by parties other than the site owner. USERS ARE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE for determining the existence of such rights and for obtaining any permissions and/or paying associated fees necessary for the proposed use.