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The Movie Biz in the Old Pueblo

by Kenneth H. Scoville

he Southwest has always had the mystique of being the frontier with colorful personalities and spectacular open scenery that has often been a perfect match for the movie biz. Southern Arizona and Tucson are part of this tradition with Old Tucson, Bisbee, Mescal and Sabino Canyon as well-recognized locations. But the Old Pueblo would be a unique location itself and had a movie studio producing one-to-three-reelers (15 minutes per reel) on North Main Avenue in 1912. The Eclair Film Company would produce more than 70 films and involve many locals in addition to “name stars” like Robert Frazer and Herbert Stanley. This was actually the third company to shoot in Tucson, but the Golden State and Hollywood would get the starring role as the ultimate studio location by 1917.

The Tucson vicinity has been a prime location for many important movies and television shows that are still being rented at your favorite video store. The benefits to the community are many from the financial perspective: increased business sales for all types of services, national recognition for Tucson, employment for local actors, and real estate investment. A more subtle dividend is the preservation of a moment in time of how Tucson used to look as a backdrop for the movies; thus an historical record is preserved that could not be duplicated in any other way. Three significant productions that provide such glimpses are “The Gay Desperado” from 1936, “A Kiss Before Dying” in 1956, and “Desert Bloom” in 1986.

Seeing a location that you know quite well in a movie always seems a little surreal. The 1986 production of “Desert Bloom” has several identifiable locales including East Congress Street portrayed as Las Vegas in 1950. Stars Jon Voigt, Ellen Barkin, and Annabeth Gish play a family struggling with many relationship issues revolving around 13-old Rose (Gish). She is growing up amidst poverty in 1950s Las Vegas (Tucson) with concerns about the Cold War and above-ground nuclear testing. Tucson was probably chosen to portray Las Vegas in the 1950s since Downtown and the University area still retain much of the scale and building types that would have been part of small town Vegas.

The use of East Congress to depict Fremont Street in Downtown Las Vegas comes off quite well, and the most eerie scene is the mushroom cloud of the nuclear test rising behind the Catalina Mountains near Pima Canyon. This author watched the set construction and filming of “Desert Bloom” on Congress and still remembers how real the transformation was. This movie also connects Tucson to part of the nuclear culture with the Old Pueblo at one time being surrounded by Titan missile silos.

In 1956 the Old Pueblo became the setting for a ruthless murder in “A Kiss Before Dying” which starred Robert Wagner as a student at “Lupton University” (UA) who kills his heiress girlfriend (Joanne Woodward) when she becomes pregnant. Wagner’s character still wants to marry into this wealthy family and then has aspirations to marry her sister. Eventually she discovers the reality that her sister had not committed suicide. There are scenes at the University of Arizona, Broadway Village and the Ponds Mansion (now the new location for the Mountain Oyster Club) but vibrant Downtown Tucson is truly special. A scene on Congress Street shows people shopping, and the Daniels Jewelry Store clock on the sidewalk at 9 East Congress is featured. This was the time when “meet you under the clock” was the starting point for many shopping forays. The murder takes place atop the Valley Bank tower, the Old Pueblo’s first high-rise. If you look closely at the rooftop shots, you can see the Santa Rita Hotel with all of its architectural beauty, as well as the Fox Theatre’s old cooling tower.

Another fascinating film snapshot of Tucson can still be seen in the 1936 production “The Gay Desperado.” The setting is Old Mexico with Pablo Braganza (Leo Carrillo) portraying a fierce Mexican bandit who is inspired by American gangsters to reorder his amigos to Chicago standards. He kidnaps an opera star and two other victims and eventually the singer falls in love with the female captive (Ida Lupino). The story satirizes Hollywood tough guys and features film maker Rouben Mamoulian’s stylistic humor and musical flair. The scenes feature Meyer Street and other now-vanished locations when Tucson was still Old Mexico, before urban renewal destroyed much of the barrio.

The world premier for “The Gay Desperado” was at the Fox Theater in September 1936; it opened at Radio City Music Hall in October.

The moments in time preserved by “The Gay Desperado” and other celluloid productions are treasures of a quaint and charming Old Pueblo that will never be quite the same.

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