Production of the movie "Arizona" with William Holden and Jean Arthur at Old Tucson in 1939. The movie was the first to be filmed at what would become Old Tucson.

 Courtesy of Old Tucson

After the Old Tucson movie set was dedicated in 1940, Hollywood movie star Jean Arthur lauded Tucson for its own stars — those in its dark skies. “You have millions more here than any place else in the world,” she marveled.

The famous film set came to be because a best-selling writer, Clarence Budington Kelland, of Long Island, New York, took a tour of Arizona in 1936.

These movies were filmed in part in Tucson and surrounding areas from 1970 to today. In addition to these more modern motion pictures, Old Tucson Studios has hosted nearly 300 productions since 1939.

Video by Pascal Albright, Arizona Daily Star

He was known for his book series Mark Tidd and Scattergood Baines (and his short story “Opera Hat,” the basis for the 1936 film “Mr. Deeds Goes to Town” starring Gary Cooper and Jean Arthur and the 2002 movie “Mr. Deeds” starring Adam Sandler) and for his magazine serials in The American Magazine and The Saturday Evening Post.

The purpose of his trip was to gather material for a serial he was planning to write for The Saturday Evening Post on trailer life, called “Fugitive Father.” He planned an overnight stay in Phoenix but ended up staying two weeks and fell in love with the state. The following year, Kelland purchased a house and grove with 20 acres of orange trees, grapefruit trees and date palms in the Phoenix area and began wintering there in the sweet citrus aroma.

By 1938, Kelland had begun researching the history of Tucson for the first of what was billed as a trilogy on Arizona’s past.

The Arizona Republic newspaper of March 27, 1938 reported: “For some weeks now he has been deep in Arizona historical research and already has roughly plotted the course of, not one but three novels centered in this state.”

In November that year, Arizona Highways magazine shared that “Wesley Winans Stout, editor of the Saturday Evening Post, informs us that Clarence Budington Kelland is preparing a serial on Arizona for the Post entitled ‘Arizona.’”

By December 1938, the galley proofs were completed of what would be a magazine serial and then the novel “Arizona” — about a female pioneer, Phoebe Titus, in Tucson during the U.S. Civil War and her struggle to conquer an untamed territory.

That month Harry Cohn, president of Columbia Pictures, read them and bought the movie rights.

These movies were filmed in part in Tucson and surrounding areas from 1970 to today. In addition to these more modern motion pictures, Old Tucson Studios has hosted nearly 300 productions since 1939.

Cohn later chose Wesley Ruggles, director of the 1931 Academy Award-winning Western called Cimarron, to direct the movie version of the novel “Arizona” and borrowed Claude Binyon, scenarist (screenwriter), from Paramount Pictures.

The duo of Ruggles and Binyon traveled to Tucson in February 1939 within a few days of each other, Ruggles to get a feel for the atmosphere and Binyon to gain historical knowledge of Tucson’s past for the movie script.

They stayed at the Nick C. Hall-managed Santa Rita Hotel (now the site of the Tucson Electric Power building) downtown on Broadway. Hall had already brought many Hollywood filmmakers to Tucson to make their movies. Learning the purpose of the Ruggles-Binyon visit, he began his campaign to get the movie Arizona, about Tucson, actually filmed in town instead of the normal spot, the studio-owned ranch in Burbank, California.

In April 1939, the Arizona Hotel Association held a convention in Chandler for its members, including Hall. Among the luminaries that night were Arizona Gov. Robert T. Jones, Dr. Alexander J. Chandler (namesake of the Arizona city), and author Kelland, the master of ceremonies. Hall may have used this opportunity to gain Kelland’s support for filming the movie in Tucson.

Hall also took several trips to Hollywood to meet with Columbia executives to get final approval for the local filming.

In July 1939, Hall began assisting Columbia officials in any way he could, including chaperoning construction superintendent Jim Pratt around as he planned the building of the movie set, located on Kinney Road about five miles north of Ajo Road, based on what Tucson looked like in the 1860s. Hall also set up in his hotel the many different cast and crew, including actress Jean Arthur, who would portray the lead Phoebe Titus.

In late August 1939, the cast of the film “elected” Hall the mayor of Old Tucson — also known then as “Hollywood on the Santa Cruz.” That was half in jest and half in seriousness, due to the fact that he brought the filming of “Arizona” to Tucson, which resulted in construction of the Old Tucson movie set, and in appreciation that he took care of the needs of cast and crew. Soon after, Gov. Jones officially proclaimed Hall the honorary mayor of Old Tucson.

In early September 1939, even before filming had begun, it was canceled due to what was referred to at this point as the European War, later called World War II. The war seriously affected the European film market, reducing the potential profit of the movie significantly, which later caused the film to be made in black and white instead of Technicolor, as was originally planned. The expected delay in filming was a month and a half to two months. Only a small crew remained to look after the movie set and animals.

For several months, the Old Tucson movie set was left to the elements as a ghost town. However, on a couple of occasions, Tucson Police Chief Don J. Hays and the Arizona Police Officers Training School turned the abandoned adobe set into a Hogan’s Alley (a firearms practice course for law enforcement officers).

During this period Kelland enjoyed the success of yet another magazine serial, this one published in Women’s Home Companion magazine. Hall continued to ply his trade in hostelry and director Ruggles, screenwriter Binyon and actress Arthur all returned to Hollywood to work on the film Too Many Husbands, which premiered in March 1940.

In April 1940, Ruggles, along with the rest of the cast and crew, returned to the Old Pueblo and the Santa Rita Hotel. Soon after, the official dedication of Old Tucson took place with a ribbon-cutting ceremony.

After the ceremony, Ruggles and his cameraman perched on a camera boom, shooting the first shots of what would be several months of filming, as they brought Kelland’s novel of Tucson’s history to life.

Throughout the filming, many promotional contests were run by the publicity department of the movie studio, including one by Columbia Pictures and the Arizona Daily Star working together. The newspaper shared: “… descendants of the early Tucson residents mentioned in the story are asked to send in the name, present address and picture along with the explanation of the degree of relationship with the character in the story … to the Pioneer Contest Editor, Arizona Daily Star.

To the 10 most closely related, Columbia gave copies of the “Arizona” novel, autographed by Kelland, Ruggles, Arthur and William Holden.

The story had many real pioneers in it: Solomon Warner, Grant Oury, William Oury, Hilario Gallego, Pete Kitchen, Confederate Capt. Sherod Hunter, Union Gen. James H. Carleton, Charles Meyer, Sam Hughes, Pauline Weaver, Sylvester Mowry and Estevan Ochoa.

By October 1940, the real-life early pioneers in Kelland’s novel and Ruggles’ film “Arizona” had not only stirred up pride in the community but also a strong interest among Tucsonans, in particular Prof. Frank Lockwood of the University of Arizona. Beginning early that month and in preparation for the upcoming premiere of the film, he wrote in the Star a series of short biographies on the pioneers in the story and a few who didn’t appear in it. This bio series in the Star would be compiled into a book a few years later called Life in Old Tucson, 1854-1864.

During the day on Nov. 15, 1940, Kelland, Cohn and Arthur visited a gathering of pioneers — some having arrived in Tucson as early as 1870 —at the Arizona Pioneers Historical Society (now Arizona Historical Society), then located in the basement of the Arizona football stadium, along with special guests Arizona Gov. R.T Jones, Colorado Gov. Ralph Carr and Sonora Gov. Anselmo Macias.

Jean Arthur was the first to talk. She thanked Tucsonans for “all the fun I had doing that picture of ‘Arizona.’ It was more fun than any picture I’ve made in my life. At night after work I enjoyed your beautiful country, lay between two ant hills watching the stars — you have millions more here than any place else in the world — loving every moment of being in Tucson.”

Anne E. Rogers (namesake of the now-closed Anne E. Rogers School), a pioneer educator, paid tribute to Kelland. The author himself thanked Arizona “for the wonderful material your state gave me to write about.”

That night of Nov. 15, 1940, the world premiere of the film “Arizona” took place in downtown Tucson at four movie theaters, Rialto Theatre, Lyric Theatre, Fox Theatre and State Theatre. The film’s stars, Arthur and Holden, were in town, as was Kelland.

A parade in Downtown Tucson during the world premiere of the movie "Arizona" in 1940. It was the first full-length movie filmed at Old Tucson Studios. 

The other two novels that comprise the “Arizona” trilogy were “Valley of the Sun” (Phoenix) and “Sugarfoot!” (Prescott). “Valley of the Sun” was turned into a film of the same name starring James Craig and Lucille Ball and “Sugarfoot!” followed suit with actor Randolph Scott (not to be confused with the TV series of the same name). Later on Kelland also penned the novel Tombstone and the story “The Red Baron of Arizona,” about the life of land swindler James Addison Reavis.

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David Leighton is a historian and author of “The History of the Hughes Missile Plant in Tucson, 1947-1960.” He received a 2024 Historic Preservation Award from the Tucson-Pima County Historical Commission for his Street Smarts column in the Star. He named four local streets in honor of pioneers Federico and Lupe Ronstadt and barrel racer Sherry Cervi, as well as the Jonathan Rothschild Alamo Wash Greenway and the Nick C. Hall Ramada at Old Tucson Studios. Contact him at azjournalist21@gmail.com.