When crews began filming the feature-length film "Wind Runner" in Kanab this summer, locals stood in as "extras" and the vermillion cliffs of Kane County once again graced the silver screen.
It's a tradition that started in 1924 with the film "Deadwood Coach." More than 100 television and big-screen movies later, Kanab continues to live up to its reputation as "Little Hollywood."The region's Old West-style scenery has been captured on film by nearly every major motion picture company with movies like "The Lone Ranger" (1938), "Duel at Diablo" (1966), "Outlaw Josie Wales" (1976) and "The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again (1978)."
When filming started on the set of "The Greatest Story Ever Told" in 1969, more than 500 locals were hired. Some worked as livestock wranglers, others stood in as "extras" and many were given speaking parts.
Marve Adams, 86, recalled his lighting work on the movie. Adams, a carpenter by trade, spent 35 years working as a grip on local sets.
"I can remember on some of those shows, they took every man, woman and child as extras," he said. "It also brought a lot of people in here."
Adams worked on Cedar Mountain in Iron County and at the Grand Canyon during filming of the movie "Brighty of the Grand Canyon" in 1967. Just like people, animal stars had doubles to compensate for heavy filming schedules and specific needs, he said. With Brighty, a problem arose when the second jackass arrived with a different color coat.
"They gave (a local beautician) $100 to dye that jackass the same color," Adams recalled. "There were a lot of funny things happening around the movies."
Parry Lodge, 89 E. Center, was project central in the heyday of moviemaking in Kanab. Opened in 1931 by the late Whit Parry, the hotel was once described in a local newspaper as the epitome of modern elegance. Today, the hotel owners maintain placards over doors to many of the rooms, identifying the quarters of the lodge's more famous patrons.
Stars like John Wayne, Ronald Reagan, Glen Ford, Charlton Heston, Barbara Stanwyck, Ava Gardner and many others stayed at Parry Lodge and at private homes when in Kanab.
Whit Parry is credited for much of the industry's interest in Kanab. Parry spent substantial time in Hollywood "wining and dining those big companies," Adams said. "The next year we'd have movies in here."
In a time when the Western feature film was in demand by audiences, the high-desert panorama of Kane County fit the bill.
"They had everything right here that they needed to make movies - scenery, livestock, cowboys, extras," said Alex Bonham, 54, who wrangled livestock during the filming of "How The West Was Won" and worked on films including "One Little Indian" and "Sergeant 3."
"It was a booming industry," Bonham recalls.
Local filming has dwindled in recent years, but it's not uncommon to spot a well-known face at a local restaurant or hotel in Kanab. A handful of popular country-western singers arrived in town in 1985 during filming of the music video "The Highwayman."
Few would disagree the economic impact of the movie industry is several fold for Kanab, which, like many southern Utah communities, relies almost solely on tourism. For locals, the work was a welcome part-time supplement to existing income.
"If they were hiring, everybody went down there and signed on - men, women and kids," Bonham said. "It was a major industry here. The movie industry treated Kanab well, I think. On the whole, they were nice people."
In addition to obvious benefits like employment of local workers, the movie industry has also played a role in making the town a sure stop on any tour of the Old West.
"The people recognize it. They know the place," said Matthew Brown, former publisher of the weekly Southern Utah News. Kanab's movie history "makes it a more memorable place" for tourists who visit the area, he said.
This article is one of a weekly series on the people, places and issues along Utah's U.S. 89.
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Movies, TV shows
Kanab, known as "Little Hollywood," is the site of more than 100 motion pictures and television features filmed there since the 1920s.
Movies filmed on locatin in Kanab include:
Drums Along tyhe Mohawk (1939)
Bill the Kid (1941)
My Friend Flicka (1943)
The Outriders (1950)
Oh, Susanna (1951)
Sargeants Three (1963)
Brighty of the Grand Canyon (1967)
In Search of Noah's Ark (1976)
Television programs include:
The Six Million Dollar Man
Route 66
Grizzly Adams
Gunsmoke
Lassie
Death Valley Days