Trem Carr's Placeritos Movie Ranch

 movie / film / TV location, historical layer / disappeared object, movie ranch

Trem Carr's Placeritos Movie Ranch.

This movie ranch (boundaries are approximate pending further investigation) was owned by early minor Mogul, Trem Carr as early as 1922, making one of the oldest of movie ranches.

His set designer, Ernie Hickson, created a Western movie town location using buildings he imported from Nevada for Carr’s productions.

Carr's lease ran out in 1936 and Hickson moved the sets westward a couple of miles in Placerita Canyon, creating what would become the Monogram Ranch for filming B-movies featuring upcoming stars like John Wayne. It was later called the Melody Ranch Movie Studio, the home of singing cowboy Gene Autry.

This site was next occupied by Republic Pictures as their movie ranch when Herbert Yates, owner of Consolidated Film Industries, bought the assets of 6 smaller companies and merged them under the Republic banner.

This ranch reverted to cattle ranching until Disney purchased it in the 1950s for shooting its first big TV hit, "Spin and Marty." Disney expanded the holdings until it reached nearly 900 acres, and is now called Golden Oak Ranch.

This site is also the place where gold was first discovered in 1842, predating the Marshall discovery at Sutter's Mill in 1849.

www.mouseplanet.com/8736/The_Golden_Oak_Ranch
www.movielocationsplus.com/tremcarr.htm