Santa Clarita Valley History In Pictures
> MELODY RANCH
Spanish Herald for "Wichita"
Filmed at Melody Ranch, Placerita Canyon


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Side 1

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Side 2

Small, 3.5x5.5-inch movie herald (flier) advertising "Wichita" (Allied Artists 1955). From Spain.

Joel McCrea stars as Marshal Wyatt Earp, and Gene Autry's Melody Ranch in Placerita Canyon stars as the title city. The film was released in the U.S. in 1955 and in Spain in 1956.

Two-sided, thin buff stock. Four-color front shows the 1-sheet poster art. Back advertises screenings of the film during the week of July 21-27, 1958, at the Terraza Condal (County Terrace) cinema in Villarreal, a city in the autonomous community of Valencia, Spain.


"Wichita" (Allied Artists 1955) is directed by Jacques Tourneur and produced by Walter Mirisch. Credited players include Vera Miles, Lloyd Bridges, Wallace Ford, Edgar Buchanan, Peter Graves, Keith Larsen, Carl Benton Reid, John Smith, Walter Coy, Robert J. Wilke, Jack Elam, Mae Clarke and Walter Sande.

Some interiors were filmed at Monogram/Allied Artists' Poverty Row studio in East Hollywood.

Trivia: Peter Graves is the brother of James Arness, aka Marshal Matt Dillon of the long-running "Gunsmoke" TV series, which shot in part at Melody Ranch.

Kermit Maynard, Ken's stuntman brother, has a bit part in this film, as does a young Sam Peckinpah, who went on to become a hard-boiled producer. In fact, Peckinpah would direct McCrea and another old Melody Ranch "regular," Randolph Scott, in 1962's "Ride the High Country" (which was not shot locally).

In 2009, McCrea (1905-1990) was inducted posthumously into the Newhall Walk of Western Stars.


LW2648b: 19200 dpi jpeg from original herald purchased 2014 by Leon Worden from a dealer in Barcelona, Spain.
WICHITA (1955)
Filmed at Melody Ranch

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Lobby Card

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Main Street

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Main Street

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At Hacienda

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Still from Sweden

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Still from Sweden

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Yugoslavian Herald

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Mexican Lobby Card

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Japan 1957

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Spain 1958

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