Did you know that Paramount Ranch in Agoura Hills has been the backdrop for hundreds of cinematic productions? See the list of movies.
In 1927, Paramount Pictures purchased 2,700 acres of the Old Rancho Las Virgenes for use as a “movie ranch.” For 25 years, the “A Listers” of Hollywood worked at Paramount Ranch including director Cecil B. Demille and actors Bob Hope, Gary Cooper and Claudette Colbert.
The diverse landscape was the real star power though. It offered film makers the freedom to create distant locales such as colonial Massachusetts in “The Maid of Salem”, ancient China in “The Adventures of Marco Polo” and a South Seas island in “Ebb Tide”.
After Paramount Pictures sold the ranch, a fan of movie westerns named William Hertz bought a portion of it in 1953 and built a western town on it with old prop storage sheds. TV studios then began producing western series like the “Cisco Kid” and “Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman”.
It was bought and sold many times until the National Park Service revitalized it in 1980.
Check out Agoura Adventures for a quick visual tour. You can tour the set yourself from 8 am to sunset on Cornell Rd (off Kanan and the 101).
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