Old Tucson in flames 1995
by David Lee Guss
Title
Old Tucson in flames 1995
Artist
David Lee Guss
Medium
Photograph - Photography
Description
Duke Wayne shot four films at Old Tucson from 1958 to 1970, more than at any other set while working as an independent performer, free of any contractual ties to a studio.
Duke passed away in 1979, the Old Tucson lot survived him by 16 years. High winds, cascading, glowing cinders, insufficient water, no sprinklers and bone dry wood, spelled doom for the 45 year old facility on the evening of April 25, 1995.
This view is on the north end of Old Tucson, looking south. The RR depot is on the right, the RR engine Reno (built in 1872) on the left.
The Reno Railroad Station had played host to James Caan, Kirk Douglas, Clint Eastwood, Charlton Heston, Marie Osmond, Kurt Russell and Elizabeth Taylor, among others.
The venerable locomotive survived with some damage (which has only been cosmetically addressed), while all the buildings on this part of the lot were consumed (25 in all) including the sound stage.
Structures on the other end of the lot survived, but they were far less important historically.
The only major building to survive was "The High Chaparral" ranch house, a popular tourist attraction today.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpvPM3iDuH8
A individual who had been turned down for employment at Old Tucson confessed to the crime but was not charged for lack of evidence.
(Old Tucson was infamous for paying starvation wages.)
An anonymous firefighter took this photograph. Efforts to discover his identity have all failed.
{Note: The Reno was used in the 1959 John Ford directed "The Horse Solders," which starred Duke and William Holden. The locomotive today is slowly decaying away, out of sight, through benign neglect.}
@2013 David Lee Guss Film homage, the end of the original Old Tucson, 1939-1995
Uploaded
April 17th, 2013
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