Bodies Bodies Everywhere - Old Tucson

27 March 2019

A bit south and west of Tucson is the town of Old Tucson, which really isn't a town at all.  Old Tucson looks like a town, but it really is an old movie set.  In fact, Old Tucson was built for the 1939 movie "Arizona," starring William Holden and Jean Arthur.  Subsequent movies filmed here include "The Bells of St. Mary's," "Gunfight at the OK Corral," "The Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold," and "Cimarron."  Just to name a few.  Something like 400 movies and television shows used Old Tucson as part of the set!!!

Here's the website, and if you click on "Films" you can get a more complete list.  http://oldtucson.com/

As we wandered around, somehow everything looked vaguely familiar - although none of us could remember exactly what movie we were thinking of.  But it was a whole lot of déja vu, over and over again.

Since this is an Old West movie set, there are shows throughout the day - we saw a reenactment of some Hollywood movie, which of course included a shootout, a bad guy falling off the roof, and dead villains littering the streets of the scene.  

We also watched several stuntmen explain how they do their stunts, such as shooting each other (slightly pointing the gun up set so no one is injured), fights (the glancing blow turn head sound effects method), and lots of bad jokes.  The grande finale included more falling off the roof (into piles of mattresses), being shot and falling over (onto sandy ground), and shooting into the fountain (with an internal hose to spray water so it looks as if the bullet hit the water).

The best, though, was one stunt guy running into a side building and having it blow up!!!  No building pieces flying, just a huge boom and giant flames shooting out all over, with a rush of heat across the performance space so that we, the audience, could feel how hot it was!!!

The entrance fee included all these shows, plus a ride on the train which circled the perimeter of Old Tucson - and of course, one of our stuntmen was lying by the side of the tracks, although he was smiling as we chugged on by.

The carousel was also included, so that was my horse ride.  I had a lovely white stallion, and our carousel attendant was watching something on her phone so we had a good long gallop around in circles!

Other options included a stage coach ride and riding horses on trails through the desert - but, well, horse allergies mean that isn't an option for me.  So I was happy with our train and carousel rides.

There was even a Phoebe's Sweet Shoppe - although it was mostly a fudge shoppe, and this Phebe prefers really dark chocolate without the fudge.  While I could resist the fudge, I couldn't resist a few photos.

Our visitors played Sheriff and Deputy very briefly, and we generally had a fun time.

Definitely worth a visit!!!  (And the saguaros are real!)