Leon Worden of the Santa Clarita Valley Historical Society sits down with Andre and Renaud Veluzat, owners of the historic Melody Ranch Movie Studio. This interview was first broadcast on SCVTV in 2014.

The history of the ranch dates back to the 1920s when it became a movie ranch and in the 1930s a movie ranch for Monogram Pictures. It was renamed Placeritos Ranch in the ’40s.

Gene Autry purchased the ranch in 1952 and renamed it Melody Ranch.

On Aug. 28, 1962, a firestorm swept through Placerita Canyon and engulfed most of the movie town’s original Western structures.

After the fire, most of the original ranch was sold off. The last 10 acres, where the buildings had stood, went on the market in November 1990. Brothers Renaud and Andre Veluzat, longtime Newhall residents and film industry executives, purchased the parcel and restored the Western movie ranch to its former glory in 1991.

The history of the ranch includes the iconic face-down in “High Noon” and a litany of cowboy stars including John Wayne, Harry Carey, Tom Tyler, Ken Maynard, Hoot Gibson, Johnny Mack Brown, Bob Steele and the legendary Singing Cowboy, Gene Autry.

Autry’s weekly television series in the 1950s was not filmed at Melody Ranch, but hundreds of other feature films and television programs were, including “Gunsmoke” and “Wyatt Earp.”

Rene Veluzat died March 21, 2021. The Veluzat family continues the operation of Melody Ranch, which hosted the Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival for more than two decades.

Among the more recent films and television productions filmed at Melody Ranch are “Deadwood,” “Westworld” and “Once Upon a Time In Hollywood.”

View the interview at https://scvtv.com/2014/01/03/andre-renaud-veluzat-rebuilding-historic-melody-ranch-studio/.

For more videos about the history of the Santa Clarita Valley visit SCVTV.com.