Pioneertown: A Movie Set That Became A Real Town

(via Amusing Planet) In 1946, a bunch of Hollywood legends including Roy Rogers, Dick Curtis, and Russell Hayden —tired of travelling to far-off locations to shoot western movies— decided to build a Wild West set, in the High Desert of Southern California, where directors could shoot movies and the crew could live.  More than two hundred westerns were filmed there. As the years rolled by and Hollywood’s interest shifted from westerns to new ideas, business in Pioneertown assumed a new role—that of a tourist attraction.