KANAB, Utah (ABC4) — Utah is no stranger to the movie scene. The state has an especially rich history when it comes to westerns — with hundreds filmed right here in Kanab.
The 1934 film “Dude Ranger” was one western that captured the wild west for all of America. The film needed just the right landscape — which happened to be in southern Utah.
90 years ago, Johnson Canyon in Kanab, Utah was in about every theater in the U.S., and the Johnson Canyon movie ranch became home to dozens of movies and TV shows for generations. The sets were used over and over.
In addition to “Dude Ranger,” “Gunsmoke” was another popular movie filmed in that location — and was in almost every Saturday matinee.
The late Jackie Hamblin Rife remembers much of these sets, as she was in about 50 of those movies.
Like most of Kanab, Rife rode as an extra and a stunt double — spending months at a time on set and making lasting friendships with big names like Glen Ford, Howard Koch, and Albert Shank.
“We became like a family. Every year they would come back and we would do one film or maybe two at the same time, so it was like family … old friends coming home,” she said.
Southern Utah remains a popular location for filming — classics like “Forrest Gump,” “Planet of the Apes,” “Thelma and Louise” and countless others feature the Beehive State’s unique landscape.
