On Saturday, Nov. 2, Old Tucson will honor the man responsible for the initial creation of Old Tucson Studios by naming a ramada after him.
The Nick C. Hall Ramada has traditionally been used as an outdoor screening facility, catering space and a site for rides and attractions.
Hall moved to Tucson from his native Missouri in 1934 to manage the Santa Rita Hotel in Downtown Tucson.
He soon became an advocate for filmmaking in Tucson, arranging for Hollywood film crews and actors to stay at the Santa Rita while filming.
“He was a ‘one-man chamber of commerce,’ they would call him in the newspaper,” Tucson historian David Leighton told Pat Parris in 2022 .
His lobbying to adapt Clarence Budington Kelland’s book “Arizona” into a film, and to have it filmed in the Tucson area, led to the creation of Old Tucson Studios.
Columbia Pictures constructed an 1860s Tucson for the filming of “Arizona,” including an old adobe fort. Those buildings would later become Old Tucson Studios.