[00:00] Speaker 1: (whistling) (guitar strumming) Dust on the wind. Hear the stories call. Footsteps echo down an old town hall. Lights flash quick where the legends grew. Hollywood's riding back to you. Lights on the old frontier. Stories come alive right here. Step inside, the past is true. Hollywood's looking back at you. (whistling) Hollywood, film... and TV

[01:13] Speaker 2: Well, hi. It's Nicole Brandon, and welcome today to the Hollywood, Film and TV, where we are talking about your film favorites and some of the top television shows that have been filmed since the very beginning of time. Today, I am in Prescott, Arizona. That is correct, Prescott, Arizona. When I first came to Prescott, Arizona, it was not even, um, a city that was on my radar, that was on my map. I had been living in Hollywood, working in theater, working on Broadway, working in movies, working in television shows. I went to school in London. I've been all over the world. I have helped open film studios all over the world, and been instrumental into bringing film and television into so many countries and so many regions across the globe. And for those of you that follow my own personal journer- journey, you may have learned that, uh, four years ago, both my parents took ill at the very same time.

[02:21] Speaker 2: Um, my dad was diagnosed with cancer, and my mom was diagnosed with a progressive stage of Alzheimer's on the very same week, and I sort of ha- put a pause, a pin in my life, and was taking care of them. And friends of mine called me up just to see how I was doing, and I just proceeded to cry on the phone, and I couldn't stop crying. All they said was, "How are you?" And the tears were flowing, and flowing, and flowing, and flowing, and I couldn't even catch my breath. And my friend said, "Hang up the phone. Hang up the phone. Go to the airport. Don't take anything with you. You need a hug. There is a ticket with your name on it. Go to Frontier. Just tell them your name, and you're coming for the weekend. You're coming to be hugged." And I hung up the phone, and I went to the airport, and there was a ticket with my name on it. And at that time, I thought my friends lived in Las Vegas. That's where I had... For years and years, I would visit them in Vegas.

[03:24] Speaker 2: I did not know that they had recently moved to a city called Prescott, Arizona. And I flew into Arizona. They picked me up, and they took me to Prescott, and during that weekend, I thought, "This is the most enchanting city that I've ever seen." It was incredible. It was incredible. The music scene is what you would imagine in Nashville. The art, some of the greatest artists and greatest galleries. The lakes, the weather, the landscape, and the people were so unbelievably, incredibly kind. Uh, it's rare that you ever come across, collectively, the kindness of people that you have here in Prescott. And I would go get coffee in the morning, and someone'd say, "Good morning," like a jack-in-the-box, and they'd pop up. And I had such an amazing weekend.

[04:23] Speaker 2: And then, as my parents' health started to progress, and we were going through chemotherapy treatments, my mom, we had to put alarms on the doors so she didn't wander, and as things got harder and harder, I found myself just needing to breathe some days. And I would come to Prescott, even if it was just for 24 hours, just to be able to be at peace, to be able to see smiley, friendly faces, to be able to hear incredible music, go to theater, to be able to see phenomenal art, to be able to be on the lakes, or be on the landscapes, or to ride a horse, or just to be able to enjoy life for the day. And the more and more that I started coming back to Prescott, I started to research Prescott, and what I learned was astronomical. And when I say astronomical, I mean astronomical. That over 5,000 movies that you and I are aware of have been shot in Arizona, and over 3,000 movies have been shot in this region. That's right. Right here in this very region.

[05:40] Speaker 2: The history in this Yavapai County and this Prescott area of film dates back to the very first films, back into the n- early 1900s. And when I started researching and I realized that it was almost like the chicken and the egg. Hollywood said, "They made the first movies." Prescott said, "They made the first movies." And we're talking about the original cameras. We're talking about the original silent movies.But what I learned was so much of the history of our nation, of the who we are today as a people, comes from Prescott, Arizona. That is correct. It comes right from Prescott. So, in the early movies, when the cowboys rode on the range, minorities were not villains, minorities were not less than, minorities were not shunned. Everybody in the Wild West, everybody was compadres. They were friends. Prescott was the very first city that actually was a city of humanitarianism, that started that. To think about that, that the humanitarianism came from here.

[07:00] Speaker 2: When we look at some of the horses that were used in the early Wild West, and we'll do shows specifically on the sh-, uh, on the horses, because the horses (laughs) have their own history and, and that, and it's worth a show all in itself. But because of the way they were ridden, because of the tricks that the horses did, we now have animal rights in movies. All of that came from here. We have famous dog trainers that are here, and dogs that you see in all of these movies were actually trained right here in Prescott. And then we have women's rights that came from Prescott. We have history of art, of music, of music for silent movies, like John Philip Sousa that would play here in, uh, one of the original theaters, and the architecture and the creation. And the more I started to dive into the history here, looking just even at the plaza and saying, "Oh, Steven Spielberg is from Arizona, and this is a plaza that he used to come to in Back to the Future." They modeled off of this plaza.

[08:05] Speaker 2: Or Karen Carpenter being up for an Academy Award for, you know, Bless the Beasts and the Children. There is so much history in this area. And so, I called one of the very top tour companies, a tour company that had been in business over 40 years in the state of Arizona that tours of Prescott, and I called them up, and I said, um, "I would really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really love to start a Hollywood film and TV tour," because I realized that nowhere was there a tour. How could there not be a tour for people to come to this area to not know the hundreds and thousands of movies that you know, that you love, that were shot right here? And be able to walk the streets and, and go to these locations and have these experiences and say, "I kn- I know this area. I know this scene from this movie." It's, it sparks something inside of you, and it's so exciting.

[09:05] Speaker 2: And so I called and said, "I would love to do a tour and to create a tour for this city." And Darlene Wilson, who runs the Tours of Prescott, and she's the owner and she's absolutely amazing, she said on the phone, "Nicole, um, do you live here?" (laughs) I said, "Not yet. Not yet, but..." And at that time, I was still in Los Angeles, I was still in Malibu, um, every day focused on taking care of my parents, but I dove into the history of this remarkable, incredible town, and now we do have a Hollywood film and TV tour here. We do have a Hollywood film and TV tour in Flagstaff and in some of the other areas that I have created. But this one area here, this very, very special area in Prescott, is really the history, the single thread from the very first day and time of cinema. How they created sound stages when there used to be platforms, when there used to be small houses that they would use with sliding slates to be able to have hair and costume and makeup and sets.

[10:19] Speaker 2: And you look at somebody like Tom Mix or some of these old cowboys and the hundreds of movies that they created, and you look at some of the romantic comedies, and you look at some of the films, like Cleaver to Heaven that won Academy Awards, that are here, that the history is so rich and so exciting, and I am completely thrilled to go through every aspect, from the very first days of cinema to the original directors to the original producers, and even the Mickey Mouse Club that was here. Films right now, there is a movie that was done here called The Cactus Kid, and The Cactus Kid was filmed in the Chamber of Commerce, and a lot of the members of the Chamber of Commerce were in the movie. They were bank tellers and they, how they set that up with the original Cactus Kid was a movie by Mickey Mouse that Walt Disney directed.

[11:20] Speaker 2: It's actually in one of the historical archives of Disney, and yet, The Cactus Kid many years later became a very different movie here by the same name But the history and the thread of how that was created, and it's still about a little boy, and it's still about dreams, and (laughs) it's just absolutely enchanting. And then there are very special people that have come from this town, the Make-A-Wish Foundation, and so many charities and foundations, NOAH, the animal rescue organizations, all of the organizations for our vets that are here, and then you have TV series that are still filming now that are here, and actors that are here for the television series say that when they leave..That they're in the hotel rooms and that, that they're crying their eyes out that they just don't wanna leave because everybody in this city is so welcoming, from the police and the fire department and the storeowners. Everybody that is here that has made such an incredible difference.

[12:30] Speaker 2: And they even took stones, like tiny stones, and they wrote on the stones the name of the television show or their name or little love letters, and they would leave them in local businesses and local hotels and local restaurants, just like breadcrumbs, hoping that they'd be asked to come back and to film more episodes and to film more shows here. So it's a special and a spectacular town. I look forward to sharing with you the remarkable and the incredible journey of Hollywood film and television. And we will also be sharing with you reviews on the newest and latest movies, and also they are filming here. They are constantly filming here in Prescott and in Flagstaff. I'll t- talk to you as I'm in Flagstaff as well and what they are filming in Flagstaff and in local areas. So much is filming here that's so exciting, and you can follow. As we're saying we're filming, we're shooting. We can bring in the directors for you. We can bring in the stars for you.

[13:28] Speaker 2: It's going to be fantastic, and then you'll be able to see them in your local theaters or download the movies, vote for the movies. Just absolutely sheer perfection. And I love one of the things that has, um, touched me so deeply from being here, and it sounds like I'm sure you're listening to this, that everything since the day I landed here has touched me so deeply. But there is a huge youth community here, an incredible youth community and filmmakers, and they have several programs. They have a program that they're doing right now for kids. I believe it's... the kids are 8 to 17, that it is one of the most special, uh, dynamic programs that I've ever seen, and every child has the opportunity to do everything. Every child is a screenwriter. Every child edits. Every child films. Every child does special effects. Every child acts.

[14:23] Speaker 2: And they are making movies that are of such high caliber and such high class that I've seen some of these movies these 9 and 10 and 11-year-old children have made that are far superior to any movie that I've seen in the theater. These kids are just doing a bang-up job, and so we'll bring in the people that are heading those programs and what does it look like and can you do a program like that in your own city, in your own state, in your own country. Because this program, the way it has been crafted and the way it has been created, is far superior to any film school that I've ever experienced at any level, at any age. And the fact that these kids, these young children, are making these movies and they have the right equipment, they have been gifted grants, they have been gifted opportunities to be able to actually hold cameras that other people dream about that are cinematographers and filmmakers.

[15:28] Speaker 2: And not only can they use and utilize this equipment, but they're learning how to create sheer magic with them. They're learning how to create images and shots and sets and stories and bring to life their ideas in a newfound way, and we have a whole unraveling of what cinema will look like in the future, as these children are the future of what we will see in the entertainment business They also have here... I'm just flabbergasted, but they have a middle school program here. I went to the middle school program, and I think it took me maybe two weeks for my jaw to actually be lifted from the floor. These kids are wizards. They're fantastic. They go in. They have writers' rooms. They create the show. They write the show. They film the show. They edit the show. They air the show, all within the timeframe (laughs) that their period is for that study.

[16:32] Speaker 2: So if they have, you know, an hour for math and then they have an hour for film, whatever that, that time period is that they have for that, they are creating entire productions. There is also a waiting list of almost 50 kids to get into the middle school program, and so they're looking to, to grow and to expand. But I sat there, and I have been in professional rooms since, you know, I was yea high, because I've been performing since I was 9 years old and 8 years old. But I have never ever been on sets where these kids, what they do, and as quickly as they do it, and they work together. That's the thing that I think Prescott has taught me so much, not... beyond the kindness, is the collaboration, that people work together and they give each other credit and they help each other in a really new and beautiful way. And so I, um, I'm amazed and I'm excited.

[17:32] Speaker 2: I'm excited for what I can share with you and I'm excited for things that you're not gonna hear on any other radio show or any other podcast because they don't exist anywhere else. Right here, they are birthing these young filmmakers And when I take people on my tour, if I run into one of these kids, I will say from somebody on my tour that's here from Wisconsin or somebody that i- is here, you know, from Arkansas or from another state, and I'll say, "This is so-and-so," and, you know, I introduce them to this 11-year-old, to this 12-year-old, to this 15-year-old, and I say, "Look him in the eye or look her in the eye and shake their hand, because you're gonna wanna say you met them when they were this age, because they are the future of film and television and entertainment right here." The well is so deep and so steeped with talent, and it's absolutely exciting.

[18:29] Speaker 2: And then the collegeThe Yavapai College also has a film program, and it's funny because so many actors that I've met here, and I've worked on several movies since I've been here, and we'll talk about my film history at some point. But, um, working on films, and seasoned actors that you would know from movies and television that are here, they see what's set up over at the college and they're like, "I wanna go back to college. I want..." (laughs) So you have your young, your youth program here, you have a middle school program here, and you have a college program here, all supporting young filmmakers in a city that is established and known from the early 1900s of making movies, and literally being the space, the place, the pulse, and the energy of filmmaking history, of our nation's history, from women's rights, humanitarianism, animal rights, and so much more, the history of film. And I look forward to sharing it with you.

[19:44] Speaker 2: There is a museum here called the Western Heritage Museum run by a man named Dennis Gallagher, and we will have Dennis on this show. He has become one of the heroes, my personal heroes, in my lifetime. Just what he has done single-handedly is absolutely profound. But they are creating a history and film museum as well, and you will be able to go and to see the history, see some of these movies, see the posters, and learn so much about film and television, how it was made, how it was created, and how it has changed not only the course of this city, the course of the nation, the course of our world. What has been brought forth from here has been so much fun and absolutely amazing.

[20:41] Speaker 2: And then I also love just looking at the landscapes, because we have one landscape that is here, it's called Watson Lake, and Watson Lake originally was the third film studio, and we will do a show just on the film studios for you because I think it holds so much importance, and I think you would want to know how the original studios were created and what was number one and what was number two. But this was number three, and the film studio was created here and the city bought the studio, and right after the city bought the studio, the war broke out and all the actors were being sent away to war and no movies were being, uh, filmed or created there.

[21:32] Speaker 2: After that, and it was absolutely heartbreaking, it was heartbreaking for the film industry, it was heartbreaking for the city, and it is now a beautiful lake where you can have paddle boats and picnics and they have antique car shows, but sometimes just standing there, you think about, "Oh, this beautiful film studio used to be here." And we will show you pictures and what was filmed there and what that looked like, and then also, you know, when we talk about the 1800s and the Wild West, we talk about the early 1900s, we talk about mining and you talk about trains, but they also had fires. Oh, they had fires then. And one of the tragedies in our, the history of the film industry, of course, was at that time, how the film was flammable and how many films were lost in fires, and, uh, so the films that you will not be able to see now because they no longer exist, but they held meaning in our film history.

[22:39] Speaker 2: We can also talk about what they were and how they were created and who starred in them, and why at that time, in the early 1900s, it mattered so much, and why people love those movies so much, and if you have relatives that are still here from that time, or if you have generations that are film buffs that talk about these movies that no longer exist because of the fires or because of the vaults or even European rights that were lost because the films weren't, you know, in existence any longer or- or because of the war, which also wreaked havoc with our film industry, then we'll catch you up. I'm gonna share with you what I uncovered, the secrets, I mean, the true treasure chest and trove of Western heritage and film, and so I look forward to being with you, I look forward to sharing film and TV history here in Prescott, Arizona, and Flagstaff, Arizona, all over Arizona, as well as our nation and internationally.So stay with us.

[24:32] Speaker 2: We look forward to you sharing our podcasts and our episodes. If you have a question, please feel free to reach out to me directly, or if there's something that you're really interested in. If you're really interested in the romantic comedies of the 1920s, or you're really interested in, you know, a, a western movie, or you're really interested in a particular area of how they were able to shoot on mountains that were made of stone, but rounded mountains, or how they would jump, or what stunts looked like at that time, or even movies in the '50s and the '60s and the '70s, and the '80s and '90s, all the way to today, what is filming in this area today? And when I tell you what's filmed here, you're gonna say, "Oh my gosh.

[25:21] Speaker 2: That's one of my favorite movies of all time and I had no idea that's where it was filmed." And we will highlight that movie, your favorite movie, just for you, tell you how it was made, the secrets and the creations, and really uncover just aspects that you never knew existed. So if you are a film buff or a television buff, this is for you. Or if you are so eager to know what's coming out and what's being filmed now and what you will see, this is your podcast. So I look forward to being with you.

[25:56] Speaker 3: (music)

[25:56] Speaker 2: Thank you for joining us at Hollywood Film and TV with all your film favorites, and we will see you soon.

[26:06] Speaker 1: Lights on the old frontier. Every legend lingers here. Through the lens of time and truth. Every step rewrites your youth. Take the trail, no need to fear. Hollywood is standing near. In the dust, where the stories grew. The screen is looking back at you. Out where the west and the movies meet. That's where the stories never sleep.