SALT LAKE CITY — Since the beginning of movie making, Utah’s breathtaking landscapes have proven enchanting and irresistible to filmmakers from all over the world.
From Western classics like The Covered Wagon, Stagecoach, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, to Hollywood favorites like Pirates of the Caribbean, Footloose and more, Utah is a filmmaker's paradise.
This year, 2024 marks 100 years since the first movie filmed in Utah premiered, the silent western "The Deadwood Coach."
From the very beginning, Utah’s grandeur and versatility made the state ideal as a filming location.
“It was discovered that Utah could not only be an authentic Western location, but you could film almost any kind of landscape you wanted without having to leave the state, said Andrew Nelson, chair of the Department of Film and Media Arts at the University of Utah.
“Plus, Utah is an entrepreneurial state history of support for arts and culture. And it didn't hurt that we're pretty close to Hollywood,”
These facts were not lost on Chauncey, Gronway and Whitney Parry, three brothers who made their mark in the early 20th century by ‘Selling Utah’s Scenery.’
“The Parry brothers were the Genesis,” said James Vincent D’Arc, historian and author of When Hollywood Came to Utah.' “They were the founding fathers of what we're celebrating in this 100th anniversary of moviemaking in Utah. It started with them.”
The brothers, originally from Salt Lake City, moved to Cedar City in Southern Utah in the early 1900s to make their fortune attracting tourists to the newly established national parks and monuments.
In 1918 they founded the National Park Transportation and Camping Company. They were eventually bought out by the Union Pacific.
“So they looked for other things to do,” D’Arc said. “They got into business in Cedar City.”
In those years Utah was experiencing an agricultural depression. Times were tough. But the brothers had a plan.
“…Southern Utah was just living by the skin of their teeth with ranching, sheep raising cattle raising, they needed revenue," D'Arc said.
Chauncey Parry, the oldest of the three brothers, decided he would take pictures of the surrounding landscapes and go to Hollywood to sell Utah to producers and studios as a location for their popular Western movies.
It was a big hit,” D’Arc said. “And they were on their way.”
With major films coming to the area, the brothers helped prime the local economy and expanded their businesses. Gronway procured wagons and other props for the westerns from ranches and residents. Whitney Parry became a renowned hotelier. Opening and managing the Parry Lodge in Kanab that would host crews and performers.
“It was like a division of labor amongst the three brothers, D'Arc said.
“So these three brothers were in the mold of Horatio Alger in America, men on the make making their own fortunes. And they were just what Utah needed to get the movie business entrenched in Utah.”
But Utah hasn’t just been home to the classic Westerns.
“But over time, other filmmakers realized that the landscapes could do other things,” Nelson said.
Other iconic films such as The Carnival of Souls, Planet of the Apes, High School Musical, Back To the Future, and TV shows like Yellowstone were either all or partly filmed in Utah.
Today the film industry is a key economic driver in Utah’s diverse economy. According to the Utah Film Commission, the industry generated $669 million in economic activity over the last five years.
A century into film in Utah, that’s a lasting testament to the Parry brothers' vision, entrepreneurial spirit and love of the Beehive State.
