Historic Newspaper Archives

It Is Hard To Tell What Is Real And What Is Make-Believe in Pioneertown

San Bernardino County Sun
October 16, 1955

Roy Bean is being filmed in Pioneertown four miles north of Yucca Valley. This quaint old collection of real and make-believe buildings was built for one purpose -- to be use as a backdrop for western movies, both television and regular.

TOWN’S DEVELOPMENT PLANS TOLD BY BOARD

The Los Angeles Times
October 16, 1955

Plans for new development, and a new board of directors of the in Pioneertown Corp., was announced yesterday by John Martel, new board secretary and counsel for Pioneertown Corp. The announcement followed the resignation from the board of Bill Murphy, Fletcher Jones and Charles L. Nichols, former officers in the corporation.

Earl Wilson

Rapid City Journal
November 12, 1955

Miss Jackie Loughery made the jump from subway-riding to range-riding. Not long ago, Jackie was a model, toting her hatbox as she swung swivel-hipped through wild and woolly Manhattan shooting down wolves and fresh guys with a fiery glance or sharp word.

Liquor License for Pioneertown Studied

San Bernardino County Sun
November 16, 1955

SACRAMENTO – The State Alcoholic Appeals Board Tuesday took under advisement the petition of Val Jones and D. J. Knox for a seasonal liquor license for the Red Dog Cafe in Pioneertown in San Bernadino County.

Jackie Rides The Range

Independent Press Telegram
December 11, 1955

Miss Jackie Loughery made the jump from subway-riding to range-riding. But long ago, Jackie was a model, toting her hatbox as she swung swivel-hipped through wild and woolly Manhattan shooting down wolves and fresh guys with a fiery glance or sharp word.

Land Of Make Believe

San Bernardino County Sun
September 30, 1956

A setting for many motion pictures and television features, Pioneertown has been created expressly to provide an authentic-appearing Western town. While some of its buildings are only false fronts, others are real and contain shops, restaurants and the like to serve the needs of visitors.

Abandon–Not Augment–State Riding Trail

Redlands Daily Facts
January 3, 1957

A group of desert boosters went before the Board of Supervisors recently, favoring a new trail on the desert side of the San Bernardino mountains. Located in remote country, it would run from the California Riding and Hiking Trail at Coon Creek Jump-Off to Pioneertown.

Pioneertown Puts Up Good Front,
And Actually That’s About All It Is

The News Journal
March 20, 1957

The reason for not driving on Mane Street is that it might be hired out that day to a movie company, for Pioneertown is in reality a movie set inhabited by people. It was established in 1946 by Dick Curtis, a heavy of the silent hoss opera. Some 300 citizens moved in, and each agreed to build a business with a Western front.

Pioneertown’s Mane Street No Place For Visitors–It’s Hoss Opera Heaven

The Ottawa Journal
March 23, 1957

Some of Hollywood's most famous actors slept here, sometimes through their vast scenes. The Cisco Kid series was made in Pioneertown and Gene Autry live here from 1948 to 1950 while making Annie Oakley. For the Judge Roy BeAn television series the village was altered to look like Langtry, Tex. All told, the front face of pioneer town has appeared in some 200 films, In its salad days 3000 visitors flooded the town on weekends, filtering in and out of the saloons and restaurants along Mane street.

Phony Face of Pioneertown Has Looked Out
at Hoss Opera Fans From Some 200 Films

The Los Angeles Times
March 24, 1957

Should anyone know of a boulevardier without a boulevard, the local main street is for hire at $25 a day. In this home of the hoss opera, however, it is called Mane St. There is a big sign as you drive in from the desert hills and it says, “Please Do Not Drive on Mane St.” This is a sort of one-yak town.