The First Film Production Studio In Mesa
We love to find out about the history of Mesa and the community.
Last week we learned that Hollywood has visited Mesa 39 times since 1933 — capturing a cinematic record over the past 82 years.
It’s one thing to have Hollywood studios come to town. It’s another to have a local film production company.
The announcement came July 11, 1946, when the Tucson Daily Citizen reported, “Articles … were filed for the Arizona Motion Picture Corporation by O. D. Miller, D. J. Foley, J. A. Smith, and George Beaiy. The corporation has 500,000 shares of common stock of no par value and 50,000 shares of preferred stock with a par value of $10 per share.”
The scale of the studio in Mesa was impressive.
“The 155-acre lot at Mesa will have five sound stages on it: two smaller stages, with an area of 5,000 feet, each for 16-millimeter projector purposes, and three larger stages, each 11,250 square feet planned … for film shooting purposes,” he said.
