Alamo Village
Alamo Village is a movie set and tourist attraction north of Brackettville, Texas, United States. It was the first movie location built in Texas, originally constructed for and best known as the setting for The Alamo (1960), directed by John Wayne and starring Wayne, Richard Widmark, Laurence Harvey and Frankie Avalon.[1]
History
The set was built by James T. "Happy" Shahan of Brackettville, who in 1995 was named the "Father of the Texas movie industry" by Governor George W. Bush. Shahan began building the set on his ranch in September, 1957 for Wayne, who had tried for years to make a movie about the Battle of the Alamo for Republic Pictures, before finally breaking away to form Batjac Productions. Filming began in August, 1959.
Originally the set was to be
The set includes a full-scale re-creation of the
Shahan preserved the set after the end of the 1960 production and, over the years, over a dozen films about the Alamo have been shot there. In addition, over 100 other western movies as well as documentaries, music videos and commercials have been shot using various parts of the set. Frank Thompson, a film historian, noted that each production changed the set in some way, big or small, and that the changes appear in each new movie about the Alamo, documenting the current view of authenticity over time. The 2004 Disney movie about the Alamo was not shot on this set, but in a new set built in Dripping Springs, Texas.
After the filming of the 1960 version of The Alamo, the village has served primarily as a tourist attraction. For several decades, it served as a significant local employer and element of the economy of Brackettville. In addition to the replica of The Alamo, the village included a cantina and restaurant, a trading post, an Indian store, a church, a jail, a
In 2004, the set was put up for sale by its owner, Virginia Shahan, Happy Shahan's widow, for $3.0 million. Virginia Shahan died on June 23, 2009, at the age of 93. Alamo Village was closed to the public while her estate evaluated the feasibility of the Village's continued operation in the midst of the
Alamo Village reopened briefly for the summer in 2010 with limited hours and no shows, stores or restaurants, but closed again within a few months. Corpus Christi, Texas business man David Jones was in the process of raising funds to buy the site.[3]
After an eight year closure, the site opened for a short time in late January 2018, possibly for the last time. The event was a liquidation sale of all of the props.[4] A news item at the time indicated that the future of the site was undecided.[5]
Selected filmography
- The Alamo (1960) - Produced, directed and starring John Wayne
- Two Rode Together (1961) - starring James Stewart[6]
- Bandolero! (1968) - starring James Stewart, Raquel Welch and Dean Martin[6]
- Barbarosa (1982) - starring Willie Nelson
- Good As Gold (1983 music video) by Red Rockers
- Uphill All the Way (1986)
- Gone to Texas aka Houston: The Legend of Texas (November, 1986)
- The Alamo: Thirteen Days to Glory(1987)
- Alamo: The Price of Freedom (1988) - filmed in IMAX
- Lonesome Dove (1988) (TV) - starring Robert Duvall[6]
- Travis (1991) (film/video) - starring Benton Jennings[7]
- Bad Girls (1994)
- Once Upon a Time in China and America (1997) - a Chinese martial arts western[6]
- Bullfighter (2000)
- Jericho(2000)
- Call of the Wildman (2013)
References
- ^ Huddleston, Scott (August 31, 2010). "Alamo Village closes indefinitely". San Antonio Express-News.
- ^ Bracketville, Texas: Alamo Village (Closed)
- ^ "Alamo Village movie set used by John Wayne fading away". AP. December 26, 2014.
- ^ Wagons, movie set props up for sale at Alamo Village
- ^ ‘It Couldn’t Last Forever:’ Alamo Village Owners Put Props Up for Sale
- ^ a b c d Blumenthal, Ralph (26 March 2004). "The Alamo of the Big Screen Tries to Skirt the Fate of the Original". The New York Times. Retrieved 31 March 2014.
- ^ "Travis". IMDb.