ROCKIN' OLD WEST PLANNED CONCERT RENEWS INTEREST IN SITE OF MOVIE SETS.

Byline: ERIC LEACH

Staff Writer

SIMI VALLEY - Plans for a rock 'n' roll and beer-tasting festival later this month are renewing enthusiasm for restoring parts of the old Corriganville movie ranch.

Six bands will be featured at the Rhythm and Brews Festival and Benefit Concert at Corriganville Regional Park sponsored by the Rotary Club of Simi Sunset.

Ralph Kleemeyer, co-chairman of the festival and member of the Camp Rotary committee for Simi Valley's three Rotary clubs, said officials began to focus on Corriganville as a site for the festival to raise money for charity, but soon got excited about prospects for restoring parts of the old Western theme park.

"We thought we could raise funds for a pavilion in the Camp Rotary picnic area," he said. "Maybe next year we can look at getting the lake filled and building bathrooms. Maybe we can look forward to revitalizing Corriganville in the coming years."

Eventually the old Corriganville barn might be rebuilt, and if enough money is available in the future, supporters might be able to rebuild parts of the old Silvertown western street, including the saloon and jail, officials said.

The festival will include people dressed up in old-time Western costumes and tours of some of the old filming sites.

Colleen Janssen, a spokeswoman for the Rancho Simi Recreation and Park District, said the rocky land remains one of the the most popular movie filming locations in the Simi Valley area, and the Rotary Club has worked closely with the park district to make Corriganville Regional Park more attractive.

"It has beautiful rock formations. You feel like you are in the middle of nowhere," she said. "Some areas look like biblical times. We've had the History Channel film out there. ... We had a kid on a tour who was actually afraid he would run into witches or bears."

Donna Prenta, co-chairwoman for the Rotary Club rock concert, said many local residents don't even know Corriganville Park exists.

"It's really a nice place and I'd like to see it put back on the map," she said.

Prenta, a relative of John Wayne, pointed out that this is the 100th anniversary of the famous actor who played important roles starting in the late 1930s in westerns filmed at Corriganville.

"Thousands of movies were filmed there," Prenta said. "It has a rich history, and we would like to bring it back as a family attraction and community gathering place."

Rotary officials said proceeds from the concert will still benefit other charities, including the Fallen Firefighters Memorial, Meals on Wheels, the Samaritan Center for the homeless and youth programs, but Prenta said the focus is now on Corriganville.

In its heyday back in the 1950s, the site used to draw as many as 20,000 visitors each weekend, mostly from the Los Angeles area.

At one point the movie ranch had more than 45 sets, including everything from a Corsican village built by Howard Hughes to the Fort Apache set built by director John Ford for his 1948 film featuring Wayne, Henry Fonda and Shirley Temple.

The Corriganville site was a location for "Duel in the Sun" with Jennifer Jones and Gregory Peck and for television shows featuring Gene Autry, Roy Rogers and the Lone Ranger.

Corriganville closed in 1965. Its remaining movie sets were destroyed in brushfires in 1971 and 1979.

Construction of the 118 Freeway consumed the upper portions of the old Corriganville site in Santa Susana Pass, and in the 1980s a couple hundred homes were developed on the western 40 acres.

In 1988, 250 acres where much of the Corriganville filming took place was purchased for $1.76 million by the Rancho Simi Open Space Conservation Agency, formed by the city of Simi Valley and the park district. The park district now oversees the property.

Bill Appleton, the great-grandson of pioneer rancher John Sparhawk Appleton, who came to Simi Valley in 1887, helped Simi Valley historian Patricia Havens with a section on Corriganville in her book "Simi Valley, a Journey Through Time."

He said he and other Corriganville supporters would like to see the old barn restored as a visitors center with photographs and models of Corriganville's boom time, when an estimated 3,500 movies and television shows were made there.

"I would love to see that," he said. "To go there now is great because of the topography, the trees and rocks. But with the old photographs you'd get a better sense of history."

Corriganville is named for Ray "Crash" Corrigan, an actor, engineer and real-estate investor who bought nearly 2,000 acres at the east end of Simi Valley in 1937, turning it into the movie ranch where he would host visits by handicapped children, and eventually open it to the public as a Western theme park in 1949.

Appleton said Corrigan was a genius who recognized the money-making potential in the rocky hills and negotiated with filmmakers to create complete buildings instead of false-front sets, and then kept the buildings on his land to use for more filming and eventually the theme park.

"The topography is so unique you had virtually hundreds of locations within a mile of each other" -- from Sherwood Forest to Africa to India to Korea, Appleton said. "There was even a Corsican village and a Scottish castle. They could stage everything from Richard the Lion-Hearted to science fiction. And it was close to Hollywood. It was unique."

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Corriganville Park concert

The RhThe Rhythm and Brews Fest sponsored by the Rotary Club of Simi Sunset is scheduled from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. July 28 at Corriganville Park, on Smith Road east of Kuehner Drive. The festival will feature a beer contest with tasting of micro-brewed beer and live music. Admission is $35, but a limited number of tickets can be purchased in advance for $25 at www.rhythmandbrewsfest.com.

Children under 12 are free when accompanied by an adult, with a limit of two children per adult.

CAPTION(S):

4 photos, box

Photo:

(1) The "Fort Apache" set at Corriganville in 1948. The movie starred John Wayne, Shirley Temple and Henry Fonda.

Andy Holzman/Staff Photographer

(2 -- 4) At top, Danny Kaye performs in "The Inspector General" film at Corriganville in 1949. In 1945, above, Howard Hughes built this Corsican village set. At right, Gene Autry plays a guitar by a tree in Corriganville Park.

Box:

Corriganville Park concert (see text)