Film historian, author and archivist Marc Wanamaker said he brought actor Robert Downey Jr. out to Fillmore during the making of the 1992 film “Chaplin.” Downey Jr. is said to have since fallen in love with the area.
Wanamaker shared that and other Hollywood history with a small crowd Sunday afternoon at the Rancho Camulos Museum, along State Route 126 about 15 minutes west of Santa Clarita city limits in Piru.
Using photographs from his Bison Archives collection, his encyclopedic knowledge of Hollywood, and his personal experience as a child actor and as a historical research consultant and technical advisor on feature films and documentaries taking place in the area, Wanamaker explained how the early film industry had an impact on Los Angeles’ economy and how it intertwined with the early transportation system and culture of Southern California.
“I grew up in this whole area as an urban cowboy,” he said to his audience on Sunday. “I’m wearing, today, my rancho outfit, sort of like a don and a vaquero kind of like together. But basically, this whole area is close to me.”
Wanamaker, a Beverly Hills resident and founder of the Bison Archives, which has been preserving the history of the American motion picture and television industries and Southern California for over five decades, spoke about what this area has meant to him since childhood. He grew up riding horses in the Santa Clarita Valley, and as he grew older, he continued exploring and preserving the area’s history, particularly as it related to movies.
His presentation also focused on the 1910 short film “Ramona,” which pioneer filmmaker D.W. Griffith shot on location at Rancho Camulos.
The property was once an early Native American village, home of a Californio land grant family, and a stopping point on the original stagecoach route between Los Angeles and Santa Barbara.
For more of this kind of history and more about Wanamaker and his Bison Archives, go to BisonArchives.com.
For more information about Rancho Camulos, go to RanchoCamulos.org.
