2011  SEASONAL OPERATING CALENDAR
(Subject to change)

Old Tucson invites you to ring out the old year and welcome the new by helping to re-stock the coffers of the Tucson Community Food Bank. Special holiday operating hours are 10 am to 5 pm beginning Monday, December 20^th through Sunday, January 2^nd.  (Old Tucson Studios is closed on Christmas Eve, Friday, Dec. 24^th and Christmas Day, Saturday, December 25^th.)

Celebrate the holiday season with a Western flair! Enjoy dramatic gunfights, thrilling stunt shows, and musical revues. Don’t miss Old Tucson’s original production of “An Unexpected Christmas,” a touching musical that tells the story of one family’s Christmas on the trail while crossing the American Frontier.

 Kids will love riding the train and carousel and the thrill of driving antique cars. Everyone will love browsing the shops for mementos and holiday merchandise.  Forget the turkey and ham – enjoy authentic western barbecue smoked onsite for 18 hours and wash it down with a refreshing cold beer or prickly pear margarita. Make family holiday memories and capture it all with a family photo at the Old Time Photo Shop.

Guests will save $3 off regular Adult admission and $2 off Child admission  when they bring a can of food to donate to the Tucson Community Food Bank. One discount per food item donated.  The food bank has identified the following priority items: 

• Canned Meats
• Canned Vegetables
• Canned Soups
• Cereal
• Peanut Butter
• Canned Fruit
• Canned Tomato Products
• Meal Mixes, such as Hamburger Helper or Rice-A-Roni
• Condiments

So why wait?  Help your neighbors in need and save on a memorable day of good old-fashioned fun!

Old Tucson is an old west town, movie studio and themed attraction west of Tucson, Arizona, adjacent to the Tucson Mountains and close to the western portion of Saguaro National Park. Built in 1939 for the movie Arizona, it has been used for the filming of over 300 movies, commercial advertisements  and television  westerns since then, such as Little House on the Prairie, Rio Lobo, Rio Bravo, Winchester 73, Hondo, Judge Roy Bean and Tombstone just to name a few.  Opened to the public in 1960, historical tours are offered about the movies filmed there, along with live entertainment featuring musical revues, stunt shows and shootouts.

The Waila Festival is back after a two-year hiatus! This celebration of Tohono O’odham social dance music will take place at Old Tucson Studios on Saturday, November 13 from 5 pm to 10pm. The admission charge is $7.50 with children 12 and under admitted free.

What is Waila?

The O’odham word, “waila,” is derived from the Spanish word for dancing, “bailar.” The festival will feature music by the Sound of the Desert and Mario Bros. bands along with the Ge Oidak Fiddle Band performing repertoires to include polkas, schottisches, mazurkas and cumbias.  Everyone is invited onto the dance floor to circulate in a counter-clockwise movement to this wonderful desert sound.  This year’s festival location, the rodeo arena at Old Tucson Studios, features a dirt dance floor and harkens to days gone by. 

How is it that a tribe of American Indians in the southern Arizona desert is found dancing to polkas and mazurkas?

In the mid-1800s, European settlers came to what is today’s borderland area bringing their accordions and dance music. About this time, missionaries intent on converting Tohono O’odham to Catholicism began teaching a few tribal members to play fiddle music for Mass. These fiddlers would eventually perform tunes they had heard from other cultures and a new social dance tradition began for the O’odham.

Later, as young O’odham were sent to government boarding schools in the early 1900s, many learned to play brass, woodwind and stringed instruments in the schools’ military-style marching bands. These instruments were eventually incorporated into waila bands.

Waila Today

The contemporary band line-up today frequently consists of a button accordion, saxophone, guitar, bass guitar and drums.  Perhaps twenty-five waila bands perform on and near the Tohono O’odham Nation.  Many have appeared at the twenty Waila Festivals which began in January 1989.  The alcohol-free, family-oriented event has presented nearly 100 waila bands to a total audience of over 100,000.

The festival will include several food booths offering the ever-popular frybread with its various toppings as well as the more traditional foods of the Tohono O’odham.  Hot dogs and hamburgers as well as sodas and bottled water also will be available.  

Come on out and participate in a Tohono O’odham tradition. You’ll truly enjoy dancing in the desert dust —the time-honored O’odham version of “Dirty Dancing”— under an astonishingly gorgeous, star-filled black sky within a community of cactus and coyotes!  Bring your lawn chairs and blankets if you wish. However, leave your video cameras and audio recorders at home because they will not be allowed

Waila Festival co-founders Angelo Joaquin Jr. and Karen Seger serve as director and assistant director, respectively.  The event is presented by Waila Man Productions and is sponsored by Desert Diamond Casinos, the Arizona Historical Society, Old Tucson Studios and personal contributions. Contact Angelo Joaquin Jr. at wailafestival@mindspring.com for more information.

Larry King and the Legends of Country Music show will headline a series of performances on Friday evening, November 26, Saturday evening, November 27, and Sunday afternoon November 28, 2010 in the Grand Palace Hotel & Saloon at Old Tucson Studios. Saguaro Tucson Rotary Club is presenting the concerts over the long Thanksgiving holiday weekend. Local favorites, Jadi Norris and Borrowed Time, will open for Legends. A portion of the event’s proceeds will benefit deployed military and support their families in Southern Arizona through activities and social services to help them cope with a loved one’s deployment.

 Advance tickets are available for $20 each if bought in person from members of the Saguaro Tucson Rotary Club.  For more details and list of members go to www.Saguarorotary.org.  Saguaro Tucson Rotary’s phone number is 520-269-5142 and meets noon Tuesday’s at 1601 North Oracle Road Tucson, 85705.

 General Admission tickets can be also be purchased on-line at www.Saguarorotary.org for $20 or at the gate the day of the event for $25.  Old Tucson Studios gates will at 6:00 pm on Friday and Saturday evenings. On Sunday, concert ticketholders will be admitted to the park beginning at 3:00 pm.  Buy tickets now!

Legends of Country Music is a first class tribute show which features more than 60 plus country favorites like Folsom Prison Blues, Crazy, Movin’ On, Amarillo by Morning and more!  According to Great Plains Independent, Legends is “by far the best tribute show in the country.”  The legendary band consists of members who have toured with many country legends, from Merle Haggard to Vince Gill and all the greats in between.  Rotary International, formed in 1905, is an organization of business and professional leaders united worldwide who provide humanitarian service, encourage high ethical standards, and help to build goodwill and peace in the world. Approximately 1.2 million Rotarians belong to more than 32,000 Rotary clubs located in over 200 countries. Saguaro Rotary joins the 51 other clubs in Southern Arizona in supporting our community and the causes of Rotary International.

For more information, visit:

Saguaro Tucson Rotary at www.Saguarorotary.org

Legends of Country Music www.countryprideproductions.com

Jadi Norris at www.jadinorris.com

 Old Tucson Studios is located at 201 S. Kinney Road, Tucson, Arizona 85735.

Join Old Tucson Studios for our second annual Wild West Days celebration, Friday, April 1 thru Sunday, April 3, 2011.   This three-day tribute to western heritage will feature special activities and demonstrations.  

This celebration of western heritage will be included with the regular admission to Old Tucson Studios:  Adults – $16.95, Children (ages 4-11) – $10.95! 

Click here for additional information!

Join Old Tucson Studios for the fun as we film our comedy television pilot “Stardust and the Bandit!”  If they are lucky, guests just might find themselves as background extras!

Tours Only on filming days.  Guest Admission while we film is $8.75 for adults and $5.00 for children ages 4-11.  Film days are:

• Monday, Aug. 23 thru Friday, Aug. 27 and
• Monday, Aug. 30 thru Friday, Sept. 3

See you on the set!

Producers have completed casting and selection of production crew for the television pilot STARDUST AND THE BANDIT, a situation comedy that will be shot at Old Tucson Studios August 23 through September 3, 2010. The production is a grass roots effort by local production talent to produce an anchor television series here in Tucson.  The 100 or so production personnel, both cast and crew, needed to complete the project were all drawn from Tucson.

STARDUST AND THE BANDIT is the story of an ex-mob accountant, “Guy”, who is sent by witness protection to Old Tucson Studios to hide out.  Instead of working in the back office, Guy is thrust into a stunt show when against all odds the mobster he is supposed to testify against shows up on vacation with his family.  The show has been called a modern cross between Mel Brooks BLAZING SADDLES, F TROOP, and 30 ROCK.

Veteran Old Tucson Studios actor Scott Thomas has been cast as “Guy”, the accountant. Guy’s love interest “Victoria”, a savvy sultry show girl, will be played by talented local actress Shanna Brock. Acclaimed Tucson actor Doug Mitchell will play Old Tucson Studios boss man “Big Jesse” in the contemporary, comedic romp.

 The production crew on the other side of the camera is just as talented and experienced as the cast and will also be drawn from the ranks of Tucson’s award-winning film and television community. Producers tapped local Production Manager Rosie Zwaduk to run day to day management of the show. Ron Anderson, owner of Tucson’s Misty Production Services, will provide Grip-Electric services.  Gaffer Paul Stapleton-Smith will work with Director of Photography Dick Fisher to design the lighting for the production. Tucsonan Bill Garber is the show’s Production Designer.

Pre-production on the pilot began in April. Local interest in the production rose to a fever pitch last month when almost 700 Tucsonans showed up at Old Tucson Studios for an open call audition.  The filming of the pilot will be open to guests who visit Old Tucson Studios which is also providing production and location services for the show.  Lucky Guests just might find themselves appearing in STARDUST as background extras! Guests can get updates on the production at Old Tucson Studios on Facebook^R.

Join Old Tucson this holiday season.  Don’t miss Thanksgiving weekend when Santa arrives by stagecoach on Friday, Saturday and Sunday and holiday shopping begins!

Refer to the November 21 thru January 2 operating calendar below for hours of operation.   Happy Holidays!

 2010 HOLIDAY OPERATING Calendar
(All times are Mountain Standard Time)

Old Tucson Studios is holding an open casting call for its comedy television pilot “Stardust and the Bandit” Friday, July 9 from 4p-7p in the Grand Palace Saloon at Old Tucson Studios.

To audition for the sitcom pilot STARDUST AND THE BANDIT,  please go to www.tucsonstage.com:

• On the left hand column of the homepage click “audition, calls, announcements”
• On that page scroll down and click the STARDUST AND THE BANDIT casting call announcement.

Actors please enter through the back security gate which is accessible by parking in the Employee parking lot off Kinney Road.

Join the USA Diving Junior and Age Group National Diving Championship for a cool evening of Western Family Fun at Old Tucson Studios! 

DIVE INTO THE OLD WEST! 

Wednesday, July 28
5 – 10 PM
Just $10 per person
(ages 4 and over)

 Special evening of Western Family Entertainment includes:

Exciting Gunfights,  Can-Can Revue

Explosive Santa Maria Cowboy Stunt Show! 

Rides and Attractions!

Movie Memorabilia Museum!

 Get gussied up for a family portrait at the  Old Time Photo Emporium and shop till ya drop for great gifts and souvenirs!

Bring your appetite!!

Phoebes Wagon Wheel Pizza “Dive In” Special:
Pizza for TWO and EIGHT Chicken Wings Only $12.95 and 8 Chicken Wings for $6.95.
Domestic Longnecks $3.00!

Lip-smackin’ Southwestern barbecue at Big Jakes BBQ

Sweet Treats at Big Scoop Old Fashion Ice Cream & Fudge Shoppe

Belly up to the bar at the Grand Palace Saloon

Check out our Summer Sizzler Specials!