When Frank Vacek arrived at Sable Ranch in the 1970s, with its chaparral-covered hills bounded by the mountains of the Angeles National Forest, he instantly saw a California dream.
Mr. Vacek, who with his wife had fled the Nazis in Czechoslovakia three decades earlier, rewrote his fortunes by opening a successful camera shop in downtown Los Angeles in the 1950s. But 30 miles north at Sable Ranch, where cattle grazed amid oak trees, he pictured an even grander second act for his life. He bought the ranch and the property next to it and built an Old West movie set on its land, bringing Hollywood — with its gun shows, cowboys and insatiable appetite for entertainment — to his doorstep.
Half a century later, Sable Ranch, in Santa Clarita, has served as movie set for productions including “Robin Hood: Men in Tights,” “American Horror Story” and “Oppenheimer.” Its 400 acres have stood in for so many cinematic backdrops that they have morphed into Hollywood iconography. And now, for $35 million, the ranch is hitting the market.
“The amount of history that is here, and the amount of movies and TV shows and commercials that have been made here, really is phenomenal,” said Derek Hunt, the owner of Sable Ranch. Mr. Hunt is Mr. Vacek’s grandson; he grew up on the property and formally inherited it in 2020. In 2008, Mr. Hunt began rallying the City of Santa Clarita to create the Movie Ranch Overlay Zone, a special designation for feature-film and television production that streamlines permitting and lowers costs.
The Movie Ranch Overlay Zone was set up in 2011. Sable Ranch sits within it as well as within the Thirty Mile Zone, also known as the TMZ, a sector within 30 miles of downtown Los Angeles where the labor costs for film crews are lower.
Those zoning benefits and Sable Ranch’s amenities — which include parking for 200 cars, catering space and a green-screen — have made it particularly attractive to film crews.
“We could always go back to Sable Ranch and know we could pull off any sort of stunt and get a good look there,” said Rob Day, an executive vice president for the media company Endemol Shine Group, which filmed the reality television programs “Fear Factor” and “Wipeout” on the ranch. “And there’s that sense of history and nostalgia that many people before you have been there.”
Its location, far enough north of Los Angeles’s gridlock to feel otherworldly yet within easy driving distance, lured Hollywood to its hills even before Mr. Vacek bought the property. Abbott and Costello practiced high jinks on the ranch in 1942 while filming “Ride ’Em Cowboy”; Elizabeth Taylor and Charlton Heston came out to perfect their horseback-riding skills in the 1950s.
In addition to the film sets and wide-open spaces, the ranch includes five houses and two apartments, with 14 bedrooms and 11 bathrooms between them.
In the 1970s, Mr. Vacek began Frank’s Famous Western Photo Show, inviting models and photographers to his Old West movie set for images amid actors dressed as cowboys and playing out high-noon duels.
One model who was discovered by photographers while posing in front the dusty saloons? A young Heather Locklear.
In recent years, the ranch has hosted “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” “Criminal Minds” and “24.” After crews from “Fear Factor” used the ranch in 2001, they returned in 2007 to make another game show, “Wipeout,” where contestants compete in an obstacle course with large pools. So Mr. Hunt built water tanks that could each hold millions of gallons of water — an amenity that attracted Billie Eilish to the ranch in 2021, when she was scouting locations for her underwater music video for “Happier Than Ever.”
“You feel the Hollywood legacy when you’re on the property,” said Aaron Kirman of Christie’s International Real Estate Southern California, who alongside Sam Glendon of CBRE is representing Mr. Hunt in the sale.
In 2016, the Sand Fire ripped through Santa Clarita, destroying much of the ranch, including the original Old West town built by Mr. Hunt’s grandfather. Mr. Hunt refused to leave, staying back with his workers to help battle the flames.
He rebuilt the Western town, and the ranch rebounded. And many of the structures, including another Spanish-style home that dates to 1900, are still standing.
In 2020, it served as the production location for the film “Call of the Wild,” and on many days, Harrison Ford commuted by helicopter for filming.
But for the past year and a half, Mr. Hunt has been living in Mexico and traveling. He is not married and has no children, he said, and he is ready for his family ranch to be passed on.
“I want to make sure it has a future home and a legacy,” he said. “It can be used either as a big family property or a movie studio. To have a place where Harrison Ford can fly his helicopter to work, where you can build Alaska, it really is a one-off place.”
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