INSIDE THE MAY 2025 ISSUE: Experts Weigh In as Regional Real Estate Market Shifts p. 3
Winslow is Open for Business p. 11 Faster, Reliable Internet Coming to Flagstaff p.16
Western-Inspired Trailborn Greeting Williams Guests p. 4
Lucy Leyva is Poised to Clean Up in the Verde Valley p. 24
Life Coach Offers Strategies for the Life You Want p. 8
Picture Perfect Scenery Draws Filmmakers to Northern Arizona Economic impact in the millions
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By Peter Corbett, FBN
ne need not be a cinephile to know Hollywood loves Arizona. Producers, directors, actors and film crews have traveled a well-worn
path to Arizona for a century to capture the natural beauty of the state’s spectacular landscapes. The film productions spotlight familiar Northern Arizona scenery with a healthy spinoff, bringing jobs and significant spending to Flagstaff. “Flagstaff rolls out the red carpet,” said P.J. Connolly, founder of Flagstaff-based Locations Southwest and Production Services. “They want to
bring films here.” Connolly, a 35-year veteran of working on film shoots, said production crews on feature films have broad impacts all over town. “They’re building sets, buying lumber, renting vehicles. They’re eating at our restaurants, staying at our hotels, hiring local people, using our airport. So, it’s huge.” During the filming in 1988 of
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“Midnight Run,” starring Robert De Niro and Charles Grodin, the production company booked a large block of rooms at Little America for three weeks, Connolly said. The company also arranged to let De Niro work out in off hours at Flagstaff Athletic Club, he added. Flagstaff has long been a hub of movie-making for locations all over Continued on page 39
Henry Taylor Marks 50 Years Since Saving the Weatherford Hotel From Demolition The labor of love that followed inspired a downtown restoration movement Henry Taylor purchased the hotel May 19, 1975, pulling it back from the edge of destruction. He met Sam Green in 1980 and the two of them have worked side-by-side to restore the building from its bottom basement to its crowning cupola. Photo by Betsey Bruner
May 2025 | Issue 5 Volume 18
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By Bonnie Stevens, FBN
he traveler, Milan Horacek, wandered the halls of the Weatherford Hotel, hungrily absorbing details of the historic building and filled with emotion about visiting the place where Western author Zane Grey stayed and wrote. Grey’s novels fed young Czech boys’ and girls’ imaginations with the spirit of freedom and tales of adventure in the wide-open West. “My country is crazy about the American West,” he said, noting that Grey’s books were available, even under Communist rule. “As a person who grew up reading about the West and to walk into the place of my favorite author gives
me shivers down my spine. It would be so sad if it didn’t exist.” “So sad,” was also how Weatherford owner Henry Taylor felt when he learned of the scheduled demise of the once magnificent Victorian building on the corner of Leroux Street and Aspen Avenue. Henry and his brother, Lloyd, who grew up in Holbrook in a historic hotel, combined efforts to purchase and save the building on May 19, 1975. “There were just transients living here. There was no economic reason to try to save it,” said Henry in a 2007 Arizona Daily Sun article by Betsey Bruner. “It was tough trying to sell history downtown, because no one cared about history, and then we found that picture.” It was a photo from 1906 that revealed the wrap-around balconies. “They were beautiful, and we learned how hotel guests would enjoy watchContinued on page 32