Washburn University
Gold Bar
Center for Kansas Studies Kansas in the Movies Gold Bar
The Learning Tree                      Dark Command                      The Wizard of Oz
Picnic Kansas has been a key state from the beginning of the movies. Early Westerns found their setting here:
from the pre-Civil War battles, to the
homesteader/rancher conflicts, to the famed outlaws of Abilene and Dodge City, to the Western expansion and Indian removal.

The iconic Kansas film is also America's most-viewed movie: The Wizard of Oz, whether watched on the big
screen, annually on television, or paired with Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon.

Kansas became a movie location in the mid-'50s, most importantly with Willliam Inge's Picnic. Soon after,
Gordon Parks (The Learning Tree), Richard Brooks (In Cold Blood) and Peter Bogdanovich (Paper Moon)
gave us three more ways of looking at Kansas.

Our film heritage, from Western (Dark Command), to Small Town (Gypsy Moths), to Con Man (Leap of Faith), to Science Fiction (A Boy and His Dog), to Horror (Carnival of Souls), is rich.

Our variegated landscape attracts directors who want hills, plains, prairie, forest and settings from the past.

This site hopes to be an enriching guide to the history, heritage and future of Kansas in the Movies.
Friday Night Lights
Dennis Hopper                                                                                  Richard Thorpe

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