Ever since French director Gaston Melies shot his 1912 Western short, ‘The Ghost of Suphur Mountain’ in Santa Paula, Ventura County has been a popular destination for filmmakers. In this lecture we will reveal the rich history of Ventura County’s most popular locations including Ahmanson Ranch/Upper Las Virgenes Canyon (which appeared in “Gone With the Wind,” “The Grapes of Wrath” and “Pineapple Express”), Simi Valley (“Everything Everywhere All at Once,” “Babylon”), Moorpark (“The Clonus Horror,” “The Fabelmans”), Ventura (“Little Miss Sunshine,” Martin Scorsese’s “The Aviator”), Lake Sherwood & Hidden Valley (“North by Northwest,” “Memoirs of a Geisha,” “Seabiscuit”), Oak Park (“Tumbleweeds,” “Of Mice and Men”), Montclef Ridge (“Spartacus,” “Wuthering Heights”) and the county-adjacent city of Westlake Village (“80 for Brady”). Rarely seen photos and film clips will accompany the lectures.

A Southern California native, Harry Medved has served as the PR lead for Fandango, Yahoo!, Warner Bros. Online and the Screen Actors Guild. Prior to creating the “Lost and Found” travel column for the Pasadena Star-News, he co-authored the popular movie books The Fifty Worst Films of All Time, The Golden Turkey Awards and Hollywood Escapes. He lives in the Conejo Valley with his wife Michele and family.