HURRICANE, Utah — A Hurricane restaurant, once known as the Graff Mercantile general store, is where a pivotal scene from the movie "The Electric Horseman" was filmed, one of many in southern Utah touched by Robert Redford.
Redford passed away in Utah on Tuesday at the age of 89, leaving a lasting legacy across the state.
"One of my neighbors, she tells a story of missing school to go up and try to see the action," said Rueben Wadsworth of the filming of "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" in Grafton. "And they were talking to a guy by the fence. And they didn't know who he was. You know, he was being pretty nice to them, carrying on conversation with them and then they didn't realize until she saw the movie that they were talking to Robert Redford himself."
Robert Redford's legacy in Utah set to be as lasting as his films:
Among Redford's shooting locations in Utah are the Grafton Ghost Town, Zion National Park, and Snow Canyon for "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid." Many of the same areas were also used for "Jeremiah Johnson," although it's not known if that included the famous nod that has become an internet meme.
The former Graff Merchantile was where the so-called shoelaces scene was filmed for "The Electric Horseman." The story goes that as they were filming inside the store, Redford saw a woman who was being a little self-conscious. She was pregnant and probably thought she didn't look her best.
"And he told her, 'Oh, you're so beautiful, you just glow,' and she said that's one of her favorite memories about him," Wadsworth shared.
Max Roth and Nate Carlisle discuss Redford's contributions to journalism:
The opening scene of the same film was filmed at the Dixie Sun Bowl in St. George. Brian Hinton was a member of the Hurricane High School band and is easy to find because he forgot his black band pants on the day of filming.
"I had blue Levi's," Hinton recalled. "You can see me stand out. [Redford] came in on a horse, lit up with lights on the horse, lights on him. He had a cowboy hat on. He had boxes of cereal he was promoting or something. And it lit up. too.
"It was pretty cool. I was going, 'Whoa, there he is!'"
Local historian Lymon Hafen spoke to Redford a couple of times. First, in the early 80s, as the founder of a local magazine.
"He said that places in southern Utah were as special to him and as majestic and magnificent and important to him than some of those places in Africa," Lyman said.
Long before Kevin Costner’s present plans for a movie studio in southern Utah, Redford once considered building a studio where the Black Desert Resort now sits.
In an interview, Redford told Lyman, “My fondness for St. George almost approaches a sacred degree. So the word ‘Saint’ really kind of fits. So when you say ‘St. George,’ I think of a wonderful God-developed area. The best developer in St. George has been God himself.”
Lyman believes Redford's love for southern Utah translates into why the area has become so well known around the world
"[Moviegoers have] seen his other movies that were filmed here," he said, "and so I think that impact is probably more related to the imagery and the beauty that his work shared with the world."
