USA - The sundial at town centre Carefree, Arizona state

Carefree is a town in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the population of the town is 3,363.

History

Characterized as an upscale residential area, Carefree was conceived in the mid-1950s by business partners K.T. Palmer and Tom Darlington as a master-planned community. Land sales commenced in 1955 and homebuilding started in 1958. Carefree was incorporated in 1984 to avoid annexation by neighboring Scottsdale.

Features

The Carefree sundial, designed by architect Joe Wong and solar engineer John I. Yellott, was erected in the Sundial Circle plaza in 1959 and claims to be the "third largest sundial in the Western Hemisphere". The sundial, which points to the North Star, is made from a steel frame and covered in anodized copper. It measures 90 feet (27 m) in diameter. The metal gnomon, the shadow-casting portion of the dial, stands 35 feet (11 m) above the plaza and extends 72 feet (22 m).

Carefree was the long-time home of Southwestern Studios, originally built in 1968 as Fred Graham Studios by actor, stunt man, and Arizona Film Commissioner Fred Graham. The sprawling 160-acre (0.65 km²) desert property adjacent to North Scottsdale featured three state-of-the-art soundstages, edit bays, 35mm screening room, make-up, production facilities, western street and back lot. In the early 1970s, Stage 1 of the studio was used for The New Dick Van Dyke Show starring Dick Van Dyke, Hope Lange, Fannie Flagg, and Marty Brill. Stage 1 also was used for the filming of one of Orson Welles' last films, The Other Side of the Wind, with John Huston, Oja Kodar, Susan Strasberg, Bob Random and Peter Bogdanovich.

The studio was used for the filming of Bob Hope's last feature film, Cancel My Reservation, with Eva Marie Saint, Ralph Bellamy, and Forrest Tucker. Scenes were also shot in Carefree and at the studio for Michaelangelo Antonioni's Zabriskie Point, on the back lot, where a mock-up of the Carefree mansion was built and then exploded. The studio was also used for Paul Newman's scenes in Pocket Money, for Bill Cosby's feature debut, Man and Boy, for which the western street was built, and for Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, again the western street. The short, silent feature Time River was shot on Stages 2 and 3 and extensively on the back lot and western street sets.

Southwestern Studios was also used in television productions. In 1973–74, local resident Hugh Downs produced and hosted two pilot episodes for a unique show, Foursome, that was both a game show and talk show, where four celebrities came together to play various games and interact with each other. In one episode, actors Janet Leigh and Robert Culp and comedians Jo Anne Worley and Alan Sues played a game of tennis. In the other episode, shot on Stage 3, dancer-singer-actor Ann Miller, Robert Culp, Jo Anne Worley, and Alan Sues played a popular board game. In 1974, Southwestern Studios was the location on Stage 2 and the back lot for the filming of the TV movie, McMasters of Sweetwater, starring Jack Cassidy and Loretta Ball and directed by Robert Butler.

Later renamed Carefree Studios, the studio was razed in 1999. The Studio, western street, and pristine desert back lot property was developed into retail space and residential development.

Carefree is 17 miles (27 km) west of Bartlett Lake, in the Tonto National Forest.

Gordon Lightfoot wrote and sang a song named "Carefree Highway." He took the name from a section of Arizona State Route 74 in north Phoenix, to explain his mood at that time.