With the growth of the film industry, Utah state government began aggressively to promote Utah as a locale for filmmaking. The first film shot on location in Utah, Tom Mix's Deadwood Dick (1922), used Kanab and the surrounding area for chases through canyons, immense open plains, and scenic rock formations. Deadwood Dick was followed by hundreds of other movies, including Drums Along the Mohawk, My Friend Flicka, My Darling Clementine and, more recently, Indiana Jones: The Last Crusade.

Legitimate theatrical activity found a home in the state universities and colleges, with additional support from little theater groups and occasional road productions. Besides Maud May Babcock, important promoters of theater at the University of Utah were Lila Eccles Brimhall, C. Lowell Lees, and Keith M. Engar. Brimhall, a Babcock student and protégé, taught at the university from 1929 to 1960. Lees for many years directed theater at the university, worked for a theater to house the university's dramatic efforts, and introduced children's theater to Utah. Keith Engar instituted the annual production of a classic Greek play in an outdoor setting.

Dramatic activity also prospered at Brigham Young University. It began with two or three plays per year being presented in the 1880s. Important names in BYU's Theater history include T. Earl Pardoe, who taught there from 1919 to 1952 and emphasized dramatic training and performance rather than oral reading, and Harold I. Hansen, who introduced experimental theater, arena productions, and children's theater as well as working for a permanent theater to house the university's dramatic productions. During the years 1951 to 1975, more than 2,700 productions were presented at BYU with to audiences of more than 2.5 million.