# From Reel to Real: Places Inspired by (or Left Over from) Movies
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-reel-to-real-places-inspired-by-or-left-over-from-movies/617736
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [April 3, 2012, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-reel-to-real-places-inspired-by-or-left-over-from-movies/617736 "2012-04-03T21:23:37Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Nonsuch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nonsuch)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2012, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-reel-to-real-places-inspired-by-or-left-over-from-movies/617736/1 "2012-04-03T21:23:37Z")
I am researching an article for a travel magazine and wonder if any Dopers would care to help me out.
The theme I was going for was places from movies that are now real.
I don’t mean real places dressed as fictional places for movies. I mean places that were either built specifically for a movie and are still there, or were built in homage long after the fact.
These are the ones I know of:
- Popeye Village (aka Sweethaven) in Malta
- Hobbiton in NZ
- Rick’s Cafe in Casablanca
- Skywalker Ranch in Tunisia
- Piz Gloria in Switzerland
Does anyone know of any others? I would be most in your debt. Thanks all.
---
### Author:  [@Algher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Algher)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2012, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-reel-to-real-places-inspired-by-or-left-over-from-movies/617736/2 "2012-04-03T21:54:39Z")
I am going to answer with things that don’t really fit right, but might help your article (or at least bump up the discussion):
You can stay in the “Same Time Next Year” units in California (one is called Same Time, one is called Next Year." However, they weren’t built for that reason - they were just renamed I think. My inlaws went there once.
The Ponderosa Ranch exists, and it was built in the middle of the series run and still exists today as a dude ranchy type place I think.
The Bull & Finch Bar was renamed Cheers in Boston, and then was franchised.
---
### Author:  [@Uncle\_Jocko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncle_Jocko)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2012, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-reel-to-real-places-inspired-by-or-left-over-from-movies/617736/3 "2012-04-03T21:55:40Z")
The baseball field from Field of Dreams, in Dyersville, Iowa. I think the field was actually plowed back into corn the year after the movie was filmed, but when people started showing up looking for it, they rebuilt the baseball diamond on the site.
---
### Author:  [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2012, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-reel-to-real-places-inspired-by-or-left-over-from-movies/617736/4 "2012-04-04T00:25:59Z")
> [@Uncle\_Jocko](#):
>
> The baseball field from Field of Dreams, in Dyersville, Iowa. I think the field was actually plowed back into corn the year after the movie was filmed, but when people started showing up looking for it, they rebuilt the baseball diamond on the site.
“If they come, we will rebuild it?”
---
### Author:  [@Suburban\_Plankton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suburban_Plankton)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2012, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-reel-to-real-places-inspired-by-or-left-over-from-movies/617736/5 "2012-04-04T00:26:02Z")
> [@Algher](#):
>
> The Ponderosa Ranch exists, and it was built in the middle of the series run and still exists today as a dude ranchy type place I think.
It actually closed back in 2004, but the site remains ‘intact’, and apparently there is speculation that it may be reopened in the future.
I still have the souvenir tin cup I got there as a kid. It’s the best thing ever for drinking cold milk out of.
---
### Author:  [@oliversarmy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/oliversarmy)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2012, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-reel-to-real-places-inspired-by-or-left-over-from-movies/617736/6 "2012-04-04T01:16:51Z")
The mansion outdoor set used in “Giant” still sits outside of Marfa, Texas. Well, at least I think it does. I haven’t seen it for years and it looked pretty bad then. It may just be telephone poles stuck in the dirt now.
---
### Author:  [@oliversarmy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/oliversarmy)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2012, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-reel-to-real-places-inspired-by-or-left-over-from-movies/617736/7 "2012-04-04T01:20:25Z")
Never mind, it’s long gone. Memory plays funny tricks.,
---
### Author:  [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2012, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-reel-to-real-places-inspired-by-or-left-over-from-movies/617736/8 "2012-04-04T01:37:38Z")
How about the [HMS Surprise](http://www.sdmaritime.org/hms-surprise/) in San Diego?
---
### Author:  [@audit1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/audit1)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2012, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-reel-to-real-places-inspired-by-or-left-over-from-movies/617736/9 "2012-04-04T04:24:29Z")
April 1942. Col. Doolittle let an attack of B-25s on Japan. Since the fact they took off from the USS HORNET was secret at the time, FDR quipped they came from our new base in SHANGRI-LA referring to the place in the novel LOST HORIZON. The US Navy would later name a new carrier the USS SHANGRI-LA.
---
### Author:  [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2012, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-reel-to-real-places-inspired-by-or-left-over-from-movies/617736/10 "2012-04-04T12:38:03Z")
I was coming in to mention the Field of Dreams too. This will sound corny (ha!), but there is a certain vibe about that place. I’m not really a spiritual person, but you can almost believe the movie is real, and you’re in it, when you’re there. Maybe it’s just me.
On the more mundane side, there’s a chain of restaurants called the “Bubba Gump Shrimp Company.”
---
### Author:  [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2012, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-reel-to-real-places-inspired-by-or-left-over-from-movies/617736/11 "2012-04-04T12:43:06Z")
Vasquez Rocks out side of Los Angeles. Used in many a western (and in Star Trek TOS). There is a western “fort” there that was built as a set. You can (or could) go through it and check it out.
---
### Author:  [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2012, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-reel-to-real-places-inspired-by-or-left-over-from-movies/617736/12 "2012-04-04T12:48:11Z")
> [@Nonsuch](#):
>
> - Skywalker Ranch in Tunisia
It’s called the Skywalker Homestead (or the Sidi-Driss Hotel). Skywalker Ranch is somewhere else entirely (the Lucasfilm offices).
---
### Author:  [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2012, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-reel-to-real-places-inspired-by-or-left-over-from-movies/617736/13 "2012-04-04T12:59:27Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#):
>
> It’s called the Skywalker Homestead (or the Sidi-Driss Hotel). Skywalker Ranch is somewhere else entirely (the Lucasfilm offices).
The large Krayt dragon skeleton prop that C3PO walks by early in A New Hope before getting picked up by the Jawas was left intact in the Tunisian desert after filming was done.
Decades later during the filming of either The Phantom Menace or Attack Of The Clones when Lucasfilm was back in Tunisia some staff found out from some old timers the exact location of the prop and were shocked when they went to the location and found it perfectly intact as it was left in 1977. One has to wonder what random passerby have thought about it over the years :eek:
---
### Author:  [@postcards](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/postcards)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2012, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-reel-to-real-places-inspired-by-or-left-over-from-movies/617736/14 "2012-04-04T13:14:34Z")
[HMS Bounty](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bounty_%281960_ship%29)
---
### Author:  [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2012, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-reel-to-real-places-inspired-by-or-left-over-from-movies/617736/15 "2012-04-04T13:15:17Z")
> [@grude](#):
>
> The large Krayt dragon skeleton prop that C3PO walks by early in A New Hope before getting picked up by the Jawas was left intact in the Tunisian desert after filming was done.
>
> Decades later during the filming of either The Phantom Menace or Attack Of The Clones when Lucasfilm was back in Tunisia some staff found out from some old timers the exact location of the prop and were shocked when they went to the location and found it perfectly intact as it was left in 1977. One has to wonder what random passerby have thought about it over the years :eek:
This leads me to believe that film companies will go to pristine locations, fill it with garbage and leave it behind for the locals to clean up and are all surprised when they don’t.
---
### Author:  [@Enlightening\_Meditation](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enlightening_Meditation)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2012, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-reel-to-real-places-inspired-by-or-left-over-from-movies/617736/16 "2012-04-04T13:37:00Z")
There are several Korova Milk Bar restaurant/clubs at various locations around the world. This place was inspired by the fictional bar in _A Clockwork Orange_. I suppose it fits the homage criterion since _Casablanca_ was filmed in Hollywood, not in Casablanca.
---
### Author:  [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2012, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-reel-to-real-places-inspired-by-or-left-over-from-movies/617736/17 "2012-04-04T14:18:18Z")
I don’t know if this counts, but the pink house from Pippi Longstocking was left pink until quite recently. It’s in the Old Town (not the part you’d generally run into as a tourist) in Fernandina Beach. Which happens to be the last plaza colony settlement the Spanish built in the New World. But it’s not where all those gorgeous old Victorians are, and the shopping district, so if you’ve been to Fernandina you probably didn’t see it.
---
### Author:  [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2012, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-reel-to-real-places-inspired-by-or-left-over-from-movies/617736/18 "2012-04-04T14:23:08Z")
There is, or should be, a real life Simpson’s house somewhere. I vaguely remember a contest promotion for the show back in the 90’s that had that as grand prize.
---
### Author:  [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2012, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-reel-to-real-places-inspired-by-or-left-over-from-movies/617736/19 "2012-04-04T14:26:13Z")
Wouldn’t be complete without some mention of [Alamo Village](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alamo_Village).
---
### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [April 4, 2012, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-reel-to-real-places-inspired-by-or-left-over-from-movies/617736/20 "2012-04-04T14:32:41Z")
IS there a “Rick’s Cafe” in Casablanca? I know that every American city has or had a “Rick’s” or “Casablanca” or “Greenstreet’s” or some similar name gathering place to cash in on the association with the movie.
There’s a series of **Jellystone Park** campgrounds in the East. we stayed at one, and i still get mail from them.
> **[Yogi Bear’s Jellystone Park Camp-Resorts](https://www.campjellystone.com/)**
>
> Splashier, cozier, and way more bear hugs than your average vacation. It’s not just a campground. It’s Jellystone Park!
[http://www.campjellystone.com/locations.html](http://www.campjellystone.com/locations.html)
There are two **Bedrocks** based on The Flintstones
> **[Search Results - RoadsideAmerica.com](https://www.roadsideamerica.com/search/tip)**
>
> Visitor reports, news, maps, directions and info.
[http://www.flintstonesbedrockcity.com/](http://www.flintstonesbedrockcity.com/)
> **[Bedrock City and Raptor Ranch, Williams, Arizona](https://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/11289)**
>
> Arizona vacation home of The Modern Stone Age Family. Opened in 1972. New owners added birds-of-prey attraction in 2019, but kept Bedrock as well.
The town of **Metropolis** Illinois has cashed in on its name with an annual Superman Celebration and a Superman Museum:
> **[June 9 - 11, 2023](https://www.supermancelebration.net/)**
>
> It's a SUPER Celebration!
and **Riverside, Iowa** has laid claim to being the Future Birthplace of James T. Kirk, with model of the Enterprise and other attractions:
> **[Future Birthplace of James T. Kirk, Riverside, Iowa](https://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/2081)**
>
> This is the place. A photo-worthy monument marks the spot.
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-reel-to-real-places-inspired-by-or-left-over-from-movies/617736.md?page=2)