# Has the place where you grew up ever been in a movie? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 19, 2003, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-place-where-you-grew-up-ever-been-in-a-movie/208274 "2003-10-19T00:23:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Innanna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ecd19e/32.png) [@Innanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Innanna)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2003, 10:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-place-where-you-grew-up-ever-been-in-a-movie/208274/21 "2003-10-19T10:12:56Z")
Not me, but my mother grew up in Colinwood in Cleveland. We were quite surprised when they started filming “Welcome to Colinwood.” The filmakers wanted somewhere “rough,” but when Mom was there, it was actually a really nice area. ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2003, 10:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-place-where-you-grew-up-ever-been-in-a-movie/208274/22 "2003-10-19T10:28:46Z")
“tick tick tick” starring former football star Jim Brown was filmed in Colusa California. A few others were filmed there as well. ---
**Author:** ![FisherQueen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/58f4c7/32.png) [@FisherQueen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FisherQueen)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2003, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-place-where-you-grew-up-ever-been-in-a-movie/208274/23 "2003-10-19T11:32:24Z")
[Mansfield, Ohio](http://www.ci.mansfield.oh.us/) is home to a no-longer-used and quite impressive Gothic [prison](http://www.mrps.org/index2.html), which got it selected as the site for [The Shawshank Redemption](http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0111161/). They did the interior prison stuff in a factory in the same complex where I was working that summer, so I got to drive past the set every day, and most of the street scenes are my town also. I believe the prison also appeared briefly in _Air Force One_. It really is quite neat. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Arky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2003, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-place-where-you-grew-up-ever-been-in-a-movie/208274/24 "2003-10-19T11:45:15Z")
Dunno if this counts, but the town where I grew up was the hometown of the girl Kim Darby played in True Grit. It was most definitely NOT filmed there, as they are showing snow capped peaks and fir trees ala the Rockies, instead of the pine and oak/hickory covered eroded plateaus of Mt. Nebo, Mt. Magazine and Petit Jean Mtn. Her accent did not reflect the accent of the town from which she claimed to be from, but that’s hollywood… ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2003, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-place-where-you-grew-up-ever-been-in-a-movie/208274/25 "2003-10-19T12:14:20Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Rabid\_Squirrel \* > \*\*I lived in the shadow of [Mount Doom](http://www.mtruapehu.com/). Seriously, I could look up and see it from my house. Only took 45 minutes to drive up - good skiing too. \*\* I’ve been there. I stayed at the Chateau Tongariro one night. ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2003, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-place-where-you-grew-up-ever-been-in-a-movie/208274/26 "2003-10-19T12:43:32Z")
I grew up in (and still live in) Lakeland, Florida. The town has been featured in several movies, including “Edward Scissorhands” and “China Moon,” although the town’s name wasn’t mentioned in either. In the movie “For Love of the Game,” Lakeland is named as the place the Detroit Tigers have spring training, but when they show what is puported to be Lakeland, it’s on a beach with palm trees and million-dollar condos…Lakeland is inland. Lakeland was also mentioned in that X-Files episodes with the giant bug-creatures that operate telemarketing operations. ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2003, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-place-where-you-grew-up-ever-been-in-a-movie/208274/27 "2003-10-19T12:50:39Z")
The old town square from my hometown in suburban Boston was used for a scene in _The Brinks Job_, although in the movie it was somewhere in Pennsylvania. ---
**Author:** ![Hanna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b3f665/32.png) [@Hanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hanna)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2003, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-place-where-you-grew-up-ever-been-in-a-movie/208274/28 "2003-10-19T15:07:36Z")
Both [Grumoy Old Men](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107050/) and the sequel, [Grumpier Old Men](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113228/) were filmed in my hometown, [Stillwater, MN](http://www.imdb.com/List?endings=on&&locations=Stillwater,%20Minnesota,%20USA&&heading=18;with+locations+including;Stillwater,%20Minnesota,%20USA). Hmm…according to the IMDB, so was [Fargo](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116282/). I recognize some parts of Stillwater in the Grumpy Old Men movie. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2003, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-place-where-you-grew-up-ever-been-in-a-movie/208274/29 "2003-10-19T15:33:18Z")
Obscure Robert Redford movie “Brubaker” was shot right by my house when I was a kid. They used a local abandoned prison though I think the movie was set in Arkansas and I live in Ohio. Julie ---
**Author:** ![patchbunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/dc4da7/32.png) [@patchbunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/patchbunny)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2003, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-place-where-you-grew-up-ever-been-in-a-movie/208274/30 "2003-10-19T15:38:56Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by GuanoLad \* > \*\*Have your obscure childhood neighbourhoods ever been in the movies? \*\* They filmed [Peggy Sue Got Married](http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0091738/) at my high school (Santa Rosa, California) during my sophmore year. I still remember watching them shoot a day scene at night (I guess they lost the light and had to finish the shot), and they painted the tree trunks along the athletic field purple so, as I was told, they’d appear more brown on film. They also modified the date on a mural in one of the stairwells from '84 to '54 during the 1950’s sequences. –Patch ---
**Author:** ![Ruffian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/71e660/32.png) [@Ruffian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruffian)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2003, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-place-where-you-grew-up-ever-been-in-a-movie/208274/31 "2003-10-19T15:41:03Z")
I grew up in central Indiana. The only film that went through there (while I was living there) was _Hoosiers_, and really, it wasn’t filmed in my _town_ so much as the area. I remember all the posters asking for people who’d like to be extras in the big game scenes. Several films and TV shows have been filmed around where I live now. The main strip in Covina, CA was used in _Wayne’s Wolrd_ (for the Bohemian Rhapsody drive around–although I only recognize one shot as definitely being Covina). That same stretch of town was used on a regular basis for _Roswell_. Very weird to be watching TV and see your local area being presented as alien-central. (For a while, one old building had a huge neon green facade that said “UFO Headquarters.” Pretty funny, we thought.) Oh…and nearby Pomona was turned into Seussville (or whatever it’ll be called) for _The Cat and the Hat_. We took a bunch of pictures of all the facades they’d built over the still-open stores. Great stuff that. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2003, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-place-where-you-grew-up-ever-been-in-a-movie/208274/32 "2003-10-19T15:56:27Z")
Much of the cult sports classic, _Slap Shot_ was filmed in my hometown of Johnstown, PA. The home games of the “Charlestown Chiefs” were filmed in Johnstown’s War Memorial Arena, the interior of which still looks pretty much the same as when the film was made in the late 70’s. Other locations I recognize from the film: Several exteriors feature the area around the town’s central park along Main street. These include the parade at the end of the film and a scene with Paul Newman and Jennifer Warren, shot adjacent to the old Glosser Bros. department store. A former drug store on Franklin street, also facing the park, was dressed as a cafe/soda shop for the film, with a few interiors shot there. The interior of the local Amtrak station (where Paul Newman’s “Reggie” goes to pick up the Hanson Brothers when they arrive in town. A steep hill adjacent to the Franklin mills and ‘H’ blast furnace of the Bethlehem steel plant in Johnstown (a scene early in the movie where Lindsay Crouse careens her van down the hill); the blast furnaces have since been torn down and the remaining mill structures abandoned. _All the Right Moves_, with Tom Cruise, also contained numerous scenes filmed in Johnstown, primarily at the former central high school, which has since been torn down. ---
**Author:** ![Agrippina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8797f3/32.png) [@Agrippina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agrippina)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2003, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-place-where-you-grew-up-ever-been-in-a-movie/208274/33 "2003-10-19T16:36:53Z")
I grew up in Las Vegas, so I’d say yeah. I did recognize a shot of my elementary school on the show COPS once, which was weird because it isn’t in a bad part of town at all. ---
**Author:** ![KRC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/45deac/32.png) [@KRC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KRC)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2003, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-place-where-you-grew-up-ever-been-in-a-movie/208274/34 "2003-10-19T17:00:15Z")
They filmed part of a movie called “Steel” in Lexington KY in 1978. One scene featured a man jumping or falling off the Kincaid Tower in downtown Lexington and when that scene was filmed the stuntman (I believe his name was A. J. Bakunas) died because the airbag he landed on broke. I don’t know if they even released the movie after that, since I never heard much more about it. On a lighter note, they filmed a movie called “The Thoroughbreds” in the farmland near Lexington and one of my sister’s schoolmates was in it. ---
**Author:** ![aleong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4af34b/32.png) [@aleong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aleong)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2003, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-place-where-you-grew-up-ever-been-in-a-movie/208274/35 "2003-10-19T17:10:50Z")
The University of Toronto has doubled for a lot of academic institutions over the years… it showed up in “Cocktail” and “The Skulls” for example. But the neatest was when they filmed the “Scream”-wannabe “Urban Legend” at the business school, which I was attending at the time. It was interesting to see an axe destroy the door to the part-time MBA student lounge, how the business library was transformed into a campus radio station, a character dangling from a staircase over the main lobby, and a character getting killed where I used to park my car in the underground garage. ---
**Author:** ![Lisa-go-Blind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Lisa-go-Blind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lisa-go-Blind)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2003, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-place-where-you-grew-up-ever-been-in-a-movie/208274/36 "2003-10-19T17:12:46Z")
I forgot, [Kingfish](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113550/) starring John Goodman was filmed in Baton Rouge, or at least parts were filmed in the State Capitol. I remember the casting calls for extras. ---
**Author:** ![Crusoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/49beb7/32.png) [@Crusoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crusoe)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2003, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-place-where-you-grew-up-ever-been-in-a-movie/208274/37 "2003-10-19T17:16:48Z")
You can [search by location](http://uk.imdb.com/Search/locations) at the IMDB. I grew up in Farnborough, Hampshire. The opening battle scenes in _Gladiator_ were filmed in a forest nearby. I now live close to Camden Town, north London, close to the locations for scenes in _Withnail & I_ and _Backbeat_ (the latter nearer King’s Cross). ---
**Author:** ![randomlyblanks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/71c47a/32.png) [@randomlyblanks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randomlyblanks)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2003, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-place-where-you-grew-up-ever-been-in-a-movie/208274/38 "2003-10-19T17:41:56Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by El\_Kabong \* > \*\*Much of the cult sports classic, _Slap Shot_ was filmed in my hometown of Johnstown, PA. \*\* I just entered this thread to post the same thing about Johnstown. I didn’t think there would be many native Johnstowners around here! ---
**Author:** ![Askia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2003, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-place-where-you-grew-up-ever-been-in-a-movie/208274/39 "2003-10-19T17:47:08Z")
Well, like filmmaker Michael Moore, I grew up for about nine years in and around Flint, MI so I can ususally spot a childhood haunt or two whenever he does location shots of the city in his documentaries. In both Roger & Me (1989) and Pets Or Meat: The Return To Flint (1992) and I saw neighborhoods I grew up in, and a long shot of one of the houses. Everything was pretty dilapidated and run down, which only served to remind me why we got the hell up out of there when the auto plants shut down. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_Wright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@Steve\_Wright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_Wright)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2003, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-place-where-you-grew-up-ever-been-in-a-movie/208274/40 "2003-10-19T17:52:30Z")
I grew up near the Pinewood studios in southern England - a whole bunch of places I know turn up as rural English locations in the odd film, and a lot of TV shows (for example, the local parish church featured in an “Inspector Morse” show, and the local park, and some nearby shops, figured in the “Hammer House of Horror” TV series … ) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-place-where-you-grew-up-ever-been-in-a-movie/208274.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-place-where-you-grew-up-ever-been-in-a-movie/208274.md?page=3)