The place near the thing where we went that time was popularized by Broadcast News.
There used to be a railroad trestle outside Athens, Georgia that had a picture on the back cover of a instantly classic album that will be 40 years old next month.
Several years later, U2 released their own magnum opus, “The Joshua Tree”, and they have refused to say exactly where the cover picture was taken, because they don’t want people going into the Joshua Tree National Park to cut down The Tree as a souvenir.
they also filmed the flintstones there too after filming they’d let the locals look around and take pictures it looked exactly like the cartoon …
Chippewa Square in Savannah Georgia is the location of the bus stop in Forrest Gump.
The Berlin State Library features prominently in Wim Wenders’ “Wings Of Desire”.
Also Bronson Canyon in Griffith Park, used as a filming location for multiple movies and TV shows going back to the silent film days, including all of the Star Treks, innumerable cheap 50s SF films, and as the entrance to the Bat Cave.
Also also the Exorcist steps in Georgetown, Washington DC.
When I went to Seattle I visited the house where Kurt Cobain died. Well, not the house but the tree and the bench next to the house. I left him a cigarette. As you can see by the article and the pictures of the bench, lots of people go there.
The Père-Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, while already famous for several notable residents, recieved a huge boost in attendance due to the Doors movie showing Jim Morrison’s grave at the end.
One summer, we drove through Joshua Tree and decided to go down Black Eagle Mine road in the Taurus. After five or six miles, the road started looking ugly, so we turned around. It was about a month later that the Dutch music producer and his girlfriend went down that same road in a sports car to try to find the tree, got stuck and perished from exposure.
That kind of creeped us out. We were not looking for the tree, just enjoying the desert. Ironically, if you can call it that, the actual location of the tree, AIUI, was off a road that leads into Death Valley, which is over 200 miles away by road, and it may not have even been standing at the time (they do just naturally topple, because, nature).
Hazard, KY had some minor fame from mentions in folk and bluegrass songs like Phil Ochs’s “Hazard, Kentucky” and the standard “Nine Pound Hammer”.
Later on it served as inspiration for “The Dukes of Hazzard”, though the fictional town had an extra “Z”, was in Georgia, and was in Hazzard County, while the real Hazard is in Perry County. (Both named for Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry.)
To this day if the city wants to honor someone it declares them a Duke or Duchess of Hazard, complete with certificate. If you visit the Dukes of Hazzard Museum in Nashville (just across the road from the Opryland Hotel) you can see the one they gave to Ben Jones (aka Cooter).
Speaking of U2 and Joshua Tree, The Harmony Motel in 29 Palms promotes itself as the place where the band stayed when they were in the area.
In a similar vein, the nearby Joshua Tree Inn is a destination for fans of Gram Parsons. They advertise a “Cosmic American Experience” for those who stay in Room #8 where he “spent his last hours”.
I don’t think Devils Tower could be classified as a “normal” place, but it got a huge boost in the public’s consciousness and became a destination for film fans from all over after Close Encounters came out.
The Hotel California would be among the most famous places of all, except no one ever leaves to tell about it.
I have visited the DC area a lot, and have wondered just where “that” place is. Can you tell me ? It looks like it’s in old town Alexandria, but I’m not sure.
The house from A Nightmare on Elm Street is 1428 Elm St. in the films, but is 1428 North Genessee Ave. in West Hollywood. I used to drive past it once and a while. Interestingly, I have a book about the series that cites the address as 1428 Genesis Ave. No idea if that was shoddy copy editing, or a sly attempt to keep people from harassing the current owners.
Jackson Street Bridge. Sure, it has a great view of the Atlanta Skyline, but it really only became a Destination after The Walking Dead. I mean, it’s mostly just a bridge.
Theresa’s Stockbridge Cafe in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, former site of The Back Room, better known as “Alice’s Restaurant.”
There’s also a restaurant in California that became famous just because it happened to have the same name as Arlo Guthrie’s song.
ETA: Actually, it’s a little unclear if the restaurant in California was already called Alice’s Restaurant before the song came out, or if the owner changed the name to capitalize on the popularity of the song. The article I posted above makes it sound like the former, but the restaurant’s own about us page makes it sound like the latter. But either way, today they’re obviously playing up the connection to the song, even though the restaurant has nothing to do with the song.
Route 66?
Good one! The song came out in 1946 just when new cars started rolling off the lines for the first time in half a decade.