3 minutes read

August 29, 2010

Shermer High School, Illinois

When John Hughes created Shermer, Illinois he based it on his hometown of Northbrook, and then set several films he made in the 1980’s at mythical “Shermer High School.” These…..

3 minutes read

August 13, 2010

Reno, Nevada

Turner Classic Movies sometimes airs a 1943 newsreel about Reno, featuring a drive-along shot of the era’s gaming halls and informing us that “the ever-increasing number of vacationists and divorce-seeking…..

3 minutes read

August 13, 2010

The Hoover Dam, Nevada

In the desert, water is essential for human survival, and in the dusty ranges of Nevada water has indeed been the key to that state’s cinematic legacy. When the Corleone…..

3 minutes read

August 8, 2010

The Rocky Mountains, Alberta

When Clint Eastwood shot his last U.S.-set Western, Unforgiven, in Alberta it wasn’t a surprising move. After all, he had risen to fame during the 1960’s in Westerns that were…..

3 minutes read

August 8, 2010

The Rocky Mountains, Colorado

The towering peaks of Colorado’s Rocky Mountains posed a daunting obstacle for 19th-century settlers pushing America’s expansion, establishing a legacy for later film and television portrayals as a locale where…..

3 minutes read

July 30, 2010

Miami, Florida

Cocaine Cowboys opens with a look back at the afternoon of July 11th, 1979, when two men were gunned down at the Crown Liquors store in Miami’s Dadeland Mall over…..

2 minutes read

July 30, 2010

The Keys, Florida

In 1898, a Thomas Edison film crew captured the Key West burial of sailors killed when the U.S.S. Maine was sunk in Havana Harbor. The grainy footage is a glimpse…..

2 minutes read

July 23, 2010

Astoria, Oregon

It was Washington Irving who first took liberties with the history of Astoria. His 1836 book, Astoria, was commissioned by John Jacob Astor to put a heroic spin on the…..

2 minutes read

July 23, 2010

Portland, Oregon

The city of Portland has grown quite a bit since Gus Van Sant shot Drugstore Cowboy there in the late 1980’s (but set it in the early 1970’s) – especially…..

2 minutes read

July 15, 2010

Las Vegas, New Mexico

If Las Vegas, Nevada is the most unnatural, yet instantly recognizable urban film setting in the modern American West, then its bizarro counterpart is a small town of the same…..