Column for May 18, 2007
No prep work needed to be done to the car wash before filming. While actor
DeRay Davis was being filmed drying vintage cars for the film which is set
in 1976, many local residents watched the filming across Hemphill at the
parking lot of the South Flint Plaza. Davis played one of the members of
the Flint Tropics minor-league basketball team working a second job at the
car wash. Filming also took place at Atwood Stadium and the University of
Michigan-Flint campus.
The real excitement came when work was done to spruce up downtown Flint.
As the film's setting was the wintertime, piles of sand were poured along
the curbs of the street to be filmed which was coated with 'fake snow.' Vintage
signs were borrowed from Bob Perani's collection in the Dort Mall which were
hung over the storefronts. But what was most exciting was that the Capitol
Theatre got a makeover which included restoring the theater's 1940s vintage
theater marquee so the chasing lights fully function as well as new fluorescent
back-lighting. Several scenes were filmed at the Capitol Theatre which include
the closed-circuit Mega Bowl TV presentation. That was back before pay-per-view
TV became widely available if you don't remember events televised via
closed-circuit TV at theaters and arenas. The marquee messages on the marquee
say 'Mega Bowl on Closed Circuit TV' on the west face, 'Mother Jugs and Speed'
with showtimes on the east face and, depending on the scene, either 'The
Bad News Bears' (which co-starred Jackie Early Haley who also co-stars in
'Semi-Pro') or 'Gator' as 'coming' on the center of the marquee.
The Capitol Theatre Building storefronts also received vintage signs, again
mostly from the Dort Mall collection. One sign which I thought looked out
of place was the As
You Travel Ask Us sign which in the 1960s was mounted on the signs of
Standard Oil (a.k.a. Amoco) stations.
Filming also took place in Detroit at the State Fairgrounds Coliseum which
portrayed the Flint Coliseum whose roofline matched that of a Los Angeles
facility used for the filming of interior scenes. The "Half-Wit Muffler Man"
(no relation to the Muffler Man shops in Michigan which operate outside Michigan
as Rainbow Muffler) with Alfred E. Neuman's face was also borrowed from the
Dort Mall and used for the Detroit exterior scenes. One vacant bar just north
of the Flint River got a makeover and got a neon sign mounted identifying
it as The Kremlin. I got to see the film's director Kent Alterman there.
I wasn't quite up to staying up to 2 or 3 in the morning to catch filming
at the Capitol Theatre and I was stuck at work when daytime filming took
place. Troy Farah, whose family owns the theater building, hopes that New
Line Cinema will hold the world premiere at the Capitol Theatre in February.
Filming wrapped up during the early morning hours of Friday, May 4. Crews
remained to clean up and take the signs down. During cleanup, the fire department
received an unusual call as a pile of fake snow caught fire. The film crew
put out that fire themselves with the water tanks they use to water down
the fake snow for filming. I was hoping to take daytime pictures of The Kremlin
bar as there are plans to eventually open a real Kremlin bar there, but the
crew took down the sign.
I'll wrap up this column by updating the Lebowsky Center article. Demolition began on unsafe portions of that theater on May 9. Demolition was delayed until after the seasonal load limits on roads were lifted. After demolition is completed, the cost of rebuilding the theater can then be determined. The Owosso Community Players plan on making a final decision about plans for the theater by the end of summer.
My thanks to Tom Wirt and Shawn Chittle for the Top Hat Auto Wash photo.
">