Billy Wilder & the American Image

I have loved Billy Wilder films since childhood and was intrigued how often Ohio is mentioned.  Why does Billy Wilder love the state of Ohio?  Perhaps the Austrian-born screenwriter/director envisaged the state as quintessentially American (right or wrong).  Perhaps, we may never know.

Some of Wilder's interesting references to Ohio in films:

Love is the hardest thing in the world to write about. So simple. You've got to catch it through details, like the early morning sunlight hitting the gray tin of the rain spout in front of her house. The ringing of a telephone that sounds like Beethoven's "Pastoral." A letter scribbled on her office stationery that you carry around in your pocket because it smells of all the lilacs in Ohio.  - Don (Ray Milland), The Lost Weekend

Don (Ray Milland) also deduces that Helen (Jane Wyman) is from Toledo, Ohio by looking through her coat and finding that its maker's mark is from Alfred Spitzer.   Well, and I guess since she's from Ohio, it shouldn't be surprising that one of the presents she gives Don is 'the new Thurber book'.


The character of Sugar, played by Marilyn Monroe in the film Some Like It Hot, hailed from Sandusky, Ohio.


In Stalag 17, the cynical POW Sefton (William Holden) drills the German-speaking Price (Robert Graves) about his self-proclaimed Ohio upbringing since he suspects that he is a Nazi spy planted in the prisoner barracks.     SEFTON

Shut up!
                              (slaps his face)
                         Security Officer, eh? Screening 
                         everybody, only who screened you? 
                         Great American hero. From Cleveland, 
                         Ohio! Enlisted right after Pearl 
                         Harbor! When was Pearl Harbor, Price? 
                         Or, don't you know?

                                     PRICE
                         December seventh, forty-one.

                                     SEFTON
                         What time?

                                     PRICE
                         Six o'clock. I was having dinner.

                                     SEFTON
                         Six o'clock in Berlin. They were 
                         having lunch in Cleveland.
                              (to the others)
                         Am I boring you, boys?

                                     HOFFY
                         Go on.

                                     SEFTON
                         He's a Nazi, Price is. For all I 
                         know, his name is Preismaier or 
                         Preissinger. Sure, he lived in 
                         Cleveland, but when the war broke 
                         out he came back to the Fatherland 
                         like a good little Bundist. He spoke 
                         our lingo so they put him through 
                         spy school, gave him phony dogtags --

My absolute favourite reference:  In the beginning of Sunset Boulevard, Joe Gillis mentions in a voice-over how embarrassing it would be to move back to Dayton and work again for the Dayton Evening Post if he is unable to make it in Hollywood as a screenwriter.


The Fortune Cookie Jack Lemmon and Walter Mattheau their first movie together was filmed at St Vincent Charity Hospital as well as the old Cleveland Stadium.  CBS cameraman Harry Hinkle (Jack Lemmon) gets injured when football player Luther "Boom Boom" Jackson (Ron Rich) runs into him while he is covering a Browns game at Cleveland Stadium.   Saint Mark's Hospital is in reality St. Vincent Charity Hospital. In 1966, the scene was filmed on East 24th Street in an older section. In 1966, St. Vincent Charity had completed a then-ultramodern curved Hospital building.

Terminal Tower was the base for the law firm used. In one image, one can see Erieview Tower and construction of the Federal Building's steel skeleton.  Scenes were filmed at the Cleveland Browns vs Minnesota Vikings game at Cleveland Municipal Stadium on 31 October 1965.

Text originally from 2011.

Fun Fact Friday: Zowie Bowie

If anyone recalls the Glee episode from a few week's back where Sue Sylvester disguises herself as David Bowie, it really isn't that strange of a costume at all when you consider that his first born (with first wife Mary Angela Barnett) chose to study in Ohio.  This was brought to my attention during my first bout of graduate school when one of my cohorts, who grew up and went to college in Wooster, mentioned that he saw David Bowie and Iman walking through the campus of the College of Wooster during his undergrad days. This struck me as quite odd and unbelievable but was corroborated years later by one of my best friends, who also attended the same university and had actually lived down the hall from Duncan Jones until he managed to find 'better' accommodation.  He apparently graduated after three years with a degree in Philosophy and later went to the London Film School and has subsequently directed two films:  Moon (2009) and Source Code (2011).

Soap Heartthrobs

As I continue my quest to catch up on all things '70s and have been viewing episodes of Soap on Netflix (thanks to Alycia's suggestion), I discovered that the two heartthrobs in this hilarious and sometimes poignant parody of daytime television were played by Ohioans.  Peter Campbell, the tennis pro that slept with every woman that entered the little Connecticut town's country club was played by 'Galahad with a gun' Robert Urich, who grew up in Toronto, Ohio.    Danny Dallas, the somewhat dim-witted but sweet and charming son of Mary Campbell who has gotten in too deep with the mob, was portrayed by Ted Wass of Lakewood, Ohio.  I doubt that either actor's upbringing had much bearing on their portrayals in this series but it did at least affect Urich's overall career.


I think my longevity has a lot to do with where I come from – a blue-collar town in Ohio – and how I was raised: to work hard and respect other folks. -- Robert Urich

The Goonies: Brainchild of Ohioans

This year marks the 25th anniversary of one of the most beloved children's films of the 80s, The Goonies. Nearly all kids of the 80s, including myself, can recite whole scenes from this endearing classic about a band of misfits searching for pirate treasure in order to save their homes from demolition. Although the film's setting is Astoria, Oregon, the basis of the whole production was on the imagination of two Ohioans. The screenplay was written by Chris Columbus (perhaps better known now as the director of Home Alone and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone), who grew up in Warren, OH, and was based on a story by Steven Spielberg (you really should get out more if you don't know who that is), who was born in Cincinnati, OH.

This should not to be confused with the other Brainchild from Youngstown, Ohio.

Cyndi Lauper - The Goonies 'R' Good Enough (Part 1)

Part 2

My favorite Goonie: Data

Sweet blog entry about the 25th anniversary