Well, I know that this has been addressed before on this forum, but I just watched escape from New York for the first time today and I cannot believe how far downtown has come! It was really fun noticing all of the current lofts in the movie. Most of them are there, including my building Ely walker right in the beginning.
For those of you who have not see it, check it out and look for the loft cameos!
I saw; Packard, Edge, Adler, 2020, Ely walker, ventana, Railway, the Tap Room, Union Station, and a few other shots of Washington and locust streets.
Temple's kinda hard to make out, but it's where the "scientist" guy lived. It's been awhile since I've seen that movie, so I don't remember that character exactly.
publiceye wrote:The movie and the renovations of the Fox Theater and Union Station all date from roughly the same interesting time: 1980 - 82.
When I was in highschool we marched in the Union Station opening day parade. They had all the local highschools dress the same, with some paper shaw things. I think they were trying to beat the record for largest marching band. That would have been around 85-87.
Julie Gartzke, 14, a freshman at Valmeyer High School in Valmeyer,Ill., is one of a few flutists in her 25-member school band. But on Thursday, she played with 630 flutists in the 3,500-member St. Louis Union Station Marching Band. The band - billed as the world's largest marching band - took part in the opening ceremony at Union Station. The 3,500 musicians and 1,500 drill team members came from 70 high schools in Missouri, Illinois and Arkansas.
On Thursday morning, they assembled at Busch Stadium for their only rehearsal and covered the field with a solid mass of red, white and blue uniforms.
As the band marched out of the stadium, it was preceded by two dozen drill team members carrying a large banner. Other drill team members - including 43 members of the McCluer North High School pompon corps with their trademark blue-ribboned pigtails - held aloft red, blue and silver flags.
The band marched west on Spruce Street, north on Seventh Street and west on Market Street to 10th Street, where members waited for the signal to continue the march to Union Station. With a loud ''Band, Ten-Hut!'' the band was snapped to attention at 11:50 a.m. When the percussion section rumbled to life, it was as though a thunderstorm had hit.
Because the band stretched two blocks long, the beat of the music sometimes got lost. B ut it didn't seem to matter much on such songs as Stars and Stripes Forever and the Washington Post March. What the band lacked in polish, it made up in spirit.
Dean Denton, 16, a junior at Ritenour High School, was perspiring - but undaunted - from carrying his xylophone, which he said weighed at least 40 pounds. ''It's great,'' he said. ''There's so much honor and pride in this event.''
One of the groups that came the farthest to was the 27-member Razorback Redline dance drill team from Arkansas High School in Texarkana, Ark. They chartered a bus for the 13-hour, 538-mile drive to St. Louis.
''I'm having a great time,'' said Colleen Nelson, 15, a member of the group. ''But I can't wait to get back to the hotel and relax.''
Bob Spiegelman, band director at St. Charles West High School, said he was proud of the 30 musicians from his school and all the other musicians in the band.
''They're taking time out of their summer vacations to do this,'' he said. ''The world's largest marching band was something they wanted to be part of.''
Just watching this movie for the first time as well. I recognized US, and it seemed that some of the buildings along Wash Ave looked familiar (though I couldn't pick out specific ones.)
Reading about this on wikipedia, it mentions a fire in 1976.
Bernardi suggested the East St. Louis, Illinois, because it was filled with old buildings "that exist in New York now, and [that] have that seedy, run-down quality" that the team was looking for[13] East St. Louis, sitting across the Mississippi River from the more prosperous St. Louis, Missouri, had entire neighborhoods burned out in 1976 during a massive urban fire. Hill said in an interview, "block after block was burnt-out rubble. In some places there was absolutely nothing, so that you could see three and four blocks away.
Where did this fire happen? I can't seem to find anything about it.
Apparently part of "The Island" was shot at Central Station in Detroit. Apparently it has a Post-Apocalyptic feel.
East St. Louis could be a good candidate, but I don't know if it's big enough.
Gunkanjima "Battleship Island" is a beautiful abandond island off the coast of Japan. Nobody's lived there for 30 years. I would think that would work. Basically, nobody bothered to tear anything down. They just left it. The hospital still has medicine in it, one apartment still had a TV. There was a typewriter and furniture. It was occupied from 1887 to 1974. Demand for coal decreased in the 60s, the mine shut down, and people left. I suggest searching for it online. There are a lot of pictures and a Japanese video with English subtitles. Someone who lived there as a kid went back and explored it. Apparently the buildings are still structurally safe. Travel is officially prohibited there, so I'm guessing you need some kind of permit.
My Dad said that during the 1982 World Series Parade downtown looked really bad, lots of boarded up and abandoned buildings. I'm glad it's improved greatly.
Here's a video of East St. Louis, the good and the bad (mostly bad).
The sound is really annoying. I'd suggest turning it off.
I couldn't find anything about a major East St. Louis fire, but here's a sad story about a deadly housefire in East St. Louis in 1981.
^ That's no joke. It's hard to imagine that Cairo once had over 15,000 people. The last time I checked, it had less than 4,000 residents.
It's the first place that comes to mind when I think of a ghost town, and given some of the great architecture that's still left along with the majestic setting on the Mississippi and Ohio rivers, it is definitely a shame.
I actually got into an argument witha Cairo native about the "correct" pronunciation of the name.
My Argument: "Its Cairo, named after the Egyptian city, just like Memphis to your South. Both were one time capitals of the empire. You even took the Cairo's motto 'Jewel of the Nile' and made it "Jewel of the Mississippi."
Him "Egypt? Hell, thats fine for them. Here its 'Kay-Row'. Ask anybody."
Me: "You mean like the corn syrup?"
Him: "Yeah, just like that. Karo."
Me: "Wow." (Shakes head, turns full attention to beverage, checks time, hopes high speed rail picks him up and takes him away from conversation.)
^Haha, well he's actually right. Here are a few other Illinois town names to digest:
San Jose = San Joes
Vienna = Vye-anna
Marseilles = Mar-sales
but I digress. Anyways I'm sure the new Escape from New York will be all computer generated so we won't have to worry about what town it'll be filmed in.
I actually got into an argument witha Cairo native about the "correct" pronunciation of the name.
My Argument: "Its Cairo, named after the Egyptian city, just like Memphis to your South. Both were one time capitals of the empire. You even took the Cairo's motto 'Jewel of the Nile' and made it "Jewel of the Mississippi."
Him "Egypt? Hell, thats fine for them. Here its 'Kay-Row'. Ask anybody."
Me: "You mean like the corn syrup?"
Him: "Yeah, just like that. Karo."
Me: "Wow." (Shakes head, turns full attention to beverage, checks time, hopes high speed rail picks him up and takes him away from conversation.)
