Fair exhibit highlights San Diego's film, TV history

By: SANDRA KRAISIRIDEJA - For the North County Times | Wednesday, June 15, 2005 1:03 PM PDT ∞

Most longtime San Diego County residents can tell you that the city served as a backdrop for the 1986 Tom Cruise film "Top Gun," and film buffs know that the Hotel del Coronado was the setting for the Marilyn Monroe/Jack Lemmon classic "Some Like It Hot" in 1959.

But few county residents are likely to know the breadth of the region's near-100-year film and television history, which is celebrated this summer in a free exhibit at the San Diego County Fair.

Fair officials have themed this year's fair "Cinema Summer," with free exhibits, movie memorabilia for sale, celebrity appearances, a children's film festival and free nightly screenings of films with San Diego connections. The exhibits were organized by the San Diego Film Commission and San Diego Historical Society.

The main exhibit, "Filming San Diego: Hollywood's Backlot," features artifacts and archival photographs dating back to 1898.

"From what the historical society had and then what we added on, it's the most comprehensive exhibit on filming in San Diego," said Kimberly Hale, director of community relations for the film commission.

San Diego's film history stretches back to 1910, when filmmaker Alan Dwan's Flying A Movie Studio shot several silent films around town, including "Cupid in Chaps," "The Winning of La Mesa," "The Land Baron of San Tee" and "The Bandit of Point Loma."

The area's chief attractions for filmmakers were a plethora of open space and military bases and near-perfect weather that allowed for year-round outdoor location filmmaking.

According to Film Commission archives, from the 1930s to the 1960s, San Diego's sunny Navy bases served as fertile locations for military-themed films featuring Clark Gable, Douglas Fairbanks, Edward G. Robinson, James Cagney, Errol Flynn, Gary Cooper and John Wayne. Some of the early films shot on location in San Diego include "Here Comes the Navy," "Tiger Shark," "Sands of Iwo Jima," "To the Shores of Tripoli," "Dive Bomber" and "Task Force." More recent military-themed films have included "Navy SEALs," "Antwone Fisher" and "Pearl Harbor."

One of the region's best-known grass-roots films was the 1978 horror spoof "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes," (starring longtime San Diego Assemblyman Steve Peace). A 1988 sequel, "Revenge of the Killer Tomatoes," starred then-unknown actor George Clooney.

While San Diego has substituted as many other locations in films, it was the real setting for many others.

The 2000 film "Traffic" depicted San Diego-based drug traffickers. Last year's "Anchorman," starring Will Ferrell, depicted a 1970s-era San Diego TV newscaster, with numerous scenes shot on locations around the beaches and Balboa Park. And Kirsten Dunst's 1999 film "Bring It On" depicted a San Diego high school cheerleading squad.

In the 1970s, a television production crew came to San Diego to film "Harry-O" but encountered so much red tape with film permits and city fees that it left after filming a few episodes. To ensure this didn't happen again, the San Diego Film Commission was formed in 1976 to help expedite the filmmaking process for film and TV crews, and the business has grown dramatically since then. More than 400 film and television projects were shot on location in San Diego last year, according to Hale.

In the 1980s, San Diego-based Stu Segall Productions began churning out a number of television series set in and around the city, including "Silk Stalkings," "Renegade," "High Tide," "Pensacola: Wings of Gold," "18 Wheels of Justice" and "Nip/Tuck."

The region's filmmaking stature grew in the 1990s, when 20th Century Fox built a major studio complex near Rosarito Beach in Mexico. The seaside studio, located about 15 minutes south of Tijuana, was used to make the films "Titanic" and "Master and Commander."

"Come to the Cinema Summer exhibit because you'll really be getting the behind-the-scenes, behind-the-camera look at San Diego," Hale said.

The exhibit includes movie posters, costumes, sets, props, scripts and other projects relating to San Diego's film and television history. Among the featured items are the confessional door from MTV's "Real World: San Diego" reality series and skateboards from the current release "Lords of Dogtown," which was filmed in Imperial Beach and Chula Vista.

Also on display is a 4-foot-long head of a Tyrannosaurus rex model, representing the film "Jurassic Park: The Lost World," which was filmed here, in part, in 1997.

"This is stuff that people go to Universal Studios to see, and it's right here in our own back yard," Hale said.

Besides all the "really cool things that people don't necessarily see," Hale said there are a number of interactive activities for adults and children.

They can see what it's like to work with a green screen, a technique that makes it appear that the person who is being filmed is in a different environment. People can also find out how to be an extra or get their property in the movies. There is filming almost every single day in San Diego, Hale said.

At 11 a.m. every day, celebrity readings are being held, and at 2 p.m. daily a "Meet the Movie Maker" session is presented. Among the guests scheduled for 2 p.m. sessions are Kent Hughes (director of photography for "Mars Attacks" and "Melrose Place") on Friday; film publicist David Mirisch (his family's company produced 72 films including "West Side Story" an "The Apartment") on June 23; Stu Segall Productions casting director D. Kandis Paule on June 26; surf filmmaker Ken Kebow on June 28; and original "Wizard of Oz" munchkins Margaret Pellegrini and August "Clarence" Swenson" on July 2.

Also, at 5 p.m. each day, one fair guest will be transformed into a monster or movie character by a professional film makeup artist.

A children's film festival in the Kids Best Exhibit area at 10:30 a.m. daily will showcase short films from all over the world. And at 9 p.m. daily in the Paddock area, films made in San Diego are being screened.

All events are free with paid fair admission.