Subject:                               Time:13:40
  OFFICE MEMO          Tourist sites related to films         Date:9/27/94
I've really been enjoying this thread, and hope the following help...
 
You may find Mark Davis' fabulous book City of Quartz useful for theorising
the interrelationship of Hollywood's film, tourist and real estate
industries.  He looks at the very begining of LA in terms of real estate -
and later Hollywood - boosterism.  His chapter on Noir as a metaphor for the
scriptwriter's position in the studio system is fascinating.
 
If you are interested in British tourist sites I remember being in London
about four years ago and coming across a tourist industry produced fold-out
map of the UK with sites from British movies marked on it (with film stills
at each spot) eg for Local Hero, The French Lieutenant's Woman... Maybe it's
still available.
 
I have to confess that I've actually been on the Sound of Music tour in
Salzburg, also about 4 years ago.  A small mini-bus takes you out to the
beautiful Lake District via the Mirabell Palace gardens (site of "Do a deer a
female deer" etc.), the church in which Maria is married and the house which
was used for the rear view of the Von Trapp house (tourists now have to view
the house from across the lake because the family who own it were constantly
woken by tourists singing and dancing in their summer house!)  I should add
that the soundtrack from the film is played throughout the journey.  Salzburg
is an odd town this way, because it also bases its tourist industry on
Mozart: hence you can buy Mozartkugeln (which are Mozart chocolates), Mozart
cigarette lighters, CDs etc. etc.  Almost every tourist site is also marked
in relation to Mozart - there was not much evidence, though, of any
influence/marketing of material linked to the Forman film Amadeus.
 
I would also like to pursue an answer from this thread:  Don Larsson wrote
about "Henry Ford's Dearborn Village, which brings together all
the icons of Americana in one place--Edison's lab, Ford's house, and even
a Mississippi riverboat to represent Twain." I have been trying to find out
about this park for ages, although I thought it was called Greenfield
Village/Park.  I would like to know more about the history of this tourist
site, if there is any written information available about it, and how I might
get hold of it.  It would greatly help me with my thesis on Road Movies.
Thanks.
 
Delia Falconer