Tucson once thrived as a moviemaking location for Hollywood

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TUCSON, Arizona (KGUN) – There was a time when the city of Tucson was the setting for a number of major feature films.

From Nerds’ Revenge to Major League, Tucson played a prominent role in 1980s films.

But it was a famous line in the 1974 film Alice Doesn’t Live Here that introduced Tucson to moviegoers.

“Strange, very strange,” said a young Jodie Foster who played Audrey. “It’s strange even to Tucson, and Tucson is the strange capital of the world.”

Warner bros.

Alice Doesn’t Live Here was filmed throughout the Old Pueblo and helped Hollywood realize that Tucson was more than just a place for westerns.

In the 1970s, the Tucson Film Commission played a huge role in selling Tucson to filmmakers.

“We went to Hollywood and introduced it,” said local filmmaker Mark Headley. “We hit it really hard. It really started in the 70s and 80s.”

Headley and the late Bob Shelton, who founded Old Tucson, founded the Tucson Film Commission. They went to work to attract big films to the area.

In the 1980s, Tucson was busy with film production.

“They felt like they were part of Hollywood,” said Phil Villarreal, KGUN 9 film critic and native of Tucson. “You could somehow grow up hoping to be an extra in a movie at some point. Or at least to see something from Tucson on the screen. ”

Hi Corbett Field is one of those well-known locations that featured prominently in the Major League movie.

Paramount Pictures

Thousands of Tucsonans were extras in the stands for some of the spring training scenes.

“People were given a hot dog and a Coke to sit in the stands if they waited for hours,” said Villarreal. “It’s almost impossible to meet someone who doesn’t know someone who was an extra in the stands at the beginning of the film when they are in spring training.”

Many of the opposing players in those Hi Corbett scenes were actually University of Arizona baseball players.

One of the greatest films of the 1980s made in Tucson almost wasn’t.

Revenge of the Nerds was rejected by the University of Arizona because it thought it was too slippery.

FUCHS of the 20th century

“The film committee, Bob and I and a few others, really stood up for the film crew.” Headley remembered. “We went over the script, it was a hilarious script. They got rejected by a lot of universities who were nervous, but we convinced the University of Arizona that this was number one in the entertaining movie and number two in economic impact on Tucson. ”

University officials gave the go-ahead and an estimated $ 4 million has been pumped into Tucson’s economy.

While the campus is easily recognizable to Tucsonans, moviegoers across the country had no idea that Adams College was actually the University of Arizona.

The 1986 film Three Amigos! had the most star power.

Orion pictures

“That was probably the biggest movie of the 80s made in Old Tucson, with big stars like Steve Martin, Martin Short and Chevy Chase,” said Villarreal. “Iconic comedy western and that’s all Tucson.”

While the majority of Three Amigos! was shot around Old Tucson, they used the Sabino Canyon as a backdrop.

But the film that best showcased Tucson was the 1987 film Can’t Buy Me Love.

Touchstone pictures

“They just wanted the uniqueness of southern Arizona,” Headley said. “You definitely found it.”

This uniqueness included a trip to the boneyard and scenes filmed in a brand new Tucson Mall. The main setting was Tucson High School.

“Watching Can’t Buy Me Love is really a time machine to go back to Tucson in the 1980s,” said Villarreal. “You could just see how things were then. A lot of things are still the way they were in this movie. It treats Tucson with respect, with dignity, and you can see the sites. Basically, it’s a movie about growing up in Tucson in the 80s. ”

A little secret about Cindy Mancini’s house, where Ronald Miller – played by Patrick Dempsey – mowed her grass. It’s not even a home.

It’s actually the Hill Farm clubhouse near Fort Lowell near Craycroft.

Here is an interactive map of several Tucson filming locations:

Unfortunately, the film industry is now bypassing Tucson for tax credits for filming in New Mexico.

But Headley still hopes that one day Hollywood will return to Tucson to film like they did in the 80s.

“Somebody has to knock on some doors in Hollywood and say we’re open for business.”

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