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Real Life PEYTON PLACE Celebrates Anniversary
By Rich Drees
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Peyton
Place stars Diane Varsi and Russ Tamblyn climbing
Mount Battie outside Camden, Maine (above) and on set
while filming in Camden (below, lower left). |
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June 13,
2007- This weekend, the small seaside town of Camden, Maine will
celebrate its place in cinema history as the real life location for
1957’s Peyton Place with a parade, tours of shooting
locations and screenings of the film.
But what a
difference a half century can make.
When studio 20th
Century Fox set out to adapt Grace Metalious’s novel Peyton Place
to the big screen, several of the New England towns they approached
to stand in for the fictional hamlet turned the studio down flat.
Upon its publication, the novel gained an instant reputation for its
frank critique of sex, social class and hypocrisy in a fictional New
England town. Despite, or perhaps because of, the criticisms of the
book’s sordid storylines, Peyton Place would go on to sell more than
12 million copies.
Ironically, as
Camden welcomed the 20th Century Fox production to their
town, the book’s reputation was keeping it from the local library’s
shelves.
Starring Lana
Turner, Hope Lange and Arthur Kennedy and shot over the summer of
1957, many of the locations used by the production in Camden are
still easily identifiable today. The Village Restaurant, the Village
Shop and the amphitheater overlooking Camden Harbor appear unchanged
50 years later, as is the house at 77 Chestnut Street which served
as the home of Allison MacKenzie (Diane Varsi). Rocking
chairs still adorn the front porch of the Whitehall Inn, where
Allison stays when she returns to town for her friend's murder
trial.
Some locations
may remain but look markedly different today. The Tweed Shop now is
home to Planet Emporium while the old Western Union office is now a
restaurant. The Camden Theater, where the film was world premiered
on December 11, 1957, is now a clothing and shoe store. The Know
Mill, called Harrington Mills in the film, have also been converted
into shops as well as office and condo space.
You can find
more information on the festival at the Camden- Rockport-
Lincolnville Chamber of Commerce’s website
here. |
