Real Life PEYTON PLACE Celebrates Anniversary

By Rich Drees

 

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).

     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.