Wednesday, September 12, 2012

St. Elmo's Fire (1985)

dir. Joel Schumacher

Wisconsin Avenue at Prospect Street NW, Washington, DC

Georgetown Theatre (now closed), 1351 Wisconsin Avenue NW, Washington, DC

St. Elmo's bar – This was filmed on a studio backlot. Contrary to popular belief, this is not Third Edition which looks very different and appears in the film twice.

A view of Georgetown and the Key Bridge, Washington, DC

Chesapeake & Ohio Canal, Georgetown, Washington, DC

Leslie (Ally Sheedy) sells antiques – 3214 O Street NW, Washington, DC

Alec (Judd Nelson) talks to Billy (Rob Lowe) – Third Edition (now El Centro), 1218 Wisconsin Avenue NW, Washington, DC

Mr. Beamish's (Martin Balsam) house - Still searching for this location

The jealous Kirby (Emilio Estevez) stakes out the apartment of Dale Biberman (Andie McDowell) – 3005 P Street NW, Washington, DC

Kirby follows Dale to a posh party – 3053 P Street NW, Washington, DC

The campus scenes – University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland. The fraternity house on the Maryland campus is the old SAE house located at #4 Fraternity Row. Thanks to Glenn Brown for pointing that out.

Billy’s house - Still searching for this location

Kirby drives to the snow-bound cabin where Dale stays with her boyfriend – Truckee, California

Wendy (Mare Winningham) comes to one of her father’s fast-food joints - Still searching for this location

The brat pack says goodbye to Billy at the bus station - Still searching for this location

15 comments:

  1. The fraternity house on the Maryland campus is the old SAE house located at #4 Fraternity Row. You can see the tops of the lions heads just above the shrubs on the front porch

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    1. I believe there are two different houses used in the filming. I was a EK at UMD when this movie was filmed I know the opening scene is the Sigma Kappa house at #10 Fraternity Row. Noted differences between the scenes: 1) You can see the bottom of the EK letters on the house at the top of the screen, 2) There are rails on the staircase in the opening scene but no rails on the stairs in the scene with just Billy, 3) The shrubs are different between the houses 4) There are no lion heads in the opening scene that are clearly visible in the scene with only Billy.

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    2. Yes I also thought they walked out of my sorority EK #10 frat row

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  2. Any idea where the street is they drive down in that packed Jeep?

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    1. That street is N St NW and they're traveling east from Wisconsin Ave. the beige/ yellow building in the background is Martin's Tavern, which opened in the 1930s and is where JFK proposed to Jackie. LOVE your blog!!!

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  3. The posh townhouse do, where Kirbo stalks Dale Biberman, is actually the parental home of actress/comedienne Alexandra Wentworth, whose mother was social secretary to Nancy Reagan in the years prior to this film shoot. The house was, apparently, chosen randomly by Joel Schumacher, Elmo's director. One of my favourite moments in the film is when Kirbo gatecrashes the party before looking straight down the camera lens, completely rain-soaked to the ass and says: "I'm obsessed, thank you very much!" in response to Dale's polite enquiry.

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  4. Mare Winningham and Ally Sheedy stroll along a body of water, lined with houses, after confronting Demi Moore at the soup kitchen - what canal/river is that?

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  5. That's the C&O Canal that runs though Georgetown. And those aren't houses - that's a restaurant. There's not much water in the canal right now, as National Park Service is repairing Lock 3 and Lock 4 for the next year. Hope that helps.

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  6. Any idea of the location of Leslie and Alec's awesome loft apartment?

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  7. I'm pretty sure it was shot in a studio... no actual location in DC.

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  8. Thanks Theresa. Too bad, it would've been a pretty sweet apartment in georgetown/DC

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  9. The first Greek Life house (the overview shot) was Sigma Kappa, on 10 Frat Row

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  10. I was four years old when this movie was made!! Wow!! But I love the 80's movies!! Especially John Hughes movies!

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