Oscar week: 9 Jersey Shore movies that mattered
A version of this article originally ran in March of 2015.
Here's to the 1946 musical, "Three Little Girls in Blue," where three sisters from Red Bank get on a train to Atlantic City to meet the men of their dreams.
It would never happen today. You can't take a train ride from Red Bank to Atlantic City that doesn't zig-zag across the state. But the film is an early example of the Jersey Shore's appeal to Hollywood.
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More than 1,900 feature films have been shot in New Jersey, with many of them at the Shore, since 1978, according to the New Jersey Motion Picture and Television Commission.
Here's our list, in honor of the upcoming Academy Awards, 7 p.m. Sunday on ABC, of nine Jersey Shore movies that mattered.
"Amityville Horror" (1979)
The house at 18 Brooks Drive in Toms River is not haunted, nor did ghastly murders take place there. But sure enough the house was featured in the 1979 sequel-producing hit "The Amityville Horror."
The movie was based on a quadruple murder that took place in a Dutch Colonial house in the town of Amityville on Long Island. Filmmakers came to Toms River to re-create the Amityville house. After rearranging the facade of 18 Brooks a bit, it was showtime.
The film starred James Brolin as George Lutz, who moves his family, which includes Margot Kidder as wife Kathleen Lutz, into a dream home that turns into a nightmare.
Incidentally, several scenes were shot around town, including City Hall and and the Sunken Garden at Georgian Court College in nearby Lakewood.
"Annie" (1982)
There was no other place to film the 1982 version of "Annie" other than at Woodrow Wilson Hall on the grounds of the then-called Monmouth College in West Long Branch, said Roger Paradiso, production manager for the film.
"When I met the ('Annie') production executives at the Hotel Pierre in Manhattan, I told them I had the perfect location for Daddy Warbucks' home. I went to college there for two years. It was in New Jersey. I knew the scale of the show and there was only one place to shoot, in my mind — Woodrow Wilson Hall," said Paradiso to the Asbury Park Press in 2006.
Wilson Hall, Monmouth's administration building, was built in 1929 as a home for Hubert Templeton Parson, president of the F.W. Woolworth Co.
On screen, it's Hollywood magic as the life of the Little Orphan Annie is transformed from grimy orphanage to early-20th century Jersey Shore opulence.
"Baby, It's You" (1983)
A trip to the Jersey Shore is a shot at love, fun and liberation from middle class conformity for Vincent Spano and Rosanna Arquette in this John Sayles critical hit.
A scene was shot in Asbury Park and another at the Roadside Diner on Route 33 in Tinton Falls, where Spano and Arquette's characters slow-dance to Sinatra's "Strangers in the Night." Check it out below.
On the subject of music, "Baby, It's You" is the first film to include Bruce Springsteen songs in the soundtrack.
"Big Night" (1996)
A new restaurant opening at the Jersey Shore is a big deal and so was "Big Night," the surprise indie hit filmed at the Bayshore that made stars out Stanley Tucci and Tony Shalhoub.
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The action centers around a visit to a new restaurant by performer Louis Prima, and whether or not Tucci and Shalhoub's characters can deliver the goods.
Filming took place on and near Broad and Front streets in Keyport in the spring of 1995 and beach scenes were shot in Keansburg.
"City by the Sea" (2002)
This crime drama starring Robert DeNiro and James Franco does not take place in Asbury Park.
It's set in Long Beach, N.Y., but it was filmed in Asbury in perhaps the city's most deteriorated state.
Still, the film's producers felt the need to crummy things up even more by adding graffiti to any blank wall that was in the background of a shot.
Yet, if you grew up on the Asbury Park boardwalk in the '80s and '90s, the dark corners and the frayed footing of the area, as depicted in "City by the Sea," evoke a ping of nostalgia.
In the film, look for the Palace Amusements, about to face the wrecking ball, and the Lyric Theater, which had turned into a seedy adult movie theater years before "City" was filmed.
Both no longer stand.
"Clerks" (1993)
When visiting New Jersey, Bruce Springsteen fans invariably want to go to Stone Pony in Asbury Park.
Kevin Smith fans, on the other hand, need to see the Quick Stop Groceries convenience store in Leonardo where he filmed his 1993 breakthrough "Clerks."
The store was the embodiment of the despair felt by 20something clerks Dante (Brian O'Halloran) and Randal (Jeff Anderson).
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Each day brought a new wave of torment and indignities for the pair, courtesy of the Quick Stop's costumers. Smith, who grew up in nearby Highlands, shot "Clerks" in grainy black-and-white film for $27,000, which he obtained by maxing out on his credit cards.
In turn, he created a cultural zeitgeist moment which articulated the hopes and fears of Gen X slackers, inspired a new breed of independent filmmakers and gave voice to the burgeoning geek movement. Remember the "Star Wars" conversation?
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"Ragtime" (1981)
The Jersey Shore is a prime spot for period films, and that was certainly the case for this big budget feature.
Milos Forman was the director and Hollywood icon James Cagney, in his last film appearance, was given top billing.
The cast and crew, Cagney not included, came to the Shore in 1980 to film at the former Essex and Sussex Hotel in Spring Lake, which is now a condominium.
"Stardust Memories" (1980)
The Monmouth County waterfront was exquisitely filmed in this Woody Allen Fellini-esque classic about a director of comedies in search of a deeper meaning.
The Great Auditorium in Ocean Grove was turned into the Stardust Hotel for the film. To do so, Allen had to give script approval to the town fathers, according to a 1986 Philadelphia Inquirer article.
"This is a dry town and a Christian town," said the late James D. Lindemuth, former executive director of the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association. "So naturally, a film that portrays great drunkenness or great violence or great sex or great drugs is not a film that we welcome here. We had to go over his script."
Allen surprisingly said yes and gave Ocean Grove a gift that remains to this day: the 20-foot illuminated cross that sits atop of the auditorium.
"The Wrestler" (2008)
The gritty, tough-as-nails world of independent pro wrestling in Jersey was depicted in this critical smash.
Both Mickey Rourke and Marisa Tomei received an Academy Award nominations.
"The Wrestler" was filmed throughout New Jersey's rusty industrial underside and Jersey Shore locations included the Mieleville Mobile Home Park in Hazlet and inside the Casino on the boardwalk in Asbury Park.
Chris Jordan: cjordan@app.com.