Well it's tat time of the year again so this must be Groundhog Day. I've done this all before.

In article <68b4d94f-4391-4251-a9d6-98a0b1337a0an@googlegroups.com>,
Meteorite Debris <peter.gregory.kelly@gmail.com> wrote:
>Well it's tat time of the year again so this must be Groundhog Day. I've done
>this all before.

Also know as Candlemas.

Time to put away the Christmas decorations.

--
Alice was something of a handful to her father, Theodore Roosevelt. He was
once asked by a visiting dignitary about parenting his spitfire of a daughter
and he replied, "I can be President of the United States, or I can control
Alice. I cannot possibly do both."

Every February I keep waiting* for SOMEONE to answer this vital question:

How much ground could a groundhog hog, if a groundhog could hog ground?

BRYAN STYBLE/Florida
===================
* Meanwhile, THIS non-question remains never-answered, too: How Long is a Chinaman.

Do any of y'all happen to know why the producers and/or director of "Groundhog Day" didn't shoot the film in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania.
The town you see in the film is actually Woodstock, Illinois, a small burg a few hours from Chicago or St. Louis.

Why go to all the trouble (AND expense) of building a set there to mimic Baldknobber's Hill--or whatever it's properly called--rather than just cajoling the town fathers of Punxsutawney into allowing them to shoot there? Sure, that also-small town was ALREADY "on the map" nationally thanks to their celebrated February 2nd schtick each late winter, so maybe the locals figured they always had their OWN fame and thus didn't WANT a bunch of Hollywood types invading the town for a few weeks. Or maybe they were demanding too much money? (But even if so, the producers should have kept upping the money until they finally relented.)

And yeah, I realize this was a FANTASY film--and nowadays in retrospect, perhaps the most enduring fantasy film in Hollywood history with the exception of "The Wizard of Oz"!--so you might say, who cares about authenticity for a fantasy?

Well, I happen to care (though I realize I'm perhaps a minority of one on this thoroughly inconsequential question.) And THAT'S because t's a REAL town known for one thing--maintaining a sillly tradition rooted in Middle Ages German folklore--so fantasy or not, the whole shebang should have been shot right there in western Pennsylvania, NOT central Illinois.

Anyone know the backstory here as to how this locale question ended up being settled so wrong-headedly? (Thanks in advance...oh, and you might check Merriam-Webster's if you doubt me, but groundhogs and woodchucks aren't merely SIMILAR critters, but rather two different names for the same species.)

BRYAN STYBLE/Florida

OK, it's Gobbler's Knob (and not Baldnobber's Hill).

Sorry to be so sloppy re such a historically vital point.

STYBLE/Florida

radioactiveseattle@gmail.com wrote:

>Do any of y'all happen to know why the producers and/or director of
>"Groundhog Day" didn't shoot the film in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania.
>The town you see in the film is actually Woodstock, Illinois, a small
>burg a few hours from Chicago or St. Louis.

It's no where near St. Louis. Chicago and St. Louis are 300 miles apart.

It's 40 miles northwest of downtown Chicago. It's the county seat of
McHenry County and one of the buildings seen in the town square is the
former courthouse. Another building is the famous opera house, still in
use, built in the "operetta" era, so works of Gilbert and Sullivan would
have been performed there when they were brand new. In fact, years ago,
I attended a performance of The Mikado by the resident opera company there.

The county government complex hasn't been in downtown Woodstock in
decades. It's moved to an outlying area with lots of parking.

>Why go to all the trouble (AND expense) of building a set there to mimic
>Baldknobber's Hill--or whatever it's properly called--rather than just
>cajoling the town fathers of Punxsutawney into allowing them to shoot
>there?

I don't believe there was any serious negotiation about filming on
location there. The movie's production was Chicago-based because of the
Chicago connections of those producing, writing, and directing the film.
Also, you might have noticed that it was filled with actors who were
either literally based in Chicago or who came from Chicago or had a
significant portion of their professional career in Chicago.

Chicago has a very large number of theater actors, so it's long been
practical to produce movies and tv shows here without putting a large
number of out-of-towners in the cast up in hotel rooms.

>. . .