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The Goonies house
“Use the stairs! Stairs! The stupid guys tell me to use the stairs when Data’s falling. If Data’s hurt, nobody cares anymore.”
Data (Jonathan Ke Quan)
The filming of The Goonies began on October 22, 1984. At the helm, Richard Donner, still reeling from the success of Superman, is unknowingly about to add a new classic to his filmography that will leave its mark on millions of viewers. If the atmosphere is good on the set, the director regularly complains about the indiscipline of the children but Steven Spielberg, often present, manages to maintain a nice harmony. Sean Astin, the interpreter of Mikey Walsh, would later state in his autobiography There and Back Again that from his point of view, the two filmmakers had truly made the feature film hand in hand.
Rather than shooting mostly in a studio, the team favoured natural settings and set up shop in the city of Astoria, on the west coast of the United States, in a relatively wild region. A real house was chosen to house the Walsh family. The beach, Haystack Rock, the Flavel House Museum and the prison are also exploited. The latter now houses the Oregon Film Museum. Nevertheless, the underground scenes are produced from the Warner Bros studios, in Burbank and notably in the gigantic Stage 16, where the Goonies find Willy the One-Eyed Man’s ship.
Afterwards, the now famous house saw a succession of owners and fans. In 2001, Sandi Preston moved in. Well aware of the role her new home has played in the history of American cinema, she says she is a fan of The Goonies. Everything is going well. Sometimes people come knocking on his door. One day, a lady comes up to her and explains that her late son was a fan of the feature film. She holds his ashes in her hand. Sandi Preston suggested that she scatter them in the garden, which was then in full bloom. She would later say that others had illegally entered the yard to do the same. However, in 2005, for the film’s 20th anniversary, encouraged by a sign installed by the Astoria town hall, nearly 1,200 people flocked to the site. In 2015, for the thirtieth anniversary, 10,000 fans invaded the property. If some are respectful, others much less so and Sandi Preston must clean up the garbage left by these unwanted visitors. This encouraged him to tarp the house to hide it from outside view. Since then, it has become much more difficult to admire the Walsh mansion and on the Internet, many people deplore this state of affairs while others understand perfectly. The story doesn’t say if Sandi still likes the movie that much.
Produced and imagined by Steven Spielberg, directed by Richard Donner on a screenplay by Chris Columbus, The Goonies managed to amass nearly $125 million at the box office, thus more than paying off its $19 million budget.
Despite its cult status , the film won only two awards, the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress for Anne Ramsey and the Young Artist Award for Best Performance in a Motion Picture by a Young Actor for Sean Astin.
370 38th St
In the state of Oregon, in Astoria, this beautiful house at 370 38th St refers to a golden age of American popular cinema.
A beautiful wrap-around porch, white walls and greenery in the background. Built in 1914, the Goonies house is as majestic as it is iconic. Another famous building in this quiet neighborhood is the one from the movie Save Willy, at 3392 Harrison Avenue. Two celebrities for the quiet little town of Astoria, where fans often go. However, today, it is difficult to see the house of the cult film by Richard Donner, as the plebiscite that it was the object of encouraged the owners to preserve themselves from the hordes of admirers.
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Cult! movies: 100 mythical places of cinema [French Edition]
Since the dawn of cinema, films have invaded the world and highlighted sometimes unexpected places. Every film location has its secrets. The latter are sometimes as exciting as the feature films themselves.
Did you know that the cemetery where the final duel of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly was built from scratch and that no body lies there? Or that the bus ofInto The Wild has been moved to discourage fans from spending the night there? From the story of the construction of The Bridge on the River Kwai to the incredible encounter during the shooting of the last scene ofIndiana Jones and the Last Crusadeembark on an exciting world tour with the greatest stars of the seventh art. Shiver in the real haunted house ofAmityville and discover the terrifying anecdotes of the making ofApocalypse Now in the Philippines. Visit the building of Blade Runner before stopping at Hogwarts and finally landing in Jurassic Parkin the middle of the Hawaiian archipelago. What if we also took you behind the scenes of the making of the Hobbits’ village of Lord of the Rings ?
Produced by a team of pop-culture specialists and enhanced by numerous anecdotes, Cult! movies tells the secrets of the places that made the history of cinema.
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Discover all the places The Goonies on our map
By Damien Duarte
Passionné par la culture pop depuis son enfance, ses références vont de Donald Duck à Batman en passant par Marty McFly. Fantripper dans l'âme, voyager sur les traces de Ghostbusters, James Bond ou des héros de romans comme Cotton Malone fait partie d'un séjour idéal et réussi !