The History of the Film Industry in Buffalo · the Hornet Hatchback used in a chase scene from the...
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The History of the Film Industry in Buffalo I n the middle of August 1983, the old Courier-Express Building suddenly sprang to life. It had been almost a year since the newspaper folded, but inside a relentless sportswriter was trying to uncover dirt about the 35-year-old rookie ball player Roy Hobbs. A week later, the Parkside neighborhood was abuzz as modern light poles were replaced with 1930s traffic signals and the block filled with period automobiles bearing Illinois license plates. Parkside became “Chicago,” All-High Stadium was now “Wrigley Field” and a “train” arrived at Central Terminal for the first time in four years – all for The Natural, the now-classic baseball movie that captivated the city for a few months that summer. Folks all over Western New York were involved in the production, including a lucky few who scored speaking roles, as well as hundreds of extras, many of whom waited in long lines for their shot on camera. The Buffalo-based Trench Man- ufacturing Co. created period pennant flags for the set, the Buffalo Swing Band played during party scenes and restaurants all over town served acclaimed stars like Glenn Close, Robert Duvall, Barbara Hershey and, of course, Robert Redford. With shooting nearly complete that September, a crowd of over 12,000 converged on the Old Rockpile, the rusted 45,000-seat stadium and site of the most filming. Wearing a baseball jacket for Hobbs’ team, the New York Knights, Redford thanked the crowd for the warm reception the cast and crew had received. A few days later, he told WGRZ reporter Scott Brown: “I like the sense of tradition that’s still left in Buffalo. There’s a feeling that you feel from the people about pride in their city – that means a lot to me.” He continued, “They really got behind us and were supportive and enthusiastic. ... The people here who helped us are very much a part of this film.” Exactly 30 years later, many still carry memories about that film and others that have captivated our city, both before and after The Natural. In the past several years, from 2011’s Henry’s Crime to 2007’s The Savages, the Queen City has seen its share of Hollywood productions and smaller independent features. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg, and to truly understand our long relationship with the film industry, we need to go back to the late 19th century, when Hollywood was just a small community outside of Los Angeles and Thomas Edison first brought motion pictures to the public. E dison’s kinetoscope debuted in 1893, and while it was very profitable, only one person could watch the moving images at a time. In France, just two years later, the Lumière brothers held the first public showing of films shot with their cinématographe, a relatively lightweight camera that shot crisper images than ever before and could be projected onto a screen for many to view at once. Soon, on this side of the Atlantic, it would be Edison’s vitascope that launched moving pictures as major attraction in the United States – and induced Buffalo’s love affair with film. The vitascope was unveiled to the public at Koster & Bial’s Music Hall in New York City on April 23, 1896. The new projector was a huge success and was quickly booked for engagements across the country. Buffalo’s turn came on June 8, 1896, when “the latest invention of the Wizard Edison” was demonstrated at the Buffalo Public Library. “The people of Buffalo will for the first time have the opportunity of witnessing and seeing in operation the marvelous methods of repro- ducing on canvas nature, active life, movement,” reported the Buffalo Morning Express, which noted that audiences would see a seacoast scene, with waves tumbling against a pier. By Matthew Biddle Lights, Camera . . . Lights, Camera . . . Action! Action! PHOTOS COURTESY OF BILL COWELL 18
Transcript of The History of the Film Industry in Buffalo · the Hornet Hatchback used in a chase scene from the...
The History of the Film Industry in Buffalo
In the middle of August 1983, the old Courier-Express Building suddenly sprang to life. It hadbeen almost a year since the newspaper folded, but inside a relentless sportswriter was trying touncover dirt about the 35-year-old rookie ball player Roy Hobbs. A week later, the Parkside
neighborhood was abuzz as modern light poles were replaced with 1930s traffic signals and the blockfilled with period automobiles bearing Illinois license plates. Parkside became “Chicago,” All-HighStadium was now “Wrigley Field” and a “train” arrived at Central Terminal for the first time in fouryears – all for The Natural, the now-classic baseball movie that captivated the city for a few monthsthat summer.
Folks all over Western New York were involved in the production, including a lucky few who scored speaking roles, aswell as hundreds of extras, many of whom waited in long lines for their shot on camera. The Buffalo-based Trench Man-ufacturing Co. created period pennant flags for the set, the Buffalo Swing Band played during party scenes and restaurantsall over town served acclaimed stars like Glenn Close, Robert Duvall, Barbara Hershey and, of course, Robert Redford.
With shooting nearly complete that September, a crowd of over 12,000 converged on the Old Rockpile, the rusted45,000-seat stadium and site of the most filming. Wearing a baseball jacket for Hobbs’ team, the New York Knights,Redford thanked the crowd for the warm reception the cast and crew had received. A few days later, he told WGRZ reporterScott Brown: “I like the sense of tradition that’s still left in Buffalo. There’s a feeling that you feel from the people aboutpride in their city – that means a lot to me.” He continued, “They really got behind us and were supportive and enthusiastic.. . . The people here who helped us are very much a part of this film.”
Exactly 30 years later, many still carry memories about that film and others that have captivated our city, both beforeand after The Natural. In the past several years, from 2011’s Henry’s Crime to 2007’s The Savages, the Queen City has seenits share of Hollywood productions and smaller independent features. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg, and to trulyunderstand our long relationship with the film industry, we need to go back to the late 19th century, when Hollywood wasjust a small community outside of Los Angeles and Thomas Edison first brought motion pictures to the public.
Edison’s kinetoscope debuted in 1893, and while it was very profitable, only one person could watch the moving imagesat a time. In France, just two years later, the Lumière brothers held the first public showing of films shot with theircinématographe, a relatively lightweight camera that shot crisper images than ever before and could be projected
onto a screen for many to view at once. Soon, on this side of the Atlantic, it would be Edison’s vitascope that launchedmoving pictures as major attraction in the United States – and induced Buffalo’s love affair with film.
The vitascope was unveiled to the public at Koster & Bial’s Music Hall in New York City on April 23, 1896. The newprojector was a huge success and was quickly booked for engagements across the country. Buffalo’s turn came on June 8,1896, when “the latest invention of the Wizard Edison” was demonstrated at the Buffalo Public Library. “The people ofBuffalo will for the first time have the opportunity of witnessing and seeing in operation the marvelous methods of repro-ducing on canvas nature, active life, movement,” reported the Buffalo Morning Express, which noted that audiences wouldsee a seacoast scene, with waves tumbling against a pier.
By Matthew BiddleLights,
Camera . . .
Lights,
Camera . . .
Action!Action!PHOTOS COURTESY OF BILL COWELL
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Summer 2013 WESTERN NEW YORK HERITAGE 21
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JULY 25-AUG. 18MEASURE FOR
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on Film Rows, which in Buffalo was on ornear the 200 block of Franklin Street.According to the 1922 City Directory, 15exchanges were based on Franklin, out of 28total “moving picture supplies” companiesoperating in the city. “Few people realize howimportant a movie center Buffalo is. As soonas a picture is released, ten copies are senthere for distribution,” the Courier-Expressreported in 1941.
The major Hollywood studios, several ofwhich launched between 1912 and 1915,often invested heavily in their distributors toprovide the best service, so each exchangewas unique, often lavishly decorated andwell equipped. In 1918, for instance, a newFox Film Corporation office opened at 209-211 Franklin, with a 40-by-20-footprojection room for exhibitors to view filmsbefore renting and a 2,500-square-foot posterand shipping department. “New rugs, newfurniture and large, stained glass windows addto the attractive appearance of the offices.Eighteen oil paintings of Fox stars give a rich,artistic tone to the exchange,” The MovingPicture World reported. Almost 20 years later,Twentieth Century-Fox opened a newexchange at 290 Franklin, which had “sixvaults, all steel double-doored, for storage offilms, as well as a room for storing film cans.”A 1937 article in the Courier-Express contin-ued: “Just off the shipping room is the inspec-tion department, wherein eight inspectors,equipped with the most recent machinery,inspect and splice films before they are sent toan exhibitor. Wherever they are essential,there are sound-absorbent ceilings.”
Film strips were then highly flammable,so exchanges needed fireproof vaults andsprinkler systems and received frequentinspections from the Buffalo Fire Depart-ment. Exchanges would either ship themovies themselves or hire an independentfilm shipper, which usually delivered themby truck or automobile (trains were reluctantto transport flammable nitrate film). In oneextremely unusual circumstance, in 1917, theTriangle exchange in Buffalo shipped TheTar Heel Warrior to Rochester by airplanebecause it would have been impossible to getit there on time any other way. Airplaneswould obviously become much more impor-tant in later decades.
Exchanges also had advertising andposter rooms so that exhibitors could obtain“exploitation material” for their films. Years
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Less than six months later, Mitchell H. Mark opened in Buf-falo what’s purported to be one of the nation’s first purpose-builtmovie theaters. The entrepreneur owned a hat shop at 77 SenecaStreet, but the would-be showman always had a flair for the dra-matic; every spring and fall, he would clean house by throwingexcess hats from his roof to the crowd below. With the movieindustry in its infancy, he went to Europe to study film and wasreportedly the first American to import Pathé films, the domi-nant pictures in Europe. He showed them at the Vitascope The-ater, a 12-by-50-foot theater in the basement of the newlyconstructed Ellicott Square Building, with room for 80 patrons.One of the first designed specifically for films, the theater stayedopened about two years and earned $18,000 annually, as reportedby The Moving Picture World. Sometimes referred to as EdisoniaHall or the Electric Theater, it charged just ten cents for admis-sion. Miss Jerry, a picture about “the adventures of a girlreporter,” was the first showing, according to a Buffalo EveningNews article from 1944. In addition, Mark – who would lateropen several other theaters locally and elsewhere with hisbrother, Moe – was lauded as “one of the first to raise the moralstandard of photoplays” and for encouraging the use of films inschools for educational purposes.
At this time, movie showings featured a string of scenes withno narrative thread; the order of scenes was determined byexhibitors, not filmmakers. Niagara Falls was a popular spot forfilming, as evidenced by early titles like Niagara, Upper Rapidsand Niagara, American Falls. In January 1901, the Edison Com-pany opened its new studios in Manhattan and had copyrighted60 films within six months. Several Edison videographers cre-ated at least 20 films at the Pan-American Exposition that year,putting Buffalo, and the assassination of President McKinley,on screen for the nation to see. A Trip Around the Pan-AmericanExposition, for instance, was a 625-foot, ten-minute film thattook viewers around the grounds, while Pan-AmericanExposition By Night was a feat of technical brilliance for its day.
By 1911, there were about 40 production companies across thecountry and more than 10,000 nickelodeons and theaters. Some-one was needed to store, maintain and deliver these pictures, ush-ering in the film exchange business. In the already cutthroat filmindustry, fast and cheap service was paramount, so regionalexchanges cropped up in 32 major cities, including Buffalo, whichwas responsible for everything east of Cleveland over to Bingham-ton or Utica. Early exchanges were scattered throughout Buffalo’sdowntown area, but by the 1920s, distribution was largely handled
The Ellicott Square Building has figured into every era of Buffalo filmhistory. In 1896, it was home to the Vitascope Theater, and about twodecades later, the short-lived Buffalo Motion Picture Corporation. ForThe Natural, it was used for hotel scenes.WNY HERITAGE PRESS COLLECTION
The Pan-American Exposition, captured by A. Simon & Bro., wasfilmed extensively by the Edison Company. Many of those short filmsare now archived on the Library of Congress website, www.loc.gov.LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
Taken in 1925, these employees are standingoutside the Metro-Goldwyn regional distribu-tion headquarters, at 505-509 Pearl Street.Shortly after, the company became MGM andthe building still bears its name today.WNY HERITAGE PRESS COLLECTION; MATTHEW BIDDLE PHOTO 2013
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plant in Cheektowaga. “The Curtiss people had painted up asquadron of real P-40s with the well known tiger shark designto be used in these scenes and the company made their testpilots and stunt flyers available to depict some of the precisionflight formations for which the ‘Tigers’ were famous,” the film’spressbook revealed. These scenes had to be sent to Washington,D.C. to ensure “no vital information could reach the enemy.”Curtiss-Wright test pilot Herb Fisher subbed in for Wayne dur-ing the flight scenes, and William D. Pawley – the former Curtiss-Wright president who was involved in the organizationof the American Volunteer Group – wascredited for his technical assistance.
Another exciting Buffalo film connec-tion, meanwhile, still sits in Hamburginside JM Productions Inc., the companyresponsible for the demolition derby at theErie County Fair and over 25 others. Here,owner Jay Milligan Sr. still proudly displaysthe Hornet Hatchback used in a chasescene from the 1974 James Bond block-buster, The Man with the Golden Gun. Theninth Bond film featured a stunt digitallydesigned by Cornell Aeronautical Labs inBuffalo and tested and performed by JMProductions (first using a Javelin and laterthe Hornet Hatchback for the film). Ray-mond McHenry and William Millikenfrom Cornell devised a stunt where the carapproached a takeoff ramp at about 40miles per hour, flew 52 feet into the air,rolled 360 degrees and landed safely. InJanuary 1972, after six test jumps – threeunmanned, three manned – the stuntdebuted before a crowd of 98,000 peopleover two days at the Houston Astrodome.“A building full of Texans went berserk,”wrote Motor Trend magazine. “They hailedhis survival of an astonishing stunt, a barrel
roll in mid-air by an automobile that was all but stock, a breath-taking corkscrew spiral that stretched human credulity to its limits.”
Thirty international magazines covered the stunt, whichcaught the attention of Bond producer Albert “Cubby”Broccoli, who met with Milligan in New York City to discussputting the feat in their next picture. JM Productions built twostunt cars and supplied 12 stunt drivers for the production,including Milligan himself, and flew to Bangkok, Thailand, for the shoot. During the scene, Roger Moore’s Bond drives
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This rendering of the thrilling stunt from The Man with the Golden Gun hangs at JM Productions Inc. above the actual car shown here. Calls stillpour in about the astounding feat, a barrel roll over a Bangkok waterway at 52 feet in the air. JM PRODUCTIONS INC.
ago, film advertising was much splashier; longtime promoter EdMiller won national awards, for instance, for parading a line ofelephants up Main Street for 1956’s Alexander the Great. Bigstars would often visit exchanges and theaters to plug their latestpictures. By 1935, the six-floor edifice at 505-509 Pearl Streethoused a number of major studios, including Universal, MGM,United Artists and others, and thus was the site of frequentcelebrity visits. Gene Autry, Jane Powell, Ruth Roman, RoddyMcDowall and Academy Award-winner Charlton Heston arejust a few of the screen stars who passed through.
As movies became increasingly popular, more exchanges andtheaters appeared in Buffalo and across the country. The BuffaloEvening News estimated that half of all Americans attended atleast one movie a week in 1926. The following year, the paperreported that Buffalonians spent nearly $300,000 a week onmotion pictures, meaning one in six residents went to themovies on any given day. With the advent of television andother forms of entertainment, however, the cinema’s hold onAmerican popular culture declined. Many theaters closedduring the 1960s, and exchanges relocated to tighter quarters.By 1970, studios had found cheaper ways to distribute films andneeded fewer exchanges. In the 1965 City Directory, there were17 businesses listed under “distributors and exchanges.” By 1975that figure shrunk to nine, and by 1985 there was just one majorstudio left in Buffalo – Paramount Pictures, which closed itsoffice inside 300 Delaware Avenue later that year.
While the city’s most high-profile movie shoot isarguably The Natural, local film production datesback more than 100 years. Besides the Pan-American
Exposition films, other early shorts include Buffalo Police onParade from 1899 and Lafayette Square, Buffalo, N.Y., a panoramicstreet scene from 1903.
In late 1917, the first Buffalo-based production company, theappropriately named Buffalo Motion Picture Corporation,announced its premier film, a “drama of motherly love” calledThe Brink of Eternity (or The Price of Innocence in some sources),for which it filmed all outdoor scenes here and indoor scenes ata New York City studio. The company quickly opened an officeinside the Ellicott Square Building, secured a second sales officeon Sixth Avenue in New York and announced the constructionof a local studio. It’s unclear if that studio was ever built beforethe company folded in the early 1920s, but it did release threefive-reel features. The second was The Sport of Kings, an adap-tation of Arthur Somers Roche’s book of the same title, distrib-uted by First National Pictures. Its last film was The Daughterof Devil Dan, which filmed exteriors in North Carolina and wasreleased in 1921.
Six years later, cinemas across the country began showing TheJazz Singer, the first feature-length talkie. The first talkie filmedlocally was Keep Going, a Columbia Pictures production shot overseven days in August 1931. Directed by Joe McGuire with anentirely local cast, the flick starred Frederick Kirk, who later wasa captain in World War II and owned Century Carloading, afreight company that contracted with major downtown retailerslike AM&A’s and Kleinhans Men’s Store. Among otherlocations, the production was spotted filming by the Rand Build-ing; inside the Lafayette Theatre; and inside the newsroom at theBuffalo Times. “Teletypes, tickers and typewriters were set inmotion while members of the cast distributed themselves beforethe various desks and proceeded to the synthetic business ofmeeting an imaginary deadline,” the Times reported. The picturepremiered on August 20, 1931, at the Lafayette in a double-billing with Arizona, starring Laura La Plante and John Wayne.It played for a week before being shipped to Hollywoodproducers to consider for further distribution.
Just over ten years later, Flying Tigers, a 1942 John Waynewar film, shot several flight sequences at the Curtiss-Wright
Dozens of exhibitors and distributors attended the opening of theTwentieth Century-Fox film exchange in November 1937. Locatedwithin Buffalo’s Film Row at 290 Franklin Street, it exemplified “the mostadvanced ideas in construction within the business of film distribution.”Seated here was Buffalo manager Sydney Samson, with (from left)William Sussman, eastern sales manager; Jack Sichelman, assistantto the general manager; and George Roberts, district manager.BUFFALO & ERIE COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
In 1931, the film Keep Going was the first talkie shot in Buffalo. It used alllocal cast members, shot at several prominent locations and premieredat the Lafayette Theatre that August. PRIVATE COLLECTION
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May- Memorial Day Parades in Angelica, Bolivar, Cuba, Wellsville, and
Whitesville, May 27June- Belmont Celtic Festival, Belmont, June 1- Genesee River Wilds Annual River Float, Belfast, June 2- Dairy Week, Cuba, June 5-8- Flag Day Celebration, Cuba, June 16- Pioneer Oil Days, Bolivar, June 18-23- Strawberry Festival, Almond, June 24- Strawberry Festival, Scio, June 25July- 4th of July Celebration & Fireworks, Andover July 3-4,
Cuba Lake, July 3,Rushford Lake July 3.- Lavender Festival, Angelica, July 6- Belfast Irish Heritage Festival, Belfast, July 13-14- Amity Daze, Belmont, July 13-14- Allegany County Fair, Angelica, July 15-20- The Great Wellsville Balloon Rally, Wellsville, July 19-21- Main Street Festival, Wellsville, July 20- Friendship Freedom Fair, Friendship, July 26-28- Tough Mudder, Tall Pines ATV Park, Andover, July 27-28August- Angelica Heritage Days, Angelica, August 3-4- Main Street Music Festival, Wellsville, August 8-10- Hardcore Mudd Run, Swain, August 17-18- Rushford Labor Days Festival, August 30-Sept. 2September- Tall Pines Farm Fest, Andover, September 2- Allegany County participates in Fireball Run, September 20-29- Garlic Festival, Cuba, September 21-22- Fall Harvest Festival, Canaseraga, September 21-22- Civil War Reenactment, Angelica, September 27-29
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with permits and locations, and marketsthe region to filmmakers at festivals likeSundance and at trade shows, includingthe popular AFCI Locations Show.“Who would have ever thought we wouldbe chosen to replicate Giants Stadium?Who would have ever thought that JerryBruckheimer would come here with Disney to shoot Pirates of the Caribbean?”says Clark, who notes that something – afilm, commercial, music video, televisionepisode or documentary – is filmed inBuffalo almost every day.
Meanwhile, the Buffalo Niagara FilmFestival has steadily made a name foritself on the festival circuit since beingfounded in 2007. It receives submissionsfrom across the country and all over theworld. In 2013, for example, films shownhailed from the U.S., Switzerland, theUK, China, Spain, India and Canada.The Market Arcade in Buffalo, the Riviera Theatre in North Tonawandaand the Rapids Theatre in Niagara Fallshost the festival, which continues togrow every year. For 2014, founder BillCowell and others are creating a special30th anniversary documentary on The
Natural and work ing to reunite many of its stars in Buffalo next April. (If youhave stories, photos or memorabilia from that shoot, please contact Cowell [email protected].)
Clearly, Buffalo’s brush with Holly-wood is far from over. There are movieplayhouses, whether open or closed, thatstill characterize the cityscape and a fewremaining film exchange buildings thatstill line Franklin. (D’Arcy McGee’s IrishPub resides in the former Warner Bros.building, for instance.) We also continu-ally roll out the welcome mat for filmsand their producers. For The Natural, theBisons sent a limo and police escort topick up production designer Mel Bourneat the airport during his initial locationscouting trip. There are plenty of reasonswhy Buffalo has enjoyed such a long rela-tionship with the film industry, in cludingits varied architecture, abun dant humanresources and the new state film produc-tion tax credits. Robert Redford, how-ever, said what he’d remember most was“the ease with which the people and theplace made this experience. . . . I reallylike this city.” Clearly others do, too. G
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through a window at a dealership and a car chase ensues, even-tually leading to the fateful spot where this stunt takes place.The stunt was filmed in a single take, and Milligan recalls everyactor on hand that day to watch. With a crane and two under-water divers in place for emergencies, the car hit the ramp, spiraled over the khlong below and landed on the other side toan eruption of excitement and a celebratory champagne toast.“They called it a ‘loo loo’ and that meant, in the film industry,perfect,” says Milligan, who still receives daily inquiries aboutthe stunt.
Behind the scenes, Buffalo was also integral to the birth ofthe Todd-AO process, a revolutionary advancement that re -quired just one wide-angle camera to shoot and one projector toshow a film (rather than the traditional three projectors), andused 65mm film (as opposed to the standard 35mm film) to cre-ate a far better viewing experience for the audience. The processwas co-developed by company founder Mike Todd and theAmerican Optical Company, which had its Instrument Divisionin Buffalo. (For more on American Optical, see “Brass Beauties,Black Beauties” in our Winter 2013 issue; copies still available.)
The Regent Theatre, located at 1365 Main Street, served asthe testing laboratory for Todd-AO. Test footage was capturedin mid-June of 1953 at Niagara Falls, Ellicott Creek Park andother spots outside the area, and on August 14, 1953, the 800-seat theater unveiled the process with these scenes and a coupleothers from the proposed film version of Oklahoma!. The musi-cal’s hugely successful writing team of Richard Rodgers andOscar Hammerstein were there, and gave their wholeheartedapproval for Oklahoma! to be the first-ever feature fully shot inTodd-AO. They remarked on the seamless images, andRodgers said, “This new medium of expression willrevolutionize methods of storytelling, and for the first time werealize what can be done on screen with our importantmusicals.” The Sound of Music, Cleopatra and Airport were allfilmed in Todd-AO.
In the past 35 years, countless productions big and small haveshot, at least partially, in Buffalo, including James Caan’sdirectorial debut, the 1980 thriller Hide in Plain Sight; 1982’s
Best Friends, starring Goldie Hawn and Burt Reynolds; the 1987Steve Martin comedy Planes, Trains and Automobiles; and MannaFrom Heaven, the 2002 indie by the Buffalo-bred Burton sisters.Local director Peter McGennis Jr. hosted a red carpet premierefor The Queen City last November at the Market Arcade Film &Arts Centre. Starring Vivica A. Fox, the movie features Buffalospots like the grain elevators, police headquarters, the ColoredMusicians Club and Central Terminal, among others.
Buffalo was even the birthplace of Miramax Films, the studiolaunched by Hollywood heavyweights Bob and Harvey Wein-stein in 1979. At the time, Harvey was better known for Harvey& Corky, the concert promotion business he started with Horace“Corky” Burger while studying at the University at Buffalo. In1974, they purchased the Century Theatre on Main Street andreopened it as a concert hall and movie theater. Acclaimed bluesartist Bonnie Raitt and future Rock and Roll Hall of FamerJackson Browne were its debut acts. Five years later, the Wein-steins founded Miramax, named after their parents Miriam andMax, but moved the company to Manhattan in the early 1980s.They did shoot one picture here, a 1981 slasher film called TheBurning, which filmed in Erie, Niagara and Cattaraugus coun-ties. Variety reported in June 1981, “The Burning lit up Buffalo-area screens this weekend” with a sizzling $33,000 gross fromthree theaters and two drive-ins.
Most recently, Universal Pictures transformed Ralph WilsonStadium into the New York Giants’ stadium this past May forthe climax of its upcoming film The Best Man Holiday, out inNovember. According to Buffalo Film Commissioner TimClark, the movie generated over $1.5 million for Buffalo, as pro-duction set up downtown for two weeks and shot at the Ralphfor four days, requiring many local crewmembers and over 1,500extras. The Buffalo Niagara Film Commission assists producers
Thankfully, Buffalo’s relationship with the film industry is not just history. In late May, Universal Pictures filmed a key scene for The Best Man Holiday at Ralph Wilson Stadium. Meanwhile, the Buffalo Niagara Film Festival has grown steadily as a launch pad for movies. Shown here,Cheektowaga-native William Fichtner (from this summer’s The Lone Ranger) received the first staron the BNFF Walk of Fame in 2011. MATTHEW BIDDLE PHOTO 2013; COURTESY BILL COWELL
