Stripes in Louisville way back in 1980

Stripes is a strange but funny movie.  Some of the jokes you could not do today due to the wokeness of our society, but it is a classic.  Clearly, the people making Police Academy took this idea and expanded to two hours.  On Stripes, the third act is a completely different movie and is a bit jarring.   

A few years ago, at my favorite restaurant, I was looking at a wall and there was an autographed picture with the owner of the restaurant and Bill Murry and Harold Ramis.  The photo was taken years upon years ago.  I realized this was on the set of the movie Stripes.  They filmed most of the movie in Kentucky back in 1980.  Portions of the filming happened in Louisville.   

Back in the day, Louisville sort of looked more like the grittier New York.  So, it stood in for a bigger city.  Louisville had more industrial parts of the city and railroad tracks were all over the city.  Waterfront Park used to be an industrial park and a railroad junkyard.  Bill is very close to that area.  The training scenes were filmed at Fort Knox.  I’ve been to Fort Knox and it looks completely different than it is portrayed.  

Anyway, the owner of the restaurant is in the scene with Harold Ramis teaching students Basic English in the classroom.  I showed her the clip yesterday and she laughed and smiled.  It is interesting to show someone the scene they were in.  She filmed that scene back in November 1980.  Basically, she was watching a clip nearly 40 years ago.  I was a small child during this time.   

Recently, there have been movies and shows being filmed in the area.  Nic Cage filmed a movie here.   

Side note:  Murray drives down a portion of River Road.  Those giant plants in containers are still there.  They keep barges from crashing into the side of the city.  Now, the bridge where Murray stops the Taxi is called the Second Street Bridge.  In the movie, the bridge looks amazingly new and clean.  It looked a little beaten down a few years ago but is now getting a repaint and cleaning.  It is a completely different color now about 75% through.   It is now a yellow bridge. It should also be noted that the bridge takes on more traffic than it was intended due to tolls on other bridges.