Filming San Diego -- Hollywood's Backlot

For over 100 years San Diego’s diverse landscape of western vistas, shorelines, military bases, parks, hotels, neighborhoods, actors, and theaters has provided a backdrop for more than 700 theatrical films and television shows, including Citizen Kane, Some Like It Hot, The Stunt Man, and Top Gun. Since 1976, the San Diego Film Commission has helped San Diego establish itself as one of the nation’s most important filming locations.
Filming in San Diego is not new, however
Long before Marilyn Monroe romped on a Coronado beach, Gloria Swanson was dressing up at the Hotel del Coronado. Sixty years before Peter O’Toole starred in The Stunt Man, Hollywood’s original stunt man, the dashing Douglas Fairbanks Sr., was scaling the La Jolla cliffs. And 70 years before Tom Cruise punched a hole in the sound barrier in Top Gun, Mary Pickford appeared in her own flying machine drama on North Island.

LOCAL STUDIOS

Over the years, a number of independent companies have made San Diego their home, including Richmark Productions (Captain Milkshake), Roger Tilton Films (Spiker), Cinewest (Love Always and Break of Dawn), Four Square Productions (Attack of the Killer Tomatoes and three sequels), and Stu Segall Productions. Special effects in such movies as Titanic, True Lies, and Free Willy 2 were produced at the Offshore Model Basin’s pools in Escondido.

For more detailed information, read this Journal of San Diego History article:
Hollywood in San Diego: the Administration of Location Shooting in City Parks.

Purchase this Special Journal of San Diego History Issue for only $9.95
Filming San Diego: Hollywood's Backlot

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