Before you venture in too deep, this is a nonsensical time wasting post and the amount of work to that went into it will make you chuckle. Our subject scene comes from the epic film Superman 1978 and it’s such brief one, you’ll be questioning our motivations. You wasted that many hours looking for an obscure movie location? With that comes a raucous “yes!” but we’re a bit weird that way.
Where as most locations from this movie are common knowledge, this one appears undocumented, so we knew much work lay ahead. That it was part of a minor byline made it all the more interesting to us and while it took a while, with a bit of elbow grease and much Google Streetview surfing, it was eventually found. We had a hunch the location was in Calgary, but that’s all we had to go with, so mostly we flew blind. As it played out our instincts were correct.
Superman 1978 Then & Now: Below the Dam – a silly little post by Chris Doering and Connie Biggart (BIGDoer/Synd)
This article could not have been made without help from “Anonymous Donor” and for this kind act, we send our thanks. Do the same…
That said, we’re here and ready to show you. First…what are we looking at in the movie? It’s a scene, only a few seconds long, showing a group of duplexes on a dead-end street. Big deal, right? Turns out they’re in the path of a wall of water, brought on by the partial failure of a huge (unseen) dam upstream, caused by an earthquake. Come on, who builds below a dam?! Either way, it’s a grim scenario and only Superman can clean up the mess, all the while the clock is ticking.
Scroll down for photos and to comment.
Clearly residents of the this street have heard to the news and they’re seen running about madly. “We’re all going to die!” I’d be in that Punch Buggy so quick your head would spin.
Of course all this mayhem can be traced back to the antics of supervillian Lex Luthor. Seems he got a hold a missile and decided the San Andreas Fault looked like a nice target to cause some earth-shaking chaos and this is the result. Still, it’s best to see the movie to know more.
Then Superman comes to the rescue and on building a wall of boulders a bit upstream to hold back the deluge, saves the community. How climatic! So this street has a brief brush with fame and is never seen again. I know…why bother?
Given the brevity of it all, it seems no one recorded where shooting took place. At least no one’s posted it in a public place. We know this – a lot of the movie was shot in Southern Alberta, so it seemed a natural this was also from the area.
The more distant houses and rock faces seen in back are a special effect, so we knew it was a simple cul-de-sac somewhere. That’s makes it an easy start as most streets (of the time) here in Calgary were not dead-ends.
Calgary often made sidewalks with those curved curbs so that was also a hint. They’re not unique to here, but were super common especially in the 1970s. And the storm doors on the houses, also common to the area, similarly suggested we were somewhere up this way. Again, there are not exclusive to here, but you’ll see most houses of the era have them. Even our shack had one till we got a new, modern double-duty door.
We knew the buildings seen were new-ish at the time of filming (the neighbourhood is mostly from the first half of 1970s), so that offered yet another clue. So all we did was fly around on Google Earth, in neighbourhoods of the era and look for cul-de-sacs. It was a painfully simple process and one dreadfully labourious, but after an hour or two (done over lunch and while waiting for calls) we had our target. Bingo!
We’re in the Northwest Community of Huntington Hills and why this location got specifically picked by the producers we can’t say. That it was just so typical? Anyway, here we are and this non-descript corner is the place.
You’ll have to take our word for it that change here has been minimal since the movie guys left. All those trees are kind of in the way. Still, I can see it being a hard sell. Sure the sidewalk is as it was, but all we have left to connect then and now is a door. A plain old door. Everything else remains blocked from view – damn pesky Mother Nature. It is the place.
We wonder how many people living here today know the connection? All things considered, few if any we bet. We got some quizzical looks, incidentally, from people out in their yards. “What are those guys with cameras up to?”
Interestingly, it’s something we never noticed before about the movie scene…the house on the left I guess is a restaurant in the film. See the sign? Cheeseburger to go please! And make it quick.
This may be one of the last Superman 1978 Then & Nows we’ll do. We’ve shot them all already, or most I think (search Superman on this website and see – warning some cringe attempts in there) and so have run out of subjects. That is unless we revisit the ones we already did in the past – yeah we could do that. We’re better at it now than when we started and anyway, we really enjoy the process. Now all we have to do is find the time and that’s been lacking lately. Then & Nows are always done for fun so a low priority compared to work that brings in income to support this crappy website.
Now wasn’t that a cool diversion? We had a blast and till we do it again, good day and stay super…
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Date of Adventure: May, 2020. Location: Calgary, AB. Article references and thanks: Jim Bowers of the Caped Wonder Superman Podcast and the City of Calgary.
This is great! You folks make these so interesting. We spent some time near Bentley and met some people at a church pancake breakfast who told us about a place nearby called Lockhart (my last name). All that’s there then was a community hall that used to be the school we think. There was nothing else around it at all. Need to go back the next time we are in Calgary visiting our son.
Google Earth and Streetview are some our best research resources and biggest time-wasters. We start looking around, get distracted and soon it’s hours later. It’s hard to resist!
Beer Parlour Project Friday🍺: The Thorsby Hotel, built in 1929 & a photo by the manager's 7 years old daughter. More below 👇
Agreema politely asked if she could shoot a few photos & we obliged. A dark environment like this is very unforgiving & the camera she used quite temperamental, so she did an amazing job. We're out of work as photographers! Great food at this place, BTW!
Beer Parlour Project Friday🍺: The Tofield Hotel, built in 1912 & patron Lana, shot on Rob's vintage view camera. More below 👇
She's a sweetie & met her late husband at the hotel. The building from the alley side hasn't changed much since being built but the front brickwork is now covered by siding.
Crossley slides (unrestored), an unnamed fellow snacking on Sun-Maid Raisins - mountains of BC - 1950s. More below 👇
The distinctive red box is instantly recognizable! The location is listed as the Whitewater Valley & we think it's in the Sandon area close to Retallack. Perhaps some of our friends out that way can confirm. Sandon B.C., would Hal know? Crossley frequented Sandon so the location makes sense. Note the (mine?) road cutting across the slope in back. The slide is dated 1955 in the catalogue but 1956 on the frame.
Shout out to: Jason Sailer. _______
Exploring history with Chris & Connie from Off the Beaten Path. Thanks, Chris.
An old section of Highway #6 (BC) in the 1970s & 2021 - it's the second most shared post in our entire history! More below 👇
The original photo shows the road about the time it was decommissioned. This was always a troublesome section & so it got replaced by a new route further up the hill. While it hasn’t seen a car in eons, it remains overall in reasonable shape, save for some rockfall in places like this. These came down about ten years ago.
Happy Holidays from Off the Beaten Path w' Chris & Connie. Thanks for your continued support & encouragement. More 👇
🎄 🎄 🎄
CPKC's Holiday Train from a few nights ago. Rather than fight the crowds to see it, we wanted something a little more intimate. A bit of hike, but we brought mulled wine to help us keep warm while waiting. It's not a great shot & originally we had no intent to share it here, but what the heck.
Trainspotting is like fishing. It's not about the catch but rather getting out. If a train comes by, great, but if not, we had each other & a chance to get away from the day's problems. That's a BIG win in our books...even if we did freeze our bottoms off. _______
Out exploring with Chris & Connie from Off the Beaten Path. Thanks, Chris.
This is great! You folks make these so interesting. We spent some time near Bentley and met some people at a church pancake breakfast who told us about a place nearby called Lockhart (my last name). All that’s there then was a community hall that used to be the school we think. There was nothing else around it at all. Need to go back the next time we are in Calgary visiting our son.
To borrow a phrase from some other comments, cool!
That’s so cool.
You might say it’s super.
What a find! So thankful for the efforts you put in to document all of this. Not a post goes by that isn’t appreciated.
Much appreciated!
How?! How do you find these?! That’s incredible.
I’d like to say it’s all skill, but mostly it’s dumb luck and a stubborn determination.
Unreal. Didn’t know this shot was Calgary!
It’s not documented, but it looked like Calgary when were saw the scene. And then a seed was planted.
Well where is it?
Huntington Hills as mentioned in the write up.
New neighborhood at the time.
That was our clue in finding it.
Keivers lake was in the 1st movie and not far from Calgary.
Can’t place the scene. Do you mean the ice lake in the third installment?
Wow, that’s amazing! How do you do it?
It’s our superpower I guess. Lot of good it does…haha!
I remember seeing this in theatres after it first came out, didn’t realize this scene was shot in Calgary!
It’s so brief a scene that most people might not even notice. We love the obscure stuff.
Awesome, very interesting.
It’s what we do…or try to do anyway. Glad you like it.
Neat!
Thanks for stopping by.
So fascinating !
We love that you love it!
It’s nice to see how a area has changed since I movie was shot. Good job.
Our pleasure!
Parts of the movie was filmed at the Turbo refinery in Balzac.
The refinery is gone now.
That was the third film in the series.
I love when you do these kind of pictures!
They are so much fun, but a lot of work!
Lots of this film was shot around High River.
That’s was the third installment and the town plays prominently in that film.
We do that with supernatural locations in Vancouver.
That we have to see…messaged you.
So cool!!
Cool is the word of the day!
Very cool.
Yes!
So the city of Calgary cut down and hauled away the mountians and planted the evergreens, lol
They did and it’s not even close to the craziest thing they’ve done.
Oh yeah!
Yeah!
I’m pretty sure you guys have the most interesting content on Facebook. Well done!
That’s a mighty fine compliment! Thanks.
Good detective work. I waste a good portion of my life looking around in Google maps.
Google Earth and Streetview are some our best research resources and biggest time-wasters. We start looking around, get distracted and soon it’s hours later. It’s hard to resist!