The Estudillo House in Old Town, then known as Romana’s Wedding Place, was a popular film set in the 1910s. (Courtesy photo)

If you love movies, you’re in luck as the 22nd Annual San Diego International Film Festival’s ‘Celebrating the Power of Film’ heads to town from Oct. 18-21.

Festival events include the opening night film premiere and reception, culinary cinema, studio premieres, curated features, documentaries, and shorts from independent filmmakers.

Each year the San Diego International Film Festival (SDIFF) receives submissions from more than 3,000 independent filmmakers from 82 countries. Over the years, SDIFF has screened premieres garnering 22 Academy Awards and 103 nominations.

And why not? With its beaches, old-world style buildings, and more, San Diego is the ideal spot for moviemaking.

“San Diego County was considered an ideal filming location even in the silent era: predictable weather and ease of access to mountains, ocean, and desert meant scenic opportunities with very little travel time,” said Scott Paulson, Silent Film Curator at La Jolla Historical Society.

Ideal spot

While Hollywood has been synonymous with filmmaking, San Diego also continues to attract filmmakers.

For instance, San Diego, as early as 1898, was known as a premiere western hot spot for the early motion picture industry.

Since then, San Diego has supplied the movies with western scenes, shorelines, military bases, parks, hotels, neighborhoods, actors, and theaters.

According to a lengthy article in “The Journal of San Diego History,” more than 700 theatrical films and television productions have been shot in San Diego County, including “Citizen Kane,” “Some Like It Hot,” “The Stunt Man,” and “Top Gun.”

With the creation of the San Diego Film Commission in 1976, San Diego is still being used for its many scenic locations, including blockbuster “Top Gun: Maverick” in 2022.

“The city of San Diego and the greater San Diego region have been, and continue to be, one of Hollywood’s favorite on-location filming destinations thanks to excellent year-round weather and an incredible diversity of desert landscapes, snow-capped mountains, pristine beaches, both historical and cutting-edge modern architecture, and amazing and expansive parks — all within just under an hour of each other, making the case that San Diego has everything the entertainment industry needs to bring magic to the big or small screen,” said Guy Langman of the San Diego filming program manager, special events and filming department.

From East to West

While the first motion pictures were made on the East Coast, film crews’ use of San Diego County came before Hollywood, according to the Journal article.

After spending much of early 1897 filming short scenes of parades, waterfalls, and trains on the East Coast, Edison Manufacturing Co. looked to California.

Filming these same types of scenes on the West Coast, it visited San Diego in February 1898 before going overseas.

Cameras were placed on Broadway to film a trolley car moving up the Downtown street.

One of Hollywood’s well-known directors, Allan Dwan, came from Chicago to manage a group of actors and cowboys from the American Film Manufacturing Co. later to be known as the Flying A.

Looking for frontier land, Dwan came upon Lakeside at the end of a railway line and filmed movies there as well as throughout the backcountry of San Diego County.

Between May 1911 and August 1912, he filmed 150 films in San Diego County— usually Western adventures or melodramas, comedies, and occasional documentaries.

While the Westerns were created for a national theater-going audience, San Diego County names were used in movies like “The Mystical Maid of Jamacha Pass,” “The Winning of La Mesa,” “The Bandit of Point Loma,” “Bonita of El Cajon,” and “The Land Baron of San Tee.’

After filming during the week, Dwan was said to stay at the newly opened U.S. Grant Hotel in San Diego.

In town, he saw movies in local theaters and worked on new ideas. He also explored other San Diego areas to film documentaries including “Curtiss’s School of Aviation,” “The Caves of La Jolla,” “Winter Sports & Pastimes of Coronado Beach,” and “The Fifty Mile Auto Contest.”

In 1915, he returned from Santa Barbara to San Diego to direct Mary Pickford in “A Girl From Yesterday” — a film on North Island. In 1919, Dwan directed “Soldiers of Fortune” and hired locals as extras. He utilized Balboa Park to mimic a South American republic.

The Kalem Co., an early independent film outfit came to San Diego in 1911 to film “Flower Parade in San Diego” (1912).

Another popular location in San Diego for moviemakers was Ramona’s Wedding Place. The Estudillo House in Old Town was remodeled as Ramona’s Wedding Place around 1910, the study added. It was used in 1917 for “The Cost of Hatred,” a love and hate story.

The Edison Co. highlighted “The Old Monk’s Tale” in February 1913, filmed at Ramona’s Wedding Place with actor Harold Lloyd. Lloyd is said to have stayed at the Hotel Tioga according to the 1912 San Diego Directory.

Mack Sennett’s Keystone Co. shot films in the area from 1913 to 1915, like the 1913 movie “Fatty at San Diego: A Jealous Husband.”

Scenes of Balboa Park

The 1915 movie, “Fatty and Mabel at the San Diego Exposition,” was filmed during real events at the Panama-California Exposition in Balboa Park. In the film, lead actors Roscoe ‘Fatty’ Arbuckle and Mabel Normand watched a parade in Downtown San Diego and then rented a motorized cart at the Exposition while arguing about Fatty flirting with another woman.

Other local studios that used the park included Pollard Picture Plays Co., the Western Branch of Lubin Studios, and the Nestor Co. which was later associated with Universal.

In November 1916, Pollard’s headquarters were in Balboa Park and Harry A. produced films starring wife, Margarita Fischer.

Fischer was “The American Girl,” and in several San Diego movies between 1915 and 1917. One was a chase up the California Tower in Balboa Park highlighting the city’s landscape. The couple continued to produce movies in the area, according to the Journal.

Balboa Park’s public squares, outdoor dining areas, lily pond and architectural ornamentation were perfect for creating south-of-the-border romance and revolution. It was featured as a banana republic capital (Douglas Fairbank’s “The Americano”), a royal castle (Mary Pickford’s “Rosita”), and home to the rich (“Citizen Kane”). “The Americano,” written by director John Emerson and his wife, former San Diegan Anita Loos, was filmed in Balboa Park in December 1916.

Later locally filmed movies “San Diego, I Love You” (1944), “The Fireball” (1950), “Rampage” (1962), “A Ticklish Affair” (1963), “Captain Milkshake” (1969), “Top Dog” (1995), “The Tiger Woods Story” (1998), “Almost Famous” (2000) and “Traffic” (2000) shot segments of the park or the Zoo to a sporting event.

The zoo was used in Robert Mitchum’s “Rampage” and mentioned in “Congorilla” (1932) and “Hey There, Its Yogi Bear” (1964) when Yogi requests a transfer from Jellystone Park to the Zoo.

In “Citizen Kane,” a fictional newsreel at the start shows Balboa Park doubling as Kane’s Xanadu — his mansion in Florida. Shots of the El Cid statue, the zoo aviary, the Museum of Art, and the Prado are included.

Recent

More recently, San Diego has been used for filming exteriors and the interiors of buildings. Among the most popular have been an empty hospital and a bankrupt resort.

Many say San Diego can appear to be any place due to the ocean and coastline, mountains, desert, and the city’s vast infrastructure. All of which continue to be taken advantage of by filmmakers.

A few scenes in San Diego and a rush to the border is “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World” (1963).

In the 1970s, San Diego is shown in “Scavenger Hunt” (1979) where a group of relatives search for a rich relative’s fortune.

San Diego’s downtown has been hosting many law enforcement dramas like “A Force of One” (1979) with Chuck Norris, and “K-9” (1989) with James Belushi.

Other movies using Downtown and surrounding areas include “Mr. Jones” (1993) with Richard Gere, “In God We Trust” (1980) with Marty Feldman, and “Hardcore” (1980) with George C. Scott.

Three 1990s comedies “Mr. Wrong” (1996), “Flirting With Disaster” (1996) and “My Blue Heaven” (1990) show Downtown.

Over 100 movies have been filmed about the military in San Diego. Some include movies entirely filmed in San Diego locations and others with a short scene of a San Diego location or, interior of ships, barracks, or submarines, the Journal notes.

Of course, the most famous, “Top Gun,” (1986) starred Tom Cruise, Val Kilmer, Kelly McGillis, and Meg Ryan in locations including Miramar Air Station, the Point Loma Lighthouse, the Navy Training Center, a beach cottage on the corner of South Pacific and Seagaze Drive in Oceanside, the Windsock Bar & Grill near Lindbergh Field, the Kansas City Barbecue, and on Laurel street near Union, according to reports at the time.

The sequel was also filmed primarily in San Diego County.

Other aviation movies filmed here include “Firefox” (1982) with Clint Eastwood, “Flight of the Intruder” (1991), and the “Top Gun” parody, “Hot Shots!” (1991) were partially filmed in San Diego. The blockbuster movie “Apollo 13” had segments filmed in San Diego.

In 1991 Stu Segal Productions opened a film and television studio in San Diego. It would go on to produce the series “Silk Stalkings” and hundreds of other television series, made-for-television movies, and feature films.

More TV series include “Renegade,” “Push,” “Pensacola,” “18 Wheels of Justice,” and “The Chronicle.” Segal also provided production services for the cheerleader film “Bring It On” (2000).

To date, there is no longer a San Diego Film Commission. Langman said “It has been gone for several years. Each jurisdiction now does their own film permitting.”

But, overall, Downtown San Diego and its surrounding areas have proved repeatedly to be excellent places for those making movie magic, then, and now.