From Main Street to Movie Set

Changes are really happening downtown, and with good reason: filming begins next week.  Last I heard they'd be re-striping the road on Saturday, then beginning Sunday Main Street will be closed intermittently all day every day through Thursday of next week.  Also last I heard, they plan to put the cars of the era on the street Tuesday night so everything will be ready for filming on Wednesday, although that may have changed.  I just took a brief stroll through downtown to check it out and take a few photos.

All of the old storefronts on the blocks around the intersection are being changed.  Fortunately or unfortunately, lots of them are empty.  Binderson Hardware, for example, doesn't exist and I believe the property to its right has a fresh coat of green paint, although I wouldn't swear to that.

All of the signs on the upper parts of the buildings are new -- such as this Jewelry sign.  I asked one of the workers if they were going to leave anything behind when they were finished, and he said they'd probably leave the signs, which is interesting.

Oh no!  A bar on Main Street!  You can't read the signs painted on the windows here, but they are turning it into a bar.  The citizens will turn over in their graves.  Polk County was dry until just a few short years ago, and alcohol is still seen as an instrument of the devil.  Do you think maybe that comes from the County's notorious bootlegging past?  I think the awning here is new, and a new paint job.

Moores is being transformed, too -- all new signs painted on the windows, new red trim, and work going on inside.  I was tempted to poke my head inside to see what they're doing, but didn't want to be run off.  Chicken.

Lots of new signs on the other side of the intersection.  The blue-striped awning is actually a deli/cafe with its name on the glass. I'm wondering what they're going to do with that.  The sidewalk tables are new.  The wide tan awning toward the end of the block is new, I think.  They were working on it one day when I drove past.

Another tid-bit of information I've gleaned from a little web-searching is that the movie has nothing to do with Jayne Mansfield or her death, despite the title.  It's a story of 'human relationships' that  Robert Duvall described as 'brilliant'.  One character, presumably his, is faced with an interesting dilemma when the wife who left him behind in Alabama sometime between WWI and WWII to marry an Englishman dies and wants to be buried back in Alabama.  Her old family meets up with her new English family, and things get interesting from there.  There are also three brothers involved somehow.  If you're curious, spend a little time with Google and you'll find more info.

That's it for today.  I'm going to try to get some photos next Thursday of some action.  They did say we'd be able to watch the filming if we want to, and I have a good zoom lens.  We'll see.