A beautiful coming-of-age story that came out as a movie back in 1971 called Summer of ’42 is a film that was based on the memoirs of Herman Raucher, a screenwriter who published the autobiographical novel of the same name as the film, making it one of the most loved films of the year. If watching the film has made you curious to find out more about its filming locations, then continue reading till the end.
Based on his own life story, Herman Raucher wrote this story of a young teen boy who finds himself developing a crush on a beautiful young woman named Dorothy, whose husband is away fighting in a war. The young boy, in the summer of 1942 on Nantucket Island, continues on with his one-sided love, only to go through a loss he would remember forever.
The book was at the time released prior to the movie, and it created chaos among people leaving them crying and heartbroken. The movie was also a huge success, becoming one of the highest-grossing movies of the year. The film received nominations for Best Motion Picture-Drama, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Cinematography, and many others, and it ended up winning the Oscar for Best Original Score and the BAFTA Award for Best Original Music.
This coming of age with an underlying romantic theme is a tender and charming movie with dramatic cinematography. The movie really has it all, be it romance, great scriptwriting, the innocence of a crush that turns naturally into one’s first love, the coming of age of a young boy in love, friendship, loss, and summer that one will remember for a lifetime.
With so many fans still coming back to the movie or reaching out for the novel, it is clear that many continue to see it as a piece of literary art. The movie stars Jennifer O’Neil as Dorothy, Gary Grimes as Hermie, Jerry Houser as Oscy, and Oliver Conant as Benjie is a fan favorite because of its themes of slow yet powerful emotional and sexual awakening that these young boys have.
As it continues to be one of the most beautiful pieces of cinema to ever exist from the 70s, let us dive into some of the filming locations which added heavily to its background sets and cinematography.
Summer Of ’42’s Filming Locations
California, United States
The film is said to be based on the East Coast, but the shooting for it was actually done in Northern California and parts in and around it. Over the span of eight weeks that the film was under production, the crew and the actors remained in parts of Fort Bragg and Mendocino, located on the West Coast of the United States.
Mendocino was the place where the makers decided to put up Dorothy and Hermie’s home and the town’s marketplace. Fort Bragg was used in the film as all of the other significant locations in the film.
Two locations that we can still spot in the film, even after so forty years of its release, are Little Lake Street, Main Street, and Ukiah Street, three of these places situated in Mendocino, California. The town of Mendocino is known mostly for its amazing greenery and beautiful beaches. Surely, with the release of the movie, the town must have gotten popular among fans for a while.
While both of these places were the primary shooting locations throughout the entire filming process, a small part of the film was also shot in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Not much is known about the specifics of the locations of the film, any more than what we have mentioned.
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