Crazy - last night the whanau watched a film together, 'Don't say good luck', my wife's pick. About a girl in a US highschool with performing ambitions & a dying mum, played by Melanie Lynsky. At one point, they mention visiting a place called 'Crane House'... & I told my family we had a place by that name in my home town in New Jersey, an early settler's house that we used to visit on school field trips, thinking it'd be funny if that's what they meant. 1/2
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My boy then looked up the movie online (It's on Netflix)... & informed me it was filmed in Montclair, NJ, (my home town) and the highschool I went to was actually used as the set! I hadn't recognised it, but then again most US public highschools from a certain era look similar... but how wild is that?! Oh, and as an extra bonus, Steve Buscemi was in it! 2/2
@lightweight Yeah. I was at MHS from 1968-1971. ‘Looked more like a war zone than a movie set at the time. Race riots, detectives in the hallways, endless hazards. Strangely, I remember it very fondly, especially Mr Napp & the band room, soccer, Mr Mac & Madrigals, Ms Bubruski & US history, Suzie the heart throb <sigh>. ‘Wouldn’t trade those years for anything.
@TreeStarMan jeepers, Euan! I'd forgot that you went to MHS! Don't think I remember any of those names - I was there from '84-'88 and don't have lots of fond memories although I think it gave me a bit of life experience and appreciation of diversity that many others didn't develop... I was too focused on academics and not enough on living in those days... My life expanded quite a bit after high school, although I suspect much of the perspective I had after that came from those years.
Incidentally, just spotted this: https://www.rnz.co.nz/life/people/celebrity/melanie-lynskey-on-her-latest-dream-film-lifelong-mentors-and-nz-roots
@lightweight i didn't realise you went to the same school as Steve Buscemi. Nice.
@jdmcg no - he was in the movie, not at my school. Although Joe Walsh (guitarist) was there a few years before me...
Would this be a Crane House of the toilet Cranes? There's one of those up on the North Shore of MA.
@doctormo not sure, to be honest... this is the one in Montclair, though... https://www.montclairhistory.org/nathaniel-crane-house/ - funny to think a house built in 1818 wold be one of the oldest around, eh.
This one is a boongoggle of a thing up near Gloucester, MA. Built ten years after your Crane House. https://historicipswich.net/crane-estate/
