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Small town of Greenville; street looks like Wisteria Lane

posted 18 years ago by adreed24
9 replies | jump to latest

I just saw "Not as a Stranger" on our local PBS station.

The movie is great to watch and enjoyable because of the amount of stars in it.
Also, the 1955 elements, like the street scenes and buildings were great to look at, especially since I am too young to remember the 1950s.

I loved watching the street scenes with all of the cars,(antiques and classics by 2006 standards). It is hard to believe that back in the 1950s, all cars looked like that.

I did notice one thing about the street location where Robert Mitchum's character lived, in the town of Greenville. I have a question about it that maybe someone could answer.

There was a long shot of the street, where movie viewers could see down the street quite a distance. I thought that the neighborhood/street, or backlot, where this was shot, looked alot like Wisteria Lane from the TV show "Desperate Housewives".

"Not as a Stranger" was an MGM film. I wonder if it is possible that the street scene in the movie, is the same fake street that is used as Wisteria Lane on the TV show?

From what I have heard, the "Wisteria Lane" street is quite famous, since it was also used for "Leave it to Beaver" and other TV shows.

Anyone know?
Thanks in advance!

[–] Doylenf 18 years ago

Not likely to be the same street set used for DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES.

And besides, NOT AS A STRANGER was not an MGM film at all. It was released by United Artists. But aside from that, it's hardly likely that a street set used in 1955 would still be featured fifty years later. Studios aren't that hard up for new sets.

[–] adreed24 18 years ago

I found out that "Wisteria Lane" is located on the back lot of Universal Studios. The street/set has been in use for many years. In fact, Beaver Cleaver's home on "Leave it to Beaver" and the Cunningham house on "Happy Days" is located on the "Wisteria Lane" street/set.

The director of "Not as a Stranger", Stanley Kramer, shot some of his movies on the Universal lot, and may have used the same street/set. Maybe that's why it looked familiar to me.

[–] Doylenf 18 years ago

Well, anything's possible and maybe you're right. MGM used the same street sets for many years (from Andy Hardy to any film needing an American street setting) and Warner Bros. used their "typical residential street with white picket fences" for many years, so I suppose there's always the possibility Universal sets (like the Phantom sets for Lon Chaney) did remain for a long time.

[–] texcritic 18 years ago

I watched this "weepie" on TCM, and I watched the backlot sets as well. I'm sure that this is not the Universal Street currently used for Wisteria Lane. For one thing there are hills visible behind the curve on Wisteria, not here. Also the look is different. Because this is a UA film which had no fixed studio backlot the film company would to have rented space on another backlot. So who knows?

Could have been the "40 acres" lot in Culver City which at that time was part of RKO when Howard Huges owned it. Since RKO wasn't a full schedule studio by that time there would have been plenty of time available for rentals. 40 acres was used to film Gone With the Wind, by the way. Based upon my limited knowledge I would pick this lot as the most likely.

Fox still had their lot at that time where Century City is now located, and the Burbank lot of Warners was also around.

The small town streets and "New York" urban streets of Studio lots were kept largely in tact with only small modifications from the 1930s until the lots were razed for more valuble real estate in the 70s - 90s, or for Universal, Warner and Culver still remain today.

I found it interesting that Olivia de Haviland was only one year older than Mitchum yet played the older woman. Both were nearly forty at the time that Mitch was a yound intern and Ollie the older wife married for her money. I like the way she played pissed off through most of the movie.

[–] jejozi 11 years ago

The age of the actors was distracting early in the story. Sinatra was only four years younger Crawford.

This will be the high point of my day; it's all downhill from here.

[–] renwest-1 17 years ago

I thought the same thing! I was hoping someone in the biz would know for sure and respond. If I was to bet, I'd wager $5.00 that they are the same street. Maybe we could ask Harry Morgan, he's still around!

[–] adreed24 17 years ago

I'm glad that I'm not the only one who thinks the streets are the same.

Just for fun, I e-mailed Leonard Maltin, the movie guy from "Entertainment Tonight"; he is also a Hollywood historian. I asked him about the "Wisteria Lane" street set. To my surprise, he got back to me a day later.

He told me that it is quite possible that the "Wisteria Lane" street set is the same as the "Greenville" street from "Not as a Stranger". He told me the movie's director shot on the backlot (where "Wisteria Lane" is located), a few times. However, the director also shot at other backlots, and Mr. Maltin could not tell me, absolutely for sure, if the streets were the same.

I have sent out a few other e-mails about this topic, but haven't heard back from the others yet.

I'm still curious about this street set, and I'll keep researching.

[–] ububub 17 years ago

The "Bewitched" house, used between 1964 and 1971 still shows up often in commercials - forty years later. So I wouldn't be surprised if they're still using sets from fifty years ago.

[–] jejozi 11 years ago

I'm watching it now, and the downtown, the shops across the street from a park, reminded me of the town in the Trilogy episodes of Quantum Leap.

This will be the high point of my day; it's all downhill from here.