I know this is a longshot as far as trivia, but I have always wanted to know.
My thoughts are California but I would like to know specifically WHERE.
Thanks in advance to anyone who might have this tidbit!
>^..^<
I believe it was filmed in New York (or maybe Connecticut?) because the actors were nearly all New York-based stage actors. None of them were stars--at the time--so it is most likely the producers hired from the New York area and filmed there, rather than import actors from New York and moving them to California for filming. It was also, as I understand from other information I've read, a fairly low budget film, so traveling actors and putting them up in hotels was probably not in the budget. Anyway, that's what I surmise from the information provided.
shareThe movie Ladybug Ladybug was filmed in Gradyville PA, While the adult roles in Ladybug are played by professional actors mostly recruited from the broadway stage, the cast of upwards of a hundred youngsters who appear in the film are mainly non-pros, recruited from the classes of the rual school in Gradyville Pa.
shareThe movie was made in Gradyville, Pa. I know this for sure since I was born and raised there and was in the movie. It was made at our grade school and the surrounding area. There were a number of us that got to be in it. I was 12 at the time. I'm curious as to who moviehog is since they are obviously from the area also.
shareThanks so much to everyone for their replies!!! :) It's all so interesting to me. I am one of those people who is fascinated by particular filming locations. I would have never guessed Pennsylvania, as the countryside in the movie reminds me so much of northern California where I grew up.
Kazoopaint55, do you have any idea what the area looks like now, and if your school is possibly still there? Unfortunately, I picture putrid strip malls, condos and parking lots now rolling across that serene, beautiful country, but maybe Gradyville has been spared that sort of thing!
>^..^<
Gradyville hasn,t changed too much. Many of the larger farms in the area have been broken up for housing and one has a large nursing home on it now. It does not have much commercial development - there are no strip malls at all. As far as I know the Minimum zoning for the Township is still 2 acres. There is no public water or sewer systems. The grade school is still there but it is not a school anymore. I believe it is daycare now. I ordered a DVD of the movie and should have it shortly. Needless to say I'm excited. I haven't seen it in 40 years!
shareDOes the Grade School still exsit there ? and did it have that civil defense box on the wall or was it just put there as a prop for the movie
sharethe school still exists just not as a school. It was sold many years ago and I believe it is a daycare now.
The civil defense box with the warning lights was a prop.
Oh, man, kazoo, what role did you have? And is it too much to ask for some pics of the area as it is now (like the school)?
Help me out here. The group with Mrs. Andrews seems like an awfully long walk...and in heels too. I figure it was about 2-3 hours by foot because it was around 10:30 by the time the kids got to the shelter and school usually starts around 7:30 at the earliest, so class must've just started when the alarm went off.
Can't figure out if it was spring or fall.
The trash with the refrigerator, not sure if it was the town dump or people just dumped their trash there. If the girl suffocated in the refrigerator, than would the other girl somehow be responsible because she didn't let her in the shelter?
It is possible the radio couldn't warn yet because they didn't know. Think of Pearl Harbor. If it was a surprise attack, the stations wouldn't break into programming until after the fact or as it was happening.
In real time, the oldest boys will be old enough by 1968 to be drafted and maybe sent to Vietnam with very real bombs..
Where did you order the dvd from?
shareThe school was Gradyville Elementary, later named "Hanna Carr" for the principal, Miss Hanna. She and her sister, Miss Elsie, were my sixth- and first-grade teachers. Filming took place on Twin Ash Farm, our property at Delchester and Stackhouse Mill Roads. My siblings and I weren't allowed to be in the film because we had dentist appointments that day : (
shareMiss Hanna and Miss Elsie were my great Aunts. I am trying to find pictures of the school if anyone has them. I have a few of them in school and one of Aunt Hanna next to the school sign. It’s always been a sense of pride that movie was there!
shareKazoo,
I'm working on a book about The Perrys currently and am in touch with many that worked on Ladybug. I'm working who you are and if I am in touch with you already. If I am not in touch with you, I would love to speak with you for my book on Frank and Eleanor. Would there be any way you could email me? My email is [email protected]
Is this book still in the works? I'd love to read it, as I love The House Without a Christmas Tree, The Thanksgiving Treasure, and the original A Christmas Memory.
shareFilming locations have always fascinated me as well. I grew up in Pennsylvania and find this quite interesting.
If you know the approximate address of the school, and/or the farmhouse, you can probably get a look on google maps street view of what it looks like now. I've done this with my old hometown from 50 years ago, and it hasn't changed that much. Perhaps more rural areas are protected from progress, which makes me happy.
John
Gradyville, PA is located in Delaware County, PA, right next to the city of Philadelphia. Gradyville is actually a section of a town called Edgemont. Gradyville is pretty much just like it looks in the film, not exactly the most exciting place in global history. Good little backdrop for the film, though. I think maybe a number of people kinda missed the point of the film. No firm conclusions can be drawn from the film's ending. The viewer really has no way of knowing what happens in the final moments of the movie. But this picture I think
goes a long way to showing the mistakes that could be made when people jump to conclusions, and don't think things through completely. It's all about panicking, and not really trying to deal with stressful situations logically and rationally. The picture is also reminiscent of an episode of the original Twilight Zone TV show, where the people in a whole town, or a section of a town, jump to some of the same conclusions as the people in this movie. Also, makes a comment about the people, who, back in those days, built these shelters in their back yards, and stocked them with food and other supplies; all as we were to eventually find out, for nothing. Looking back on those days, the whole thing seems kinda comical. Of course, if those people had turned out to be right, and there was some kind of nuclear holocaust, they all would have looked like geniuses. [email protected]