On what island was Summer of '42 shot

"Actually I understand from Jennifer O'Neill's book "Surviving Myself" that it was ironically filmed near Mendocino, in northern California."

ummmm... <why> is that "ironic?"
Perhaps you should look the word up before using it.

Thanks for your informative post. I think the word ironic is used appropriately, after all the story takes place in New England (as you know) and I enjoyed your retort as well. You made my day!

I have always loved this movie, and also consider Mendocino to be one of my favorite one of my favorite places in the world, although I have only been there once, but I felt incredibly connected to the place. Now, I know why.



The sun shone, having no alternative, on the nothing new. Samuel Beckett

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I'll second that. I've been to Mendocino many times. That is most definitely it. It doesn't quite look that way anymore, but close to it. In fact, a lot of Northern CA coastal towns look like that.

Well, it sure does pass for Massachusetts (Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard, etc.,).

A native there said the movie theatre was in Caspar which is about half way between Fort Bragg and Mendocino City and was opened up specifically for the movie. One funny thing or maybe 2 is that they used burlap to cover up the gas sign in Noyo Harbor and this can be clearly seen in the movie when the husband's ferry leaves. Another thing that can be seen briefly is the bridge spanning the entrance to Noyo Harbor south of Fort Bragg. This same harbor is the one used in "The Russians are Coming" and also in "Overboard." In Mendocino City the film company had to pay to take down all the TV antennas and replace them later, repaint the houses and then repaint them back to the original colors and then they filled the town with pre-'42 cars. The beach scenes were filmed up at Cleone Beach just north of Fort Bragg. Mendocino is mainly an artists' colony which is why the ordinance and the historical recognition came to pass. The whole area used is about 15 miles in length. I usually watch this movie or "Overboard" when I get homesick. The coast is only 30 miles from where I grew up.

It was definitely shot in and around Mendocino CA, and I know because by some odd fluke we happened to be there around the time they were preparing the outside of the theater for filming.

It was a very hot day. My late mom, our friend Ellie, her daughter Tracy and I driving around Mendocino sight seeing. Since we lived in Ukiah at the time, we went over to the coast often. Tracy and I were little girls at the time. Mom saw the "Air Conditioning" sign from a street away, and of course drove right over there. Then we saw that it was a theater and my mother almost fell out of the door when she saw a poster for Sergeant York outside the theater and of course "Now Voyager".

"Oooh Ellie, look! Let's go to the show, it's air conditioned even!!", my mom squealed with joy. She parked the car, and we got out and walked over. We were standing at the box office to buy tickets wondering why no one was waiting on us, when a man said, "Ma'am, could you please move off of our set?" My mom said, "Oh. We're here to see the movie" and the man told us the movie wasn't playing, they were filming a movie.

At that point, we looked inside and saw that it was only a facade and wasn't a theater at all, in fact, it was a gas station/garage. The people on the set were really nice and told us the name of the movie would be "Summer of '42". They might have filmed the interior shots at Casper theater. We sure didn't see anything inside that building that looked like a screen or movie seats.

Of course we were overjoyed when the movie came out and the scene outside the theater came up.