WANTED: Oregon film memorabilia, bit-part actors

Published 4:00 pm Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Do you have one of the bicycles used in the 1985 film “The Goonies”?

Or were you an extra in any of the 300-some movies filmed or produced in Oregon?

McAndrew “Mac” Burns wants your stories.

The executive director of the Clatsop County Historical Society is counting down the days to the opening of a new Oregon Film Museum with both panic and anticipation. The museum will open for the Goonies’ 25th anniversary celebration in June: 106 days and counting.

“To make this thing work, I need the public’s help,” Burns said. “Does someone have stories of filming here (in Oregon)? Any memorabilia … did you steal Arnold Schwarzenegger’s hat?”

From “The Fisherman’s Bride” (1908), “Paint Your Wagon” (1969), and “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” (1975) to “Kindergarten Cop” (1990), “Free Willy” (1992) and “Twilight” (2008), Oregon has been the place to set movies. With its offering of deserts, rivers, valleys, mountains, ocean, small towns, big cities, “it can be whatever you want it to be,” Burns said.

He has long thought Astoria would be a perfect place for an Oregon film museum. The town already attracts hundreds of Goonies fans annually. They flock to the Goonies’ house overlooking the river and pose in front of the historic old Clatsop County Jail.

In December, the Clatsop County Historical Society acquired a permanent lease on the old county jail. When the museum opens, visitors and Goonies fans will be able to enter jail cell number two the same cell the villain in “The Goonies” busts out of at the beginning of the movie.

Burns says that when the museum first opens, it may be a little “Goonie-heavy” as the historical society continues to assemble and develop exhibits. A private collection of Goonies memorabilia that made an appearance at the 20th anniversary, will be back for the 25th and will remain on display in the museum.

He hopes people will step forward with their own stories and experiences of other moves filmed in Oregon.

The exhibits could encourage people to travel all across Oregon to see the sets and sceneries of their favorite movies for themselves, he said.

“There’s no reason they can’t go from here to other places,” he said.

He’s on a tight deadline, though.

The county jail looks a little tired inside. It’s primarily been used for storage and even with most of the stuff cleared out, what remains isn’t much more inviting: bare floors and walls, some exposed pipes, peeling ceilings and layers of past decades’ preferences in paint colors. Add to this the grim atmosphere of the metal jail cells and a lone mug shot tucked into the corner of a picture frame hanging on the wall.

“It was definitely a jail,” Burns said.

Ever ready to kill two history birds with one stone, CHS’s film museum will also set aside space to tell the story of the old county jail.

“The building deserves that,” Burns said. “There were two legal hangings right out here. … This was a working jail.”

The historical society will have their hands full getting it ready for the opening.

“A lot of the exhibits will have ‘under development’ all over them (at the opening) and will for the next year,” Burns said. “Hopefully people will start bringing us stuff as they come and see it.”

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