Since then, dozens of flicks, from blockbusters like "Philadelphia" and "National Treasure" to more obscure works (ever see the Mark Wahlberg-starring political thriller, "Shooter"?) have been made or shot scenes in our little corner of the universe.
Watching these movies isn't the only way to get a look at the shooting locations. Every Saturday, the Greater Philadelphia Film Office offers a 2 1/2-hour tour of more than 50 such sites, all of which lie within a few square miles of each other.
The Philadelphia Movie Sites Tour departs in a 32-seat minibus at 10 sharp from the Market Street side of the Independence Visitor Center. Among its stops are the Italian Market, Eastern State Penitentiary, City Hall, 30th Street Station and Rittenhouse Square.
The tour's hook is that it just doesn't point out the sites as the bus rolls by them. Instead, each site is accompanied by a corresponding film clip screened on the coach's video system. For instance, as Famous 4th Street Delicatessen, on the southwest corner of 4th and Bainbridge streets, comes into view, tourgoers watch a segment from "Philadelphia" that used the venerable eatery as a backdrop.
All 50-plus points of interest are represented by exterior views only. The sole break is a brief leg-stretcher at the "Rocky steps."
The tour had its genesis in the days leading up to the Republican Party's 2000 National Convention, when George W. Bush was nominated as that year's GOP presidential candidate.
"Those of us who worked in tourism were asked by the city to come up with a marketing plan - in a city where, if you drop an atomic bomb, you'll kill six Republicans," offered Sharon Pinkenson, founder and executive director of the Greater Philadelphia Film Office, which lures movie and television shoots to the Delaware Valley and facilitates production once they're here.
