Jason X (2001); Yup, Even A Friday the 13th Movie Has A Scranton Reference

 

I've seen every Friday the 13th movie numerous times, but I have NEVER noticed the Scranton reference in 2001's Jason X; still unsure if I heard the dialogue correctly, I even had to turn on the closed captioning to verify the reference, but it's true.

Jason X, the 10th film in the Friday the 13th franchise, is affectionately referred to by fans as "Jason Goes To Space."

Because of his seemingly inability to be killed, Jason Voorhees is cryogenically frozen by scientists to prevent another murderous rampage; scientist Rowan (Lexa Doig) is accidentally frozen with Jason. A spaceship crew revives them in the year 2455, when "Earth 2" has replaced the now-uninhabitable Earth, and Jason proceeds to continue his trail of murder.

In the first sequence of the film, set in the present, Rowan and Dr. Wimmer (a brilliant cameo by director David Cronenberg) are disagreeing on whether or not to have Jason frozen:

Rowan:

What are you doing here?

Dr. Wimmer:

 I'm taking the speciman.

Rowan:

Well, you can't.  I haven't prepared the cryostatic chamber.

Dr. Wimmer:

(SCOFFS)

I don't want him frozen.  I want him soft.

Rowan:

We've already discussed this.

Dr. Wimmer:

Yeah.  Well, I had to go over your head.  I'm moving him to our Scranton facility. 

Jason X is available on DVD and was also recently released on Blu Ray as part of the Friday the 13th: The Complete Collection box set. 

Miracle of the Bells Available To Borrow on DVD and Blu-Ray; Features Numerous References to Wilkes-Barre and Nanticoke

The 1948 classic film The Miracle of the Bells, starring Fred MacMurray, (Alida) Valli and Frank Sinatra, is available for the first time on DVD and Blu-Ray.  The movie was partly filmed in Wilkes-Barre and Glen Lyon, PA (it also features several reference to both places, as well as Nanticoke). 

Synopsis: Granting her final request, a Hollywood press agent brings the dead body of an actress, who died after making her first and only film, back to her hometown of Coal Town ("near Wilkes-Barre," according to the film) for burial. To arouse public interest, and to get the reluctant studio head to release the film, he asks all the local churches to ring their bells for three days.

Miracle of the Bells is available to borrow from Albright Memorial Library on both DVD and Blu Ray. Click on either link for more information; you may place a hold on the DVD. 

The Good Luck Girls of Shipwreck Lane by Kelly Harms (2013)

My dear friend and fellow avid reader Michele L. came upon a Scranton reference in her summer reading.

Kelly Harm's debut novel The Good Luck Girls of Shipwreck Lane tells the story of Janine Brown of Cedar Falls, Iowa, who wins a beautiful house that overlooks the coast in Maine. 

The problem: there are two Janine Browns in Cedar Falls, Iowa, and both think they've won the house, especially when they are both contacted from the network. 

Page 29, 2nd paragraph: 

"We only made it to Scranton before I go stark raving mad and demand a hotel with a TV that carries the Food Network." 

The Good Luck Girls of Shipwreck Lane is available to borrow from the library.  Click here to place a hold.

Much thanks to Michele L. for this reference.

Author Sebastian Junger To Speak in Scranton Thursday, October 3rd; Referenced Scranton in His Book "War"

The 2013 selection for the Matthew F. Flynn Library Lecture Series American Masters Lecture is Sebastian Junger,  the bestselling author of The Perfect Storm and War, and the co-director of the 2010 documentary Restrepo.

Mr. Junger will speak at the Scranton Cultural Center on Thursday, October 3rd at 7 PM.

War features a brief reference to Scranton.

In 2000 his book The Perfect Storm was adapted into a hit film starring George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg. 

Tickets are free with your library card and will be available in September at all libraries in the Lackawanna County Library System, as well as the Scranton Cultural Center box office.

www.sebastianjunger.com

Gasland Part II, Directed By Wayne County Native Josh Fox, To Premiere on HBO Monday, July 8th

Gasland Part II, directed by Emmy-winning and Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker Josh Fox, will have its television premiere Monday, July 8th at 9 PM on HBO.

Fox is a native of Wayne County; his original 2010 documentary Gasland was a Academy Award nominee for Best Documentary Feature and won an Emmy Award winner in 2011 for Outstanding Directing for Nonfiction Programming.  

The Fringe ("Season Five, Episode Three: "The Recordist") (October 12, 2012)

The hit sci-fi TV show The Fringe recently wrapped its fifth and final season on FOX.  Near the beginning of the third episode of the season (titled The Recordist, which originally aired on Friday, October 12th, 2012), Dr. Walter Bishop (John Noble) has the following exchange during a Coordinate Search in Northern Pennsylvania:

HENRIETTA BISHOP:

Walter, you alright? 

WALTER: 

I'm fairly certain I have a blood clot, because somebody wouldn't stop at Scranton to let me stretch my legs. 

Much thanks to Elizabeth Davis for this reference. 

Queen of the Big Time by Adriana Trigiani (2004); Author To Speak In Scranton Thursday, April 18th

Bestselling author Adriana Trigiani will be the first speaker in the 2013 Matthew F. Flynn Library Lecture Series on Thursday, April 18th at 7 PM at the Scranton Cultural Center.  Tickets are free with your library card and are available at all member libraries in the Lackawanna County Library System.

Her novel Queen of the Big Time is set in Roseto, Pennsylvania (Northampton County) and tells the decade spanning story of a Italian-American farming family.  Middle daughter Nella dreams of becoming a teacher, but circumstances in her life take her on a different path.

The novel features numerous references to Allentown, Bethlehem, and Easton; however, the novel also includes references to a university in our neck of the woods as well:

P. 217: 'She (Celeste, Nella's daughter) is far too young to get married, I think, but this is her choice.  She was in her first year of college at Marywood and decided it wasn't for her."

p. 218: "'Mom, this isn't about what you had, this is about me.  You were never there, which is why I left Marywood."

Also of note is the film makes a passing reference to the 1931 Pre-Code Joan Crawford film Dance Fools Dance, which revolves around the murder of a reporter named Bert Scranton.

Click here to place a hold.

Check out the video below, which is an except from a hilarious lecture Adriana Trigiani gave in March 2010 at Palm Beach County Library.  At the 3:42 spot, Trigiani discusses a hilarious exchange with her best friend, Scranton native Michael Patrick King (Sex and the City), regarding the naming of her child.

http://adrianatrigiani.com/

Long Gone Daddies by David Wesley Williams (2013)

 

Barb Williams, who has regularly contributed Scranton references to the blog, emailed me recently to tell me her husband David Wesley Williams has just published his debut novel titled Long Gone Daddies, and it is FILLED with Scranton references, included two chapters set in Scranton itself.

Below is a description of the book from the publisher's page, John. F. Blair:


"All his life, Luther Gaunt has heard songs in his head songs of sweet evil and blue ruckus, odes to ghosts, drinking hymns. In search of his past, he hits the road with his band, the Long Gone Daddies, and his grandfather's cursed guitar, Cassie.

While his band mates just want to make it big when they get to Memphis, Luther retraces the steps of his father and grandfather, who each made the same journey with the same guitar years earlier. Malcolm Gaunt could have been Elvis that white man who could sing black except his rounder's ways got him shot before he could strike that first note for Sam Phillips at Sun Records. At least that's what Luther's father Malcolm's son always told him before he made like smoke when fame came calling and disappeared down south, too.

As Luther discovers the truth about the two generations of musicians that came before him, he must face the ghosts of history, the temptations of the road, and the fame cravings of a seriously treacherous woman named Delia, who, it turns out, can sing like an angel forsaken.

Long Gone Daddies is lyrically written and accessible as a hook-filled favorite song and proves that the people who struggle the most are invariably the most interesting the most noble whether they succeed or not."

Below is a Scranton reference from David's novel that is included in the Amazon.com preview of the book:

Page 10:

"Some things I know for sure: Malcolm left a wife back home in Pennsylvania, in the coal-dusted city of Scranton."

Click here to purchase a copy of Long Gone Daddies from Amazon.

For a recently recorded podcast with David Wesley Williams discussing his book, click here.

Much thanks to Barb Williams for this reference.

http://www.davidwilliamsauthor.com/

Wilkes-Barre Native Douglas Carter Beane Writes Two Broadway Shows Opening Spring 2013

Wilkes-Barre native and two-time Tony nominee Douglas Carter Beane will be having a busy Spring, as two shows penned by Beane (a musical and a play) will be opening on Broadway within the next 3 months.

Beane wrote the new book for the Broadway revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella, now in previews and opening Sunday, March 3, 20013 at the Broadway Theatre (which recently housed the Broadway debut of Sister Act, also written by Beane). Click here for tickets. 

Beane also wrote the new play The Nance starring Nathan Lane, which opens Monday, April 15, 2013 at the Lyceum Theatre (previews begin Thursday, March 21, 2013).  Click here for tickets.

Click here for a list of previous blog entries on Douglas Carter Beane.

John Henry Hopkins, Jr, Composer (1820 - 1891)

In addition of Winter Wonderland by Honesdale native Richard B. Smith, I've recently learned that another traditional Christmas carol has its origins in Northeastern/Central Pennsylvania.

John Henry Hopkins, Jr. (October 28, 1820 – August 14, 1891) was an American clergyman and hymnist.  Born in Pittsburgh, Hopkins served as rector of Christ Episcopal Church in Williamsport, Pennsylvania; he delivered the eulogy at the funeral of President Ulysses S Grant in 1885.

In 1857 in Williamsport, Hopkins composed the words and music of We Three Kings (Of Orient Are) as part of a Christmas pageant for his nephews and nieces.The hymn has since become a traditional holiday carol recoded by musical legends such as The Beach Boys, Ella Fitzgerald, Neil Diamond, Bing Crosby and many others.

Much thanks to Deborah L. for this reference.

Argo (2012)

Brian Fulton, Librarian at The Times-Tribune and all-around groovy guy, went to see Argo, the critically-acclaimed movie directed by and starring Ben Affleck that is generating a lot of awards buzz.


Based on real events, the dramatic thriller Argo chronicles the life-or-death covert operation to rescue six Americans, which unfolded behind the scenes of the Iran hostage crisis, focusing on the little-known role that the CIA and Hollywood played—information that was not declassified until many years after the event.

At one point in the film, President Jimmy Carter's Chief of Staff Hamilton Jordan (played by Kyle Chandler) states that "some guy in Scranton is planting a flag a day."

Argo is now playing at Cinemark in Moosic, Marquee Cinemas at Steamtown, and Great Escape IMAX 14 in Dickson City.

Much thanks to the ever-awesome Brian Fulton for this reference.

http://argothemovie.warnerbros.com/

Saturday Night Live (Saturday, October 13, 2012)

Four years ago, Saturday Night Live presented a hilarious skewering of the Vice-Presidential debate between Joe Biden (Jason Sudeikis) and Sarah Palin (Tina Fey), in which Biden ripped into the "hellhole" of his hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania.

Four years later, he does it again.

Last night's SNL once again presented a hilarious parody of the Vice-Presidential Debate.  This time Republican nominee Paul Ryan (Taram Killam) is on the listening end of Joe Biden's (Jason Sudeikis) tearing into Scranton.  

The following exchange begins at around the 1:55 mark in the clip below, where moderator Martha Raddatz (Kate McKinnon) questions each candidate on getting the unemployment rate to under 6 percent and how long it will take.

Paul Ryan: 

Martha, Vice-President Biden and I come from very similar places.  I’m from Janesville, Wisconsin and he’s from Scranton, Pennsylvania.  Do you know what the unemployment rate in Scranton is right now? 

Joe Biden:  

Sure do. 

Paul Ryan:  

It’s 10 percent.  And I just wonder what the Vice-President would say to the hardworking people of towns like Janesville and Scranton. 

Joe Biden: 

Well, I’d know what I’d say to my friend AND the people of Janesville.  Things may be bad where you live, but I guarantee you it is a paradise next to the burning coal heap that is Scranton, Pennsylvania.  Do you know that show Walking Dead, The Walking Dead?  It would make a good tourism ad for Scranton.  I mean, if you went to the lowest circle of hell, you’d STILL be 45 minutes outside of Scranton.  And I grew up there.  I love it.  It’s the single worst place on Earth.

Atlas Shrugged Part II Opens Friday; Will It Mention Scranton?

Part II of the Atlas Shrugged film adaptation opens Friday, October 12th at Cinemark in Moosic.  The novel includes a brief Scranton reference on page 836.  I'm curious if the intended film trilogy will include the reference.

www.atlasshruggedmovie.com

Scranton Natives Amy Wilson and Julie Kramer Write, Produce and Star in "The Best of Everything" in NYC

Opening tonight in New York is the theatrical adaptation of the 1958 Rona Jaffe novel The Best of Everything (later adapted into a film starring Joan Crawford).  Julie Kramer and Amy Wilson are Scranton natives who previously collaborated on Amy's one-woman show The Mother Load which has played both off-Broadway and Scranton.  Julie is the writer and director of the new production(which runs through October 20th at the HERE Arts Centre--145 6th Street; click here to purchase tickets), and Amy is playing one of the lead roles.   


Amy Wilson is also the author of the 2010 book When Did I Get Like This? (which features numerous references to Scranton).

Julie and Amy were recently profiled in The Times-Tribune.  Click here to read the full article.

Click here for an article from Playbill.com about the adaptation and opening of the new play.


Much thanks to Peter Cupple for this reference.

"Remembering the Scranton Sirens" Documentary Wins Emmy

Congratulations to the creative team behind the documentary Remembering the Scranton Sirens, which recently won an Emmy award for Best Documentary.  The documentary, produced by WVIA and directed by Scranton native Gregory Matkosky (Stories From the Mines), won the award at the 30th Annual Mid-Atlantic Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Ceremony, held in Philadelphia on Saturday, September 22nd in Philadelphia.

Click here for more information on The Scranton Sirens.

Click here to read more about the Emmy win.

Much thanks to Evelyn Gibbons for this reference.