Fans descend on SJB for Vertigo extravaganza
This fall marked the 50th anniversary of the filming of Alfred
Hitchcock’s famous masterpiece
”
Vertigo.
”
In October of 1957 the cast and crew arrived to unseasonably wet
weather. Fifty years later, visitors arrived to clear and sunny
skies to celebrate the film’s colorful past. One visitor came from
as far away as Virginia to partake in the historic weekend.
Fans descend on SJB for Vertigo extravaganza
This fall marked the 50th anniversary of the filming of Alfred Hitchcock’s famous masterpiece “Vertigo.” In October of 1957 the cast and crew arrived to unseasonably wet weather. Fifty years later, visitors arrived to clear and sunny skies to celebrate the film’s colorful past. One visitor came from as far away as Virginia to partake in the historic weekend.
Historians and fans, or “Vertigarians,” all assembled for three days to celebrate the filming of some of the most important segments of “Vertigo” at Mission San Juan Bautista. Events kicked off Oct. 5 with a viewing of the movie on a projector screen set underneath the very roof that Hitchcock filmed scenes for the film 50 years earlier.
Hollister resident Ruben Ortega had a very sentimental reason to commemorate the anniversary of the filming of “Vertigo.” Ortega was paid $15 in 1957 to be an extra in a crowd scene at the Mission in San Juan Bautista while on his lunch break. The memory was important enough that Ortega decided to take the Saturday morning off to attend a Memorial Mass at the Mission in honor of the late Alfred Hitchcock.
This past weekend, visitors to San Juan Bautista knew better than to ask the locals, “Where’s the Tower?” in reference to the long gone Mission bell tower. The “Vertigo” enthusiasts already knew the answer to the infamous question: the bell tower scenes from the movie were fabricated by Alfred Hitchcock and filmed entirely in the studio.
