My Goonies Story
By Dave Saville
I was 9 years old when I saw The Goonies in the cinema first time round. My parents took me to see it at my local cinema (now sadly gone). Luckily they gave in after constant hours of asking. I got to see it three times over its film run. It's my fave 1980s movie of all time. Don't get me wrong, there's loads of 80s classic films that I adore, but "The Goonies" will always be my No.1 fave 80s film.
As soon as "The Goonies" came to VHS, I rented every week from the video man, who had a van. This was every Saturday. He must have thought I was crazy, but for £1 a week it was a must have. Luckily he had multiple copies of the film. As soon as "The Goonies" was available to buy from shops, I got my copy. In fact, I still have the same video from all those years ago. There are some things you just don't throw away.
My quest was to go and see the locations of "The Goonies," and where it was filmed. As soon as I got my first PC I googled Astoria, and as there was no Google maps back then, only pictures people had posted was the only way to view the house, and only a handful of locations as well. The Internet back then wasn't like it is today, so it was fairly limited.
As the years and years went by, more and more stuff came to the net, so I could Google more. Anyway, my quest, as I was saying, was to visit one day the locations of my fave 80s movie of all time. Being from the UK, I knew it would cost a lot of money to go, i.e. flights, car, accommodation, etc., but I didn't think out that. AlI I knew is I just wanted to go.
Fast forward to 2010, and my dream was coming true. I saved up more than enough to go, and it was picking the right time to do it. If I was to do this, things needed to be planned, and properly. I googled every location in Astoria as I could, as well as Cannon Beach, which was a good 40 minute drive from Astoria. Eventually everything was planned except for one thing ... Could I get a tour of the Goonies house?
There was only one thing for it. I put pen to paper and I wrote a letter to Sandi Preston, who owns the house. I knew my letter would take maybe a week to get there, as I'm from the UK, so I wasn't expecting a response anytime soon. One day I came home from work checked my emails, as you do, and there it was. Sandi had emailed me. I couldn't believe it.
After I read her email, my dreams had finally come true. She said I'd be happy to take you for a tour around my home, and was happy to do an onscreen tour for film as well. Well, I was like a kid who just come out of a candy shop. For days, weeks, months, all I kept thinking was, "I'm going to Astoria."
Me and my mate Herve (Attia) planned everything out to go in October 2011. The day arrived to catch my plane from the UK to Los Angeles. Once I arrived I had to wait a few hours and then get a flight to Portland, where I would meet him. The next morning we set off for a 2-hour car journey from Portland to Astoria. We would spend two days there, constant filming.
When we arrived in Astoria, my heart was beating with excitement, I kept thinking it was just like off Google maps, but now this is real. I just couldn't get my head around it all. We were due to meet Sandi at her house around 11 a.m., if I'm correct, as we got there just before 9 a.m., we had plenty of time to film locations.
What's good about the locations is that they're all with in driving distance with in each other. We started of at the county jail, we paid to get in, and had a look around the museum there, as well as filming inside also. Our next scene to film was the stop and snack shop (a deleted scene from the film). Unfortunately they wouldn't allow us to film inside, but that was OK, we got a few sneaky shots anyway.
After we filmed the shop scene it started to rain, but that didn't bother us — we kept on filming. The next scene we filmed was the police chase scene when they break away from the jail. We had to get every shot right. After about an hour, we took a break and headed for the house. I couldn't believe it, I'm standing outside the Goonies house. I couldn't get my head around it. Sandi was out still at this point. so we started to film the exterior shots as well as Data's house.
Sandi came to meet us, and I said to her, "you have made my dream come true." She invited us in and gave us a quick tour of her house, and just explained where the scenes were filmed, and how things have changed, etc. Then she gave us the tour with my camera rolling, we did it all in one take. The last place to film was the attic, but it wasn't filmed there, as this was done on sound stage. The shot you see when the kids go up the ladder was filmed at the house, then it cuts, and the rest is movie magic.
We eventually left the Goonies house and started more filming, which took us to the end of the day. As we relaxed with a few beers, we went over our next location, Cannon beach. We got up the next morning early and headed off. Traffic was light, but the weather was cloudy and rain, just like the movie, pretty much. We would spend an entire day filming there, covering every location possible.
The lighthouse was just a prop for the film, and had to be taken down as soon as they finished making the movie, so when you go there it's just a big park. In fact, it's called Ecola State Park. The end scene in the film, when the ship sails away and the Goonies are sitting on the rock, was filmed in a completely different location, so I left Herve to film that, as it was easier for him than me. We both headed back for L.A., where we did more filming for different films.
I'll never forget my time spent in Astoria, and hopefully one day I'll return again. But if not, I can say I've done it, and that my quest has been completed.
(You can see Dave and Herve's film, "On Set: The Goonies," at https://bit.ly/OnSetGoonies)