Filmed in Jersey
Before Hollywood, New Jersey film studios and back lots reeled out silent pictures. Mary Pickford starred in The New York Hat, filmed on location in 1912 in Fort Lee, NJ. Photo courtesy of Barrymore Film Center by Vince Farinaccio
World Film Producing Studios in Fort Lee, NJ, with Director T. Hayes Hunter on the back lot. Photos courtesy of Barrymore Film Center
This year’s Oscar contender Trial of the Chicago 7 may have been shut out of any Academy Awards last month, but its cinematic sleight-of-hand is probably not lost on North Jerseyans. That portion of the Garden State substituted for the movie’s Illinois setting, with scenes shot in Paterson, Newark, Clifton, Hoboken, Montclair and Madison. Like other motion pictures recently filmed in New Jersey, it can be viewed as a sort of homecoming to the region once recognized as America’s movie industry capital.