Groundhog Day: When Punxsutawney Phil went to Woodstock
Groundhog Day is a time to celebrate prognosticating rodent Punxsutawney Phil’s emergence from his winter burrow in Gobbler’s Knob, just northeast of Pittsburgh. As the story goes, if he sees his shadow six more weeks of winter are predicted. No shadow means an early spring.
The event received Hollywood-style attention when Punxsutawney Phil was in Woodstock — Illinois, that is — in 1992 for the filming of the 1993 movie, Groundhog Day starring Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell. Local people served as movie extras.
Woodstock, Illinois was selected because, unlike Gobbler’s Knob, it has the kind of picturesque square that movies are made of. Woodstock Square, with 19th century architecture and unique shops, is a center of festivals, fairs, concerts, holiday carolers, and horse-drawn carriages.
In the movie, TV weatherman Phil Connors, played by the irascible Bill Murray, comes to Punxsutawney to report on the Groundhog Day event. He awakens each day each day, stuck in time, to hear Sonny and Cher’s I Got You Babe playing on the radio and relives the day over and over. Scenes were shot on the square and surrounding streets.
On Groundhog Day weekend Woodstock has a series of events surrounding the special day including a walking tour (woodstockgroundhog.org) of key places that were featured in the movie.
The Woodstock Opera House served as the Pennsylvanian Hotel, the accommodations for Rita Hanson, the TV producer played by Andie Macdowell. A stunt man performed Phil’s jump from the Opera House’s bell tower, doing a swan dive into an air bag.
The Romanesque-style Opera House, circa 1889, has served various municipal functions in Woodstock. The upstairs auditorium was built to attract outside entertainment. Orson Welles, Shelley Berman, Tom Bosley, Paul Newman performed there in their early careers and it remains a cultural and entertainment center.
Bill Murray’s character had a room at the Cherry Street Inn Bed & Breakfast, a house not then a B&B on Fremont Street. The film crew only went inside turn on lights. Phil’s room was filmed in a warehouse in Cary, Illinois. The house was purchased by new owners in 2008 who have turned it into an actual bed and breakfast, the Royal Victorian Manor.
A plaque also makes the house of the movie’s piano teacher, now the private home of a university professor.
There’s the spot where Phil Connors meets obnoxious insurance salesman Ned “Watch out for that first step. It’s a doooooozy!” Ryerson. Visitors needn’t worry about the troublesome puddle. The sidewalk has been repaired and the spot is marked with a plaque.
The Woodstock Theater served as the Alpine Theater for the movie.
Woodstock’s claim to fame is not limited to its role as Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania in Groundhog Day. The square was also preserved in movie history in Planes, Trains, and Automobiles starring Steve Martim and John Candy. Historic Woodstock Square is on the National Register of Historic Places.
Bill Murray and Director Harold Ramis have been honorary Grand Marshalls at the Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania Groundhog Day celebrations.