Help needed identifying downtown Austin location!!

[RedShirtPictures]

Hello,

I am hoping you can help me on this, or perhaps point me in the direction of someone who can.


We've been constructing a short documentary piece on the various shooting locations for the film, THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 2 which was shot in Austin back in 1986. We have found pretty much everything out there that is still remaining (in one form or another).

However there is one location that eludes us, still. It's the place where a Chili Cookoff scene was filmed.

We've gotten several crew members' input on where this was shot, but nothing seems to line up and everyone seems to remember it differently. The locations manager remembers it as One American Center (which we visited in person and couldn't find anything there that fit at all), while others seem to think it might have been a hotel lobby in the downtown area. The Art Director said it was a bank building near 7th and Brazos, and the Production Designer remembers the crew trucks being parked along Congress.

Also, I just received info from the Property Master for the film that it was definitely a hotel somewhere on Congress, which would narrow it down to the Stephen F. Austin or Driskill hotels, but neither of them seem to have anything close to the architecture or layout seen in the movie.

Obviously a lot can change in thirty years, but I gotta believe this location still exists somewhere in downtown Austin.

There are some screenshots from the movie below, if you are willing to help. I'm hoping you might recognize something there that helps me on my search.

Any information you can provide would be very helpful.

Thanks!

Michael Felsher
mfelsher@redshirtpictures.com


All of the following images courtesy of MGM Home Video
©1986 Metro Goldwyn Mayer Studios, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...creenshot1.jpg

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...creenshot2.jpg

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...creenshot3.jpg

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...creenshot4.jpg

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...creenshot5.jpg

[The ATX]

Have you tried contacting the guy that runs www.texaschainsawmassacre.net? Leave a comment on his Facebook page. He is pretty quick to respond to such things.

[Homecreek]

Still working on this but in the fourth picture the building in the skylight looks like 823 congress.

[RedShirtPictures]

Originally Posted by The ATX

Have you tried contacting the guy that runs www.texaschainsawmassacre.net? Leave a comment on his Facebook page. He is pretty quick to respond to such things.

Actually, yes, I've know Tim who runs that site for years. He didn't know either.

[MichaelB]

On FB find "leatherface". The actor who played original "Leatherface" is Bill Johnson. Just friend him and ask him what you need . I've worked with him. Nice man who enjoys still appearing as the character.
If he thinks this is cool.... he'll probably help you.

[RedShirtPictures]

Originally Posted by MichaelB

On FB find "leatherface". The actor who played original "Leatherface" is Bill Johnson. Just friend him and ask him what you need . I've worked with him. Nice man who enjoys still appearing as the character.
If he thinks this is cool.... he'll probably help you.

Hey! Actually I've known Bill for years, and he is a great guy. Sadly though he was not on set for that scene.

I've asked several of the cast & crew who were there, and again its just amazing how no two people seem to recall the same location or details.

[KevinFromTexas]

Originally Posted by Homecreek

Still working on this but in the fourth picture the building in the skylight looks like 823 congress.

That's what I was thinking. The only high rise of that color in downtown that has a column on the corner of the building with a balcony, so that you can see through it, is 823 Congress. So then you've got to go looking around 823 Congress within a block or so to look for buildings with skylights.

I was also considering the angles. Whatever building they're in, if that is indeed 823 Congress in the background, and I think it is, then it's probably on the same block that 823 Congress is. There's one building on Congress near there with skylights, but it's across the street and diagonal to 823 Congress, and while it has those vaulted skylights like this one, the angle is wrong because from that angle you wouldn't see any sunlight coming through the corner of 823 Congress because you'd be looking almost dead on at the corner. That address is 710 Congress.

I don't think it's north of 823 Congress either because that would put the building to the left of the frame, where as in the screenshot, it's on the right.

I think the photo was taken south of 823 Congress on the same block. My best guess would be one of the old 2 and 3-story brick/stone buildings on Congress in the 801 block (east side of Congress).

This 3-story building on the corner at 801 Congress, it doesn't have a skylight, though, I suppose it might have had at one time. I'm thinking the photo was taken in one of the other buildings on the block - north of it, between it and 823 Congress. None of those buildings currently have skylights, but two of them have had major renovations done since the 1980s. Two of them even had 3rd floors added in the last decade. Those two buildings today are retail on the ground floor I believe, and there is residential space on the upper floor(s).

https://www.google.com/maps/place/80...ebca7b!6m1!1e1

I would check each of these buildings. There are no skylights in them, but I believe this is where the photo was taken, in one of these.



I used Google Earth to "hover" over those buildings and look up at 823 Congress. The movie screenshot also shows what appears to be a pretty small space. I don't get the feeling that it is a hotel lobby. They seem to be in a pretty small room. I don't think it's farther south of here either, because south of gere is the State and Paramount Theatres, and obviously neither of them have skylights. And it can't be southeast of there either, because taller buildings would block the view.

[KevinFromTexas]

By the way, luckily enough I found a clip of this scene on Youtube.

• Video Link

[MichaelB]

Originally Posted by RedShirtPictures

Hey! Actually I've known Bill for years, and he is a great guy. Sadly though he was not on set for that scene.

I've asked several of the cast & crew who were there, and again its just amazing how no two people seem to recall the same location or details.

Well darn!

Hope you find what you need!

[RedShirtPictures]

Thanks everyone so far for their help...haven't found it yet, but I feel like we are close. Please pass this posting along to anyone out there you think might have a clue.

[The ATX]

What are those nine white squares on top of that lowest building next to 823? Could they be covering up skylights? If one was standing underneath them and looking West-Southwest the side/corner of 823 would appear as it does in the second photo.

[KevinFromTexas]

Originally Posted by The ATX

What are those nine white squares on top of that lowest building next to 823? Could they be covering up skylights? If one was standing underneath them and looking West-Southwest the side/corner of 823 would appear as it does in the second photo.

That's certainly a possibility. That's Brazos Place now, but back then it would have been 800 Brazos - an office building. Before that it was a hotel going back to 1948. The building was renovated in 1984. I believe that's when it became an office building.

I did find this. This is a photo of the lobby of Brazos Place. I believe this is showing the skylight that shows up on Google Earth (the 9 white boxes).

This does look somewhat similar to the movie screenshot.

https://fe888f8c15a52b0318f9-bb97d03...l-5bxopv-l.jpg

Source link for that photo.
http://www.austinreferralrealty.com/...stin-tx-78701/

• Video Link

[RedShirtPictures]

Yknow I came across 800 Brazos before, and after reviewing a few other shots of the lobby area, I just don't think that's it. There's too many structural differences, and I don't know if that skylight in the movie screenshot is really that big. It may have only been a small line of three sections. Also nothing in the 800 Brazos building comes close to matching any of the other areas in the other shots.

I really do appreciate the great detective work going on here though...I feel like we're really close.

[SecretAgentMan]

I think that 9 square grid is actually part of 823 Congress and not 800 Brazos, because it appears to be west of the alley. The interior is vaguely familiar to me, but I can't quite place it.

[KevinFromTexas]

Originally Posted by SecretAgentMan

I think that 9 square grid is actually part of 823 Congress and not 800 Brazos, because it appears to be west of the alley. The interior is vaguely familiar to me, but I can't quite place it.

I see what you're talking about, the 9 small skylights in the corner of 823 Congress. That is part of 823 Congress, but we're talking about the 9 large skylights in the lower right. If you look on Google Earth, they're on the roof of the west wing of Brazos Place. You can see them in the Google Earth screenshot I made at the center bottom of the image.

[KevinFromTexas]

You know, the other possibility is that what we're seeing in that movie screenshot is actually a concrete skeleton of a high rise that is under construction.

[The ATX]

Originally Posted by SecretAgentMan

I think that 9 square grid is actually part of 823 Congress and not 800 Brazos, because it appears to be west of the alley. The interior is vaguely familiar to me, but I can't quite place it.

Those were the ones I was referring too. I don't think the other ones that Kevin was referring to are the right distance/angle to match the movie still. Maybe we should consider areas near U/C highrises in 1986. There can't be too many that were around the height indicated in the skylight scene.

[The ATX]

Possible U/C candidates for the time frame of the filming would include:

100 Congress
San Jacinto Center
One Congress
Austin Centre/Omni Hotel
Capitol Tower
Clements State Office Building

The Raddison hotel (which I think was still a Sheraton Crest at that time) has been remodeled and expanded since then, but it seems to meet some of the criteria. It's on Congress, it's a hotel, and two of the buildings on the above list of U/C buildings were across a street from it. But the skylight is a problem.

[The ATX]

As an aside, there was an apparent search for the location shown on this old Neil Young album cover. It turned out to be Austin, and the Sheraton Crest was the big clue.


http://www.4waysite.com/everything-csny/famous-places/

[RedShirtPictures]

UPDATED INFORMATION:

Ok everyone, there's been some information today which could help clear this up.

Spoke with the film's Director of Photography today, and he remembered the location immediately stating this, which is also something that the Art Director previously told me.

The filming of this scene took place in a bank building lobby. It was on the West Side of Congress.

So that means we need to identify any bank buildings that were in existence on Congress (on the west side of the street) in around April of 1986.

Factors to keep in mind:

1. This building may still be a bank, but certainly not the same bank (whatever it was) back in 1986.

2. This building is likely somewhere near 823 Congress, assuming that actually is 823 Congress in that one screen shot, and not another building under construction.

3. There's also the possibility that this bank building could have been demo'd and rebuilt since that time. A lot can change in 30 years, so finding out definitively what was a bank building in 1986 is really key here.


Any ideas, anyone?