Location, location …
No, that’s not a nod to some time-honored wisdom about real estate.
It’s a reminder of the TV shows that have recently used Vancouver as a film location. Last week, two Columbian section covers had stories about productions that were filmed here.
Thursday’s local section featured Jay Leno’s visit to Clayton Paddison’s garage. The comedian and car collector brought his crew here Wednesday for an episode of “Jay Leno’s Garage.”
On Friday, our Life section explored OPB’s documentary about Fort Vancouver produced by Vancouver filmmaker Beth Harrington.
“Fort Vancouver” will air at 9 p.m. on May 21 on Channel 10. The scenes shot by Leno’s crew Wednesday are for an episode of “Jay Leno’s Garage” that will eventually air on CNBC.
After the crew left, the Paddisons and their neighbors indicated that the guy they met in person is just the way Leno appears on TV: low-key, warm and friendly. And funny.
In one scene, Leno and Paddison were driving the Hazel Dell resident’s vintage Buick to Vancouver Lake. When they pulled over to the shoulder, a cyclist pedaled up, peered into the car and admiringly asked: “What year is this?”
A 1927 Buick, Paddison replied.
The cyclist didn’t realize who the other guy in the car was until Leno leaned toward him and shot back: “And what year is that bike?”
Mind-blowing brick
Harrington did a lot of shooting at Fort Vancouver National Historic Site and found way more story material than she could use. There are almost 2 million artifacts in the collection, and the one that really impressed her doesn’t have a role in her film.
“The one that blows my mind is the brick,” Harrington said.
She is referring to a brick that was made when Romans occupied England about 2,000 years ago. Someone recycled the Roman ruin centuries later, and the brick eventually wound up at Fort Vancouver.
The mind-blowingest part is the paw print embedded in the brick. Fort Vancouver archaeologists say that a cat walked across the wet clay before it was fired.
“That’s crazy,” Harrington said. “I’d love to have been there when the first person did the dating: ‘Wait a minute! This is how old?’ ”
Off Beat lets members of The Columbian news team step back from our newspaper beats to write the story behind the story, fill in the story or just tell a story.
