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Cinema with a Splash: How to visually anchor a feature film in Seattle? Just add … water!

Clay Eals

(Click and click again to enlarge photos below.)

The cover of Pacific NW magazine of The Seattle Times for July 13, 2025: Seattle’s waterfront makes a vivid backdrop for this risky film shoot atop the Space Needle in “The Parallax View” (1974). Stuntman Chuck Waters, second from left, whose character has just shot the character of a U.S. senator inside the Needle’s observation deck, tries to elude three would-be captors before falling off the edge to his apparent demise. In reality, he fell to a plywood platform. (Chuck Waters Papers / Pepperdine University Special Collections and University Archives)

Cinema with a Splash

How to visually anchor a feature film in Seattle?
Just add … water!

We are delighted that PacificNW magazine of The Seattle Times granted Clay Eals the opportunity to prepare a cover story to complement the special waterfront section of The Seattle Times on the print date of Sunday, July 13, 2025. Clay’s story addresses the made-in-Seattle feature films over the years that have featured the waterfront. Below are links to:

THE COVER STORY

You will see accounts of movies both well-known and obscure, and photos and screen shots to go with many of them — all of which bolster the key role the waterfront has had throughout the city’s history.

THE SIDEBAR

Through a new and highly detailed book, learn about Seattle’s first feature film, “Tugboat Annie” (1933), which features Marie Dressler and Wallace Beery and has many waterfront scenes, including a crash. Included are many extras!

THE SEARCHABLE DATABASE

Here — for perhaps the first time — you will be able to download a tabulation of all 217 feature films made in Seattle, as well as which the 109 films that feature the waterfront in either cursory or significant ways. There are two version of the database — alphabetical and chronological!

BONUS ITEMS

We have collected unusual, rarely seen items from two treasured made-in-Seattle films. You can examine set renderings from “Sleepless in Seattle” (1993) and ads and stories from the pressbook for “Cinderella Liberty” (1973).

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

It does take a village, and you never can thank that village enough. Here you will find names and affiliations of those who were quick to help with communication regarding materials for this cover story on made-in-Seattle films that feature the waterfront!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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