Now and Then Thursdays: Busted In Front of Tom Hanks

The other day I wrote a post about a big sci-fi film that will be shot on Penn's campus this summer.

An alum by the name of "Dara" then made the following comment (which by the way is an entry into our May Contest*) and mentioned:

"I remember when Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington shot the library scene of "Philadelphia" at Furness. I walked to the library with a friend very early one morning to try to catch the stars, but no such luck!"

I too (Matt Rosler, C'96) was actually on campus for the filming of Philadelphia during early January 1993 for Mask and Wig's Spring Show rehearsals. I managed to sneak in while they were filming and got into a bit of trouble...

Read more about it here!

I remember one night a bunch of us Mask and Wiggers snuck into Furness and went up to the balcony area looking down to where they were shooting. I saw Tom Hanks sitting at one of the tables in Furness. I think he was wearing one of those soon to be popular red and blue Penn felt hats (see image to left). At the time I had my big EOS Rebel Camera with the 300mm telephoto lens and attempted to shoot a picture without a flash.

To this day, I remember the moment after I shot that photo I heard a walkie talkie go off saying "Get that kid's camera". I panicked and some assistant approached me and demanded I remove the film. I think I had convinced her not to make me remove the film and somehow my friends and I raced out of Furness through some emergency fire door.

The next day I went to develop (yep, I said develop) the photo, and to my dismay the photo didn't come out because it was too dark. But the memory lives in my head!

(*FYI, Dara needs to make sure to leave her last name and email address on her comment if she wants an entry to this month's contest!)

Bruce Springsteen's live performance of "Streets of Philadelphia" at the 1994 Grammys (how great is this?!)

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More of my Now and Then Thursday posts

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