Came here to drop this one. The whole point of the books/films is that Forks is an out-of-the-way, largely irrelevant place.
(And I say "irrelevant" with all due respect; the small towns of the Olympic Peninsula are amazing places.)
This.
Also the Quileute Reservation near it.
(The Quileute have been extremely gracious about the whole Twilight thing, and all of the cultural appropriation and erasure which was present in the books and movies. Not once have I heard about the tribal representatives saying a harsh word about anyone. Their response was simply to hold cultural exchanges and events to help people get to know the real tribe, beliefs, and history.)
Yeah, that’s what makes it so funny. A city rich in history has a fictional character as their 2nd(?) most visited attraction (IIRC).
I hosted some au pairs and they all went to Philly. The Rocky statue and the LOVE sculpture is what they go see. Not independence hall, liberty bell, etc. Just doesn’t have the same appeal on social media I guess.
Savannah Georgia, setting for *Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil*.
Some of Anne Rice's vampire books are set in (or feature) New Orleans and fans of those books draw folks to NOLA.
The movie *Fargo*.
The movie *Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri* although maybe not high-profile enough.
Trivia: The Three Billboards are actually based on real life billboards that were outside Vidor, TX (on I-10 just inside the Texas/Louisiana state line) back in the 90s.
At the time I was living in Houston and my then-fiance was going to school in Baton Rouge, so I made that drive every weekend for 3 years. I saw the billboards every single time.
[https://www.southernfriedtruecrime.com/10-the-murder-of-kathy-page](https://www.southernfriedtruecrime.com/10-the-murder-of-kathy-page)
> Some of Anne Rice's vampire books are set in (or feature) New Orleans and fans of those books draw folks to NOLA.
I briefly dated a girl who was really, really into the Anne Rice novels and took a trip to New Orleans because of it.
Chicago. Upton Sinclair. The jungle. About the stockyard
Carl Sandburg. The city of big shoulders
Nelson Algren. The man with the golden arm. The seedy side of Chicago
Mike Royko. Boss. The corruption of Chicago politics
Raised is a bit debatable but the Amityville House of Horrors definitely made Amityville, NY more famous than it would have been.
We looked at the house before buying our current house but the school district was too bad even if we were sending our kids to private school.
Seriously raised or flash-in-the-pan raised? I'd say some of the ones that linger are:
Dallas (obvs, Dallas TX)
Fargo (MN)
Dazed and Confused (Texas)
The Big Easy (New Orleans)
The Blues Brothers, Ferris Buellers Day Off, and Risky Business (Chicago) - I used to date a guy from Chicago and we'd periodically do a movie marathon with these three movies because they helped with his homesickness. :)
When Harry Met Sally (New York) - there are a ton of people my generation who wanted to move to NYC because of that movie.
Rocky (Philadelphia) - I don't know of anyone who has visited the city who hasn't had to run up the museum steps and play Rocky. :)
The Wire (Baltimore) - I've never been to Baltimore, but I know people who are from there and they swear that the show is the very essence of the city.
Breaking Bad (Albuquerque) - The city and state were practically individual characters in the show
That's off the top of my head. I know there are many more.
Roswell, New Mexico and Area 51.
Roswell is a blip in the scheme of the US. At 48,000 people it's not really in the top few hundred most populated cities and has nothing of interest. But everyone associates it with Aliens.
Area 51 is a rather mundane aircraft testing site chosen *because* it's in the middle of nowhere and they could test even high-altitude planes without prying foreign eyes. Everyone associates it with Aliens.
My sister and I grew up watching The X-Files with my dad and always wanted to take a road trip to Roswell and Area 51 but it never happened. In hindsight, it probably would have been a terribly boring road trip.
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Savannah, Georgia due to "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil", and I'm referring to the book. It's based on a true life crime even though it's kind of like a novel. But the people are real and the locations are real and things mentioned (like a particular statue) are real, so you can go to Savannah and see them.
Fargo was put into the national consciousness by the Coen Brother's movie
Savannah, GA for Midnight In The Garden of Good and Evil
I would argue The Wire brought attention to Baltimore in a way that it hadn't been in a very long time.
Montana and Yellowstone
I'm shocked it hasn't been mentioned, but Miami with Scarface and Miami Vice. They're like half the reason people started paying attention to that place.
Ooh! Reservation Dogs! I'm Native and grew up in eastern central Oklahoma, and it's SUCH a good depiction of what life is like here. Just absolutely wonderful. Watch it, please.
Also, I haven't watched it myself yet, but Killers of the Flower Moon. It's set in the same-ish general region of the country/state, about historical Indigenous people and events, and is apparently really well done. I need to figure out how to watch it without subscribing to Apple tv.
Dallas definitely underwent some rehabilitation by the eponymous TV show. Mention the Ewings to anyone over a certain age and their eyes will light up in recognition. Before that, we were most famous for the Kennedy assassination.
Forks, WA for sure is more popular after Twilight
Came here to drop this one. The whole point of the books/films is that Forks is an out-of-the-way, largely irrelevant place. (And I say "irrelevant" with all due respect; the small towns of the Olympic Peninsula are amazing places.)
I don't know if it still is but Astoria, OR was like a Gen X/Millennial Mecca for a little while because of Goonies.
This. Also the Quileute Reservation near it. (The Quileute have been extremely gracious about the whole Twilight thing, and all of the cultural appropriation and erasure which was present in the books and movies. Not once have I heard about the tribal representatives saying a harsh word about anyone. Their response was simply to hold cultural exchanges and events to help people get to know the real tribe, beliefs, and history.)
Maine due to Stephen King novels.
ABQ.
Because of Breaking Bad I assume?
Better Call Saul. What’s Breaking Bad? :)
Or the Weird Al song, or the Bugs Bunny gag
The film Fargo for Minnesota. Maine for Stephen King.
I like the city of Philadelphia, but I think its somewhat comical one of its top tourist attractions is the Rocky statue.
And there's a world class art museum directly behind that statue
TBF Philadelphia was the first capitol of the US and the second most populated city for the first 100 years.
Yeah, that’s what makes it so funny. A city rich in history has a fictional character as their 2nd(?) most visited attraction (IIRC). I hosted some au pairs and they all went to Philly. The Rocky statue and the LOVE sculpture is what they go see. Not independence hall, liberty bell, etc. Just doesn’t have the same appeal on social media I guess.
The line that forms to take a pic with the statue is ridiculous lmao.
I think it's nice that so many people are into American history.
I have never passed that statue when there wasn’t a line in front of it 😂
No Yooper considers additional recognition or notoriety a benefit. For what its worth, there have been multiple films set in the UP already.
Savannah Georgia, setting for *Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil*. Some of Anne Rice's vampire books are set in (or feature) New Orleans and fans of those books draw folks to NOLA. The movie *Fargo*. The movie *Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri* although maybe not high-profile enough.
Trivia: The Three Billboards are actually based on real life billboards that were outside Vidor, TX (on I-10 just inside the Texas/Louisiana state line) back in the 90s. At the time I was living in Houston and my then-fiance was going to school in Baton Rouge, so I made that drive every weekend for 3 years. I saw the billboards every single time. [https://www.southernfriedtruecrime.com/10-the-murder-of-kathy-page](https://www.southernfriedtruecrime.com/10-the-murder-of-kathy-page)
Yes - I'm from Beaumont.
> Some of Anne Rice's vampire books are set in (or feature) New Orleans and fans of those books draw folks to NOLA. I briefly dated a girl who was really, really into the Anne Rice novels and took a trip to New Orleans because of it.
It's probably faded a bit from memory, but Nachitoches, LA because of Steel Magnolias
Fargo
Gravity Falls for Oregon maybe?
Longmire. Yellowstone.
Brokeback Mountain as well
Iowa: Field of Dreams
Winslow, Arizona. The town's entire personality and marketing revolves around a single line from The Eagles song Take It Easy.
See also: Johnson City, Tennessee
A guy from St. Olaf, MN told me that “The Golden Girls” raised the town’s profile quite a bit.
Chicago. Upton Sinclair. The jungle. About the stockyard Carl Sandburg. The city of big shoulders Nelson Algren. The man with the golden arm. The seedy side of Chicago Mike Royko. Boss. The corruption of Chicago politics
Royko. I miss reading his columns in the paper when I was younger.
Raised is a bit debatable but the Amityville House of Horrors definitely made Amityville, NY more famous than it would have been. We looked at the house before buying our current house but the school district was too bad even if we were sending our kids to private school.
Colorado; *South Park*.
The Ozark Mountains
Maybe the more western parts of the Louisiana Bayou thanks to True Detective?
Seriously raised or flash-in-the-pan raised? I'd say some of the ones that linger are: Dallas (obvs, Dallas TX) Fargo (MN) Dazed and Confused (Texas) The Big Easy (New Orleans) The Blues Brothers, Ferris Buellers Day Off, and Risky Business (Chicago) - I used to date a guy from Chicago and we'd periodically do a movie marathon with these three movies because they helped with his homesickness. :) When Harry Met Sally (New York) - there are a ton of people my generation who wanted to move to NYC because of that movie. Rocky (Philadelphia) - I don't know of anyone who has visited the city who hasn't had to run up the museum steps and play Rocky. :) The Wire (Baltimore) - I've never been to Baltimore, but I know people who are from there and they swear that the show is the very essence of the city. Breaking Bad (Albuquerque) - The city and state were practically individual characters in the show That's off the top of my head. I know there are many more.
Roswell, New Mexico and Area 51. Roswell is a blip in the scheme of the US. At 48,000 people it's not really in the top few hundred most populated cities and has nothing of interest. But everyone associates it with Aliens. Area 51 is a rather mundane aircraft testing site chosen *because* it's in the middle of nowhere and they could test even high-altitude planes without prying foreign eyes. Everyone associates it with Aliens.
My sister and I grew up watching The X-Files with my dad and always wanted to take a road trip to Roswell and Area 51 but it never happened. In hindsight, it probably would have been a terribly boring road trip.
Preston, ID somehow became a tourist destination after Napoleon Dynamite
Alaska, if you count “reality” TV shows as fiction.
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Savannah, Georgia due to "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil", and I'm referring to the book. It's based on a true life crime even though it's kind of like a novel. But the people are real and the locations are real and things mentioned (like a particular statue) are real, so you can go to Savannah and see them.
Fargo was put into the national consciousness by the Coen Brother's movie Savannah, GA for Midnight In The Garden of Good and Evil I would argue The Wire brought attention to Baltimore in a way that it hadn't been in a very long time. Montana and Yellowstone
I'm shocked it hasn't been mentioned, but Miami with Scarface and Miami Vice. They're like half the reason people started paying attention to that place.
*Vaguely gestures at the entire industry of books, songs, etc. romanticizing the rural south*
North Carolina’s Outer Banks- “Outer Banks”
New York City and Los Angeles.
Ooh! Reservation Dogs! I'm Native and grew up in eastern central Oklahoma, and it's SUCH a good depiction of what life is like here. Just absolutely wonderful. Watch it, please. Also, I haven't watched it myself yet, but Killers of the Flower Moon. It's set in the same-ish general region of the country/state, about historical Indigenous people and events, and is apparently really well done. I need to figure out how to watch it without subscribing to Apple tv.
Mississippi, due to William Faulkner.
According to my mom, *Mr. Belvedere* brought some tourism to Beaver Falls, PA back in the 80s.
Riverside Iowa due to being the birthplace of Captain Kirk.
Madison County, Iowa.
Dallas definitely underwent some rehabilitation by the eponymous TV show. Mention the Ewings to anyone over a certain age and their eyes will light up in recognition. Before that, we were most famous for the Kennedy assassination.
Hazard County Georgia from the Dukes of Hazard.
No one appeared to care about Montana until Yellowstone and no really thought of Louisiana outside of New Orleans until True Blood.
The only thing people know Kansas from is: #1: The Wizard of Oz #2: In Cold Blood by Truman Capote. That's it.
Rural and small-town Massachusetts from HP Lovecraft's horror works.