From L.A. To Loma
Hollywood films in Nebraska town
By Brian Sharp
Senior Reporter
The West never died in Loma, Connie Hannah said.
It’s just been put to sleep for a while.
Hannah, a resident of the small Nebraska town
about 30 miles northwest of Lincoln, said the only busi
ness in the town of 24 people was the bar, and the nights
used to get kind of rowdy.
“They closed the bar now, and it’s quiet, quiet,”
Hannah said.
The town was silenced when Loma became the
movie set of “To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie
Newmar.”
Lifestyles in the small town have changed since the
film crews showed up, she said.
Filming began Aug. 4 and is expected to continue
for another six to eight weeks. The crews are working
generally from 7 a.m. until dark, Hannah said. One night,
filming ran until the twilight hours *©f the following
morning, she said.
During that time, production officials want
complete silence.
“They want it quiet on the set,” she said. “They
don’t want people wandering around. They let me know
when to go out and when not to go.”
Hannah said she felt somewhat isolated in her own
home.
Bruce Cohen, the movie’s executive producer, said
the locals always were welcome to watch filming, but it
took a while to explain what quiet meant.
“I need it quiet,” he said. “I mean really quiet. You
take a step in the gravel 50 to 100 feet down the road and
you hear it. Our mikes pick it up. The dogs can’t even
bark.”
Although silence is required, and two-thirds of the
town is shut down during filming, most people are excited
that the movie is being shot in their hometown, Hannah
said.
Film producer G. Mac Brown said Loma was a
perfect place.
‘‘It’s a place where, as our director says, you could
stand in high heels in the center of town and have no place
to go,” Brown said. ‘‘You’re kind of stuck there, and you
know you’re stuck there. That’s what led us to Loma.”
The movie stars Wesley Snipes, Patrick Swayze
and John Leguizamo as drag queens who are making a
cross-country trip from New York. They carry with them
an autographed photo of celebrity Julie Newmar as a good
luck charm. But when their car breaks down somewhere in
the Midwest, they’re totally lost, Cohen said.
“They don’t know where they are,” he said. “At one
point in the movie, they think they’re in West Virginia, and
the sheriff informs them they’re a long way from West
Virginia.”
Even though filming has been going on for several
weeks, Wynn Thomas, production designer, said that on
the weekends a
nonstop tour went
through the little town
— a nonstop, un
guided tour, he said.
“That street has
been one of the most
photographed sets I’ve
ever seen,” Thomas
said. “Every farmer,
every local seems to
have their own video
camera.”
Production
officials said that on
weekdays, they closed the
city off. No one gets into town
without a pass.
^After filming is finished
in Loma, the crew will move
the set into and around Lincoln
for two weeks before it packs
up and goes home, Cohen said.
Cohen said crew members would take
home with them not only an appreciation of the
Midwest but also a realization of stereotypes.
Like the crew, Cohen said he hoped the audience
would take home an awareness of the stereotypes
they had of the Midwest and people in general.
Cohen said the crew’s image of the actors in
drag had changed. At first, he said, it was “look at
those men playing women.” Then the actors became
women, he said, and now they are just people.
“In the end, that’s what our movie’s about,” /4
he said, “that nothing is as it seems originally.
You’re going to find out that no matter what
you think of (people) at first, there’s a really
fabulous and wonderful person under
neath.
“That’s the message we hope
comes across when our movie comes
out next spring”
James Mehslinq/DN
Genk Parmeie/DN
ETV reporters interview Connie Hannah, a Loma resident, recently during a
press day at the set of “To Wona Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newntar.”
The movie, which stars Wesley Snipes, Patrick Swayze and John Leguizamo,
is being filmed in Loma, Lincoln and Omaha.