Los Angeles plays host to many of the locations from ‘Back To The Future’ which starts off at Doctor Emmett Brown’s workshop where all the clocks go off 25 minutes early meaning Marty is late for school. What follows was an inspiration for me as a child as I took up skateboarding though being towed on the back of vehicles didn’t happen too often!
The workshop (below) was a temporary facade and can be made-out thanks to a diagonal stripe on the car park.
The Burger King (below) next to the workshop, which Marty skateboards past, is at 535 N. Victory Boulevard in Burbank.
The skateboard route continue through Courthouse Square at Universal Studios Hollywood and finishes at Whittier High School at 12417 E. Philadelphia Street in Whittier. This was of course used as Hill Valley High School and appears on screen a few times during the film.
Having failed his audition for ‘Battle of the Bands’ Marty skateboards down his home street past going through the famous Lyon Estate signs which by luck I saw at Universal Studios due to the failure of our tram which lead to a slight detour. The street in the picture below is Sandusky Avenue.
In reality though, Marty’s home (below) is a few streets away. The address for his home is 9303 Roslyndale Avenue in Arieta and is private property.
Marty agrees to meet the Doc at Twin Pines Mall (below) at 1.15am and the DeLorean time-machine is introduced to him. This was filmed at Puente Hills Mall at 1600 Asuza Avenue though sadly the JCPenney store has been replaced by a coat factory one. Whilst snapping away a cop wound down his window and said “Back to the future?” to which I replied “Of course” before he started going on about some event to mark the films 25th anniversary last year.
This location was the furthest out of the way for myself and Ethan but I felt it had to be seen as it played such an important part by way of being where Marty escapes from the hostile Libyan terrorists by driving at 88mph resulting in him being transported back to 1955.
On his entrance to 1955 Marty crashed into a barn and soon after that he discovers his 1985 street being built. All that exists is the “Lyon Estates” gates (below) and across the road from them is a sign saying its 2 miles to Hill Valley where the all-important clock tower is. The gates are at Universal Studios.
The clock tower (below) was damaged in a fire a few years ago and is no more but here is a photo I took of it back in 2002.
Having met his father George, Marty follows him and finds him up a tree (below)being a peeping Tom. The person he is spying on is his future wife Lorraine who is of course Marty’s mother. That house is at 1727 Bushnell Avenue in South Pasadena.
George’s house (below) is a few doors down the road at 1711 Bushnell Avenue.
Marty later tracks down the Doc who lives at The Gamble House (of Proctor & Gamble fame) which is a Japanese-influenced wood shingle house at 4 Westmoreland Place in Pasadena.
The film ends back on Marty’s street at Roslyndale Avenue where the Doc arrives from 2015 and utters the classic line to Jennifer and Marty “Roads. Where we’re going we don’t need roads!”. With that, the three of them shoot off into future (and the sequel film!) bringing my all-time favourite film to an end.
Bonus: Of course many of the above locations also featured in the two sequels ‘Back To The Future Part II’ and ‘Back To The Future Part III’. The tunnel below can be seen in the second film and is very close to Griffith Observatory (of ‘Terminator‘ fame) in Griffith Park and is where Marty recovers the Sports Almanac from Biff on his hoverboard.
Habsburg Spain refers to Spain and the Hispanic Monarchy, also known as the Catholic Monarchy, in the period from 1516 to 1700 when it was ruled by kings from the House of Habsburg. It had territories around the world, including modern-day Spain, a piece of south-eastern France, eventually Portugal and many other lands outside the Iberian Peninsula, including in the Americas and Asia. In this period the Spanish Empire was at the zenith of its influence and power. It then expanded to include territories over the five continents, consisting of much of the American continent and islands thereof, the West Indies in the Americas, the Low Countries, Italian territories and parts of France in Europe and the Philippines and other possessions in Southeast Asia. The period of Spanish history has also been referred to as the "Age of Expansion".
Quick Facts Capital, Official languages ...
The Habsburg name was not continuously used by the family members, since they often emphasized their more prestigious princely titles. The dynasty was thus long known as the "House of Austria". Complementary, in some circumstances the family members were identified by their place of birth. Charles V was known in his youth after his birthplace as Charles of Ghent. When he became king of Spain he was known as Charles I of Spain, and after he was elected emperor, as Charles V (in French, Charles Quint). In Spain, the dynasty was known as the Casa de Austria, including illegitimate sons such as John of Austria and John Joseph of Austria. The arms displayed in their simplest form were those of Austria, which the Habsburgs had made their own, at times impaled with the arms of the Duchy of Burgundy (ancient), as seen on the arms of John of Austria. Calling this era "Habsburg", is, to some extent, a convenience for historians.
In 1504, Isabella I of Castile died, and although Ferdinand II of Aragon tried to maintain his position over Castile in the wake of her death, the Castilian Cortes Generales (the parliament) chose to crown Isabella's daughter Joanna of Castile as queen. Her husband, Philip I of Castile, was the Habsburg son of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor and Mary of Burgundy. Shortly thereafter Joanna began to lapse into insanity, although the extent of her mental illness remains the topic of some debate. In 1506, Philip I was declared jure uxoris king, but he died later that year under mysterious circumstances, possibly poisoned by his father-in-law, Ferdinand II. Since their oldest son Charles was only six, the Cortes reluctantly allowed Joanna's father Ferdinand II to rule the country as the regent of Queen Joanna and Charles.
Spain was now in personal union under Ferdinand II of Aragon. As undisputed ruler in most of the Peninsula, Ferdinand adopted a more aggressive policy than he had as Isabella's husband, going on to crystallize his long-running designs over Navarreinto a full-blown invasion led initially by a Castilian military expedition, and supported later by Aragonese troops (1512). He also attempted to enlarge Spain's sphere of influence in Italy, strengthening it against France. As ruler of Aragon, Ferdinand had been involved in the struggle against France and the Republic of Venice for control of Italy. These conflicts became the center of Ferdinand's foreign policy as king. Ferdinand's first investment of Spanish forces came in the War of the League of Cambrai against Venice, where the Spanish soldiers distinguished themselves on the field alongside their French allies at the Battle of Agnadello (1509). Only a year later, Ferdinand joined the Holy League against France, seeing a chance at taking both Naples (to which he held a dynastic claim) and Navarre, which was claimed through his marriage to Germaine of Foix. The war was less of a success than that against Venice, and in 1516 France agreed to a truce that left Milan under French control and recognized Spanish hegemony in northern Navarre. Ferdinand would die later that year.
Ferdinand's death led to the ascension of young Charles to both Spanish thrones as Charles I of Castile and Aragon, further solidifying the monarchy of Spain. His inheritance included all the Spanish possessions in the New World and around the Mediterranean. Upon the death of his Habsburg father in 1506, Charles had inherited the Habsburg Netherlands and Franche-Comté, growing up in Flanders. In 1519, with the death of his paternal grandfather Maximilian I, Charles inherited the Habsburg territories in Germany, and was duly elected as Holy Roman Emperor that year. His mother Joanna remained titular queen of Castile until her death in 1555, but due to her mental health and worries of her being proposed as an alternative monarch by opposition (as happened in the Revolt of the Comuneros), Charles kept her imprisoned.
At that point, Emperor and King Charles was the most powerful man in Christendom. The accumulation of so much power by one man and one dynasty greatly concerned Francis I of France, who found himself surrounded by Habsburg territories. In 1521 Francis invaded the Spanish possessions in Italy and Navarre, which inaugurated a second round of Franco-Spanish conflict. The war was a disaster for France, which suffered defeats at Biccoca (1522), Pavia (1525, at which Francis was captured), and Landriano (1529) before Francis relented and abandoned Milan to Spain once more. Spain's overseas possessions in the New World were based in the Caribbean and the Spanish Main and consisted of a rapidly decreasing indigenous population, few resources of value to the crown, and a sparse Spanish settler population. The situation changed dramatically with the expedition of Hernán Cortés, who, with alliances with city-states hostile to the Aztecs and thousands of indigenous Mexican warriors, conquered the Aztec Empire in 1521. Following the pattern established in Spain during the Reconquista and in the Caribbean, the first European settlements in the Americas, conquerors divided up the indigenous population in private holdings encomiendas and exploited their labor. With Americas colonization, Spain gained vast new indigenous populations to convert to Christianity and rule as vassals of the crown. Charles established the Council of the Indies in 1524 to oversee all of Castile's overseas possessions. Charles appointed a viceroy in Mexico in 1535, capping the royal governance of the high court, Real Audiencia, and treasury officials with the highest royal official. Officials were under the jurisdiction of the Council of the Indies. Charles promulgated the New Laws of 1542 to limit the power of the Conquistadors to form a hereditary aristocracy that might challenge the power of the crown.
A map of the dominion of the Habsburg monarchy following the Battle of Mühlberg (1547) as depicted in The Cambridge Modern History Atlas (1912); Habsburg lands are shaded greenEuropa regina, associated with a Habsburg-dominated Europe under Charles V
Charles's victory at the Battle of Pavia (1525) surprised many Italians and Germans and elicited concerns that Charles would endeavor to gain even greater power. Pope Clement VII switched sides and now joined forces with France and prominent Italian states against the Habsburg Emperor, in the War of the League of Cognac. In 1527, due to Charles' inability to pay them sufficiently, his armies in Northern Italy mutinied and sacked Rome itself for loot, forcing Clement, and succeeding popes, to be considerably more prudent in their dealings with secular authorities. In 1533, Clement's refusal to annul Henry VIII of England's marriage to Catherine of Aragon (Charles' aunt) was a direct consequence of his unwillingness to offend the Emperor and perhaps have his capital sacked a second time. The Peace of Barcelona, signed between Charles and the pope in 1529, established a more cordial relationship between the two leaders that effectively made Charles the protector of the Catholic cause and recognized Charles as King of Italy in return for Imperial-Spanish intervention in overthrowing the rebellious Republic of Florence.
The Protestant Reformation had begun in Germany in 1517. Charles, through his position as Holy Roman Emperor, his important holdings along Germany's frontiers, and his close relationship with his Habsburg relatives in Austria, had a vested interest in maintaining the stability of the Holy Roman Empire. The German Peasants' War broke out in Germany in 1524 and ravaged the country until it was brutally put down in 1526. Charles, even as far away from Germany as he was, was committed to keeping order. After the Peasants' War the Protestants organized themselves into a defensive league to protect themselves from Emperor Charles. Under the protection of the Schmalkaldic League, the Protestant states committed a number of outrages in the eyes of the Catholic Church (the confiscation of some ecclesiastical territories, among other things) and defied the authority of the Emperor.
In 1543, Francis I, King of France, announced his unprecedented alliance with the Ottoman sultan, Suleiman the Magnificent, by occupying the Spanish-controlled city of Nice in cooperation with Turkish forces. Henry VIII of England, who bore a greater grudge against France than he held against the Emperor for standing in the way of his divorce, joined Charles in his invasion of France. Although the Spanish army was soundly defeated at the Battle of Ceresole, in Savoy Henry fared better, and France was forced to accept terms. The Austrians, led by Charles's younger brother Ferdinand, continued to fight the Ottomans in the east. With France defeated, Charles went to take care of an older problem: the Schmalkaldic League.
Perhaps more important to the strategy of the Spanish king, the League had allied itself with the French, and efforts in Germany to undermine the League had been rebuffed. Francis's defeat in 1544 led to the annulment of the alliance with the Protestants, and Charles took advantage of the opportunity. He first tried the path of negotiation at the Council of Trent in 1545, but the Protestant leadership, feeling betrayed by the stance taken by the Catholics at the council, went to war, led by the Elector of SaxonyMaurice. In response, Charles invaded Germany at the head of a mixed Dutch-Spanish army, hoping to restore the Imperial authority. The Emperor personally inflicted a decisive defeat on the Protestants at the historic Battle of Mühlberg in 1547. In 1555, Charles signed the Peace of Augsburg with the Protestant states and restored stability in Germany on his principle of cuius regio, eius religio ("whose realm, his religion"). Charles's involvement in Germany would establish a role for Spain as protector of the Catholic Habsburg cause in the Holy Roman Empire.
In 1526, Charles married Infanta Isabella, the sister of John III of Portugal. In 1556 he abdicated from his positions, giving his Spanish empire to his only surviving son, Philip II of Spain, and the Holy Roman Empire to his brother, Ferdinand. Charles retired to the monastery of Yuste (Extremadura, Spain), and died in 1558.
As is so often the case, the answer is: “That depends.” While the Habsburg family guaranteed the presence of Catholicism in Europe for nearly a thousand years, there were ups and downs in their “Catholicity.” For example, after the death of Rudolph, archbishop of Olmütz (1788–1831), for almost two hundred years there were no priestly vocations in this “most Catholic of clans” until my own brother Paul became a priest in the 1990s—and not for a lack of young men.
nYet every now and then you discover a family member whose life is a shining example of Catholic faith. I recently learned that Blessed Emperor Karl is not the only Habsburg on the path to sainthood; we also have a sixteenth-century archduchess who is Venerable. The Archduchess Magdalena, born in 1532, was the fourth daughter among the fifteen children of Emperor Ferdinand I. The children were instructed in the Catholic faith from an early age. Magdalena’s mother, Anne of Bohemia and Hungary, entrusted her and several of her sisters to a governess, the devout Countess Thurn. She encouraged the countess to have little Magdalena carried to Holy Mass every day, even as a baby in her cradle. As Magdalena grew, she continued to attend daily Mass with her sisters. She exhibited great piety in her youth and regularly prayed in front of a crucifix that can still be seen today in the Spitalskirche in Innsbruck.
Anne died when Magdalena was only fourteen. From then on, Magdalena became like a mother to her two younger sisters, Margareta and Helena. Magdalena also loved to make pilgrimages to chapels and shrines dedicated to Our Lady, as well as to the site of a eucharistic miracle in Tyrol. Beautiful and bright, Magdalena was fluent in German, Italian, and Latin. This would come in handy later in life.n
Magdalena’s father, Ferdinand, intended to marry her off. But Magdalena and her younger sisters wanted to remain unmarried and create a community of pious women. Fortunately, Magdalena had a saint for an ally. In the early 1560s the famous Jesuit preacher Peter Canisius became Magdalena’s confessor and helped her spiritual vocation to mature. In 1563, through his intercession and that of her sister Anna (who had married the Duke of Bavaria), she begged for her father’s permission to found the new community. He twice refused. Undeterred, Magdalena continued to pray and write to Prague, where her father’s court resided. In the end, her father acquiesced. Around this time, the Italian master Arcimboldo painted his now famous portrait of the archduchess.n
After her father’s death in 1564, Magdalena and Helena made a vow of virginity. In 1567, Magdalena founded the Haller Stift, a royal convent in the Austrian town of Hall in Tyrol where both aristocratic and bourgeois women could serve God under Jesuit direction. Magdalena worked untiringly to help the poor and orphans in Hall, and to form and educate the youth (in part to combat the influence of Protestant thought).
Magdalena also wrote for her community a rule of life for growth in prayer and holiness. The ladies began an intense prayer regime from the moment they awoke each day. Those who could read prayed the Little Office of Our Lady, while those with lesser reading skills prayed the full Rosary (the joyful, sorrowful, and glorious mysteries). They assisted each day at three Masses, one of which was always offered for the poor souls in Purgatory. Magdalena was very strict about arriving on time to Mass; if she was ever late to Mass herself, she would spend the entire time kneeling outside. When they weren’t praying, the women cared for the sick and worked with their hands. Some of the priestly vestments and altar cloths embroidered by Magdalena can still be admired today.
n
Magdalena at eighteen
But Magdalena’s greatest gift was her devotion to the Blessed Sacrament. In the spirit of the Council of Trent, she spent many hours praying before our Lord. Through her personal piety she managed to win back many priests who, in the confusion of the Reformation, had abandoned their vocation. With her help, they returned to the right path.
Not all Habsburgs were pious Catholics. Magdalena’s brother Maximilian II was very tolerant toward Protestantism, stopped going to Holy Mass halfway through his reign, and even renounced Last Rites before his death in 1576. His son Rudolph II dabbled in astrology, alchemy, and esoteric arts in his castle in Prague, and rejected confession as he lay dying. Their politics in matters of faith were catastrophic from a Catholic viewpoint and led to a dramatic situation in the empire. By the mid-sixteenth century, up to 90 percent of the empire’s population had—in name or behavior—become Protestant, including priests and aristocrats. The famous monasteries along the Danube were closing left and right. Something had to be done.
When Papal Legate Jerome de Porcia arrived in Innsbruck on behalf of Pope Gregory XIII to convince the Habsburgs to embark upon the important work of the Counter-Reformation, he knew he could not rely on the lukewarm Emperor Maximilian II. He therefore went directly to Magdalena in Hall. This was the greatest moment in Magdalena’s spiritual life. First, she went to her brother, Archduke Ferdinand. He listened to her and in turn convinced Archduke Carl II, their brother, to take up the cause. With her sister Anna on her side, Magdalena was able to initiate the so-called Munich Conference in October 1579, which brought together archdukes Ferdinand, Carl, Duke Wilhelm of Bavaria, and the Papal Legate Porcia. Together they hammered out a fascinating agreement (Münchner Beschlüsse) that was a step-by-step plan on how to bring the Austrian countries back to the Catholic faith. Without this conference, there would be far fewer Catholics in Austria today.
Magdalena died in 1590. Years later, two more Habsburg nieces followed in her footsteps and entered the same house. The Haller Stift existed for 216 years. Unfortunately, on July 9, 1783, Emperor Joseph II dissolved it and left its church desecrated, as part of his campaign to eradicate monastic life (a total of 1,300 monasteries were suppressed). In the centuries that followed, the convent would eventually become a Sparkasse bank—until 1915, when Blessed Emperor Karl rededicated the monastery and invited a new order of nuns from Belgium—the Daughters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus—to reside in the same sacred space where his saintly ancestor had lived 350 years before. Adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament continues at this convent even today.
When the monastery was rededicated, the initial steps were also taken in Magdalena’s process of beatification. Sadly, this process is presently dormant, but perhaps, with the help of your prayers and with Magdalena’s intercession, we might get it moving again. I include a beautiful prayer for her beatification and intercession, translated from the original German, below.
Most kind and gracious Jesus,
nYou granted your servant Magdalena of Austria the grace to renounce all worldly honor and wealth and to long only for heavenly riches. Inspired and supported by your grace, she worked constantly for the salvation of souls, by fighting false doctrines and persevering in the true faith.
nShe instructed the young, cared for the poor and the sick, and above all promoted adoration of your true presence in the most holy eucharist. Beloved Jesus, your servant Magdalena assisted so many during her life by her actions and after her death continues to come to the aid of those who invoke her intercession. We beseech you to show forth the power of her intercession by granting miracles to those who call upon her. Hasten the day when your servant Magdalena will be counted among the blessed, and when our suffering fatherland will have a new intercessor, patroness, and protectress. Amen.
Eduard Habsburg is Hungary’s ambassador to the Holy See.
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María Magdalena de Habsburgo y Wittelsbach (Graz, 7 de octubre de 1589-Padua, 1 de noviembre de 1631) fue la esposa de Cosme II de Médici, gran duque de Toscana.
Era hija de Carlos II de Estiria, archiduque de Austria, y de María Ana de Baviera. El matrimonio con el gran duque tuvo lugar en 1608. Después de la prematura muerte de su marido, acaecida en 1621, se dedicó junto a su suegra, Cristina de Lorena, a la educación de sus hijos, en particular del futuro gran duque Fernando II. Obtuvo además como herencia el gobierno de la ciudad de San Miniato hasta su muerte y no paró hasta que la pequeña ciudad se convirtió en diócesis.
Se interesó por la ciencia y procuró a sus hijos una gran educación, eligiendo como preceptores a algunos científicos discípulos de Galileo Galilei.
Nacida deforme y retrasada, fue recluida en el convento de las Monjas de San Esteban llamado de la Santissima Concezione, en 1619, pero no tomó nunca los hábitos.
John F. Kennedy Drive, formerly known as Riverside Drive, was a route into Hill Valley in 1985. It had many businesses including Burger King, Toys "R" Us and a printing service. Adjacent to the Burger King was Doc's garage, the remnant of his former property of his mansion. In 1955, properties along the road were primarily residential.
When Marty McFly asked the Baines where Riverside Drive was, Sam Baines said it was on the other side of town from their house, a block east past Maple Street, which Marty knew to be John F. Kennedy Drive in 1985, named after the former United States president. However, Sam had never heard of the man — retorting "Who the hell is John F. Kennedy?" (despite the fact that Kennedy was already a United States Senator in 1955, he was not yet a household name).
It is unknown if this road is near a river due to its former name.
Behind the scenes
North Victory Boulevard in Burbank, California was the filming location of this street in 1985, while its 1955 counterpart was Westmoreland Drive in front of the Gamble House.
The Gamble House garage, and the "1640" sign, front North Orange Grove Boulevard in Pasadena.
Marty skateboarding on John F. Kennedy Drive with a Toys "Я" Us visible in the background.
Toys "R" Us, officially trademarked as Toys "Я" Us, was a toy store chain headquartered in Wayne, New Jersey, United States.The backwards "Я" was the most distinctive part of its logo. The "R Us" name has been imitated by many other businesses, such as Tiles R Us. The company operated a store in Hill Valley, California.
Marty andando en patineta en John F. Kennedy Drive con una "Я" Us de Toys's visible en el fondo.
Toys "R" Us , oficialmente registrada como Toys "Я" Us , era una cadena de jugueterías con sede en Wayne, Nueva Jersey, Estados Unidos. La "Я" al revés era la parte más distintiva de su logotipo. El nombre "R Us" ha sido imitado por muchas otras empresas, como Tiles R Us. La compañía tenía una tienda en Hill Valley , California .
On his way to school, Marty skateboards past a nearby Burger King restaurant and, with the help of a passing truck, makes his way up north on Victory Boulevard.
“Back to the Future” fans will visit the Burger King restaurant on Victory Boulevard in Burbank on Oct. 21, 2015 -- precisely where and when Marty McFly on his skateboard hitched a tow from a pickup truck.
Burbank is a city in the southeastern end of the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Located 7 miles (11 km) northwest of downtown Los Angeles, Burbank had a Census-estimated population of 102,755 as of 2023.[8] The city was named after David Burbank, who established a sheep ranch there in 1867. Burbank consists of two distinct areas: a downtown/foothill section, in the foothills of the Verdugo Mountains, and the flatland section.
The history of the Burbank area can be traced back to the Tongva people, the indigenous people of the area, who lived in the region for thousands of years before the arrival of Europeans.[11][12][13] In the late 18th century and the early 19th century, Spanish explorers and mission priests arrived in the Los Angeles area. The city of Burbank occupies land that was previously part of two Spanish and Mexican-era colonial land grants: the 36,400-acre (147 km2) Rancho San Rafael, granted to Jose Maria Verdugo by the Spanish Bourbon government in 1784, and the 4,063-acre (16.44 km2) Rancho Providencia created in 1821. This area was the scene of a military skirmish which resulted in the unseating of the Spanish Governor of California, and his replacement by the Mexican leader Pio Pico.[14]
David Burbank purchased over 4,600 acres (19 km2) of the former Verdugo holding and another 4,600 acres (19 km2) of the Rancho Providencia in 1867. Burbank built a ranch house and began to raise sheep and grow wheat on the ranch.[15] By 1876, the San Fernando Valley became the largest wheat-raising area in Los Angeles County. But the droughts of the 1860s and 1870s underlined the need for steady water supplies.
The Jonathan R. Scott tract, forming eastern Burbank along San Fernando Boulevard, called here the "Camino Real"
A professionally trained dentist, Burbank began his career in Waterville, Maine. He joined the great migration westward in the early 1850s and, by 1853 was living in San Francisco. At the time the American Civil War broke out, he was again well established in his profession as a dentist in Pueblo de Los Angeles. In 1867, he purchased Rancho La Providencia from David W. Alexander and Francis Mellus, and he purchased the western portion of the Rancho San Rafael (4,603 acres) from Jonathan R. Scott. Burbank's property reached nearly 9,200 acres (37 km2) at a cost of $9,000.[16] Burbank would not acquire full titles to both properties until after a court decision known as the "Great Partition" was made in 1871 dissolving the Rancho San Rafael. He eventually became known as one of the largest and most successful sheep raisers in southern California, and as a result, he closed his dentistry practice and invested heavily in real estate in Los Angeles.[15]
‘Back to the Future’ fans plan retro tour for Oct. 21, 2015
“Back to the Future” fans will visit the Burger King restaurant on Victory Boulevard in Burbank on Oct. 21, 2015 -- precisely where and when Marty McFly on his skateboard hitched a tow from a pickup truck.
(Raul Roa / Burbank Leader)
By Chad Garland
Oct. 14, 2015 7:56 AM PT
When Marty McFly traveled 30 years into the future at the end of “Back to the Future,” he would arrive, in the sequel, just before 4:30 p.m. on Oct. 21, 2015 — in a world where they famously wouldn’t need roads and where skateboards didn’t need wheels. That date is now just a week away.
At the beginning of the film, McFly, played by Michael J. Fox, starts off at Doc Brown’s lab next to the Burger King at 545 N. Victory Blvd. in Burbank. Late for school, the skateboarding McFly grabs onto the back of a pickup truck pulling out of the restaurant’s drive-thru for a little extra speed.
Thirty years later, we don’t have hover boards or even Nikes with the power laces the film imagined, and the flying car hasn’t really taken off as projected. But, Burbank still has the Burger King, one of several locations in Southern California a group of “Back to the Future” fans and enthusiasts plan to visit next week to celebrate the original film’s 30th anniversary.
The restaurant was damaged in a kitchen fire in late August. It’s undergoing repairs and will reopen soon, the company said via email this week, though an exact date has not yet been determined. That won’t deter the fans, according to Ken Kapalowski, who is organizing the fan celebration “We’re Going Back 2015.”
“Yes, they had a grease fire and should be ready to open soon,” Kapalowski said Monday in an email. “Either way we will be there with the original manager that was on site back in the ‘80s during filming.”
While the town in the movie is known as Hill Valley, and much of it was shot on a backlot at Universal Studios, where much of the fan celebration will also take place, the Burger King restaurant happens to be one of two Burbank locations used in filming.
A bit later in the film, McFly and his band, the Pinheads, perform Huey Lewis’ “The Power of Love” in the gym at McCambridge Recreation Center. A character played by Lewis interrupts to tell them they’re “just too darn loud.”
Mike Graceffo, recreation coordinator at Burbank’s Verdugo Recreation Center, said he was working for the city at the time that scene was filmed, and though he wasn’t at McCambridge, “I distinctly remember when they did film that.”
“It’s always neat” when something is filmed in the city, Graceffo told Times Community News, but growing up and living in Burbank, “you sort of get used to it in a way.”
The fans organized a 25th anniversary celebration in Burbank in November 2010 using the recreation center as one of its locations. Recreation Supervisor Jenny Griffin said she remembers working with the event organizers back then, including many Canadians who traveled to California for the event.
“The coolest thing was they brought all the DeLoreans,” she said, referring to the gull-winged, stainless steel sports car model upon which Doc Brown built his time machine.
And while fans prepare to celebrate the film yet again, one of the sequel’s predictions for the future — a Chicago Cubs World Series win — may yet come true. The Cubs defeated the St. Louis Cardinals to win their National League division playoff series Tuesday and will play either the Dodgers or the New York Mets for a berth in the World Series.
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Magdalena at eighteen
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