MOVIE URBAN LEGEND: Pinewood Studios built an entire Popeye's Restaurant for its appearance in the Supergirl film.

Pinewood Studios was a very famous British production studio that was built in the 1930s and gained its most fame as being the set for the James Bond films in the 1960s. However, it was also the place where Tim Burton's Batman films were made, as well as much of the original Superman.

In 1983, it was the setting for the filming of the 1984 film, Supergirl, starring Helen Slater as Supergirl.

There was a nearby lake that was used for the prominent lake scenes in the film...

Now, this was 1983. You might recall that a year earlier, a major motion picture came out called E.T. that involved a very prominent product placement for the candy Reese's Pieces. The 1980s was a glory period for product placement in films, as filmmakers liked the versimillitude that the characters using normal items and eating normal food provided, and the producers loved the cash that the companies were laying out to promote their products.

With that in mind, the Salkinds (Ilya and Alexander Salkind, the producers of the Superman movies and Supergirl) worked out a product placement deal with the then still fairly new fried chicken restaurant, Popeye's (they had debuted only 11 years earlier) and there were some hilarious promotional photos taken with Popeye's prominently featured.

My pal Rob Levin was asked by a friend of his if the area where these promotional photos were taken were available to go visit.

Here's the thing, though, that Popeye's is not an actual Popeye's!

There is a scene in the movie where Jimmy Olsen and Lucy Lane have lunch at Popeye's...

In the film, Supergirl lives in the city of Midvale. The entire city of Midvale was created for the film, but generally it was the way that you traditionally create a fake town. You know, just fake fronts and stuff like that. However, the exception was Popeye's!

Yep, they built an actual replica Popeye's restaurant for use in the film and it's in front of that fake Popeye's that Slater did those amazing promo shots.

Isn't that just hilarious?

The legend is...

STATUS: True

Thanks to Rob and his friend, Chris, for the suggestion!

Be sure to check out my archive of Movie Legends Revealed for more urban legends about the world of film.

Feel free (heck, I implore you!) to write in with your suggestions for future installments! My e-mail address is bcronin@legendsrevealed.com.