Move over Punxsutawney: The movie ‘Groundhog Day’ turned this Illinois town into a tourist hot spot

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Bill Murray starred in the 1993 film, but Woodstock, Ill., also played a key part.

On Groundhog Day, the nation turns its attention to Punxsutawney, Pa., the small town where a rodent named Phil is suddenly turned into the country’s chief weather forecaster. The ritual is so revered it became the basis for “Groundhog Day,” the 1993 movie starring Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell.

As many as 5,000 people attend the festival, according to organizers. And others come to the city throughout the year from places as far away as Europe and Australia. They visit key filming locations, such as the spot where Murray’s character stepped into a puddle time and time again. Naturally, the city has plaques to immortalize those locales and also offers visitors a map to help them do their own “Groundhog Day” walking tour.

“There’s not a developer that comes to town that doesn’t know that,” she said of Woodstock’s cinematic fame. “I think that was the clincher,” said Rubin, who will be appearing at this year’s Groundhog Days festival in Woodstock, which is honoring the 30th anniversary of the film’s release Another factor in Woodstock’s favor: It had already been tapped as the location for a few scenes in the 1987 John Candy and Steve Martin film “Planes, Trains and Automobiles,” so Hudgins knew about the terrain.

At the time of the filming, Bellairs said locals didn’t really know much about the movie, which depicts a weatherman trapped in a loop where he relives Groundhog Day over and over. And while they certainly knew Bill Murray and some of the other cast members, they also knew they couldn’t try to buddy up with them.

 

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