Philadelphia Films With Drexel University Cameos

The mural located on the 1400 block of Sansom Street.

A new mural in Center City celebrates the legacy of film in Philadelphia by highlighting movies, people, events, places and organizations that have promoted the city and its culture. But here’s what you won’t see in the public art: two films that were shot on Drexel University’s campus within the past 15 years or so.

The mural, “Films Shaped by a City,” is a collaboration between Mural Arts, BlackStar Film Festival, the Philadelphia Film Society and the artist Marian Bailey. You can see the mural on the 1400 block of Sansom Street, on the back of the building housing the Philadelphia Film Society.

It depicts 18 films that were shot and/or set in Philadelphia. Those include “Rocky” (of course),“Philadelphia,” “Silver Linings Playbook,” “The Sixth Sense,” “Trading Places” and “Hustle.” With a limited canvas and an approval process that incorporated results from a public survey and an advisory panel, there couldn’t have been room to represent every single movie ever shot in the city.

Of the two movies filmed at Drexel within the last two decades, only one incorporates Drexel into the script and features scenes set on the University City Campus. The other does not — and while you’ve likely never heard of it, you’ll probably recognize its stars and settings.

The movie prominently featuring Drexel is the 2002 film “Somewhere in Queens,” which was directed and co-written by Ray Romano (who also stars in the film). Queens, New York, is where most of the scenes takes place, but the plot does include a storyline about his character’s son considering playing basketball for the University, which the family visits.

As shown in the trailer below, you can see parts of the movie that took place in the Daskalakis Athletic Center (1:13) and the Korman Quad (1:15). Besides scenes featuring basketball being played in the gymnasium and the family walking through campus, the movie also includes jokes about Drexel’s name.

The other recent film shot at the University is the 2010 romantic comedy “How Do You Know,” which features Reese Witherspoon in a love triangle with Owen Wilson and Paul Rudd. It also stars Jack Nicholson, Tony Shalhoub and Kathryn Hahn. 

The film was directed by James L. Brooks, whose films also include “Terms of Endearment,” “Broadcast News” and “As Good as It Gets.” This was his fourth and final collaboration with Nicholson, who appeared in all those films; it is also the last movie Nicholson ever starred in. Nicholson won Oscars for best actor in “As Good as It Gets” and best supporting actor in “Terms of Endearment,” for which Brooks also won three Academy Awards for best picture, director and adapted screenplay.

In “How Do You Know,” Witherspoon plays a former professional softball player torn between Wilson’s character, a pitcher for the Washington Nationals professional baseball team, and Rudd’s character, a recently fired executive formerly employed at the company run by his father, played by Nicholson.

Some of the movie’s interior scenes were filmed at what is now the Arlen Specter US Squash Center located at 32^nd Street and Lancaster Avenue on Drexel’s University City Campus. The current building housing squash courts is actually a former National Guard armory and multipurpose venue known as the “Philadelphia Armory,” and the large space had a custom set built inside just for the movie. You’d never know of the Drexel connection just by watching the film, which also isn’t even set in Philadelphia.

On-set photos published in the Philadelphia Inquirer show Wilson on campus near his movie trailer and riding a bicycle near Drexel’s Pearlstein Learning Center at 32^nd and Market streets.

Want to watch some other movies with Drexel connections?

The live-action 1967 Disney musical comedy, “The Happiest Millionaire,” tells the story of University founder Anthony J. Drexel’s lovable and eccentric grandson, Col. Anthony Joseph Drexel Biddle Sr (as played by Fred MacMurray). The film wasn’t shot in Biddle’s Rittenhouse Square mansion, but the family home features prominently in the movie and you can still see the real-life building today. This was the last film ever worked on by Walt Disney; it was based on “My Philadelphia Father,” a book written by the founder’s great-granddaughter Cordelia Drexel Biddle.

The 2002 film “Confessions of A Dangerous Mind” is an adaptation of a 1984 autobiography written by Drexel alumnus Chuck Barris, business administration ’53, HD ’01. Barris revolutionized the television industry and created hit game shows like “The Gong Show,” “The Dating Game” and “The Newlywed Game” in the ‘60s and ‘70s. But as he later revealed in his book, he also maintained a secret — or just made up? — secondary career as a CIA assassin. In the film, Sam Rockwell plays Barris, and George Clooney (who directed the film as his directorial debut), Drew Barrymore and Julia Roberts also star in supporting roles.