Area residents and guests had a fun and exciting day in Cordell’s downtown square last Saturday for the Chambers of Commerce’s event, Twisters Day, in celebration of the opening weekend of the blockbuster movie. Parts of Twisters were filmed in Oklahoma, in the town depicted in the movie or ones based on real-life locales. For example, there is not actually a town named Crystal Springs in Oklahoma, but there is a Chickasha, and that is where the cast and crew spent several days filming after creating a set aross a few city blocks that had been made to look like a tornado had just torn through the town.
Other real-life places where filming took place included Oklahoma City, El Reno, Yukon, Hobart, Okarche, Orienta and Pond Creek, according to the IMDB website.
Many Oklahomans have a special place in their hearts for the original 1996 movie, Twister, so it was a won- derful suprise to have an original Jeep pickup used in the actual production of that film at Cordell’s celebration. It arrived complete with the famous tornado data -gathering instrument Dorothy in the truck bed.
The 1984 Jeep J-10 Honcho is privately owned by an Oklahoma couple who purchased it after it had been used as a display in a Twister museum.
Other celebrity guests at the event included News 9’s StormTracker Tom Pastrano, Western Oklahoma Weather (W.O.W.), Northwest Oklahoma Storm Chasers and Swivel Response.
Doors to the theater were opened at 6:00 p.m. for movie-goers and by about 6:30 the Chamber’s Executive Director and event organizer, Sarah Lau, realized the theater was almost full and a line was still forming down the block outside. She and Chamber board members scrambled to count seats and figure out how to handle the crowd. Before long all 364 seats were filled with dozens still waiting to get in. A decision was quickly made to show the movie again at 9:30 p.m. to allow everyone to watch.
“In the four years since I have been managing the theater for the Chamber we have never even come close to selling out. It was an unprecedented situation, but it all worked out thanks to our Board members, volunteers, and theater employees. We are so grateful to everyone who helped and everyone who came out to enjoy the day. It turned out better than I had even dreamed,” said Lau.
In total, 626 people attended Twisters on opening week over four showings. The concession is estimated to have sold over 279 orders of popcorn, 423 bottles of soda/water, and 214 boxes of candy.
If you missed Twisters, you still have two more weekends to catch it here at Cordell’s hometown movie theater.