# Club Car used in the movie "White Christmas"



## National Limited (Dec 18, 2010)

One of my favorite Christmas movies is "White Christmas." It has been playing off and on on AMC the past several weeks. I've always wondered about the club/sleeper car used in the movie. Was the interior of the club car used in the scene in which the group sang "Snow" based on a real club car? If so, what railroad used it?


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## Bill Haithcoat (Dec 18, 2010)

National Limited said:


> One of my favorite Christmas movies is "White Christmas." It has been playing off and on on AMC the past several weeks. I've always wondered about the club/sleeper car used in the movie. Was the interior of the club car used in the scene in which the group sang "Snow" based on a real club car? If so, what railroad used it?


Just to get started on this, next time you see the movie you might look at the credits. You might also google the movie and get some idea. For myself it has been a long time since I watched that movie and do not remember.

I am intereted in(and pleased by) your use of the term "club car". You do not hear that much anymore. In the past it was usually somewhat interchangble with tavern lounge, today's lounge car,etc.

You have my curiosity aroused. I will look for the movie also.


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## Grandpa D (Dec 18, 2010)

My guess is it's a generic set. It's been years since I saw the film, but there's a trailer at the Internet Movie Database (imdb.com) that shows a bit of the Club Car scene. (Click HERE to see a captured still.) Maybe someone can identify it if the set was based on a real railroad.


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## Bill Haithcoat (Dec 18, 2010)

Grandpa D said:


> My guess is it's a generic set. It's been years since I saw the film, but there's a trailer at the Internet Movie Database (imdb.com) that shows a bit of the Club Car scene. (Click HERE to see a captured still.) Maybe someone can identify it if the set was based on a real railroad.


It does not look real to me. Too much floor space, looks like it has venetian blinds which I do not recall seeing on trains.


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## humming bird (Dec 18, 2010)

I did notice that while the train they are on is supposed to be a Florida - New York train, the exterior shot shows it to be a Santa Fe streamliner. (Not surprisingly, as the exterior shot was doubtlessly done in or around L.A.)

Similiarly, at the end of NORTH BY NORTHWEST, the train that goes into the tunnel (no comment on the rather overtly naughty symbolism there!) is being led by SP covered wagons. Of course, they did use the actual NYC 20th Century in the New York - Chicago scenes, though. Obviously the exteriors were the real deal of the 20th Century, as was the scenery along the Hudson. I've never been sure though: were those famous dining car scenes done on the real train, or using rear projection of the Hudson scenery?


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## GG-1 (Dec 19, 2010)

humming bird said:


> I did notice that while the train they are on is supposed to be a Florida - New York train, the exterior shot shows it to be a Santa Fe streamliner. (Not surprisingly, as the exterior shot was doubtlessly done in or around L.A.)


Aloha

I noticed the Florida Vermont train myself and have been trying to figure out the three scenes of the trains. the board in Florida on Santa Fe in a drawing room A, a little bit later, the exterior shot is of a brown train I have seen but can't place, then they arrive in Vermont in a slumber coach in a green train.

While I like the movie, once a season is enough, until I noticed this Oddity. Considering the shot is of 4 people I highly doubt the four are in a real club car and therefor must be a set. Wikipedia suggest the menu is an error as in one shot it is sideways then in their hands is right side up. Oh Well Hollywood is Hollywood.


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## railiner (Dec 19, 2010)

Bill Haithcoat said:


> Grandpa D said:
> 
> 
> > My guess is it's a generic set. It's been years since I saw the film, but there's a trailer at the Internet Movie Database (imdb.com) that shows a bit of the Club Car scene. (Click HERE to see a captured still.) Maybe someone can identify it if the set was based on a real railroad.
> ...


I don't know about the car in question, but the Burlington Zephyrs, including the CZ, had venetian blinds and fabric curtains in the chair cars.


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## Shanghai (Dec 19, 2010)

Hollywood can do just about anything making movies.

We took a Sound of Music tour in Salzburg, Austria.

We were shuttled in and around Salzburg to see the

places the movie was filmed. They used different

front and rears of three houses for the one house

that appeared in the movie and the gazebo that

appeared to be next to the house was actually about

one mile from the house. The church for the wedding

was 40 miles away and the mountain the family crossed

was more than 80 miles from the village.

That's Hollywood!!


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## rrdude (Dec 19, 2010)

Grandpa D said:


> My guess is it's a generic set. It's been years since I saw the film, but there's a trailer at the Internet Movie Database (imdb.com) that shows a bit of the Club Car scene. (Click HERE to see a captured still.) Maybe someone can identify it if the set was based on a real railroad.


I'd bet the ranch that the interiors are all sets. If you look at the distance the camera is from the four of them, you realize it would have to have been plastered on the wall of a real club car. And remember train travel was thee way to travel back then, so movie sets of interiors of trains could have been created at the drop of a hat.

But I'm so disappointed that it wasn't real, and that Hollywood "takes liberties" with scenes. Next thing you know, someone will tell me that the train shot used in "Unstoppable" where the wheels lift off one side as the train rounds a curve were CGI..........


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## GG-1 (Dec 19, 2010)

rrdude said:


> But I'm so disappointed that it wasn't real, and that Hollywood "takes liberties" with scenes. Next thing you know, someone will tell me that the train shot used in "Unstoppable" where the wheels lift off one side as the train rounds a curve were CGI..........


OK I wont tell you that 

Aloha


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## Grandpa D (Dec 19, 2010)

rrdude said:


> Next thing you know, someone will tell me that the train shot used in "Unstoppable" where the wheels lift off one side as the train rounds a curve were CGI..........


Remember when the saying "Pictures don't lie." was true?


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## Bill Haithcoat (Dec 19, 2010)

railiner said:


> Bill Haithcoat said:
> 
> 
> > Grandpa D said:
> ...


You are right about venetian blinds on the Zephyrs. My bad.


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