A Movie Changes Landmark’s Luck

By Christian Messer

Edward and Bella are dancing in the gazebo at their prom…Bella is trying to convince Edward she wants to be come a vampire…“Is that what you dream about? Becoming a monster?,” he says. Bell answers, “I dream about being with you forever.” With that, Corebtt, Oregon’s The View Point Inn is immortalized in the blockbuster hit film, Twilight.

The trilogy book series by Stephenie Meyer is a phenomena that has its rabid fans and devotees much like the Harry Potter books, multiplied by three. The target market is teen girls and is a love story. A vampire and mortal girl in love, but of course, there are many complications. He wants to protect her, she wants to become a vampire to live with him forever.

As a Twilight books and movie outsider, I can’t really fathom the obsessive passion the fans of both are ravaged with. We went through one book series this way, but Harry Potter was different and didn’t truly have a love story as it’s beating heart. The fans of Twilight are absolutely nutty. Teenage girls are explainable, but it’s the grown women, the Twilight Moms who can really freak people out.

The View Point Inn owners Geoff Thompson and Angelo Simione didn’t know about the book trilogy. Thompson remembers, “we came to the Inn one day and there was a note on the door asking to be considered for a movie location. We had no idea about the books. We went to a bookstore to see what was up with the books, expecting nothing much. The gal we asked pointed to a huge display case. We had no idea.”

For Thompson and Simione, their luck couldn’t have been better. It wasn’t just any ordinary scene they wanted to shoot, it was the teen’s prom. It was here at The View Point Inn where the lovers declared their allegiance to each other, “Forever.”

When the movie premiered, calls started pouring in. Many parties had to book their events months in advance because the inn quickly became booked solid. Business couldn’t have been better. However, with increased business, the inn required more and more funds to continue running. Thompson and Simione were barely keeping afloat, and the renovations still needed to be made. How can you win, and what can you do?

You use what you have and cash in on the Hollywood equity you have. On the View Point Inn’s website, you quickly see how Thompson has turned this into a marketing and money making opportunity. They have a brick walkway, dubbed, “The Twilight Walk of Fame.” Every squealing girl who goes up there can buy a brick, personalize it with a saying or their names, and be placed near the brick, “Edward Cullen and Bella Swan – Forever.”

Fortunately for Thompson and Simione, the film crew left the casino archway and other props behind. With those, and a bit of marketing magic, came: The Twilight Prom, Twilight Bella Berry and Edward’s Essence soaps, Twilight calendar and they have even fashioned a completely original t-shirt with the love birds’ silhouettes against the View Point Inn. There is a plea for help on the web for Twilight fans to help save the inn, and even a petition to have the lead characters marry at the property.

I asked Thompson, “Do you think that the Twilight fans will catch on to what you’re doing and see that you’re milking the Twilight thing for all it’s worth?” His reply was that he would whore the property out as much as possible in order to save it.

From what I gathered, putting the property on the market was more of a strategic move to keep the place than to actually sell it. I asked Thompson, “Are you really trying to sell the place, or is it a bluff?”

“The purpose of it is, we spent over a million dollars on the whole journey to get it open. Legal fees, restoration…I mean we were here for three and a half years, it looked this beautiful, what you see here, for three and half years,” Thompson says. Unfortunately, the million dollars went to battle for the property, a battle that is legendary.

Thompson explains, “It would have been nice if we were able to spend that money on repair and restoring the inn, but that’s what happened. So be it…the inn is flourishing now, and I think that’s the time to put it on the market, when your flourishing. It would take a decade to have all the bills be paid, and another decade to have enough money to do the renovations.”

“You can see the roof, the chimney’s torn off. We need structural, windows, doors…it needs a lot of work. The Vista House went through a five million dollar renovation, the Pittock went through a similar renovation. If my heart is truly in the right place, and I’m committed to the inn, then it’s time to pass the dream along to someone who can pick torch so to speak, and fund it and help it get those things done, then that’s what needs to be done. When we put it on the market, we got publicity and people came out to ask, ‘What can we do to help?’ ”

Ultimately Thompson’s dream is to be 110, sitting out in the inn’s courtyard looking over the Columbia Gorge, “have a cup a coffee…nurse goes inside and says, ‘Hey, Mr. Thompson is gone.’ My heart and soul is with the land.” Who knows if this will become reality, but with Thompson, you can never doubt he will do all he can to make it happen. Even if means getting a vampire to marry, or handing the property to someone else.