“We’re All Goonies in Astoria:” My Report from The Goondocks
It is estimated that 10,000 fans will arrive for “The Goonies’” 30th anniversary celebration this weekend, effectively doubling the population of Astoria. No one quite remembers how Donner and executive producer Steven Spielberg chose the town as the film’s primary location — one story involves a childhood friend of Spielberg’s, another Donner’s co-producer, born and raised in the Pacific Northwest — but “no one remembers when it wasn’t going to be filmed here either,” Derek Hoffman, current vice president of Donners Company, told me.
Astoria is only mentioned once or twice in “The Goonies” and lives on-screen for about 20 minutes of a movie that takes place almost entirely in underground caves re-created on sound stages. Knowing Astoria = the Goondocks and coming here (the town is two hours from the nearest major airport in Portland) represent a kind of super merit badge of fandom.
I wrote about The Goonies 30th Anniversary for Salon. The movie was shot on location in Astoria, Oregon, a former fishing village at the mouth of the Columbia River, in November of 1984.