Union League Building, date unknown

My father owns his own business, which he runs out of a home office. Growing up, my mom worked right beside him, mostly doing bookkeeping, although her background was in education. Even for those years in which my parents had a real office to go to, this arrangement meant we got to see a lot of our parents, and, more importantly, that Mom could be home when we were sick.

Of course, being home didn't mean that she could spend every moment of the day with us, no matter how yucky we were feeling or how much our tummies hurt. Accounts needed to be balanced, checks needed to be cut, and hey, you can't blame a mom for just needing some time to herself, either.

Enter my mom's two best friends from 1983 to about 1998: the TV and the VCR. My mom figured out when I was a year old that plopping me in front of the television while Sesame Street was on gave her an hour to do the things she needed to do. Like shower. Or eat. It worked on my sisters, too. See, this was back before people were going around saying that kids who watch too much TV could develop autism. And I don't resent my mother for exposing me to too many flashing lights and fast-moving images at a young age. I've got an Ivy League degree—with honors!—to prove that she didn't do me any harm.

Of course, I eventually outgrew Sesame Street and the other Children's Television Network shows running on PBS at the time. That's a lie—I will still happily watch Mr. Rodger's Neighborhood to this very day. However, at some point, Mom felt she needed to graduate my sick days to live action.

Enter CLASSIC FILMS OF THE EIGHTIES. Back to the Future. Batteries Not Included. Ferris Bueller's Day Off. And, because she figured I was too young to get all of the sexual references (I was), Trading Places. I loved Trading Places. Child of the eighties that I was, I of course recognized Eddie Murphy and Dan Akroyd right away, and for almost two hours, I would laugh and forget that I wasn't feeling all that hot—and my mother could get her work done.

Fast forward, oh, probably about eleven years. I've recently moved over two thousand miles from El Paso, Texas, where I grew up, to Philadelphia. Determined to get the most out of my urban university, I make a point of traveling downtown at least once a week. Usually, I wander into a few stores, grab lunch or coffee, and head back home. Sometimes, I head to Old City and do something educational. I got to be a bit of an expert when it came to getting off campus. My friends and hallmates would ask me where to buy their families' Christmas gifts, what SEPTA stop to get off at if they were going to a doctor's appointment, Sixteenth and Walnut, and where to go grab a quick bite. One cold, grey Saturday, I was headed to have lunch a friend of mine whose mother and sister were staying at the Doubletree Hotel at Broad and Locust. I took the trolley from 37th and Spruce, conveniently located across the street from my dorm, all the way to its penultimate stop beneath City Hall. I knew exactly where I was going, having more or less memorized the Philadelphia grid, but I think this was my first stroll down South Broad Street. Two blocks south of City Hall, I looked to my right and saw a familiar-looking building, but I couldn't place it. The plaque reading "Union League" did nothing to jog my memory and I was already running late, so I moved on.

Not long thereafter—it may have even been the same day—I mentioned to someone that the building looked familiar to me, but I didn't know why. "Oh, you mean the Trading Places building?"

Bingo.

Although it had, by this point, been years since my last sick day date with Louis Winthorpe III and Billy Ray Valentine, I'd seen the movie so many times in my youth that some of its settings were embedded in my subconscious. Years before I'd ever even thought of moving to Philadelphia, I'd seen a film set here.

Actually, I'd seen a few films set here, as well as a couple of television shows. Perhaps my viewing selections in my early life somehow informed upon my eventual decision to go to school here. Or maybe Philadelphia's just a great place to bring a camera crew. But whatever the case, it seems that I was pretty familiar with the city without even knowing it. Just look at this list of Philadelphia settings I was exposed to well before my relocation in 2002:

• American Bandstand (Filmed in Philadelphia 1952-1964): I'd definitely seen clips of classic Bandstand episodes growing up, as well as countless reenactments of the show in other shows and movies that discussed it. While you never really saw shots of the city while the show aired, I've since passed the original studio at 46th and Market Streets.
  
• Marnie (1964): In eighth grade, I went on a bit of an Alfred Hitchcock kick for a school project that I'd never been able to kick. Marnie was one of the films I was especially drawn to. I thought it was because of my crush on Sean Connery. Turns out it might be because a scene from the film was taped at 30th Street Station.
  
• The Mike Douglas Show (Filmed in Philadelphia 1965-1978): Like with Bandstand, this show pre-dates me. But clips from it—especially clips with his famous musical guests—often made their way onto television while I was growing up.
  
• 1776 (1972): Okay, so obviously, I knew this movie was set in Philadelphia. But who knew, when Mrs. Stevens screened it for her eighth grade social studies class, that I'd someday live easy walking distance from its setting?
  
• Rocky (1976): Perhaps the most famous, and certainly the most emulated, film produced or set in Philadelphia, Sylvester Stallone's Oscar-winning film was another one of those movies my mom would have me watch when I was home sick. Sure pugilism is violent—but at least it was distracting.
  
• Dawn of the Dead (1978): Even if you're not a huge fan of the zombie movie genre (which I'm not), there's a reasonably good chance that you've seen George A. Romero's classic Dawn of the Dead (which I have—more than once). I must have completely sublimated the fact that the first part of the film is actually set in Philadelphia, though. Probably because the rest of it is set in a mall. And we don't really have many of those here.
  
• Double Dare (Filmed in Philadelphia 1986; 1988-1990): I was one of those kids who didn't especially like getting dirty, so Double Dare wasn't a show I couldn't miss, even though I saw it quite often. My sophomore or junior year of high school, while volunteering for a community fair, I was assigned to the "Nickelodeon Stage," where we learned exactly what goes into their slime, at least when they take their show on the road: applesauce and lots of green food coloring. Ah, Philadelphia, birthplace of epicurean delights!
  
• Mannequin (1987): I know I saw this movie once upon a time, even though I preferred my reanimated mannequins to come from Today's Special on Nickelodeon. Imagine my surprise, though, to discover that the Center City Macy's, which was a Lord & Taylor when I moved here and the flagship Wannamaker's Department Store before that, provides the setting for much of the movie.
  
• Philadelphia (1993): In the early 90s, AIDS was quite the cause celebré—perhaps never depicted better than in Tom Hanks' Oscar-winning role. Not only was the movie named after the city in which it was set, but a scene in which Hanks and Denzel Washington are in a law library, was recorded at Penn's Fischer Fine Arts Library, where I often studied as an undergraduate.
  
• The Sixth Sense (1999): The summer after my freshman year of high school, I saw a lot of movies. Mostly because it gave me a chance to go make out with my then-boyfriend in the dark without parental supervision. After five minutes of doing that during the Sixth Sense, though, I found myself really wrapped up in the film, pushed my boyfriend aside, and watched the story unfold. I had no idea at the time that the movie was set or filmed in Philadelphia, but I do remember thinking how gorgeous some of the settings were.
  
• Philly (2001-2002): Obviously, a television series called "Philly" would be set here in Philadelphia. But its inter-scene scenic shots of notable locations in Philadelphia, especially City Hall, gave me a good idea of what to expect from the city when I finally arrived. The show only went on the air shortly before I made the decision to apply to Penn, but it gets to join the ranks of the aforementioned series and films regardless.

By JILLIAN ASHLEY BLAIR IVEY