By Tara Fischer

Staff Writer

(July 24, 2025) The Berlin-filmed “Runaway Bride” movie will be honored for its 26th anniversary this weekend with a showing on the lawn of the Calvin B. Taylor House Museum.

This Saturday, July 26, the Taylor House will screen “Runaway Bride,” the 1999 film starring household names Julia Roberts and Richard Gere, which was shot primarily in Berlin. The showing will kick off at 8 p.m. on the lawn of the museum. Entrance into the event is free. Popcorn, candy, and soda will be available for sale.

The showing will commemorate the 26th anniversary of the film’s release, which premiered in July of 1999. Taylor House President Melissa Reid said the film’s screening will enhance the museum’s mission of telling the stories of Berlin by remembering the iconic movie that, in some ways, brought life back to a small town rebuilding itself.

“’Runaway Bride’…in my opinion, provided the economic stability that gave Berlin the foothold to continue to grow and become a cool small town,” Reid said. “’Runaway Bride’ was a cornerstone of that because of the money the movie provided when they came here for extensive filming.”

According to the Taylor House president, “Runaway Bride” came at a time when the Town of Berlin was on the rise after a period of stagnation, giving it the final push to become what it is today: a flourishing historic downtown district.

Before Berlin experienced its most recent period of prosperity, the municipality had endured times of economic stress. In the 1960s, a peach blight threw a massive wrench into the success of the Harrison family’s orchards, a major employer in Berlin. Reid noted that the commercial health of many town businesses was dependent on the orchard’s profitability. Without the agricultural fortune, Berlin’s financial position struggled.

The museum leader added that the town also underwent a period of decline during an architectural movement in the 1940s and 1950s that favored more modern styles and less of Berlin’s specialty: Victorian, old-fashioned buildings.

Reid said that the town was in a situation where they didn’t have enough money to comply with the push towards modernity by tearing down the aged buildings and replacing them with new ones, but had enough financial room to cover up the structures.

“In the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, a lot of Berlin stores were boarded up and empty,” she said. “There were plywood coverings over stained glass windows in Berlin, and formstone covering over some of the buildings. Where Relish and Treaty are now, that whole storefront on the second and third floor was covered over with aluminum siding. Also, we had these huge telephone poles going right down the sidewalks on either side of Main Street.”

Berlin began to emerge from its depressed period slowly but surely. Reid said that a former mayor secured the financial backing to hide the aesthetically displeasing power lines underground. As part of a historic space appreciation resurgence in the 1970s, a group of townsfolk advocated for the restoration of old-fashioned staples, such as the Taylor House and the familiar Atlantic Hotel.

“That started this appreciation for Berlin,” the museum president said. “It was starting, some small businesses were coming in.”

Giving it that final boost, Reid said, was the filming of “Runaway Bride.” Production staff were scouting locations in Maryland to shoot the movie and settled on Berlin for its intact historic downtown. The film not only brought the townspeople together but also gave the area notoriety, increased tourism, and put it on the map to eventually be named ‘America’s Coolest Small Town’ by Budget Travel in 2014.

“We like to use the phrase at the museum, ‘they threw money around like confetti,’” Reid said. “I mean, it’s a Hollywood blockbuster movie, so they threw money all over the place, which gave those small businesses the economic stability to be able to weather the waves of tourism. Then, once the movie was released, tourism increased because people wanted to visit the town. It is a link in a chain that led us to where we are now.”

The goal of showing the movie on the museum’s lawn this week is to honor its impact on the Town of Berlin.

“It’s always a great time to see that movie with Berlin people in a collective setting because Main Street, even at the time the movie’s been made, Main Street itself has changed,” Reid said. “So it’s cool to see that sort of time capsule of what it looked like when the movie was being made, compared to what it looks like now with other community members. It’s a cool collective event.”

Reid, who was raised in Berlin, shared stories of what it was like to be a resident during the movie’s production. In one particular story, Reid said that her grandmother was at Rayne’s Reef when the town mayor entered with Richard Gere and the film’s director, Garry Marshall, on a site visit. Reid also noted that Gere’s presence in Berlin brought quite a stir.

 “There was a scene in the movie where one shot they needed was [Gere] walking through the doors going into the restaurant in the Atlantic Hotel,” Reid explained. “Word had gotten out that Gere was filming, and so many women had come into the restaurant, to the point it was so crowded in there that when they would try to film the scene and they would open the door, there would be so many women screaming that they had to tell the restaurant that they had to close so that they could get this one shot filmed and move on with their day.”

Reid added that the stars were active in Berlin, to the extent that Marshall would often show up at the Atlantic Hotel just to play the restaurant’s piano. He also signed books and conducted talks at The Globe.

The movie brought the town together. When the piece was filmed and edited, Berlin received two early cuts. Townspeople could purchase a ticket, and they would be bussed to the West Ocean City movie theater, where the film played. Reid said that she remembers the excitement felt by residents during that initial screening.

“There was a scene in the movie, it was an early scene, where it was an overview shot, a long shot down Main Street,” she said. “I have such a vivid memory of when that scene came up. We didn’t know what the movie looked like. We had been there for the filming, but we had no idea what the finished product looked like. When that scene came up on a movie theater screen, the entire movie theater burst into applause, cheering and screaming. It was such a great collective community happening.”

Reid hopes this weekend’s lawn showing will reignite some of that community pride. She said that the town used to show the movie each summer, but interest tapered off. However, when the film was shown on the museum’s lawn last July for its monumental 25th anniversary, Berliners flocked to the outdoor screening. Reid said that she believes this year’s occurrence will yield similar attendance rates.

“We’re glad we could, at least for this year, show [“Runaway Bride”] again just to provide people with another opportunity to see it with a group of fellow townspeople,” she said.

“Runaway Bride” is this month’s movie on the lawn, but the museum has planned additional film showings for the rest of the year. Reid said that the Halloween classic “Hocus Pocus” is set for October, while “Night at the Museum” will play on the facility’s grass in November.