Noting when movies reference Duluth is a top hobby on Perfect Duluth Day, but when its comes to Merry Kiss Cam — the flick that has more Duluth scenes than any before it — we hesitated. So now we’ll let Minnesota Public Radio explain the convenient taxi system, clean street-side snow and disappointing hockey team that make our city great.
Duluth was mentioned on the Nov. 2 episode of the NBC comedic talk show Late Night with Seth Meyers. During a segment titled “A Closer Look,” Meyers cuts into My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell, suggesting it’s strange he made so much money on pillows because he doesn’t look well rested.
“He has the energy of a guy being dragged out of a Buffalo Wild Wings in Duluth for stuffing barbecue sauce in his pockets,” Meyers quips at the 9:25 mark in the video above.
Retired professional wrestler Greg Gagne mentions a match in Duluth on the new Vice cable television series Tales from the Territories. The anecdote occurs after the 19-minute mark in episode 3, titled “AWA: Bodyslams in the Heartland.” (The embedded video above appears to be some sort of scrambled pirated version, but it gets the story across.)
Comedian Mary Mack performed on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon on Friday. During the set she mentions her mother is “from that very bland Scandinavian country called Duluth, Minnesota.”
Mack’s parents are both Duluth natives and Mack herself was raised in Webster, Wis., about 50 miles south of Duluth.
During its nine-season run on the CBS television network, the sitcom How I Met Your Mother dropped numerous references to Minnesota, the home state of one of the show’s primary characters, Marshall Eriksen. In season 8, episode 10, titled “The Over-Correction,” Duluth finally got mentioned.
The episode aired 10 years ago today — Dec. 10, 2012.
Forty years ago today — Dec. 3, 1982 — the dramatic film Frances premiered in American theaters. In addition to featuring Cloquet native Jessica Lange in the leading role as Frances Farmer, the film also includes a reference to Duluth.
For the second time in four months — and third time overall — Duluth has been mentioned on the podcast Yo, is this Racist? In the show’s opening banter, Andrew Ti mentions his fingers are cold. Co-host Tawny Newsome quickly points out how someone in Los Angeles complaining about cold fingers might be annoying to people in places like Buffalo, Fargo or Duluth.
This Twin Cities Public Television segment challenges the notion that Minnesotans are all blond-haired, blue-eyed Scandinavians. Although the piece is Twin Cities-focused, the final clip includes a nod to Duluth.
I was watching this YouTube documentary on the Big Old Boats channel, like ya do. It is about the Carroll Deering, which wrecked on Cape Hatteras without her crew in a nautical mystery. But a lot of the footage used is stock footage from other sources, for seaside vibes. So when I saw Ol’ Lifty on screen @17:30-17:46, I wasn’t too surprised. Duluth as generic sea location, thrown into amateur doc about unrelated East Coast disaster.
The CBS network television drama S.W.A.T. has a reference to Duluth in its second episode, titled “Cuchillo.” The show aired five years ago today — Nov. 9, 2017.
In the scene, Sergeant “Hondo” pulls over a nice girl from Duluth who has been mixed up with a bad boy.
The 1998 satirical comedy Wrongfully Accused, starring Leslie Nielsen, is available to watch in its entirety on YouTube. A reference to “The Duluth Strangler” shows up around the 18-minute mark.
“The bridge between Duluth and Superior” appears at just after the 1-minute mark in the circa-1957 short film Al-Can Trailer Trek, which promotes trailer traveling. After the quick bridge shot, zoom, it’s straight to International Falls.
This bridge is the Duluth/Superior Interstate Bridge, which was replaced when the Blatnik Bridge opened in 1961. Parts of the Interstate Bridge still exist as a fishing pier on Rice’s Point.
Ten years ago today — Oct. 11, 2012 — the Scottish alternative rock band Admiral Fallow performed on KEXP-FM in Seattle, Wash. What does that have to do with Duluth? Well, note the familiar-looking shirt worn by singer-songwriter Louis Abbott.
Among the many silly obsessions on Perfect Duluth Day is the practice of noting whenever Duluth is mentioned in a mainstream film — which by our count has happened at least 26 times. But what about when the script calls for a Duluth namedrop and the director or editor nixes it? Well, there are at least five examples of that.
Here’s PDD’s look at movies that were supposed to reference Duluth but ultimately didn’t.
