DeLorean time machines lined a quiet Arleta street Saturday as fans of Back to the Future gathered outside the real-life house used as Marty McFly's family home in the 1985 blockbuster. The stainless-steel sports cars, made famous on screen as Doc Brown's time machine, turned the San Fernando Valley block into a scene straight out of Hill Valley.
According to the New York Post, the gathering took place on Saturday at the house located at 9303 Roslyndale Avenue in Arleta. The Post reported the event featured music, food, photo opportunities and cosplay, along with movie memorabilia and an appearance by an original film star. Per the same report, the DeLorean Owners Association provided vehicles featured at the gathering.
The Post's account also named actress Claudia Wells, who portrayed Marty McFly's girlfriend Jennifer Parker in the original film, as an attendee who met with fans, posed for photos and signed autographs. Back to the Future, released in 1985, was that year's highest-grossing domestic release and, the outlet notes, continues to attract devoted fans four decades later.
The House Beneath the Power Lines
The Arleta property sits on what movie-locations.com describes as a quiet sidestreet off Sunburst Street, beneath the power pylons of the San Fernando Valley. In the film, the house served as the exterior of the fictional Lyon Estates home where Marty McFly's family lived in Hill Valley. The site notes it was the Eighties McFly residence used throughout the trilogy.
The house actually appeared in all three Back to the Future films, according to a 2015 report from dailymail.com, which detailed how Michael J. Fox and the cast and crew spent days and nights filming at the residential street. The same report noted that the interiors of the suburban houses were never filmed inside the actual Los Angeles properties — those scenes were shot on a studio set.
A Street Turned Tourist Hub
The global success of the franchise turned the once-quiet Arleta street into what dailymail.com called a hub for thousands of film fans and nostalgia tourists. That attention has not always been welcome. A woman identified in the 2015 report as the homeowner, Mary Fentriss, said film fans rang her doorbell day and night asking for a peek inside, and that some visitors even moved her trash cans to recreate scenes from the movie.
Fentriss said the behavior eventually led her to stop participating in anything connected to the film. “People are not respectful, they get in my neighbor's stuff. They steal stuff from my yard and I am not doing anything more with the film ever again,” she told the outlet. It is not clear from available reporting whether the home's ownership or her stance has changed in the decade since.
More Than One Hill Valley Landmark
The Arleta house is far from the only Los Angeles-area spot tied to the trilogy. Universal Studios Hollywood's Courthouse Square backlot stood in for the famous Hill Valley Courthouse, while the historic Gamble House in Pasadena served as the home of Doctor Emmett Brown, according to Discover Los Angeles. Whittier High School in Whittier played Hill Valley High School, the site where Marty meets his future parents, George and Lorraine.
Puente Hills Mall in the City of Industry stood in for Twin Pines Mall, the parking lot where Marty accelerated the DeLorean to 88 miles per hour in the story's early morning scenes. Discover Los Angeles also notes that the original DeLorean DMC-12 built for the trilogy has been on public display at the Petersen Automotive Museum since April 2016, remaining there on permanent loan for fans who want to see the real time machine up close.
