In New York, Harvey makes his legendary appearances on Late Night With David Letterman at the NBC Building, Rockefeller Plaza.

A few months later, a depressed Harvey is at his file clerk job at the VA hospital. [14] American Splendor was given the Guardian New Directors Award at the 2003 Edinburgh International Film Festival. The film opens in the year 1950.

Now married, Harvey and Joyce go to a screening of Revenge of the Nerds with Toby. It is on the city’s East Side, though, that Harvey (Paul Giamatti) successfully pitches his comic strip idea to Crumb, in Shay's Pizza Shop, 4001 Saint Clair Avenue at East 40th Street. (Pekar and Brabner had been approached previously by actors interested in playing Pekar on film, including Rob Schneider. Joyce and Toby found the film inspiring, and Harvey found it insipid. Although the Pekars lived in Cleveland Heights, to the east of Cleveland itself, the movie was filmed mainly around the suburb of Lakewood, to the west. Ultranerd Toby Radloff takes Harvey and Joyce to see “a story of hope and tolerance” – Revenge of the Nerds – at the Detroit Theatre, supposedly in Toledo, which is about 120 miles west of Cleveland. )[8], David Letterman refused to appear in the film, and his old network of NBC did not allow the filmmakers to use footage of Pekar's disastrous fourth and sixth appearances on Late Night (aired July 31, 1987 and August 31, 1988, respectively), though they had no problems with the other Pekar appearances that are shown in the film.

Boats (Earl Billings) comes by to offer advice: the words of an Elinor Wylie poem. Pekar realises he’s achieved some kind of fame at Elmwood Home Bakery, 15204 Madison Avenue, Lakewood, (typically, he’s buying day-old bread), when he bumps into old school friend Alice Quinn (Maggie Moore). All material Copyright © 2020 The Worldwide Guide To Movie Locations [3] It also features appearances from Pekar and Brabner themselves (along with Pekar's long-time co-worker Toby Radloff),[3] who discuss their lives, the comic books, and how it feels to be depicted onscreen by actors. AMERICAN SPLENDOR is a celebration of the painful dance between life and art.

|

Their spat is interrupted by a message from a theater producer who wants to make American Splendor into a play. At the 2003 Cannes Film Festival, the film received the FIPRESCI critics award. document.write("This page was last updated on " +document.lastModified+ ""), American Splendor location: Harvey Pekar pitches his comic book idea to Robert Crumb: Shay’s Pizza House, Saint Clair Avenue, Cleveland, American Splendor location: Harvey Pekar realises he’s famous when he meets an old school friend: Elmwood Home Bakery, Madison Avenue, Cleveland, American Splendor location: Harvey Pekar goes skating after his cancer all-clear: Halloran Park Ice Rink, West 117th Street, Cleveland, Elmwood Home Bakery, 15204 Madison Avenue, Lakewood, Gene’s Place to Dine, 3730 Rocky River Drive, 5300 Riverside Drive, Cleveland, OH 44135, 3550 West 117th Street, Cleveland, OH 44111. In 2003, the series inspired a well-received film adaptation of the same name..