Well, maybe not really, but the town of Springfield, Vermont has won a nationwide contest to be the site of the premiere of The Simpsons Movie later this month:
SPRINGFIELD, Vt., July 10 — Maybe it was the pink doughnut. Maybe it was the clever homemade video, or small-town charm.
Maybe Homer just figured it was time to go green.
Whatever the reason, this much is true: Springfield, Vt., beat out 13 other Springfields on Tuesday for the right to host the premiere of “The Simpsons Movie,” winning an online poll it wasn’t even invited to participate in.
On July 21, the town’s 100-seat movie theater will play host to the movie, which opens July 27.
“Vermont wins,” read the purple lettering beside the doughnut-chomping patriarch of America’s favorite dysfunctional family on “The Simpsons Movie Springfield Challenge” Web site.
“Ninety-three hundred people, and we won,” said an exultant Town Manager Bob Forguites. “I think it’s pretty neat, myself.”
Springfields in Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, Ohio, Oregon and Tennessee also made bids, submitting videos meant to playfully connect their cities to the fictional Springfield in “The Simpsons.”
Competition was fierce: Massachusetts got Sen. Edward Kennedy — the inspiration behind the voice of Mayor Quimby on “The Simpsons” — to appear in its entry.
“Just think,” Kennedy said. “You’ll even be able to enjoy some real chowdah.”
Vermont’s Springfield — which has a bowling alley, a pub, a prison and a nuclear power plant just down the road — wasn’t initially part of the contest, but a local Chamber of Commerce executive appealed to movie producer Twentieth Century Fox and the race was on.
Heh.
July 11th, 2007 at 3:45 pm
Lies. Our movie theatre can hold 200.
August 6th, 2007 at 12:47 am
I have always suspected that springfield vermont is the fictional home to the simpsons, even though I live in mass.
While visiting relative there I had noticed that the town bore alot similarities to the cartoon, such as the atmospher, the location geographically, the prison, pub, nearby nuclear plant and bowling alley.
November 26th, 2007 at 11:37 pm
I am one of 200 volunteers who appeared in the winning Springfield Vermont video. After we helped them win, our local Chamber of Commerce turned its back on us. We were excluded from the invitation list, our seats awarded to the elite in town instead. And not even a word of thanks or mention of us in the public ceremony outside the theater. Read more and then enjoy some happier sights and sounds of the world premiere at our new website:
The Simpsons Springfield Vermont