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Wednesday November 6th 2024

Cocoon | 1985

Cocoon film location: John's Pass Boardwalk, St Petersburg, Florida
Cocoon film location: Jack rents out the 'Manta III': John's Pass Boardwalk, St Petersburg, Florida | Shutterstock / Jerome Labouyrie

This hugely successful feelgood fantasy, with a group of residents in a retirement home becoming mysteriously rejuvenated, was set and filmed in the retirement haven of St Petersburg on Florida's West Coast.

The old folks' home was Sunny Shores Rest Home, which became Westminster Shores Retirement Community,125 56th Avenue South, on the south shore of Little Bayou, Bahama Shores. It's since been substantially redeveloped.

The 'magical' pool wasn’t next door at all but way over west on Boca Ciega Bay. It’s a a large Neo-Spanish estate, Casa de Mochas Flores, 1446 Park Street North, though it was an outdoor swimming pool.

The poolhouse was built over it for the film, but only as a temporary structure for filming. The owners enjoyed it so much, they had a solid version built to the same design. The estate was put up for sale for $11.5 in the 2023. Needless to say, it's not visible from the street.

Jack Bonner (Steve Guttenberg) rents out his boat, ‘Manta III’, from John’s Pass Village, once a fishing village on the Gulf of Mexico, transformed into a busy tourist spot by the building of a Boardwalk.

Ben (Wilford Brimley) is grumpy as he fails an eyesight test to renew his driving licence, but later delighted when he can read the bottom line perfectly, at the St Petersburg Municipal Building, 1 4th Street North at Central Avenue, downtown St Petersburg.

The ballroom, where the old folks strut their stuff, was the 1924 Mediterranean Revival-style Coliseum Ballroom, now an events space at 535 Fourth Avenue North, also downtown.

Underwater shots and mid-ocean scenes, with the ‘Manta III’ (and a mix of real and puppet dolphins) were filmed at at Nassau in the Bahamas.