Besides being the place for ocean studies for students, and researchers, Scripps Institution of Oceanography has been and continues to be a great location for films, documentaries, and TV series. Some are known, others date decades, and more are not what you might expect to be filmed at the Scripps, but all remain a part of its history.
WHERE AND WHAT
Located at 9500 Gilman Drive in La Jolla, Scripps was founded in 1903 as an independent biological research laboratory and became an integral part of the University of California in 1912.
Today, it occupies 170 acres along the Pacific coastline, “below the UC San Diego main campus. The waters immediately offshore are part of the California Marine Protected Areas, and the institution has a 1,084-foot research pier that supports a scientific diving program, small boat deployment, and research and data collection. Two nearby parts of the UC Natural Reserve System, a rocky shore/subtidal canyon, and a wetland, are used for education and research,” according to its website.
SWASHBUCKLING
For instance, “Cruise of the Zaca” was filmed in 1946 and features Scripps along with actor Errol Flynn the handsome actor known for “Captain Blood,” “The Adventures of Robin Hood,” “The Sea Hawk,” and others.
Zaca was the name of Flynn’s beloved 118-foot schooner built in 1930, according to film history.
The “Cruise of the Zaca” starts with a helicopter view of migrating gray whales off the coast of San Diego. Flynn and his father Theodore Thomson Flynn, a marine biologist, are seen collecting marine samples in the semi-tropics in 1952.
“The Scripps Oceanography campus makes its first Hollywood appearance in 1952 when Errol Flynn highlighted it in ‘Cruise of the Zaca,’ an account of his 1948 adventure with Scripps ichthyologist Carl Hubbs, who happened to be a friend of Flynn’s father, himself a noted scientist,” said Robert Monroe, associate director of communications/editor – explorations now, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego.
Turned over to the War Shipping Administration on May 21, 1945, Zaca was acquired in 1946 by Flynn, who starred in many a “swashbuckling” role in the Golden Age of Hollywood. More tidbits about the Zaca can be found here.
LASSIE, GAME SHOWS, AND MORE
The Scripps campus has since made other appearances including in an episode of “Lassie” set at Scripps in 1968, according to Monroe, and Scripps has also been featured in game, reality, and travel shows.
For example, in 2008, Scripps was the subject of a category on the TV game show “Jeopardy”
“It’s a pretty place where world-leading research just happens to be going on, too,” Monroe added. “About 10 years ago, Scripps was a ‘Jeopardy’ category, with some of the clues filmed on-site. Richard Hammond from ‘Top Gear’ filmed a segment for one of his spin-off shows. Jeff Goldblum recently filmed a science show segment here.”
Also, in 2014, Scripps and its Keeling Curve measurement of atmospheric carbon dioxide levels were featured as a plot point in an episode of HBO’s “The Newsroom.”
Additionally, Scripps was in the more obscure California Coastal Trail KCET TV series “Scripps Institution of Oceanography: Coastal Meander Trail” in 2015 (above). The plot was a look at a newly built section of the coastal trail that passes through Scripps.
“The Scripps Institution of Oceanography was established over 100 years ago as the Marine Biological Association. Today, as part of the University of California system, it still honors those origins, not only as a research institution and school but with the Scripps Coastal Meander Trail. Featured in this video while a new portion was under construction (it’s now completed and open), the publicly accessible walk serves as an alternative to walking the California Coastal Trail on the beach…” according to IMDb.
EARLY DAYS
Scripps has also appeared on screen dating as early as in “The Caves of La Jolla,” according to IMDb, and was a documentary short. It was released as a split reel along with the western “Three Daughters of the West” on Oct. 16, 1911, by the American Film Manufacturing Co.
Its director was Allan Dwan and was described as “Many beautiful pictures have been made by foreign manufacturers of picturesque places in their own country, but none of them surpass the natural beauty and rugged grandeur of our own West. The American Company, bearing in mind that very few pictures of this class have been produced for the pleasure and instruction of the American public, has produced a marvelous picture of the ‘Caves of La Jolla,’ that is stereoscopic in photography, magnificent in perceptive, sublime in grandeur, and faultless in every respect. The splendid vista unfolds itself to the spectator as if he were looking upon the actual scene himself,” according to a Moving Picture World synopsis.
SCRIPPS HISTORY
According to its website: “For more than a century, Scripps Institution of Oceanography has been dedicated to providing exceptional educational opportunities. As one of the world’s oldest, largest, and most important centers for marine, earth, and atmospheric science research and public service, Scripps Oceanography’s educational mission is to train its graduate students to perform innovative research and to apply and communicate scientific knowledge for the benefit of society and the environment.
“Research at Scripps Oceanography encompasses physical, chemical, biological, geological, and geophysical studies of the oceans, earth, and atmosphere. Among the hundreds of research, programs are studies of air-sea interaction, climate prediction, ocean dynamics, earthquakes and earth structure, the physiology, ecology, and genetics of marine organisms, marine chemistry, beach erosion, coastal pollution, coral reefs, the marine food chain, the geological history of the ocean basins, and many multidisciplinary aspects of global change, conservation, and the environment.”
Scripps is a branch of UC San Diego that has a public aquarium and science center on campus. Birch Aquarium at Scripps offers ocean and earth sciences educational experiences for K-16 students and the public, and opportunities for UC San Diego faculty, researchers, and graduate/undergraduate students.
The aquarium has more than 60 habitats, from the cold waters of the Pacific Northwest to the tropical waters of Mexico and the Western Pacific. Birch Aquarium at Scripps also has an interactive science center
