One-Shot Wednesday

This screenshot comes from the most recognizable scene in the 1992 comedy Wayne’s World.

The "Bohemian Rhapsody" scene features the film’s main characters, Wayne (Mike Myers) and Garth (Dana Carvey), headbanging in a car with their friends as they lip-sync to Queen's rock ballad. The moment, which kicks off the movie, became a cultural phenomenon, and it boosted the track's popularity years after its original release.

Although Wayne’s World is set in Aurora, Illinois (a far-western suburb of Chicago), virtually none of the movie was filmed here. It was shot in and around Los Angeles.

Most of the Chicago-area footage Wayne’s World does include, you’ll find in the “Bohemian Rhapsody” montage. For example, as the characters sing and drive, look for:

• Ray Krey’s Wheels Automart

• Midwest Eye Clinic (with Native American figure atop)

• Scatchell’s Beef Stand

• Chicago Joe’s

• the Spindle

Unfortunately, some of these locales, like the Spindle, no longer exist.

Featured in today’s screenshot, the Spindle stood on Cermak Plaza at Harlem Avenue in Berwyn, Illinois, about 13 miles west of Chicago. It was created in 1989 by Dustin Schuler and has had several names:

• the Spindle

• Car Kabob

• Cars on a Spike

In short, the Spindle was a 50-foot spike with eight cars ranging in styles from the 1960s to the 1980s impaled upon it. The sculpture was torn down in May of 2008, with demolition costing around $300,000.

The good news: the Spindle, of course, still lives on in Wayne's World and, amazingly, within the Library of Congress. What’s more, as of this writing, you’ll can visit a tiny version of the sculpture in the parking lot of Paisan’s Pizzeria in Berwyn.