Field of Dreams

Dubuque county, Iowa

Partly is the American Dream and part baseball. This movie had always been one to refer to as simplicity, past, present, and future.

Billy

Eastern State Penitentiary

Philadelphia, PA

Eastern State was the world's first penitentiary in the 18th century. It became a (controversial, problematic) model for incarceration around the world, was studied by Dickens, housed Capone, and served as the setting for many films, including 12 Monkeys. Today, it is a ruin, the site of a major Halloween attraction, and home to an audio tour voiced by Steve Buscemi. This is THE historical site we direct friends and family to when they visit us in Philly.

Charlie

@cmcgeeiii

Titanic and the portrayals of Molly Brown

Leadville, Colorado

James Cameron’s film is one of many movies, television shows and plays about Titanic's sinking. The tragedy remains iconic in the American conscious as a cautionary tale of hubris leading to disaster, counterpoised by the struggle between self-sacrifice and survival. The most iconic figure is Molly Brown. As an upper class woman, she obtained a lifeboat seat and escaped this existential dilemma. It was her advocacy for the survivors and her other philanthropies which made her so endearing at the time. The various portrayals of Molly Brown reflect the changing American culture since the time of Titanic.

Gunnar

The big lebowski

California

Steve

Waffle House

Along major highways in the South (mostly)

It is the quintessential American mixture of food, commerce and driving. It seems joyously stuck in a mid-20th Century frame of mind. Many have imitated it without success (yes, I'm talking to you, Cracker Barrel and IHOP.)McDonald's (and it's ilk) falls into a different category because it grew into a national chain, but Waffle House stayed true to it truck driving catering roots. There is a genuine friendliness which is classically American in how you are serviced in a Waffle House.

Simon Tschinkel

simontnyc

Charlotte's Web by E. B. White

North Brooklin, ME

Charlotte's Web has taught several generations of American children about friendship, the power of words, and death. It has sold more than 20 million copies since it appeared in 1952.

http://www.npr.org/2012/10/15/162735079/some-book-charlottes-web-turns-60

Ned

@NStuckeyFrench

Slaughterhouse-5

America?

Many think this the best anti-war book ever written. It's certainly strange--I need Studio 360 to explain it to me! I love it! But it's so strange...

I teach this novel along with The Things They Carried in an American Studies high school class. Some kids are mystified, others say it's the best book they've ever read...all are enthralled.

Miriam

Firstmemery@twitter

Columbia

From a NY university to a river in the west

Columbia is an older, softer, more feminine America before the hubris of Uncle Sam sent us into warrior mode.
We need to get her back.

Jerry

1st Transcontintal Railroad

St Louis, MO- Sacrmento, CA

This steam train connection was a heroic undertaking and bound the west to the east preventing it from becoming its own country or joining the confederacy

Riccardo

American Graffiti (1962 Movie)

California

Classic film depicting coming of age, mid-20th century card dependent-suburbia.

riccardo

Bruce Springsteen's Born to Run

Asbury Park NJ

Rock anthem alive for 30 years: electric and acoustic; scruffy young Boss, slick studly Boss, aging American bard, (and don’t forget Melissa Etheridge at the Kennedy Center or Jimmy Fallon at the Emmys) ; rock overwhelming disco, punk, grunge, and poppity-pop; an album cover that told us what race relations should be and could be; the last shot on goal for the young songwriter that he would not compromise upon; running away, running toward, the sweat of the day, the dream of the night. A song about where we aren't but could be. Tramps like us is all of us.

Jeff

Trout Fishing In America by Richard Brautigan

"...America...often only a place in the mind."

I interviewed Virginia Brautigan Aste, Richard Brautigan's first wife, here in Hawaii, about her life and marriage to Richard Brautigan, beat writer and 1960s-'70s icon of American Literature. This interview was published in Arthur (online) and Beat Scene (U.K. print). I became curious about her life also before and after her marriage to him and interviewed her some more. This turned into a book manuscript called, Please Plant This Book Coast To Coast (still unpublished but being considered by Beatdom Books--they are currently experiencing financial problems...) I remain hopeful that her memoir will be published and keep trying to submit it to contests and publishers. I think that she could be considered an icon although nobody really knows about her. She helped launch his career by typing up his poems and going on the camping trip with him and their young daughter to Idaho. She drove, it was her car, it was she who had the day job. She was his support and also his muse. She is 80 years old now. She never saw any money from the publication of Trout Fishing In America, having waived her rights to any monies when they divorced after years apart.

Susan

Easy Rider & Hoffa

movie

In the late '90s I was married to a man from Cuba. When we watched Easy Rider I said to him, you cannot understand recent US life without knowing this. When we saw Hoffa I felt the two together say something important about what it felt like to be alive in mid-century USA.

Virginia

Breaking Bad

Albuquerque

This modern American Icon is world renown as the most popular and most well done TV show ever made. It tells an inner American story in the format of Spaghetti Western; a story of hero and villain. Breaking Bad is a unique show that wont soon be forgotten.

Rory

@Rory_1776

West Side Story (movie)

New York City

West SIde Story was a musical ahead of its time because it dealt with race, class and the immigrant experience. The music and dancing really propelled this Romeo and Juliet story forward without making it feel trivial. Plus it won a ton of Oscars!

Laurie

White Picket Fence

Everywhere, USA

From its Colonial origins, this American icon finds its apex in Tom Sawyer's enterprising, sleight of hand but has resonated in our culture ever since. For artists and sociologists, the fence delineates suburban middle-class dream, as well as its dark underside beneath the conforming surface of things. (See David Lynch’s Blue Velvet.)

As an American teenager in Ireland, where homes were flanked by stone walls or metal gates, I missed these fences and even saw them as representative of the more open, accessible ways of folks back home, compared to the friendly yet remote ones of my new neighbors.

Elinor

Cedar Point

Sandusky, OH

145 years. Idyllic location. Iconic resort. Witness to aviation milestones. Host to Presidents. Watched Knute Rockne change football forever. Saved by the big band era. Invigorated by a Walt Disney-inspired revolution. Second golden age. Roller coaster capital. The gripping story of Cedar Point’s development, decline, survival, and reinvention, along with a popularity that spans generations, makes it an American Icon. A rare survivor of the golden age of resorts, it continues to thrive. Today, more than three million people a summer visit for Cedar Point’s 72 rides, 17 roller coasters, five resort properties, two marinas, waterpark, and the world-class beach that started it all.

Walt

Niagara Falls

Niagara Falls, NY

It's been drawing people for generations.

Robin

Jaws (1975 Film)

Hollywood, CA

The film "Jaws" would be a perfect candidate. Next summer will be the 40th anniversary of this movie blockbuster that has saturated our media and culture in so many ways: invented the movie blockbuster; inspired endless immitators (Sharknado only the latest); made people think twice about going for that dip at at beach (guilty); and who would have thought two (2) notes on the musical scale would make people's hair stand up whenever they heard it! The film has also had its share of negative effects in that humanity ever since has hunted these animals to near extinction out of fear, profit (sharkfin soup), or sport. Jaws as a subject could be approached from many interesting angles and could be a rich source of interesting material.

Eddie

Eddie_M_I

The Cosby Show

Washington, DC

Mary Ruth