I went to a movie the other day. Third one this year (new modern-era record). It was that Rocket Boys thing which was made near here. Yes, they used East Tennessee for West Virginia. It looked more like Kentucky to me. It wasn't a bad flick as based-on-a-true-story stuff goes. I thought the character of Homer's father was a little overdone and Laura Dern usually does a better job than that, but overall the acting was okay. I think I watched the backgrounds a little too much because I grew up in coal mining country. Much of the footage was shot in and around Oliver Springs, Tennessee and downtown Knoxville stood in for Indianapolis. The Ennessee theater was really the old historic Tennessee Theater on Gay Street in K-town. There were a few minor blunders in there. For one, it implied that Werner von Braun launched the ill-fated Vanguard. Nope. The Vanguard was a Navy Project and von Braun worked for the Army in those pre-NASA days. The Army team launched the Explorer. The movie could have used a couple of more laughs.
On a personal note: Homer finally got to shake hands with Werner at the end of the picture and didn't recognize him. Well, I shook hands with him in 1964, and knew who he was. It was a bigger thrill than when I patted Man 'O War on the nose in 1939. (I was only six.)
Howard