I decided to deny the dreadful heat and humidity and try setting up in Chippewa Square to sell my artwork yesterday. The square (actually a round park) in downtown Savannah is stunning enough with just its large ancient oaks, lush greenery and a spectacular statue by Daniel Chester French. But the attraction for thousands of visitors? I heard tourists speaking in German and French and Spanish and looking confused as they stared at the GPS on their phones. Many were exhausted looking parents pushing strollers with children who looked flattened by the extreme heat. Why??? To learn about Savannah’s founder James Edward Oglethorpe whose statue is so grand? To admire the tropical foliage, plentiful hanging moss and the immense and impressive stone benches with the graceful carving? To appreciate Oglethorpe’s plan in a spot he laid out in the 1700’s? Nope. All were searching for “the” Forrest Gump bench. 

The bench was made famous in the 1994 movie “Forrest Gump”. In the movie Tom Hanks, playing Forrest, sits on the bench at a bus stop. This is where he narrates the story of his incredible life.  Individual visitors and families weren’t the only ones seeking the bench; bike tours, trolley tours, walking tours and even carriage tours stopped and gave different versions of why they weren’t able to see “the” bench.

Some said it was moved to a local museum because tourists were trampling the flowers. Some said it was only a movie prop and not even an actual bus stop before the movie shoot. I have heard there were multiple benches created for the sets and that the “real” one is in Beaufort, SC today . Others  say the original is in California in storage. The only thing I am certain of is that a replica of the bench does exist in the Savannah History Museum and is treated there like the Holy Grail. 

I continue to be amazed at the affectionate reach of a film made 30 years ago. I felt like I was watching a pilgrimage to see people from all over the world wanting to see where Forrest’s bench was located. I guess that my experience was “like a box of chocolates”. Did I make any sales? Nah, but I was there to assure many of the bench seekers that they were not lost, just misinformed. I no longer underestimate the magnetism of a single movie prop.