New Carlisle in Film

Film: Prancer (1989) — the town's two locations, at the tour record's precision

FILM BRANCH · released 17 November 1989; directed by John Hancock

One feature film has shot in New Carlisle, and the record of exactly what it shot is unusually good: Prancer (1989), the Christmas film set in Three Oaks, Michigan — the town exteriors were filmed in Three Oaks, with further work in La Porte and at Starved Rock, Illinois — took two locations in this town, and the Region of Three Oaks Museum's own location tour states them with street precision. The house of Mrs. McFarland, Cloris Leachman's character, was played outside by the house at 304 East Michigan Street, New Carlisle — the Old Republic, the Jeremiah Service House of 1860, the museum's second home (Arts & Culture) — while its interiors were shot across the county line at the Ingersoll Mansion, 1202 Indiana Avenue, La Porte. And the hog-tending scene with Dr. Benton, Abe Vigoda's character, was shot at Zahl's Elevator and Feed Mill, 301 East Michigan Street — the town's feed mill standing in its own name's geography, three doors from the borrowed house. The South Bend Tribune tells the same fact at its strength: the Service House is the house "featured in the movie 'Prancer' as Cloris Leachman's home." The two tellings agree in substance and print together: one film, two buildings, one street — the whole of New Carlisle's feature record as the sources hold it. The rest of the branch's tests print at their results: no factory film, no documentary of the town, no film festival seated here and no local production company stands in the record reached.

Sources:

1. Region of Three Oaks Museum, Prancer location tour document — 304 East Michigan Street (Mrs. McFarland's house, exteriors); 301 East Michigan Street, Zahl's Elevator and Feed Mill (the Dr. Benton scene); the Ingersoll Mansion interiors at La Porte; the Three Oaks setting.
2. South Bend Tribune — the Jeremiah Service House "featured in the movie 'Prancer' as Cloris Leachman's home."
3. The film's release record (17 November 1989; John Hancock, director).

The university film record, at boundary size

BRANCH · FILM · NOTRE DAME AS BOUNDARY · THE TESTED REMAINDER

Lead: Notre Dame is this town's boundary seat for film — a university eleven miles east whose program is printed here at boundary size, because it is not the town's program and must not become it. The Department of Film, Television, and Theatre was created in 1998–1999, out of a line the department's own chronology traces through the Communication & Theatre Department of 1980–1981, the Communication Arts Department of 1957–1958 — Journalism, Speech, Radio/Television and Theatre together — and a Speech & Drama Department reaching back to 1924–1925. Its student festival is older than the department: the first Notre Dame Student Film Festival took place in 1989–1990, founded by faculty member Ted Mandell, and the festival has screened undergraduate class films every year since 1990 — the 36th annual in 2025, a 38th tentatively dated 29–31 January 2027. Its media arm is younger: Fighting Irish Media was founded in 2011 as Fighting Irish Digital Media, by a small group headed by Director of Digital Media Dan Skendzel, producing live broadcasts, social video and videoboard shows for Notre Dame athletics, and now working from the Martin Media Center in Corbett Hall alongside its sister operation, Notre Dame Studios.

The founder-across-the-line test prints at its exact strength, and it corrects the shorthand. Prancer (1989) is the town's one film production only in the banked file's sense (this history, whole, pointed to here); the reachable record places the film in La Porte, Indiana, and Three Oaks, Michigan — the City of La Porte's own 35th-anniversary account says “filmed in La Porte” — and places its director, John D. Hancock, across this county's line in La Porte County at farm strength, not studio strength: his family owned a fruit farm at La Porte, the farmhouse, barn and orchard on screen are that farm, he recalled scouting Vermont and Canada before settling near the ground he had known as a boy, and he resides in the La Porte area. A La Porte County residence and family-farm base for Hancock: verified. A production base, office or company seated there: not established by any record read. The tested remainder closes the branch: searched against the university record, the festival archive and the Hancock record, the film record holds no other production, program or person seated in New Carlisle itself. What the record does not hold prints as plainly as what it does.

Sources:

1. Department of Film, Television, and Theatre, University of Notre Dame, Archive / chronology page (ftt.nd.edu) — department created 1998–1999, predecessor departments, first Student Film Festival 1989–1990 under Ted Mandell.
2. Notre Dame Student Film Festival pages (ftt.nd.edu) — founded by Ted Mandell in 1990, continuous since, 36th annual 2025, 38th tentatively January 2027.
3. Fighting Irish Media (organizational record) and NDWorks, “Saturday's game also a win for ND Studios and Fighting Irish Media” (2020) — founded 2011 as Fighting Irish Digital Media under Dan Skendzel; Martin Media Center; Notre Dame Studios partnership.
4. Michiana Life, “Three decades after creating the holiday classic ‘Prancer’…” (2018), and City of La Porte, PrancerPalooza announcement (2024) — Hancock's La Porte family farm as location, La Porte residence, filming in La Porte and Three Oaks.