From the archives: Southport saves a palm tree from Disney's 'Spies'

Owen Hassell, Wilmington StarNews
Updated ·1 min read
The Dec. 31, 1992 edition of the Wilmington StarNews reported efforts to save a palm tree in Southport.
The Dec. 31, 1992 edition of the Wilmington StarNews reported efforts to save a palm tree in Southport.

From "A Walk to Remember" to "Crimes of The Heart" and more, Southport has welcomed filming in its city. In March, it even hosted a 10-year anniversary celebration of "Safe Haven," the Nicholas Sparks book-turned-movie starring Josh Duhamel and Julianne Hough released in 2013.

However, it's likely Southport won't hold any celebrations for at least one movie filmed there in the early 1990s.

The Dec. 31, 1992, edition of the Wilmington StarNews reported an update on a palm tree uprooted a year earlier from the foot of Davis Street to make way for filming of the TV movie "Spies."

A palm tree at Waterfront Park in Southport. In 1992, another palm tree was replanted in the park after it was uprooted in another part of the city to make way for filming of a Disney movie.
A palm tree at Waterfront Park in Southport. In 1992, another palm tree was replanted in the park after it was uprooted in another part of the city to make way for filming of a Disney movie.

The article said "letters poured in to newspapers, the City Council and the film company. A council meeting turned into a public debate over the old tree. Not many expected it to survive."

Turns out, officials were able to replant the tree on Bay Street at Waterfront Park and "seems to be doing fine," said Ed Honeycutt, public services director.

"Spies," which first aired in 1993 on The Disney Channel, was set in 1940s Long Island and thus wouldn't have palm trees, hence the removal.

Starring Cloris Leachman, the movie is about a 12-year-old who suspects spies are everywhere but stumbles upon a plot to kill President Franklin D. Roosevelt during World War II. Plenty of Southport places are shown as well as the Battleship North Carolina with downtown Wilmington in the background.

This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: How the Disney movie Spies almost killed a Southport palm tree