Final filming? Just-closed Bendix Diner hosts NJ band music video

The Bendix Diner was built in 1947. Talk about an iconic run. It has seen 78 years of American and New Jersey history from its perch between the north and southbound lanes of Route 17 in Hasbrouck Heights.

It closed down this year. There’s no telling what will become of the property and the idea that perhaps it will re-open as a diner is maybe the stuff of wishful thinking.

Read More: Bendix Diner for sale

Now sitting empty, but if those stainless-steel walls could talk. Stories of movie scenes filmed there. Tales of TV shows shot there. Music videos. Commercials. A pop culture cornucopia, but in the form of a train car.

It was here, the Bendix, “Jersey Girl” filmed in 1992, and “Boys on the Side” shot a scene in 1995. “The Many Saints of Newark” used the diner for filming in 2021.

Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd from “Back to the Future” shot a Toyota commercial at the Bendix Diner. Just recently, Beyoncé was here making a Levi’s commercial.

The Bendix was featured in Jerry Seinfeld’s show “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee.” Jack Antonoff graced its booths filming the music video for “Stop Making This Hurt.”

There’s more. That’s only a partial list.

But now add to the list one last project. A filming project that was done after the lights went dark and the Bendix closed down.

HYPERDOLLS is, if you had to force a label on them, a punk rock band (but so damn catchy I’d say punk rock in the way Green Day is punk) that just filmed a music video for their song “Good Luck” at the Bendix. It may be the last thing to shoot there and one of the best.

Is it the ghostly narration at the end of the video that made this haunting for me? Or was it that this is probably the Bendix’s swansong for pop culture use? Either way, this is the finished product.

HYPERDOLLS is as Jersey-centric as a backstory gets. Lead singer Miss Alannah Rae’s first stage performance was in 1997 as a little kid when she was lifted onto the stage at Radio City Music Hall by her father where Frankie Valli took her on his knee. He sang “Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You” and she was hooked on being in front of a live audience. Frankie always remembered that particular show and years later she was invited backstage and got a beautiful photo and memory from it all because of her father. As she puts it, “Jersey Boys stick together.”

HYPERDOLLS formed in 2022 and started out playing shows in the East Village. They recently came off a California tour with Mickey Leigh, Joey Ramone’s brother, and a lot of big names in the punk scene. Miss Alannah Rae says their fun high-energy shows and music are inspired by Jim Morrison, James Brown, Elvis, and Alice Cooper. She would prefer the genre label funk rock over punk rock.

Her and drummer Just Bill were both fans of the Bendix Diner long before this opportunity arose to shoot a music video there. They both often visited the diner separately having grown up in the area. Once HYPERDOLLS formed they would have Sunday morning meetings there, writing and brainstorming.

What was a favorite food there? Just Bill says, “Disco fries are a lost art.”

When they heard about the Bendix possibly closing they talked with owner John Diakakis about shooting a video in the famous landmark.

“The diner ended up closing not too long after that but John kept his word to us and still let us film, with his sons having hot coffee available to us and we gave that diner once last song and dance that will never be taken down,” she said.

As the Bendix story ends, HYPERDOLLS’ story is just beginning.

“Good Luck.”

Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Jeff Deminski only.

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