According to Wrinn, it was the partly the confusion surrounding the 1969 filming of the well-known Love Story that caused Harvard's strictness regarding campus movies.

"They really made a mess. They injured and killed trees putting down fake snow," Wrinn says.

Then Wrinn explains that in the mid 1970s, A Small Circle of Friends was filmed and the film crews again made a mess of the campus.

"That was when Harvard started getting very tough on film crews," Wrinn says, and he adds that in the 70s and 80s, Harvard usually said no to requests to film on campus.

Harvard's attitude toward film companies meant that these companies often turned to other campuses that looked like Harvard in an attempt to recreate the atmosphere.

Wrinn mentions Wheaton College in Norton, Mass. as one that was often used. But through these years a scattered few movies were actually filmed on campus. Connections with Harvard officials, it seems, made the difference in these cases.

The last movie to be filmed on campus, "With Honors" (1994), was directed by Alek Keshishian '86. Wrinn says that as a former student, Keshishian knew what paths to follow and was able to convince Harvard that hs project--a story about a Harvard student whose life is changed by a bum that he finds living in the basement of Widener library--was worthwhile.

"Alek had done some very well known creative work while at Harvard. He was very connected and knew how to do it right," Wrinn says.