ORANGE – Word on the street is that scenes being filmed Wednesday, June 28, in the downtown Orange Plaza are for the critically acclaimed TV show “American Horror Story.”

Officials for 20th Century Fox TV, the studio with a permit on file with the city to shoot all day Wednesday, would not confirm filming is for the anthology horror show that it co-produces. Documents on file with the city list the production as “Spring Fever.”

But several business owners, notified of the filing beforehand, said they were told the filming was indeed for “American Horror Story,” which will premiere its seventh season in September.

An actor has his make-up touched up before filming. (Photo by Paul Rodriguez, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Cars with Michigan license plates are parked in front of a store. (Photo by Paul Rodriguez, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Sound The gallery will resume in seconds

Traffic backs up from the Orange Plaza back on Chapman Avenue for filming. (Photo by Paul Rodriguez, Orange County Register/SCNG)

An extra waits for filming to start. (Photo by Paul Rodriguez, Orange County Register/SCNG)

A sign was changed for filming. (Photo by Paul Rodriguez, Orange County Register/SCNG)



The Orange Plaza has a butchery – at least a sign for one – thanks to filming taking place Wednesday (Photo courtesy of Jeff Frankel)

Preparation for filming in the Orange Plaza included putting up signs on the building that go with the show. (Photo courtesy of Jeff Frankel)

A crew films at the Orange Plaza. (Photo by Paul Rodriguez, Orange County Register/SCNG)

And the location manager listed on the permit is Paul Hargrave, who according to the Internet Movie Database has worked on 22 episodes of “American Horror Story.”

“I think it’s cool,” said Shea Allen, of Orange, an employee at clothing boutique Laurenly on Glassell Street. “I love the show and was excited when I found out. It will be cool to see this season and look for things you recognize.”

The television crew was allowed to shoot in the Orange Plaza from 6 a.m. to just before midnight Wednesday, according to the permit, which called for 75 crew members, 50 extras, 95 other personnel and traffic control by police.

Paul Sitkoff, the city’s spokesman, said Orange charges $444 a day to shoot in Old Towne Orange.

During Wednesday’s filming, visitors were not allowed to walk around much of the plaza. Several police officials managed traffic. A few gawked at the production.

The television crew, it appeared, was shooting only exterior shots. Before filming began, crew members scattered fake snow and leaves around the traffic circle, apparently creating a Midwestern winter.

A woman with a microphone played a TV newscaster. Two extras, in winter clothing, walked along the street. Other extras stood on the northwest corner of Chapman Avenue and Glassell Street, in front of the former Coba Cosmetology Academy, playing sign-holding protesters.

In February, Producer Ryan Murphy, on the Bravo talk show “Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen,” said that season seven will be about the 2016 presidential election.

The building the extras protested in front of is the Masonic Lodge’s. Fox has leased the building for several months, in case the crew needs to return and shoot more scenes, said Marc Meeks, a location manager for what he said was “Spring Fever.”

Allen, the clothing boutique employee, doesn’t mind when movies, television shows or commercials are shot in Orange, because people linger. in the area to watch the filming.

“They may wander in after instead of passing by,” she said. “Or they may duck in to avoid being filmed.”

Not everyone agreed.

“It kills business,” said Lisa Mitchell, who has worked at clothing story Sunny Days, on Glassell, since it opened in 2010. “It’s interesting to watch the set go up, but we still have our (sales) goals and it’s the month end. So it’s a bad time.”

Old Towne Orange is certainly no stranger to filming.

Tom Hanks shot scenes at Watson Drugs and Soda Fountain and Mr. C’s Records for 1996’s “That Thing You Do”; the Martin Lawrence vehicle “Big Momma’s House” (2000) was shot at a home on Shaffer Street; and Katie Holmes played the president’s offspring, with some filming in Orange, for her role in “First Daughter” (2004).