Behind the Scenes · Old San Juan · 1995
How a Record Store in Old San Juan Became a Hollywood Film Set
The untold story of Downtown Records and its unexpected starring role in the 1995 thriller Assassins.
On the busy corner of Calle O'Donnell and Calle San Francisco in Old San Juan, something extraordinary happened in 1995. What had long been one of the neighborhood's most beloved record shops — Downtown Records — was about to be transformed, floor by floor, into a gritty Cuban hideout for a major Hollywood production. The film was Assassins, directed by Richard Donner. And nobody who witnessed the transformation would ever quite forget it.
Though Assassins was shot primarily in Washington State, the production team needed a location that could convincingly double as Havana, Cuba for the film's pivotal final scenes. Old San Juan — with its centuries-old Spanish colonial architecture, crumbling pastel facades, and cobblestone streets — offered exactly the right atmosphere. Director Richard Donner made an unconventional choice: instead of scouting a purpose-built set, he chose an actual working record store in the heart of the old city.
Downtown Records wasn't just any shop. Its history in New York City's music scene stretched back decades before it landed in Puerto Rico, and by 1995 it had become a fixture of Old San Juan street life — packed floor to ceiling with vinyl records, vintage finds, and antiques that told stories of their own. That layered, lived-in quality was precisely what made it perfect for the screen.
Emptying the Building, Scene by Scene
The transformation was a logistical undertaking unlike anything the store had seen. The production crew descended on the building and methodically emptied the top two floors — an enormous task given the sheer volume of records, antiques, and vintage merchandise that had accumulated over the years. Everything was carefully moved out to make way for the cinematic vision: a decaying, abandoned building in Cuba where one of the film's assassins, played by Antonio Banderas, would take refuge with a sniper rifle.
The exterior received an equally dramatic makeover — weathered, aged, and stripped of anything that might suggest a thriving Caribbean record shop. By the time the crew finished, Downtown Records bore almost no resemblance to its former self. It had become a set.
"Having these famous iconic movie stars perform their roles inside Downtown Records during that time was something truly magical."— Frankie Ramos, owner of Downtown Records (now Frankie Vintage)
The Fight Scene: Watch It Here
▶ Fight Scene Filmed Inside Frankie Vintage
With the space transformed, cameras began to roll. The cast that walked through those doors was something few small businesses ever get to witness: Antonio Banderas, Sylvester Stallone, and Julianne Moore, all performing in the space where, just weeks earlier, customers had been flipping through crates of vinyl.
Store owner Frankie Ramos and his cousin Hector Fort, who co-owned the space, played an active role in helping the production team realize their vision. Their deep familiarity with the building — every room, every corner, every creaking floorboard — made them invaluable partners in the process. Their expertise and enthusiasm helped create an atmosphere that went far beyond what any purpose-built set could have offered.
As the cameras rolled, the noise and energy of Calle O'Donnell faded into the background. In its place: the focused intensity of a Hollywood production, and the strange, electric feeling of fiction becoming real inside a place that had always been very much alive.
A Place That Became a Character
What made the filming of Assassins at Downtown Records so memorable wasn't just the star power. It was the way the building itself contributed to the film's atmosphere. The worn wooden floors, the high ceilings, the quality of light coming through those old colonial windows — none of that could be faked on a soundstage. The space had soul, and the camera found it.
Downtown Records didn't just serve as a backdrop. It became a character in the story — one with decades of history embedded in its walls, giving Antonio Banderas's scenes a gravity and authenticity that a conventional set simply couldn't have delivered.
▶ Additional Footage from the Filming
▶ More Scenes from the Old San Juan Location
When the final scene wrapped and the crew packed up, Old San Juan returned to its familiar rhythm. But something had shifted. For everyone who had been part of it — from Frankie and Hector to every crew member who hauled a crate of records down those stairs — the memory of those weeks was sealed into the walls of that corner building.
Downtown Records is no longer at its original location on Calle O'Donnell. But its spirit lives on. The magic of storytelling, of transformation, of Puerto Rico as a stage for world-class cinema — that legacy continues.
Visit Frankie Vintage in Bayamón
Downtown Records may have moved, but the story keeps going. Find us at our new home — Frankie Vintage in Bayamón — where the love of music, vintage culture, and Puerto Rican cinema history thrives.
Visit Frankie Vintage → Assassins on IMDB →
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