The Bachelor will show off some of Hudson to the rest of the nation Monday night.
Streetsboro-based children’s toymaker Step2 will get a visit from the current Bachelor, Ben Higgins, as will Western Reserve Academy. Other footage was shot in downtown Hudson, and Higgins stopped in the Open Door Coffee Co. on North Main Street.
The reason: Higgins was with former Hudson resident Caila Quinn, 24, one of the women looking for romance on The Bachelor.
Having stayed out of the drama affecting some now-departed contestants, Quinn is still in contention along with three other women: Amanda Stanton, Joelle “Jo Jo” Fletcher and Lauren Bushnell. (ABC, which airs the show, does not release contestants’ last names but they have been available in widespread public reports.)
The show customarily visits contestants’ old stomping grounds when there are four remaining. (It went to Higgins’ hometown, Warsaw, Ind., in the Feb. 15 telecast.)
So, at 8 p.m. Monday, we’ll see Quinn’s Hudson as well as Orange County, Calif. (Stanton); Portland, Ore. (Bushnell), and Dallas (Fletcher).
Step2’s CEO is Quinn’s father, Chris, and she is a graduate of Western Reserve.
To keep surprises intact, the show does not let contestants talk to the press until they have been eliminated from contention. The gag order can go beyond the contestants, too.
Western Reserve did not answer a telephone request for comment.
Chris Quinn did talk in a general way about Caila as the current Bachelor season began. But more recently, when the Beacon Journal’s Betty Lin-Fisher asked him for clues about the hometown visits, all he would say is, “We love our daughter.”
We have some hints about what will happen. ABC did confirm the visits to Western Reserve and Step2, as well as releasing several photographs from the Hudson visit.
A video clip from ABC showed Caila and Higgins having dinner with Chris and his wife, Rosanna, while Chris explains that being with Caila would make Higgins part of a “very special” Filipino community. Rosanna’s family came to the Cleveland area from the Philippines when she was 7.
An ABC release about Monday’s show says that Caila’s father “only wants what’s best for her” and cross examines Ben.
“Will this interrogation give the Bachelor second thoughts about their future as a couple?” it ominously adds.
Ties not strong?
At the same time, the series has suggested that Caila’s connection to Hudson is not as strong as Higgins’s ties to Warsaw.
In the Feb. 15 show, Caila — who now works in software sales in Boston — said she did not have “super deep roots” anywhere because the family moved so often, “probably about 17 times before college.”
The family lived in several Northeast Ohio communities along with other parts of the country. Chris moved to Hudson in January 2015 after six years with New Balance Athletic in Boston.
“If I did take [Higgins] home next week, like, would it be enough?” Caila had asked on the Feb. 15 telecast. “I don’t really have many meaningful places to show him.”
Still, The Bachelor caused a stir during its Hudson visit.
Deborah Pinnell, an owner-operator of the Open Door, said she saw a lot of footage being shot on the street, and traffic being stopped for a moment. “I would say they were here for a good, long half-day. They started early in the morning back behind us and were still going early afternoon.”
Higgins and Quinn did go into the Open Door, which is less than 2 years old but has its own roots in Hudson through its location in the old Saywell’s building. It also has some of the fixtures and decor from that long-gone drugstore and soda fountain.
Pinnell said the show did not book the place for a shoot and whatever was going on was so discreet that she did not even recall a camera.
Besides, she had been told the footage being shot was for a Ford commercial. And because of her busy work schedule, she does not watch The Bachelor.
Higgins seemed to think Pinnell might recognize him, but it was only later that another customer told her that he was the bachelor.
Beyond Bachelor business, Pinnell thought the series coming to Hudson will be good exposure for the community. So did Kathy Johnson, owner of the Open Door’s neighbor Hudson Fine Art & Framing Co.
“Any time you can get publicity for the area, it’s nice,” she said.
Rich Heldenfels writes about popular culture for the Beacon Journal, Ohio.com, Facebook, Twitter and the HeldenFiles Online blog. You can contact him at 330-996-3582 or rheldenfels@thebeaconjournal.com.