Bagdad Cafe and Newberry Springs: A Film, a Diner, and a Ghost Town

by C. V. Wooster · October 5, 2026 · 4 min read

Ask a traveler from France or Germany what they know about Newberry Springs, California, and there is a fair chance they will say two words: Bagdad Cafe. A small roadside diner on old Route 66, about 20 miles east of Barstow, became an international pilgrimage stop because of a film. This post tells that story and untangles a common confusion between the cafe and the real town of Bagdad, which sat farther east and has all but vanished.

The film

Bagdad Cafe was released in 1987. It was directed by the German filmmaker Percy Adlon, and in German-speaking countries it was also known as Out of Rosenheim. The story follows a Bavarian tourist, played by Marianne Sägebrecht, who is left on the side of a desert highway after a fight with her husband. She walks to a run-down motel and cafe, where the owner, played by CCH Pounder, is not pleased to see her. Jack Palance plays a painter who lives in a trailer on the lot.

The film is gentle, odd, and warm, and it found an audience far beyond what anyone expected. Its theme song, "Calling You," performed by Jevetta Steele, was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song. In Europe especially, the film became a cult favorite, and its fans wanted to see the real place.

The real cafe

The film was shot at a diner in Newberry Springs then called the Sidewinder Cafe. It sat on old Route 66, now signed locally as the National Trails Highway. After the film's success, the cafe took the name Bagdad Cafe, and for decades it welcomed visitors who had seen the movie and wanted to sit in the same booths.

Inside, travelers left behind flags, notes, signed dollar bills, patches, and photographs. Guestbooks filled with entries in French, German, Japanese, and many other languages. A small desert diner became one of the most international places on the entire Mother Road. The cafe's longtime owner, Andrea Pruett, kept it going for about three decades. She died in January 2026, in the year of the Route 66 centennial, and the future of the cafe has been widely covered in the press since.

If you visit, check current hours before you go. Small businesses on this stretch of road open and close with the seasons and with their owners' health, and the cafe has had hard years.

The town that gave the film its name

The real Bagdad was a different place. It was a railroad town on the line through the Mojave, east of Ludlow, founded in the 1880s as a water stop. Like other rail sidings in the desert, it grew into a small community serving trains, nearby mines, and later travelers on the National Old Trails Road and Route 66. It had its own cafe, and in its time it was a lively stop.

Bagdad is also famous among weather watchers. It holds the U.S. record for the longest dry spell, 767 days without measurable rain, from 1912 to 1914.

When the interstate took traffic away from that part of the old road, Bagdad faded. Today there is little left to see at the site. That is why the film's title pointed toward a place that no longer existed in any real sense, and why the name ended up on a cafe in Newberry Springs instead.

Why Europeans came

It is worth asking why a quiet American film found its biggest audience abroad. Part of the answer is the story itself: a European stranger who arrives in the American desert, out of place and unwanted, and slowly changes the people around her. Part of it is the setting. For many European viewers, the empty Mojave, the long straight road, and the lonely diner were the America they had imagined from songs and films. Seeing the real cafe let them step into that picture for an afternoon, and many wrote about it in the guestbooks.

What this has to do with Mrs. Orcutt

Newberry Springs is small, and its stories overlap. The town was called Newberry until 1967, when the post office name changed to Newberry Springs. Bonnie Orcutt lived on 100 acres east of town, on a driveway that met old Route 66. Mrs. Orcutt's Driveway tells her story, including her part in the life of the town.

The cafe and the book share a setting and a mood. Both are about people who stayed in a place that the main road had started to pass by. Both are about outsiders, a tourist in the film and a widow in the book, who found a home in the desert and would not be pushed out of it. If you are driving to Newberry Springs because of one of them, you might enjoy the other.

Planning a visit

Newberry Springs sits right off Interstate 40, with exits that connect to the old road. From Barstow, it is a short drive east. Many travelers pair the town with Calico Ghost Town, the Route 66 museum in Barstow, and a longer loop east toward Ludlow and Amboy.

A few practical notes:

Summer heat in the Mojave is dangerous. Plan stops for early morning or evening between June and September, and carry more water than you think you need.
Cell coverage can be patchy away from the interstate. Download maps before you go.
Respect private property. Many buildings along the old road are homes or closed businesses. Bonnie's house is not a tourist stop.
Leave the desert as you found it. Take photographs, not souvenirs.

Our Newberry Springs page has more on the town, and our Mojave road trip suggests a day loop. Check the weather page before you set out.

Newberry Springs · Mojave road trip · Route 66 trivia · Buy the book

Sources

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