New York – Page 9 – IAMNOTASTALKER

October 9, 2009October 7, 2009

Rye Playland

Another location that fellow stalker Owen visited a few weeks back while spending the day in Rye, New York was the amusement park featured at the very end of the 1988 Tom Hanks movie Big. Rye Playland, which is also called Playland Amusement Park or just simply Playland and is run by Westchester County, New York, is the only government-owned and operated amusement park in the entire United States. In the early 1900s, Westchester County Park Association purchased two beachside theme parks after local citizens became upset over the unruly patrons fraternizing there. The Association tore down the existing parks and built Rye Playland in their place. The Art Deco style park opened on May 26, 1928 after a scant six months of construction. The new park featured an ice skating rink, a boardwalk, a fine dining restaurant, a swimming pool, two beaches, and numerous rides, including the Grand Carousel, which was built by Mangels-Carmel in 1915. In 1987, Playland was declared a National Historic Landmark and it is still in operation to this day, looking much the same as it did when it first opened over 81 years ago.

Due to its quaint, beachside charm, movie producers have made much use of Playland over the years. It is at the Rye amusement park that Tom Hanks finally locates the elusive Zoltar machine and makes his wish to be a kid again in fave movie Big. As you can see in the above screen capture and photograph, the entrance to the park looks a bit different today than it did in 1988 when Big was filmed. The two white pillars flanking the front gates have long since been removed, as has the pine tree that used to stand in the center island.

Also, at the time the movie was filmed, the large fountain at the front of the park was not in operation. That fountain was in full swing, though, when Owen visited Playland a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, due to all of the spouting water, he couldn’t match up his photograph perfectly to the screen shot, but the two pictures you see above were taken from the exact same vantage point.

Most of the scene from Big took place on Playland’s curved boardwalk, which is located just around the corner from the park’s main entrance and, which, amazingly enough, still looks almost exactly the same today as it did twenty-one years ago when the movie was filmed.

The only thing missing, of course, is the Zoltar machine. 🙁 But notice how the payphone in the above photograph is still in the EXACT same place that it was when the movie was filmed!!

Owen, of course, wasn’t expecting to find a magic fortune telling machine on the pier during his stalk, so imagine his surprise when he discovered that a Pepsi machine was standing just a few feet to the left of where Zoltar was situated in the movie.

So, of course, he just HAD to pretend to kick the machine, like Tom Hanks did in the movie. LOVE IT! 🙂

Rye Playland also showed up in Fatal Attraction, as the spot where Glenn Close took Michael Douglas’ daughter for the day after kidnapping her from school. In the movie, the two are shown riding Playland’s iconic Dragon Coaster, which was built in 1929 and was designed by Frederick A. Church. The Dragon Coaster is 3,400 feet long, rises to 85 feet at its highest point, and is one of only about a hundred wooden roller coasters still in operation in the United States.

Mariah Carey also rode the Dragon Coaster in the 1995 video for her song “Fantasy”, which was filmed in its entirety on location at Playland. The video also made use of the park’s boardwalk and parking lot area.

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Other productions filmed at Playland include Pieta, Sweet and Lowdown, Tenderness, The Muppets Take Manhattan and several episodes of BET Now.

A big THANK YOU to Owen for stalking this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Rye Playland is located at the end of Playland Parkway in Rye, New York. You can visit their website here. Park admission fees range between $20 to $30, but you can access the boardwalk area, where Big was filmed, for free. Parking costs an average of $5, depending on the day. The boardwalk area is located just around the corner from the park’s main entrance. The Who’s the Boss? house is located just a mile North of Playland at 13 Onondaga Street, also in Rye.

October 8, 2009October 7, 2009

The Who’s the Boss House

One location that I will, sadly, not be able to stalk during this year’s New York vacation for the simple fact that it is located too far from the island of Manhattan is the home belonging to the Bower Family in the 1984 television sitcom Who’s the Boss? But thankfully, fellow stalker Owen visited this location a few weeks back and was kind enough to allow me to share his story and his photographs on my blog. And while I usually don’t like to blog about locations that I haven’t personally stalked myself, this one was honestly just too good to pass up!! Hopefully someday I will be able to visit the Who’s the Boss house in person, but until then, a big THANK YOU goes out to Owen for letting me stalk vicariously through him! 🙂

On Who’s the Boss?, the house where Angela, Tony, Jonathan, Samantha, and Mona live is supposedly located at 3344 Oak Hills Drive in the New England town of Fairfield, Connecticut. In reality, though, the house used in the opening credits and for establishing shots throughout the series eight year run is actually located about thirty miles away from Fairfield, in Rye, New York. It’s quite ironic that a real Fairfield house wasn’t used in the series, being that according to this 1989 Fairfield Citizen-News article, Who’s the Boss? producers chose to set their show in the New England town after “falling in love with” its “quaint charm and picturesque scenery”. But, for some odd reason, when scouting locations for the Bower Family residence, producers looked not to Fairfield, but to Westchester County, New York. Even more ironic to me is the fact that while the house was featured in the opening credits of each week’s show, for some reason, only a very small portion of it was ever shown, as you can see in the above screen capture. It’s such a pretty house that I am really surprised more of it wasn’t shown on the series.

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And in a Who’s The Boss side note – for the better part of a year I attended an acting class with Jonathan Halyalkar, who played the character of “Billy” in 21 episodes of the show’s 7th Season. 🙂 I kept mentioning how familiar Jonathan looked when someone finally told me about his childhood acting stint on Who’s the Boss?, which I thought was just about the coolest thing ever! So, I, of course, had to ask him all about it. Jonathan, who was an insanely talented triple threat (as those who can sing, dance, and act are often called) and an all around nice guy, told me all sorts of stories about his time on the show and was even a good sport about the fact that most people say the series “jumped the shark” when they cast him. LOL Jonathan told me to Google the terms “Who’s the Boss” and “jump the shark” and that I’d see his name pop up all over the place. Too funny. Sadly, in all our time together in acting class I somehow never thought to get a photograph with him. 🙁

Big THANK YOU to Owen for not only finding this location, but for stalking it as well. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Who’s the Boss? house is located in Westchester County at 13 Onandaga Street in Rye, New York.

October 7, 2009October 4, 2009

Central Park’s Gapstow Bridge

One of my favorite places in all of New York is the tiny, little bridge known as Gapstow Bridge. Actually, I take that back. I think it’s far more accurate to say that the bridge is one of my favorite places in the entire world. 🙂 I am so enamored with it, in fact, that my entire family now refers to it as “Lindsay’s Bridge”. 🙂 Gapstow Bridge and its surroundings are so incredibly picturesque and romantic that I’ve taken about three hundred photographs of it on my various trips to the Big Apple and I go out of my way to visit it at least once each day while in Manhattan. It’s just one of those places that has the ability to calm me and warm me all at the same time. I just can’t get enough of it.

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Part of what makes Gapstow Bridge so beautiful is its surroundings. The bridge spans the northeast corner of the Central Park Pond and overlooks the beautiful Plaza Hotel to the South, Wollman Rink to the North, and the skyscrapers of the Upper West Side to the West. Believe me when I say that there is no other place like it in the entire world. I can’t be sure where Heaven is located, but I’m pretty certain it has a view of Gapstow Bridge. 🙂

The bridge was first built in 1874 by prominent New York architect Jacob Wrey Mould, who also designed Central Park’s Bethesda Fountain and Belvedere Castle. The bridge was originally built out of wood with intricate cast iron railings, but sadly, due to years of wear and tear, the entire thing had to be completely replaced in 1896. The Gapstow Bridge that stands today was designed by Howard & Caudwell, is made out of a sturdy, medium-grade rock known as schist, measures 12 feet tall, and has a span of 44 feet. It truly looks like something straight out of a movie. And, as a matter of fact, it is!

Because Gapstow Bridge is so incredibly picturesque and unique, it’s no surprise that it is one of the most photographed places in all of Manhattan and has, of course, appeared in countless movie and television productions – many more so than I could ever account for here. But just to name a few . . .

The bridge, of course, appeared in an episode of the quintessential New York series Sex and the City. In the Season 6 episode which was entitled “Let There Be Light”, Carrie and new love Aleksandr Petrovsky sit and eat chocolates on a Central Park bench with the Gapstow Bridge in the background.

Gapstow Bridge was also the site of Nate and Blair’s reunion kiss in the Season 2 episode of Gossip Girl entitled “Remains of the J”. In the episode, Dorota mentions that the bridge is Blair’s favorite spot in all of New York. I knew there was a reason why she was my favorite GG character. 🙂

In Home Alone 2: Lost In New York, the bridge is the place where Kevin McCallister first encounters the Pigeon Lady.

It is also the spot where, on Christmas morning, Kevin gives her one of his turtle dove ornaments and tells her “I won’t forget you. Trust me.” I swear no matter how many times I see that scene, it always manages to bring a tear to my eye.

In the movie The Devil Wears Prada, the Runway Magazine “Urban Jungle” photo shoot takes place right in front of Gapstow Bridge. In the first screen capture pictured above, the camera is situated just above my bridge, facing South.

While visiting New York last December, my family and I happened to run into the production crew for the television series Rescue Me filming on my bridge! Unfortunately, they were just wrapping up when we got there, so we didn’t get to see any of the actual filming or any of the show’s stars.

According to one of the crew members, though, the scene involved two guest stars having a conversation right in front of the Gapstow Bridge. The above photograph shows one of the crew members removing the actors’ “marks” off of the pavement and thus denotes the exact spot where filming took place.

The day we happened upon the filming was an EXTREMELY cold winter day in New York. If I remember correctly, temperatures were a record low for that year. The poor crew members were freezing their buns off, especially when they had to remove their gloves in order to fiddle with something on a piece of equipment. I felt so bad for them, as they all looked absolutely miserable. 🙁 But, even in the extreme cold, they still could NOT have been nicer and answered all of my silly questions about the filming.

It’s a sad truth that most movie locations look better onscreen than they do in real life. It’s the magic of the camera and all the set dressing, I suppose, or the bigger than life quality that being in a movie gives to something that’s behind it. Gapstow Bridge is one of the rare exceptions to that rule. It’s even prettier and more picturesque in person than I’ve ever seen it come across onscreen and I can’t recommend stalking it enough!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Gapstow Bridge is located in the Southeast corner of Central Park in Manhattan. The best way to reach it is by entering the Park at the corner of Central Park South and Fifth Avenue and following the path that runs along the perimeter of the Pond.

October 6, 2009October 4, 2009

The Searching For Bobby Fischer Chess Park

One location that I have been wanting to stalk for years now is the park where child prodigy Josh Waitzkin (aka Max Pomeranc) and Vinnie (aka Laurence Fishburne) played chess in the 1993 movie Searching for Bobby Fischer. I actually thought I had found this location in Central Park during my very first trip to the Big Apple six years ago, but upon closer inspection after arriving home, realized I had stalked the wrong outdoor chess park. LOL It turns out that New York has quite a few of them. Then last year, thanks to fave New York stalking book Manhattan On Film: Walking Tours of Hollywood’s Fabled Front Lot, I finally found the right spot! And I was shocked to discover that Chess Table Alley, as it is more commonly known, is actually located in Washington Square Park, a place that I had visited numerous times on my many trips to New York! Ugh! I can be such an airhead sometimes! LOL

Not only has Searching for Bobby Fischer long been one of my family’s favorite movies, but chess has also long been one of our favorite games. I can’t say that any of us are especially good at it, but we love to play nonetheless. So, in 1993 when a film based on the life of real life child chess prodigy Josh Waitzkin premiered, you can bet we were some of the first in line to see it. Ever since that day, I’ve wanted to see, in person, the outdoor chess tables where Josh first perfected his game. And, during last years trip to New York, I finally got to do just that! Thanks to the movie, I had visions dancing in my head of the park being occupied by hundreds of chess geniuses hunkered over the cement tables, furiously punching timers and screaming out “Check mate!” to their opponents, but, in actuality, that’s not really the case.

When we got to Chess Table Alley, the tables were surprisingly empty – probably due to the fact that it was about three degrees below zero outside – and the place was startlingly quiet. LOL There honestly wasn’t a soul to be found or a chess player in sight! Nevertheless, it was still extremely exciting to be stalking the outdoor chess park. And, I am happy to report that it still looks very much the same in person as it did in the movie. The name “Chess Table Alley” is something of a misnomer, though. The outdoor chess park is actually set up in the shape of a semi-circle, not an alley, and, unfortunately, because of the way it is situated, I wasn’t able to snap a great photograph of the entire thing. But you can get an idea of what it looks like in the picture above.

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According to Wikipedia, not only did Stanley Kubrick play on the outdoor tables as a child, but Chess Table Alley was also featured in the 2002 movie Bad Company starring Chris Rock.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Searching for Bobby Fischer chess park, aka Chess Table Alley, is located in the Southwest corner of Washington Square Park, off MacDougal and West 4th Streets, in New York’s Greenwich Village.

October 5, 2009October 4, 2009

The First Wives Club Building

Amazingly enough, I still have a long list of New York filming locations that I have yet to blog about from last year’s trip to the Big Apple. One of those locations is the Fifth Avenue building where Dan Hedaya lived with his trashy trophy-girlfriend Sarah Jessica Parker in fave movie The First Wives Club. Now, I know The First Wives Club is a fairly old movie – it premiered over 13 years ago – but it happens to be one of my all time favorites. It is one of those rare flicks that, if I happen to catch on TV, no matter where I am or what I am doing, I HAVE to stop and watch the whole thing. I just never, ever get tired of it! Especially the scene when Goldie Hawn storms into her cheating estranged husband’s office, slams two quarters down on his desk and says “As per our agreement, I sold our assets to a friend of mine. Here’s your half. Considering our history together, I thought a dollar was terribly fair.” At her ex’s stunned expression, Goldie shrugs, says, “Oh, alright! Take it all!” and slams the other two quarters down on his desk. LOL LOL LOL Anyway, when I found a location from the movie in a stalking book I picked up for last year’s NYC trip called Manhattan on Film: Walking Tours Of Hollywood’s Fabled Front Lot, I just had to drag my boyfriend right out to stalk it.

The Fifth Avenue building was actually featured in only one scene in the movie – the brief, but memorable window washing scene. In The First Wives Club, spurned first wives Bette Midler, Diane Keaton, and Goldie Hawn connive to get even with their estranged ex-husbands, all of whom have recently left them for younger women. Bette Midler’s husband, played by Clueless’ Dan Hedaya, and his new mistress, played by none other than a pre-Sex and the City Sarah Jessica Parker, live in the upscale Fifth Avenue co-op with the horrendously ugly staircase pictured above. In order to steal some potentially damaging business files, Bette, Diane, and Goldie scam their way into the apartment and ransack the place while Dan and SJP are away.

Completely oblivious to the breaking and entering scheme that is taking place in their apartment, the two return home earlier than expected and almost catch the first wives in the act.

At that point, the trio’s only means of escape is an abandoned window washing scaffolding machine located just outside of Dan and SJP’s apartment.

But, of course, the scaffolding malfunctions while the women are on it and they are plummeted down towards Fifth Avenue, stopping safely mere seconds before colliding with the pavement. LOL

Before hitting the ground, though, the scaffolding stops at the window of an apartment building, where the residents notice that standing in front of them is none other than Academy-award winning actress Elise Richard, played by Goldie Hawn in the film.

The couple yell out to her “You look GREAT, Elise!” and even with imminent danger pending, Elise gets a huge smile on her face and yells out “Thanks!”. LOL God, I love that movie!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The window washing building from The First Wives Club is located at 1056 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.

October 2, 2009October 1, 2009

Cafe Luka

One of my very favorite places to grab a bite to eat in all of New York is a small restaurant located on Manhattan’s Upper East Side named Cafe Luka. The tiny, little cafe also just happens to be the spot where I ate my first ever New York meal on my first ever New York vacation just about four years ago. My family and I actually happened upon the restaurant quite accidentally one freezing cold morning in December of 2004. We had just taken the red-eye in from L.A. as my dad was scheduled to have surgery at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in the upcoming week. Because our plane was due to arrive at 5 O’clock in the morning, my mom had called our hotel at the last minute and added on what she thought was an extra day at the beginning of our trip. That way, as soon as we landed, we could go straight to the hotel and go to sleep. But, as fate would have it, what my mom actually booked was an extra night at the END of our stay. LOL Now you know where I get my air-headedness from. 🙂 So, there we were at 5 O’clock a.m., exhausted, hungry, and absolutely freezing in the middle of Manhattan with no place to go! Rather than hang out in the hotel lobby until they could get a room ready for us, we instead flagged down a cab-driver and asked him to take us to the nearest open restaurant. That restaurant just so happened to be Cafe Luka. When we arrived, the front door was unlocked, so my parents, my fiancé, and I walked right in and sat down at a booth. As we looked around at the empty seats, my mom said “I don’t think this place is open yet.” My dad, who has absolutely no inhibitions whatsoever, replied “I don’t care if it’s open or not. I’m about to curl up in that booth right there and take a nap.” LOL LOL LOL And curl up he did, right there in the middle of the empty restaurant! A few minutes later a busboy wandered out of the kitchen area, took one look at our motley crew and said “We don’t open for another 45 minutes, but you are welcome to sit here and get warm and I’ll bring you some coffee.” And they say New Yorkers are rude! Well, that was it for us! We had found our new favorite restaurant! 🙂 My family and I went back for breakfast pretty much every morning during that trip and got to know Cafe Luka’s two owners, Jon and Marc, pretty well. Flash forward to a year later during our next trip to the Big Apple. After landing in NYC, at 5 a.m. yet again, my parents headed to our hotel room – which my mom had managed to book correctly this time – to get some sleep, while my boyfriend and I headed to Cafe Luka for some coffee. When we walked in, Jon greeted us BY NAME and then said “How’s your dad doing?” Well, let me tell you, I almost fell on the floor! I could NOT believe that this guy that we had met so briefly an entire year beforehand not only remembered us, but also recalled our names and the fact that my dad had had surgery! My fiancé, ever the pessimist, said to me “OF COURSE he remembers us! Your dad curled up in one of his empty booths and took a nap!!!!!” LOL LOL LOL Even had my dad not done that, though, I’m pretty sure Jon would have still remembered us. He just seems like that kind of guy. Since that visit we’ve become regular patrons of Cafe Luka, and its sister restaurant Fratelli Brick Oven Pizza, usually eating there several times during our New York vacations. And, without fail, Jon and Marc remember us by name on every single visit! And this review of the restaurant on Insider Pages let me know that we haven’t been alone in our experiences there.

So, last year when we stopped into Cafe Luka for our traditional first-morning-in-New-York-breakfast and Jon asked what we had been up to, I, of course, told him about my blog. My dad piped up and said “Hey, you should write about this place.” To which I replied, “That’s a good idea, but have any celebrities ever eaten here?” Jon laughed and said that he had heard buzzings about celebs every now and again, but had no idea which stars in particular had actually dropped by. That’s the difference between L.A. and New York – while Angelinos pretend they are too cool to care about celebrities, New Yorkers actually are too cool – or too busy, for that matter – to care. LOL Anyway, Jon told me that several New York sports stars stop in to eat at the cafe on a regular basis, but I couldn’t tell you specifically who, as I pretty much tune out whenever people start talking sports to me. 🙂 But my ears did perk up when he mentioned that Conan O’Brien stops in to Cafe Luka every morning for a cup of coffee and that Eric Roberts dined next door at Fratelli with some fellow actors shortly after it opened last year. Of course, Jon didn’t know either Conan or Eric by name – he referred to Eric Roberts as the actor with the really famous sister who has curly hair and to Conan as the red-headed comic with a TV show LOL – so I had to play a bit of a guessing game to figure out who he was talking about. Anyway, I decided that if Cafe Luka is good enough for Conan O’Brien and Eric Roberts, it’s definitely good enough for my blog. 🙂

And while I’ve never spotted Conan grabbing his daily cup of coffee while eating at Cafe Luka, I honestly can’t recommend stalking the place enough. Besides the great service (that’s me and owner Marc pictured above), they also serve up some of the BEST chicken strips, mashed potatoes, and chicken noodle soup that I’ve ever tasted! What can I say? I am WAY into comfort food. 🙂 Their sister restaurant, Fratelli, which is located right next door, is equally as tasty! Especially the pizza!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Cafe Luka is located at 1319 1st Avenue #A on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Their sister restaurant, Fratelli Brick Oven Pizza, is located right next door at 1317 1st Avenue.

October 1, 2009November 15, 2009

The Vera Wang Flagship Salon

While I realize that today should really be the start of my annual, month long “Haunted Hollywood” theme, since I am on a plane right now headed to Manhattan, I decided to write a post about New York, my favorite city in the world, instead. 🙂 And since I’ve had weddings on the brain ever since getting engaged this past May, what better way to start my New York blogging than to write about the bridal salon that puts all other bridal salons to shame- the Vera Wang Flagship Store on Madison Avenue. 🙂 Even though there is no way in heck I could ever afford to purchase a Vera Wang wedding gown (let’s face it, I probably couldn’t even afford the sleeve of a dress in that store! LOL), I deemed the location to be blog-worthy since it appeared in a Season 3 episode of fave show Sex and the City. So, here goes! (Please excuse the above photograph, as it was taken on a particularly windblown New York City day a few years back, and my hair is a bit, um, ruffled.) 🙂

In the episode, which is entitled “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”, Carrie and the girls head to the Vera Wang Flagship Salon to try on some absolutely gorgeous bridesmaids dresses for Charlotte’s upcoming nuptials to Dr. Trey MacDougal. It is while trying on the dresses that Carrie laments over whether or not to tell Aidan about her recent affair with Mr. Big. As the girl discuss the pros and cons of coming clean with Aidan, Samantha, of course, resorts to using foul language, causing Charlotte to whisper “Could you please not use the ‘F word’ in Vera Wang!” LOL LOL LOL

Even though Charlotte specifies in the scene that they are at Vera Wang, I wasn’t sure if filming had actually taken place at the legendary Madison Avenue salon until I was able to verify it in the locations section of fave book Sex and the City: Kiss and Tell. And once I knew for sure, I, of course, immediately dragged my then-boyfriend out to the Vera Wang Flagship Store to snap a quick picture. 🙂 Unfortunately, though, because the store is a ” by appointment only” establishment, I wasn’t able to venture inside. 🙁 And being that I stalked the place LONG before I was engaged and had any sort of need for a wedding dress, there was really no reason for me to make an appointment. LOL Such a bummer, too, because I so wanted to see the spot where Carrie and the girls tried on their dresses. I did manage to grab the above photograph of the interior of the Madison Avenue store off of the company’s website, though, and you can kind of catch a glimpse of where filming took place. 🙂

You can also sort of see the store’s interior in the above photograph that I took last December.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Vera Wang Flagship Salon is located at 991 Madison Avenue in Manhattan. You can visit their website and make an appointment to try on wedding gowns here.

May 15, 2009May 14, 2009

Moondance Diner

This morning my mom sent me a link to an awesome new locations website called “Where It’s At – Pop Culture Is All Around You”. And I, of course, became TOTALLY and COMPLETELY engrossed in it for a good hour and a half. I was so engrossed in it, in fact, that I was late in meeting my dad for our usual morning Starbucks run! Anyway, while perusing the site I happened upon this link about an oft used New York filming location named Moondance Diner. And I almost fell out of my chair when I read that the historic restaurant had been moved clear across the country in late 2008! Apparently, the diner was driven over 2,300 miles -on a flatbed truck, no less – all the way from the island of Manhattan to a tiny town in Wyoming named La Barge (population 493!). At first, I thought the website was mistaken, as I had visited Moondance Diner on my 2007 trip to the Big Apple. How in the heck could an entire restaurant be moved halfway across the country in as little as a year and a half????

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Apparently, the historic diner closed its Manhattan doors in July of 2007 after a real estate development company purchased the land beneath it. The company planned to demolish the historic restaurant to make room for a high rise condominium complex, but thankfully preservationists stepped in to stop the demolition. Moondance ended up being donated to the American Diner Museum and was subsequently purchased by Vince and Cheryl Pierce for the bargain price of only $7,500! The Pierce’s made the incredible decision to relocate the famed diner to their hometown of La Barge, Wyoming. And I have to say ‘Way to go, Vince and Cheryl!!!’ I am so thankful that the diner, which opened in 1929 and was originally named the Holland Tunnel Diner, is still alive and well for all of us stalkers to visit!

The diner has been featured in numerous productions over the years, most notably as the restaurant where Mary Jane worked in the first Spiderman movie.

On Friends, Monica also worked at Moondance after being fired from her chef job during Season 3. No Friends filming actually took place at the diner, though. While the restaurant’s exterior was used for some set-up shots, the interior was a set that was built on a Warner Brothers soundstage in Burbank. The interior of Monica’s diner looks nothing like Moondance’s real life interior, though. Nor did the real life waitresses have to wear silly outfits like Monica’s. LOL

Moondance was also featured in the music video for the a-ha song “You Are The One” and in the 1985 movie After Hours. According to the Where It’s At website, the diner was also used in an episode of my fave Sex and the City, but I am not sure which one. So, I am putting it out there to you, dear readers – does anyone remember which episode of SATC was filmed at Moondance Diner?

Moondance has also had its brush with celebrity. Frank Sinatra used to be a frequent patron, as were many of the New York Yankees. And “Rent” playwright Jonathan Larson even worked at Moondance for a time. I can’t tell you how happy I am that this historic diner was saved from the wrecking ball!! If I ever find myself in La Barge, Wyoming, I fully plan on stalking it! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Moondance Diner was originally located at 80 6th Avenue in New York. It’s current location is at the corner of Main Street and 6th Avenue in La Barge, Wyoming. You can visit Moondance’s website here.

February 10, 2009February 13, 2009

Top of the Tower

While there are several restaurants in New York that I LOVE, there is one in particular that stands out far above the rest. That restaurant is named the Top of the Tower and it is located on the 26th floor of the Beekman Tower Hotel. Although the Top of the Tower has been one of my favorite places in all of New York for several years now, I had yet to blog about it because up until a few weeks ago, I didn’t realize it was a filming location – in one of my dad’s favorite movies no less! Two weeks ago, while looking at the Top of the Tower website, I noticed a small section mentioning that it had been used in film and video shoots. So I asked Mike, from MovieShotsLA, to call up the hotel to ask what exactly it had been featured in. For some reason making phone calls like that absolutely terrifies me. I love speaking with people face to face, but phone calls – ugh. Mike, on the other hand, dreads the face to face, but likes making phone calls. LOL What can I say – we make the perfect team. 🙂 So anyway, Mike called up the Beekman Tower for me and found out that among other things, the exterior of the hotel was featured in the Matt Damon flick The Bourne Supremacy. And voila, a blog post was born. 🙂

The landmark art deco style Beekman Tower Hotel was built in 1928 by John Mead Howells. The building’s many ornamental Gothic details were designed by sculptor Rene Chambellan. The building, which was previously named the Panhellenic Tower, was originally built as an affordable apartment complex for recent female college graduates belonging to the Greek, or Panhellenic, system – hence the name. According to the book One Thousand New York Buildings, the Panhellenic instantly became a landmark building as it was “a perfect example of vertical force”. The twenty-six story building housed 400 separate living spaces, a roof solarium with 360 degree sweeping views of Manhattan (that space is now the Top of the Tower restaurant), and a cocktail lounge. Not bad for affordable housing, huh? 🙂 The Greek Alphabet, which was carved just to the left of the building’s entrance, is still visible to this day. In 1964 the Panhellenic was sold to a private company who turned it into a regular apartment building. In the early 90s the building was sold once again and was completely renovated and remodeled and turned into the upscale, all suite Beekman Tower Hotel. You can view some great photographs of the Panhellenic Building here.

The Beekman Tower has had several brushes with celebrity. Katharine Hepburn’s sister was a resident of the Panhellenic Tower in its early years and Ms. Hepburn visited the building frequently. The photo shoot for Jennifer Hudson’s March 2007 cover story for Essence Magazine took place at the Top of the Tower. You can see behind the scenes pics of that photo shoot here. In November of 2008, a party to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Miles Davis “Kind of Blue” album was also held at the Top of the Tower. And as I mentioned earlier, the exterior of the Beekman was used in the filming of The Bourne Supremacy.

I really can’t recommend stalking the Top of the Tower enough! The food is amazing – the mashed potatoes and mushroom risotto are some of the best I’ve ever had! – the art deco ambiance is beautiful, and the service is perfection. But more than anything else, it is the breathtaking views that set this restaurant apart. The Top of the Tower has some of the most amazing views I have ever experienced in my life – especially at night when the city lights make New York extraodinarily spectacular and romantic. If you only have one night to spend in Manhattan, the Top of the Tower is the place I’d spend it.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It:The Beekman Tower Hotel is located at 3 Mitchell Place, at the corner of 1st Avenue and 49th Street, in New York City. You can visit their website here.

January 26, 2009February 17, 2009

Gwyneth Paltrow’s Former New York Digs

While doing some stalking in New York this past December, I just had to snap a photo of Gwyneth Paltrow’s former Greenwich Village townhome, which just happens to be located right around the corner from SJP’s house. Gwyn purchased this Greek Revival style townhouse back in 1998 when she was still a single New York gal. She later lived in the four story, four bedroom home with musician husband Chris Martin and their produce-monikered daughter, Apple. The couple decided to put the townhouse on the market in February of 2005 in order to move to a safer building with a doorman – no doubt to help keep the paparazzi at bay. The home ended up selling in June of ’05 for the bargain price of $6.995 million.

I found this location thanks to my go-to NYC stalking guide John’s Star Maps. Gwyneth’s picturesque former townhome was built in 1899, is 2,800 square feet, and boasts a basement, 3.5 baths, a garden, a rooftop terrace and two washers and dryers. Which begs the question – who does that much laundry??? LOL You can view the home’s 2005 real estate listing here. Gwyn’s house actually reminds me a lot of Kate Hudson’s New York pad which I blogged about a couple of weeks ago and is pictured above. That’s somewhat ironic because Gwyneth Paltrow and Kate Hudson actually remind me a lot of each other, too.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Gwyneth’s former Greenwich Village home is located at 278 West Fourth Street. She currently owns a 3,982 square foot condo in the River Lofts Condo building, located at 92 Laight Street in Tribeca. Meryl Streep also lives in the same building.