Manhattan – Page 3 – IAMNOTASTALKER

October 19, 2009October 19, 2009

Nate Archibald’s Townhouse

Rather than suffer through the re-run abyss airing on most television networks this past summer, my fiance and I instead decided to purchase and watch the first two seasons of the hit CW series Gossip Girl, which neither of us had ever before seen. Even though Mike, from MovieShotsLA, had been telling me for months that I would love the show, I steered clear of it as I had been under the incorrect assumption that it catered mostly to the teeny-bopper set. But, let me tell you, once we finally sat down to watch, it didn’t take long for my fiance and I to become totally and completely hooked!!! As much as it pains me to admit, there were literally whole weekends spent watching back to back episodes, the two of us never once leaving the couch! LOL Needless to say, I absolutely FELL IN LOVE with the show . . . and its locations. And, even though Blair Waldorf and Chuck Bass are the two GG characters I love the most, the locale I was most excited about stalking while in New York two weeks ago was the absolutely beautiful Neoclassical townhouse belonging to Nate Archibald (aka Chace Crawford) on the show. I found this location – and a few others – thanks to this awesome website. So, bright and early on our very first morning in NYC, I dragged my parents and my fiance out to finally do some Gossip Girl stalking! 🙂

Ironically enough, when we arrived at the townhouse, I almost didn’t recognize the place thanks to the fact that it was COMPLETELY covered in Halloween decorations. LOL But being that Halloween is my favorite holiday, I really didn’t mind. 🙂 The six story townhouse, which was built in 1910 and measures 11,296 square feet, is absolutely beautiful in person and it’s not very hard to see why producers chose to use it as the residence of the Archibald family – heirs to the Vanderbilt fortune – on the show.

As fate would have it, while we were taking photographs of the townhouse, the real life owner happened to walk outside, so I, of course, had to ask him a few questions about the filming. He was SUPER nice to us, but was very nonchalant about Gossip Girl, as if the filming of a hit television show on his property was an everyday occurrence, which I suppose, for him, it actually is. LOL Besides telling us that Chace Crawford is very nice in person, the owner also mentioned that the real interiors of his house are used for the filming of the interiors of the Archibald home, as well. So cool! 🙂

Even cooler is the fact that in the Season 2 episode of Gossip Girl entitled “There Might Be Blood”, the real life address of the home is shown as Nate’s return address on the letter he mails to Jenny! 🙂 Love it!

And thanks to fave book Manhattan on Film: Walking Tours of Hollywood’s Fabled Front Lot, I found out that the Archibald townhouse was also used as the office of therapist Susan Lowenstein (aka Barbra Streisand) in the 1991 movie The Prince of Tides.

And, from how it appears in the movie, I am pretty sure the real life interiors of the home were also used in the filming.

AND, according to this article, the King of Pop himself, Michael Jackson, rented this very same house for about six months back in 1999 for the bargain price of $75,000 a month while recording his “Invincible” album. SO COOL!

I honestly can’t recommend stalking Nate’s townhouse enough! It is such an amazing piece of property, that even if it wasn’t a filming location, I’m pretty sure I’d still be obsessed with it. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Nate Archibald’s townhouse from Gossip Girl is located at 4 East 74th Street on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Located right around the corner at 25 East 73rd Street is Via Quadronno, my very favorite place to eat breakfast in all of New York. Their croissants are out of this world!

October 14, 2009October 13, 2009

FAO Schwarz

Every year while in Manhattan I drag my fiancé out to Fifth Avenue to stalk the most famous toy store in the entire world – the FAO Schwarz Flagship Store that was made famous in the 1988 movie Big. Because I am a total kid at heart, the shop honestly has to be one of my very favorite places in all of New York. Although, being that the store encompasses three stories and over 65,000 square feet of retail space, I should hardly be calling it a “shop”. It is more of an attraction, or, to be more precise, a sort of hands-on retail playground. Take my word for it when I say that there is no other place like it in the entire world. The first FAO Schwarz store, or Schwarz Toy Bazaar as it was originally called, was opened in 1862 in Baltimore, Maryland by a man named Frederick August Otto Schwarz (hence the FAO in the name) and sold only dolls. In 1870, Frederick moved his store to a location on Broadway in New York City and expanded his selling empire to include a wide selection of high-end toys. When Frederick passed away in 1911, his heirs inherited the company and continued to run it. In 1931, the store, which had become known as FAO Schwarz and had grown to become THE finest and most exclusive toy store in the entire world, moved to 745 Fifth Avenue, just across the street from its current location. But by 1963, Frederick’s heirs had grown tired of running the company and decided to sell it to Parent Magazine. After several subsequent owners, in 1985 the store was sold yet again to the joint partnership of Christiana Companies, businessman Peter L. Harris, and investment banker Peter C. Morse. Harris breathed new life into the company, which had faltered under the high ownership turnover, and in 1986 moved the flagship store to its current location in the former auto showroom of the General Motors Building on Fifth Avenue. It was at the grand opening of the new flagship store that the now famous 28-foot tall “Welcome to our World of Toys” singing clock was unveiled.   And it was only two years later that the store would be immortalized by a piano playing Tom Hanks in the 1988 comedy Big. Throughout the ‘90s, the store saw several different ownerships yet again and, under the helm of the Rite Start Company, began to severely falter. In 2003, FAO filed for bankruptcy, not once, but twice, and shuttered eighteen of its twenty-two stores. And on January 26th, 2004, the unthinkable happened – the store’s Fifth Avenue location closed its doors. For the next ten months, the new owners, D.E. Shaw Laminar Portfolios, regrouped, revamped and remodeled the floundering company, and on the day before Thanksgiving 2004, the flagship store re-opened to much fanfare. It has been extremely successful ever since.

And it truly is a wonder to see! The famous singing clock no longer greets customers at the front entrance, but there is now a candy shop, two treehouses, a view of Central Park and the Plaza, an on-call magician, life size Lego displays, and – my favorite area – a Newborn Nursery (pictured above), where kids can “adopt” amazingly realistic looking baby dolls for the bargain price of $80.

And I have to say that, for some odd reason, I absolutely LOVE those Newborn Nursery dolls. Well, truth be told, I actually have a proclivity for any kind of doll, but some of my favorites have to be the FAO Schwarz Newborns. I realize I am a grown woman, but every single time I visit New York, I just HAVE to go to the Newborn Nursery and take a picture with one of the dolls. I must have over ten different photographs pretty much identical to the one pictured above in my collection. LOL I know, I know, I am a total dork!

Believe me, the irony was not lost on me as I posed for the above photograph holding a baby doll . . . on my THIRTIETH birthday. Not kidding. 🙂

Even though FAO Schwarz has since changed ownership several times and was even closed for the better part of 2004, I am happy to report that it is still, for the most part, recognizable from Big.

For those who have never seen the movie, it was at FAO that the now infamous piano playing scene starring Tom Hanks and his boss, Robert Loggia, took place. I sooooo LOVE that scene! “Chopsticks!” 🙂 I can still remember sitting in the movie theatre at eleven years old, watching that scene for the very first time and being absolutely mesmerized over not only the piano dance, but also the toy store in general. My eleven year old mind could not comprehend that a place like that really existed!   🙂

As you can see in the above screen capture, at the time Big was filmed, the foot piano was located on the store’s main floor, near the front door. That area, which is called the Great Hall, now houses FAO’s massive collection of stuffed animals.

Today the Big piano is located towards the back of the store’s second level. And every hour, FAO puts on a Big style piano show, where store employees dance on the keyboard and play games like “Name That Tune” with the audience. So cool! 🙂

And you can even purchase your very own Big piano for the bargain price of . . . $250,000! No, that’s not a typ0 – the darn thing actually costs $250,000!!!!! LOL LOL LOL If I had that kind of money lying around, you can bet I wouldn’t be spending it on a toy piano!

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FAO Schwarz was also featured at the end of 1995’s Mighty Aphrodite as the location where Woody Allen runs into his former mistress, played by Mira Sorvino. The toy store was also featured in the movies For Love Or Money, Big Business, Godspell: A Musical Based on the Gospel According to Saint Matthew and the Amy Grant documentary entitled Building the House of Love.

Besides being a filming location, FAO Schwarz is also quite a celebrity magnet. On December 15, 2005, Tom Cruise hosted then-girlfriend Katie Holmes’ 25th birthday party at the store after hours.   He even had the place stocked with balloons and cupcakes from Katie’s favorite bakery, Billy’s Bakery, for the occasion. Other celebs who have been spotted at the legendary toy store include Ashley Simpson, Bindi Irwin (daughter of Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin), Kate Gosselin, Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, Kelly Ripa, Britney Spears, Posh Spice, Heidi Klum, Calista Flockhart, Bernadette Peters, Cindy Crawford, Isla Fisher, Brooke Shields, and Conan O’Brien.

I honestly can’t recommend stalking the FAO Schwarz Flagship Store enough! The place certainly has the ability to bring out the kid in everyone, whether you are 9 or 99! 🙂 But if you aren’t planning a trip to the Big Apple anytime soon, you can also cyber-stalk the store from the comfort of your own home here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The FAO Schwarz Flagship Store is located at 767 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.

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.

January 7, 2009February 13, 2009

The Astor Place Starbucks

Two of my favorite things in the world (besides Jennifer Aniston, of course) are Starbucks coffee and Sex and the City. So it was only natural that I stalk the Starbucks featured in Sex and the City: The Movie while I was in New York a few weeks ago. 🙂 The Starbucks used in SATC is located on Astor Place and is actually one of the busiest Starbucks in New York. It also just happens to be Matt Damon’s Starbucks of choice. 🙂 I found this location thanks to the Sex and The City: The Movie book, which features an entire chapter dedicated to filming locations. LOVE IT!

The Astor Place Starbucks was featured twice in SATC: The Movie. It first shows up in one of the funniest scenes in the movie, as the location where Carrie holds her personal assistant interviews and meets “Louise from Saint Louis” (Jennifer Hudson) for the first time. That scene was actually the first scene Jennifer Hudson filmed for the movie and, according to the Sex and the City: The Movie book, at the end of the day she sang “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going” to the cast and crew. In fact, all of the actors who played Carrie’s interviewees in the scene are well-known Broadway singers.

Later on in the movie, Carrie and Louise once again visit this same Starbucks. But this time, Carrie has a new head of hair – long, dark brown locks. A little bit of SATC trivia – Carrie’s brown mane in the movie was actually a wig!

While walking to the Astor Place Starbucks, I couldn’t help but wonder why, out of the 178 Starbucks locations in New York City, producers choose this one for filming? But once I entered the front doors, it all became clear. The Astor Place Starbucks is the BIGGEST Starbucks I have ever seen in my life. It has to be at least 2,000 square feet. It’s massive size must have made it the easy choice for filming a movie with a large crew and large cameras.

While researching the Astor Place Starbucks this morning, I came across this AMAZING website and pretty much spent my whole morning absolutely engrossed by it! Apparently, there is a man named Winter whose goal in life is to visit every single Starbucks location on the planet. A man after my own heart, I’m telling you. 🙂 I told my boyfriend about Winter and his unique mission this morning and he replied “That sounds like something you would do!” LOL I better never meet this Winter guy, I have a feeling we’d be trouble together. 🙂 On a side note, if you are at all a Starbucks fan like myself and find yourself in New York, you will be very excited to know that the Herald Square Macy’s houses not one, not two, not three, but FOUR Starbucks – one on the first floor balcony, and one each on levels 3, 5, and 6! I was in heaven while shopping there. 🙂 LOL The above picture is of a Macy’s sign showing all of its Starbucks locations that I took while riding the escalator, which explains why it turned out a bit blurry. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Sex and the City Starbucks is located at the corner of Astor Place and Layfayette Street in Manhattan.

December 3, 2008February 13, 2009

I Heart New York!

Tonight I am taking the red eye to New York City, leaving behind the land of tank tops and cutoff shorts for the land of down parkas and thermal underwear. My family and I are taking our annual winter vacation to my favorite city in the world – the Big Apple! So today, before my flight, I thought I’d blog about a location I stalked on my last trip to NYC.

I have long been a fan of a series of mystery novels that take place in and around the island of Manhattan. The series is written by former New York District Attorney Linda Fairstein, who worked in the Manhattan D.A.’s office for over thirty years before retiring in 2002. Linda first served as assistant district attorney for four years before being promoted to the head of the Manhattan Sex Crimes Unit where she spent twenty-six years prosecuting perpetrators of sexual assault and trying numerous high profile cases. In 1996 Linda began writing mystery novels based on her experiences in the D.A.’s office. Her first novel was entitled Final Jeopardy and it centers around heroine Alexandra Cooper, who, like Linda herself, is head of the Manhattan Sex Crimes Unit. Mark Twain did say to “Write what you know.” 🙂 Since her writing debut, Linda has gone on to publish nine other mysteries in the series, each one better than the last. I absolutely love Linda’s novels, not only because they are great reads, but also because Alexandra visits real life New York locations in the course of her travels. Not wanting to restrict my stalking solely to movie locations, on my last trip to NYC, I set out to stalk some of the sites featured in Linda’s books.

The first location I set out to stalk was PJ Bernstein’s Delicatessen and Restaurant, a favorite stomping ground of Alex Cooper’s. In the series, Alex lives just upstairs from the deli and visits it in each and every novel. Apparently they make fabulous matzo ball soup. So, last December, I just had to drag my boyfriend there. I was absolutely floored to see that the Upper East Side deli was exactly as Linda had described it in her books. The owner was extremely nice, although somewhat baffled at the fact that I was taking photographs out front. When I explained to him why I was doing so, a lightbulb went off in his head and he started laughing. He couldn’t believe I was actually stalking a location from a fictional book. LOL He told me that he knew Linda very well and that she visits his deli almost daily, but sadly we did not see her during our visit.

The next location I dragged my boyfriend to was Alex Cooper’s swanky Upper East Side apartment building. I was happy to see that the building was also exactly as described in the books – long curving driveway with a drop-off area, two doormen out front, and a little gated garden. I didn’t get very good pics of the building, though, as the doormen looked a bit unhappy at the fact that I was posing for pictures out front. LOL

I must say that it was very cool stalking these locations from Linda’s mysteries; almost as much fun as stalking movie locations. If you haven’t yet, I highly recommend checking out the Alex Cooper mystery series, you won’t be disappointed!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: PJ Bernstein is located at 1215 3rd Avenue in Manhattan. Alexandra Cooper’s apartment building is located just around the corner at 211 East 70th Street.

June 12, 2008December 6, 2013

The World’s Most Famous Subway Grate

The other night in my acting class we were talking about Marilyn Monroe and the movie The Seven Year Itch. One of my classmates asked me if I had ever seen the famous scene of Marilyn standing on top of a subway grate from the movie. I told him that not only had I seen it, I’ve stood on that very subway grate! So, I thought I’d do a little post about it. 🙂 In that famous scene, Marilyn and her downstairs neighbor, played by Tom Ewell, exit the Trans Lux Theatre, which once stood at 586 Lexington Avenue, and walk onto a subway grate. Marilyn is standing atop the grate as a subway passes making her white skirt billow high above her waist as she exclaims “Oh, can you feel the breeze from the subway? Isn’t it delicious?”

The scene was originally shot on location in Manhattan on September 15, 1954 at 1 O’clock in the morning, with over 5000 spectators and media men watching. The crowd went wild as Marilyn’s skirt flew higher and higher, making the footage being shot completely unusable due to the noise. Director Billy WIlder ended up having to re-shoot the entire sequence at 20th Century Fox Studios in Los Angeles.

The footage that ended up making it to the final cut of the movie was significantly edited down as the scene was considered far too racy for its time. But everyone remembers those black and white photographs taken of Marilyn that September night in Manhattan with her skirt billowing high above her waist, showing off her panties and her long gams. In the actual movie, you barely see Marilyn’s skirt fly up at all, most of what is shown is her face reacting to the subway breeze. You can watch the subway grate scene below:

On a side note – One of the many people in attendance that September night in New York was Marilyn’s husband at the time, Joe DiMaggio. Supposedly, Joe became enraged that the gleeful onlookers were viewing his wife’s panties over and over again during the filming of the scene. The marriage was already on the rocks at the time and this experience put Joe over the edge. Just a few weeks later he filed for divorce from the starlet, long before the movie ever premiered.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Seven Year Itch subway grate is located at the northwest corner of Lexington Avenue and 52nd Street. The Trans Lux Theatre is no longer there and a large office building now stands in its place.