There's also a scene at the end where Woody Allen goes running up 7th Avenue, from 54th to 55th, chasing after Mia Farrow. We see the whole block, from Oyster Bar to Carnegie Deli.
all b&w pics from Broadway Danny Rose
all color pics from Google Streetview
I thought it might be fun to take a look at it, frame by frame, alongside today's images from Google Streetview.
The Oyster Bar still stands and it has expanded into what was once a record shop. While many of the shops have changed, they all still have a funky, beaten-down look about them. A very unusual case. The landlords here must be old-timers who haven't given in to greed.
Wilson's Cleaners and Ballantine Hairstylists became a Gift Shop and Electronics store. An empty storefront papered with flyers and a FOR SALE sign is today a David Z shoe store.
The Smiler's is still a Smiler's, though it has lost its neon signs, shining clock, and smiler in chef's hat for a duller version.
The Continental Coffee House is now the China Regency--scratch that, with a FOR RENT sign in the window, it may be something else by now.
And the Carnegie Deli, of course, is still the Carnegie Deli. (The place on the very end doesn't look much different, either.) After the filming of this movie, the deli named a big, fat pastrami and corned beef sandwich the "Woody Allen."
As a bonus, traveling a few blocks south at Broadway and 49th, we find a vanished Howard Johnson's resplendent in neon signage--and surrounded by people not on cell phones. (Take another look in color.)
In its place today is Ruby Foo's.
17 comments:
Wonderful dichotomy! Thanks for posting this. Classic film. One of my favorites. I always loved that last scene of him running up the street to catch up with her. Poetic. Romantic. Call me a sap. It was just great storytelling.
Good to see a few of the businesses from 28 years ago still hanging in there.
Recently watched 'Broadway Danny Rose' for the first time in a long while and definitely appreciated the atmosphere along with the yuks.
In that 49th St. frame, you can see a piece of a grand old movie palace, the Rivoli, that was demolished to make way for the glass box that Ruby Foo's calls home.:
http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/555/photos/12367
What I like in that circa 1980 forgotten-ny pic is the bus ad for "FM99 - From the Streets," the precursor to Kiss 98.7.
Love this post, nice to see some parts of New York are somewhat unchanged. And I need to watch "Broadway Danny Rose" again!
Probably my favorite Woody Allen movie! Mia Farrow is excellent in it--I didn't even know it was her when I first saw it.
One Staurday morning in 1983 I got off the subway at 57th St to go to a class at the Art Students League (on 57th St) and saw them filming this particular scene... tracks (for the camera) on the sidewalk across 7th and all. Remember it like it was a month ago!
What could be occupying the minds of those people at B'way and 49th in the olden days without benefit of the electronic teat? Were they thinking about where they were going? Daydreaming? I note that three sets of two pedestrians may be talking to each other, rather than a disembodied voice jammed in their ear. Savages.
Two of my comments didn't go through, 1 on Atlas Barber Shop, and one on this post. Both are long ones and will not repeat them. But as one commenter would argue, this vanished "real" New York is just a state of mind.
My favorite Woody Allen movie, and one of my favorite movies. Nice to see that block has kept it real.
Woody Allen's New York is, in its way, as imaginary as Sex and the City, but that isn't a bad thing.
Woody Allen's New York may be a product of his imagination, but lucky for us, he didn't build a phony Seventh Avenue in Charlotte to film this scene. So we get to SEE the REAL NYC.
that scene is one of my favorite pieces on film. black& white.
Thank God for Woody.
Although I think one reason so many of us (and so many readers of this blog) feel so attached to certain aspects of New York is precisely because of their continued immortalization through the medium of cinema. It's hard to imagine the movies without New York, or vice versa.
In case anyone's interested, Smiler's is now gone as well (in it's place, a slightly more shi shi buffet lunch/grocery place called Cafe Oliviero). Also, the China Regency is now ANOTHER gift shop. If there was ever something romantically New York about this block, it's vanished.
I seem to recall a similar scene in "Manhattan." 2nd Ave in the 40's N. of the Daily News Bldg. Also my Atlas Barber comment similarly tanked just like the one mentioned above.
ok once & for all: was there 2 scenes in manhattan where he runs down the street? when he chases the girl @the end, that was 2nd ave. when did he run down broadway? brendon 4:17- funny you should mention "sex in the city" those HBOs could have been directed by woody. similar slice of life dialoques, & perfect character types. they got it so right. except if "sex" was directed by woody, the followers on this blog would think it was brilliant. oh well.........love all of it. woody, carrie........& way back.
Jesus J, how great a human being you are. Sorry to be a bit gushy, but I know how much time you have put into doing posts like these, and in general the whole damn shootin' match here. Hope you are rewarded in a way that money hasn't even come CLOSE to thinkin' about.
Keep on chooglin'!
aw, thanks DrBop! my 5-year anniversary is tomorrow. been a long time...
Great post. Thanks.
I wanted to speak about the film a bit, since it is about New York, as you said, about show business.
The film never quite made sense to me in the sense of it's setting, it's "time period." Danny was a kind of "fossile" and so were his clients. We see him crossing the street at one point in the film and a marquee displays "Rocky" playing in the theater.
By the time "Rocky" was made, the type of show business Danny was involved in had vanished.
Does anyone have any thoughts? Or am I wrong about this??? Thanks.
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