“New York, You’ve Changed” is a new Scouting NY feature in which the New York depicted in movies is compared with the city of today. Not just the usual list of shooting locations, this is a full shot-by-shot dissection to see what New York once was and what it has become, for better or worse.
We’ll be running Halloween-themed posts this week in honor of the holiday, and there seemed no better way to start than to take a New York, You’ve Changed look at one of the best New York City horror films ever made, Rosemary’s Baby.
As the credits roll, the film begins with a panoramic aerial view of north-east New York, taken from the roof of The Majestic apartment building across the street from the Dakota (if anyone has a contact at The Majestic, I’d love to go up and shoot how the cityscape has changed). We finally come to settle on a very low angle view of the beautiful Dakota at 72nd St & Central Park West (called The Bramford in the film):
The Dakota was constructed between 1880 and 1884 and originally had 65 apartments consisting of 4 to 20 rooms, with no two alike.
A picture of the Dakota circa 1890, when the Upper West Side was a bit less crowded:
One of my favorite building ornamentations in New York can be found lining the iron fence surrounding the Dakota:
It’s even on the entrance to the 72nd Street subway station:
In addition, the subway has a great antique sign above the stairwell entrance:
As the movie opens, we meet Rosemary and her husband Guy as they visit the Dakota to see a vacant apartment (how they can afford anything in the Dakota, with Guy depicted as a struggling actor, is a bit of witchcraft in itself).
As they’re touring their new apartment, they notice a bureau curiously pushed up against a closet door.
They move it aside and indeed find a closet.
We later find out that this hallway originally connected to the neighboring apartment (owned by the devil-worshiping Castevets). Breaking up apartments into smaller units by dividing the hallways is not uncommon. In the Apthorp, a building similar in idea to the Dakota, for example…
…apartments that used to span an entire floor have been broken up into smaller units by dividing the hallways with closets. If you were to punch through the back of this closet, you’d find yourself in the neighboring apartment (when I was scouting this, all I could think about was Rosemary’s Baby):
This closet, also in the Apthorp, still has a door to the kitchen as its back wall:
After seeing the apartment, Rosemary convinces Guy in a walk-and-talk (film lingo!) that they should take it. Assuming they’re walking away from the building on 72nd Street (which would make sense, based on the traffic), I believe they’re approaching Broadway, which would mean the Californian restaurant is now a Gray’s Papaya.
However, the shot moves too quickly to be 100% sure. Another angle:
After settling in, Rosemary and Guy come home one night to find that a fellow resident (a woman who had a mysterious relationship with the Castevets) has committed suicide. I believe the corpse is just about where that spot is on the sidewalk in the second picture (the people dressed as garden gnomes were doing some sort of photoshoot in front of the Dakota).
At the crime scene, we get a shot of Minnie Castevet and a view across the street. Not surprisingly, very little has changed. I’d like to know when the MTA painted all the subway globes green…
After this, Rosemary and Guy find themselves quickly becoming friends with the Castevets. Guy is having trouble getting acting gigs, and then suddenly is offered an important role when a rival actor goes blind. Meanwhile, Rosemary is unhappy at home and voices her troubles to friend Hutch. Here, they walk along an avenue, and it’s killing me that I can’t figure this one out. You can see an elevated ramp in the background of the shot, and there are VERY few of these in Manhattan. Any guesses?
Following this scene, Rosemary is given her infamous tannis root necklace (no such thing as tannis root, FYI), is raped by Satan, gets a sudden craving for raw steak, loses tons of weight and skin color, and cuts off her hair. As she becomes more and more anxious about her pregnancy, she gets a call from Hutch who says he has something urgent to tell her. They agree to meet outside the Time Life building, but Hutch never shows.
The squiggly pattern in the ground was based on the famous sidewalks of Rio de Janiero’s Copacabana Beach – here’s a picture taken by Flickr user Mondmann:
For some reason, it seems like the colors are inverted between the two pictures – no clue why this is.
Note the new fountain on the right:
Rosemary checks her time with the Newsweek building clock down 50th Street…Can’t do that anymore!
Finally, she goes into the building to give Hutch a call.
Same mural in the lobby:
The lobby was closed, or I would have gone in to see if this payphone is still there:
After learning that Hutch has suddenly became intensely ill, Rosemary wanders over to Fifth Avenue – specifically, the first window at Tiffany’s, where she admires a manger scene.
It’s hard to escape the Castevets – Minnie finds her there immediately and helps get her home.
Hutch later dies, and Rosemary becomes convinced that the Castevets are part of a coven. She tells this to her OBGYN, Dr. Saperstein, who conveniently informs her that the Castevets will be going on a long vacation and that they’re nothing to worry about. A quick view down 72nd Street as the doorman calls them a cab…
…and a farewell to the Castevets…for now.
As Guy escorts Rosemary back inside, we get a close-up view of the guard booth, which has turned gold in recent years:
Things continue to spiral downhill for poor Rosemary as she becomes convinced that Guy is in on the conspiracy. In a whirl, she walks into the middle of traffic on Fifth Ave at 55th Street. Was that gold thing on the stand a mailbox?
The enormous Disney store now occupies that corner building:
Last time we saw Rosemary on Fifth Ave, the trees in Central Park were dead. Nice to see a film actually show the passage of time:
Rosemary rips the tannis root necklace off and tosses it down a drain:
This is the one location I was really hoping to find: the famous drain where Rosemary gets rid of her cursed necklace. Unfortunately, there’s no drain where it should be, and watching the scene, you can see that shot cuts away JUST as the camera angle drops down to the ground (suggesting the drain is elsewhere and they cheated it being on Fifth Ave).
She then goes to a bookstore to purchase a few more books on witchcraft. No clue where this is – I originally thought it might be Argosy, but the two don’t match up. There’s a reflection of a neon sign in the window, but it’s too slight to make out. Any guesses?
After reading the books, Rosemary realizes that Guy was responsible for causing his rival to go blind and has betrayed her. She packs a bag and flees the apartment to Dr. Saperstein’s office. There, she learns that he’s in on the conspiracy as well and quickly leaves. We get our first look at the exterior of his office, located at 62nd St and Fifth Ave.
The full exterior of the office – a very nice address for a Satanist:
Rosemary turns onto Fifth Ave and heads for that phone booth on the corner:
Inside, she frantically calls her original doctor, Dr. Hill, and schedules a last minute appointment.
She takes a cab to his office, located at 650 Park Avenue:
There, she confesses everything, and Dr. Hill actually believes her. However, before he can help, the coven tracks her down and forces her to return to the apartment:
I swear, every time I watch the film, I find myself hoping that Rosemary will get away. Unfortunately…
From here, there’s no escape. Rosemary returns to the apartment and gives birth to the son of Satan. The film ends with her rocking the baby to sleep, and then a final shot of the Dakota.
I was really excited to do a photo essay on the locations in Rosemary’s Baby – it’s one of my favorite films, and I had initially planned to put the article together following our look at Ghostbusters. However, as I was rewatching the film, I was completely surprised to find that there are actually very few exterior shots of New York. The vast majority of the film takes place in the apartment, with only a handful of scenes that show the city.
And yet, the film is still an archetypal New York movie. Polanski brilliantly uses the city to induce a heavy sense of claustrophobia: despite being in such a teeming metropolis, Rosemary is trapped for most of the film in the her dusty old apartment, denied any reprieve or freedom from her agony.
Make sure to check your candy for tannis root this Halloween!
-SCOUT
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Great work, once again.
All I have to add is this quote from a 2002 NY Times article about subway globes: “Though it might seem as if they have been around [a long time], the globes have been confusing people only for about 20 years. Before that, most lights were sheathed in milky white globes, and their purpose was illumination, not information… But in the early 1980’s, mostly to try to prevent muggings, transit officials started a color-code system to warn riders away from entrances that were closed at night.” – http://bit.ly/4dcolS
Also, I think the reflection in the bookstore window says “Kaplan”.
Not sure, but the bookstore might be the Gotham Book Mart on W 47th St, which closed a couple fo years ago. Might be too wide though, I remember it being fairly narrow.
I was going to guess the Gotham Book Mart too.
I think the frame you can’t figure out (with the ramp in the background) is W 72nd Street, at the terminal south end of Riverside Drive. There used to be an off-ramp of the West Side Highway there but it’s closed for construction. I think you can see the elevated West Side Highway in the background.
I think the bookstore might be the old Shakespeare and Company on Broadway and 81st. It was on the southwest corner, a block or so from a giant Barnes and Noble. According to Google, it appears in When Harry Met Sally, so maybe you can get a reference off of that.
This photo essay is awesome. Great work! Rosemary’s Baby is one of my favorite films, too.
FYI, Tannis is a Greek name and comes from the word Tanith, meaning serpent lady. Tanith was a goddess of fertility.
Notice in that shot looking west down 72nd Street with the doorman whistling for a cab in the street that the red brick building on the right in the background has a new column of windows installed close to the corner facing east.
Another fabulous trip – thanks Scout.
I, too, wondered if the bookstore was Gotham Book Mart, based on the width and the depth, but those photos of celebrities don’t ring a bell. I went there a lot in the mid-’70s, when the store was marketing Edward Gorey quite heavily, and it had a very different feel from this store in the photo. But maybe it was just set dressing.
Another article about the subway globes and their colors:
http://gothamist.com/2004/08/25/color_coded_subway_entrances.php
I remember when the color-coding was introduced–very clever I thought it!
[...] Halloween in NY: Rosemary’s Baby (Scouting New York) [...]
I love these articles. As a newbie NYer, but someone who’s had a lifetime fascination with the city, it’s intriguing to see how things have changed, or not changed. I’m sure Woody Allen is on your list of movies to tackle i the future, but also consider “The Marathon Man” or “Taking of Pelham 1-2-3″, two vintage NY films which really show the character of the city before it was Guliani-ized.
Another awesome movie tour! Would you ever consider doing a ‘New York, You’ve Changed’ on Moonstruck? It’s one of my favorite movies, NY-themed or otherwise. I know the family house is at 19 Cranberry Street in Brooklyn Heights, and there are loads of other great finds in there…
I’m fairly certain that is the Gotham Book Mart. They had a back room with an open “window” to the main shop. This looks like the view from there.
You deserve some type of internet prize. Man, that is some good work. I used to work in NY, now just a visitor, but that is some painstaking work, I love it. I love comparing the canopy in the last two shots. Just that alone would tell you it was the 70s: compare the profile of the canopy to the car to the left in each: concave vs. convex.
“That gold thing on a stand” used to be a fancy litter basket found only on Fifth Avenue.
The fountain in front of the Time & Life building isn’t new. It was there, just covered over for the Christmas display. The inverted pattern is a mystery. There was a renovation of the plaza in the mid 90’s I believe. Perhaps that’s when the inversion occurred. BTW – Notice how the pattern continues into the lobby.
Great work! Keep it coming.
Great info!
This movie helped push my decision to purchase of a great Dover book that has floor plans for all the old NYC apartment buildings.
Love your blahg!
The Guard box at the Dakota is brass. It doesn’t look “brassy” in the movie because it had been painted over as cure for “patina” which was considered esthetically unpleasing.
It has been restored to the original
I forgot them till now but yes those were the mailboxes on 5th avenue at the time and later into the 60′d and the 70’s. I don’t remember when they were removed.
thanks for the memory
isn’t the interior of that bookstore The Strand, with “8 miles of books?” i don’t know, and maybe that’s just a shot in the dark. but something about the cash register area and the way all those deep isles of shelves are positioned made me think of The Strand right away.
I think the ramp is the 59th St bridge ramp over 2nd Avenue – and they are walking up 2nd – cars are going downtown.
The gold “trash” receptacles on 5th Avenue were the subject of much mirth when they were put up.
At first I thought the bookstore might have been the old Scribner’s on Fifth Ave but they didn’t have those photos on the soffit so it may have been the Gotham.
Great blog great work!
One more note – the original Ira Levin book of “Rosemary’s Baby” seemed to have taken place within the Osborne on 57th and 7th, another late 1800’s building with a grim visage. But the Dakota was much more interesting to film.
Almost positive the bookstore is the Gotham Book Mart in its original location on the north side of 47th, between 5th & 6th. “Wise Men Fish Here” was the sign on the wrought iron shingle.
I remember the shop was a few steps down from the sidewalk. so angle of the Rosemary’s Baby photo would be consistent with the position of a camera on the sidewalk and angled slightly down to view inside.
I don’t specifically recall the photographs on the wall but that little shop was The meeting place of the literati of that time–lots of book signings, readings, lectures, discussions, etc.
I worked in the neighborhood and spent many a glorious lunch hour browsing, occasionally buying, and always basking in the aroma of books, new and old.
Wow, this is officially my new favorite website. You fulfilled a need that I didn’t even know I had- thank you!
I don’t believe that was the southeast corner of 72nd and Broadway (with the Californian restaurant), that Rosemary and Guy walk to after their first visit to the Dakota/Bramford. I went to high school on 74th Street just off Central Park West when the film was being shot, and that corner was occupied by a branch of the Merit Farms chain, which my pals and I sometimes went to for lunch. I vaguely recall The Californian being further downtown, maybe in the theater district. Will try to pinpoint its location a little better.
It’s the old Gotham Book Mart alright. As Marianne718 points out, the shot is from the sidewalk through the front window down to the store. They are standing in front of what was the checkout counter in my day (mid ’70s on). I think they moved the portraits to the staircase leading to the upstairs gallery, or put up some others… looks like one is Joyce and can that be Lionel Trilling with his head in his hands? In my day the place was crammed w/ Edward Gorey art. They should have filmed it at the old Weiser’s Books (B’way at Waverly) where Rosemary really could have learned something about the occult. Great site, you have here.
I researched The Californian restaurant some more, and it was about where I’d thought it might be: 7th Avenue and 48th Street (the corner now occupied by Maxie’s Delicatessen). The Californian was one of several state or city-themed restaurants operated by the eatery impresario Arthur Maisel, who also had places called The Floridian, The Georgian, The Virginian, The Texan, The Brooklynite, etc, as well as several locations bearing his own name. The location of the Californian. An article in the February 24th, 1951 issue of The New Yorker confirms the 7th Avenue/48th location (an abstract for the article is at the following link, although you need a subscription to read the whole thing):
http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1951/02/24/1951_02_24_023_TNY_CARDS_000227186
Also unearthed a reference to the Californian on, of all places, a website devoted to the late, great Ernie Kovacs. It notes Kovacs doing a commercial for Arthur Maisel restaurants including the Californian on an episode of his New York-based show in the 50s.
One more confirmation of the location is on an item currently available at eBay: a copy of an Arthur Maisel’s menu listing the name and addresses of several of the chain’s outlets, including the Californian.
And while I’m obsessing: While I haven’t been able to exactly ascertain the block that Rosemary and Hutch are walking while discussing the suicide at “Happy House,” I did notice a couple of potentially helpful clues: The first of two awnings they walk under has the word “Abeledo” on it (a tree obscures the rest of the awning, which may or may not contain a second word). Haven’t yet found an online reference to an apartment building or other establishment with Abeledo in its name, but will keep trying. Tried to decipher the blue signage on the second, more ornate awning they approach, but it was just too blurry in all the frames I paused. It appears to be a Middle Eastern or perhaps Indian restaurant, as the doorway is flanked by turban-wearing mannequins. Maybe a restaurant guide from the period might unlock the mystery. As far as pinpointing the location, my best guess for now is that they’re walking east on 61st Street, approaching York Avenue. Although the surrounding architecture has changed drastically enough to render the block unrecognizable when compared to its 60s appearance, there is a ramp for the FDR drive at the end of the street, of about the same height as the one seen in the film (its appearance now altered by some kind of decorative tile work at its base). And I’m pretty sure the Queensboro Bridge can be made out to the right of the shot in some frames.
I think the mystery of the inverted pattern can be easily explained. If you look, the fountain extends further into the sidewalk than the rocks did. Try to imagine what the pattern would look like under the fountain, I believe it will match up to where she is standing. I could be wrong, but the extended fountain could be the key here.
Hi!
Great photo essay! I’m actually writing a blog post about the affect of the movies on our psyche. I mean, even IF I could afford the rent at the Black Bram…I mean, the Dakota (what are the rents like in a place like that, anyway?) I wouldn’t move in there. Especially if my husband was a struggling actor! Then again, I wouldn’t go swimming in the water at Martha’s Vineyard, (Jaws). And if the only hotel/Motel I could find was called BATES, or even managed by a guy by that name….I’d sleep in the car!