The Filming Locations of The Naked City – Part 2: Times Square, Chelsea, Soho and Wall Street
This week, Scouting NY is taking a frame-by-frame, then-and-now look at The Naked City. Shot on location in 1948, The Naked City provides an incredible, documentary-style look at the streets of New York. Let’s see how the city has changed over 65 years later. Be sure to check out Part 1 here!
Continuing from yesterday’s article covering the Lower East Side and the Williamsburg Bridge, we resume our Naked City tour through 1940s New York City in…
Soho
Location: 240 Centre Street btw. Broome & Grand
Largely a police procedural, The Naked City takes place at several actual police buildings around Manhattan. The first: the original New York City Police Headquarters on Centre Street…
In use by the police from 1903 – 1973, 240 Centre was converted into luxury condos in 1988. The penthouse was last listed at around $31 million.
Chelsea
Location: West 20th Street btw. 7th / 8th Aves.
In the film, the detectives work out of the 10th Precinct, shot on location at 230 West 20th Street:
Filming an exterior at an actual precinct is pretty unthinkable these days…
…but The Naked City went the distance and actually shot inside the precinct, which is absolutely insane by modern standards. The interior has changed somewhat, but the desk and guardrail are still there!
Finally, a reverse up West 20th reveals the north side of the street looking toward 7th Ave:
Location: West 15th Street at Ninth Avenue
That is indeed the Chelsea Market building on the right, with the former Nabisco skybridge in the distance:
Location: West 18th Street and Park Avenue
Moving east, we find a news vendor selling papers at the entrance to the now defunct 18th Street subway stop. Though the entrance is gone, the station itself still exists underground in a state of abandonment.
Midtown
Location: Sixth Avenue and 34th Street
I love this shot of an old lunch counter, with the Bennett monument visible in the background.
Today, that lunch counter is a Sunglass Hut:
Location: Seventh Avenue and West 40th Street
While I like the shot of commuters entering this Times Square subway entrance, I love the deli sign on the left, with pastrami and frankfurters for just a dime or two.
Location: West 33rd Street btw. 8th/9th Aves
Below, a mail truck zoom out of the Farley Post office toward Ninth Ave:
Location: East 29th Street and First Avenue
Heading far over to the east side, we find the original City Mortuary at Bellevue…
Times Square
Location: Times Square looking north
So many great landmarks of yore visible in the below shot, including the Hotel Astor on the left, and part of the Bond store on the right. Note Pepsi hogging Coke’s now ubiquitous advertising space. The statue of playwright George M. Cohan can just be seen in silhouette:
Location: Times Square looking south
Looking the opposite direction, note the Loew’s State Theatre marquee in the center of the frame:
Demolished in the 1990s, the Loew’s entrance was located about where the Disney store is:
A great shot of a Loew’s clerk looking a bit sheepish at appearing in a movie:
Location: Times Square looking north
One final shot of Times Square looking north at what is now Aeropostale.
The East River
Location: East River somewhere in the 40s
The East River is featured prominently in The Naked City from three different angles. First, this amazing shot of kids jumping off the piers…
Location: The East River somewhere near Houston
Next, a view of the Williamsburg Bridge from somewhere near Houston. The Domino Sugar Refinery complex is visible on the left:
Location: The East River somewhere in DUMBO
Finally, a shot of the Manhattan Bridge taken near John Street in DUMBO:
Wall Street
Heading south, the movie features a fantastic shot of Wall Street in the early morning. Very little has changed here…
Location: Wall Street and Broadway
Location: Coenties Slip at Water Street
There’s also a great pair of shots of the old Third Avenue elevated train, taken at the Coenties Slip S-curve off of Water Street:
The Third Avenue El was phased out in the 1950s, and was the last elevated line to run in Manhattan.
Location: Battery Maritime Building
Last, we get this shot of commuters heading to the Staten Island ferry, which originally left from what was called the Municipal Ferry Pier. Renamed the Battery Maritime Building, it now offers ferry service to Governors Island.
Click here for Part 3! And be sure to check out Part 1 here.
-SCOUT
In the third to last picture – Third Avenue El and Coenties Slip, there is a sandstone skyscraper on the far right of the picture. Is it still there and just obscured by the ugly apartment building? I love that building and have been trying to find out about it for years. Thanks!
70 Pine Street. Still there. Converting to condos like many of the classic buildings in the financial district.
Thank you Bill!! That really makes me happy condos or no condos, at least it’s still there!
Allegedly, that’s Weegee (Arthur Fellig) as the sanitation man pushing the broom down Broadway in the final shot of the film. Weegee sold the rights to his photo book Naked City to Hellinger. Hellinger and Dassin then used it as inspiration to create the style of the film. Stanley Kubrick was a staff photographer for Look magazine at the time and shot many on set photos during production. They’re on the internet.
https://www.google.com/search?q=stanley+kubrick+naked+city&espv=2&biw=1280&bih=937&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=N0b1VLSdIs7gsASiwIGwAg&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ&dpr=1
Actually, he’s pushing it up Broadway –
During production outside the 10th Precinct
https://fansinaflashbulb.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/weegee_7561_1993.jpg?w=900
kubrick hired weegee as set photographer on 2001 a space oddissy
Wow, I usually love all of your posts, but these two posts have been especially fantastic! I now want to watch this film!
I love this film. The locations. The faces! (the best “real people” faces in this film). One of those movies I just blindly started watching on TCM, and was so happy to have found it.
Great post! But the Staten Island Ferry has always left from its own building and was a somewhat smaller replica of the Battery Maritime. It was drastically remodeled in the early 1950s after the last El trains were demolished (every north/south elevated line terminated at South Ferry and ran directly into the upper level of the building for easy access onto the boats…)
I believe the Loew’s clerk was Millie Crosby, a neighbor in Brooklyn.
“A great shot of a Loew’s clerk looking a bit sheepish at appearing in a movie:”
https://www.flickr.com/photos/scoutingny/16696319745
Silhouette of the beautiful Singer Building on the left under the Manhattan Bridge from Dumbo shot. Another architectural gem tragically demolished.
This is totally amazing, thanks for the window to the past with a comparison to today. Really appreciate all your effort.
For anyone with Hulu Plus, this film is part of the Criterion Collection currently offered there.
Quoth Nick: “The Third Avenue El was phased out in the 1950s, and was the last elevated line to run in Manhattan.”
Not quite true, as the 1 train runs elevated from Dyckman Street to 225th Street in Inwood and Marble Hill.
These posts are fantastic, BTW. I love then-and-now comparisons like this……
To be fair, he didn’t say last elevated train in Manhattan, he said last elevated line, which generally refers to the Second, Third, Sixth and Ninth Avenue El lines.
I would love to see you do a post about all the now closed observatories. For instance 70 Pine St used to have an observatory on it’s 66th floor that is now closed to the public. It would be so awesome if you could gain access to some of these closed observatories.