41ST ANNIVERSARY EDITION • 2019
QUEENS CHRONICLE, Thursday, November 14, 2019 Page 4
C M ANN page 4 Y K
The borough’s memorable movie moments by David Russell Long before sequels, spinoffs and CGI dominated the movie landscape, Astoria was at the center of the Silent Era of film. Adolph Zuckor opened Astoria Studios in 1920 for the Famous Players Film Co., which would eventually become Paramount Pictures. More than 120 films were produced at the studios between its opening and 1932, when it moved operations to the West Coast. The legendary Rudolph Valentino filmed “Monsieur Beaucaire” and “A Sainted Devil” entirely at the studios. As the industry shifted to “talkies,” the first all-talking feature film was shot at the studio and released in 1929. “The Letter” was the story of the wife of a plantation owner shooting a man i n what she said was selfdefense but a love letter to the victim discovered during the trial changes things. Jeanne Eagels starred and received a posthumous nomination for best actress for the second annual Academy Award. The talking film debuts of Claudette Colbert, Edward G. Robinson and Tallulah Bankhead — three stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood — were filmed at the studios. The Marx Brothers went from Broadway to Astoria to produce their first two films, “The Cocoanuts” and “Animal Crackers.” It wasn’t only feature films that were recorded. The studio was home to the Paramount Newsreels as well as the company’s short film divisions.
A plaque at Forest Hills Stadium commemorating an infamous tennis match from “The PHOTO BY DAVID RUSSELL Royal Tenenbaums.”
After the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S. Army began production at Astoria Studio, renaming it the Signal Corps Photographic Center. Basement recording stages were used during wartime blood drives and medical films became their specialty. The Signal Corps continued to make films, training films and TV series throughout the years. Paul Newman and Jack Lemmon both had their first roles in the Army Pictorial Center. In 1970, the studio was declared “surplus property” by the Army and turned over to the federal government. Several years later — after the city budget crisis stopped CUNY from using the location as a campus for LaGuardia Community College — the Astoria Motion Picture and Television Center Foundation, a nonprofit, was created to take over the studio and acquired a lease for the property from the government. The 1977 comedy “Thieves,” star r ing Marlo Thomas and Charles Grodin, was maligned by critics, but it was the first commercial movie made at the location in more than three decades. In 1982, the title to the studio was transferred to the city. Real estate developer George Kaufman, along with partners, obtained the lease. Today, the studio has nine stages, a lighting and grip company, a music recording and an Automated Dialog Replacement studio. Earlier this year, a development group that includes Robert De Niro selected archit e c t Bj a r k e I n g el s t o c o n s t r u c t a 650,000-square-foot facility, Wildf lower Studios, that will rise along Steinway Creek and will feature films and television studios. The site at 87 19 Ave., was previously used for piano storage by Steinway & Sons. De Niro helped make Neir’s Tavern in Woodhaven a tourist attraction because it was a filming site for the 1990 gangster film “GoodFellas.” The Martin Scorsese-directed drama was not his only one in the area. Recently released “The Irishman,” starring De Niro and Al Pacino, filmed scenes in Ridgewood. The 1978 musical “The Wiz,” starring Diana Ross as Dorothy in a retelling of “The Wizard of Oz,” used more than two dozen sets at Astoria Studios but also took it outside and used the New York State Pavilion as Munchkinland. Large, graffiti-covered f lats were made for the perimeter of the pavilion. The munchkins surround a playground made of slides and jungle gyms in the shapes of numbers — the munchkins are numbers runners. Hundreds of lights were added and because the pavilion’s towers were too tall to light properly, they were painted on glass and superimposed on the film. Nearly 20 years later, Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith fought space aliens as a flying saucer destroyed the Unisphere. At nearby Shea Stadium, Mets outfielder Bernard Gilkey was hit in the head by a fly ball as he was distracted by the spaceships flying overhead.
Oscar Madison, played by Walter Matthau, yells at roommate Felix Unger for making him miss PARAMOUNT PICTURES the Mets turn a triple play in a scene from “The Odd Couple.” That wasn’t the first time Shea was on the Silver Screen. In the 1968 comedy classic “The Odd Couple,” Oscar Madison, played by Walter Matthau, misses the Mets turn a game-ending triple play when he’s interrupted by a phone call from roommate Felix Unger, played by Lemmon, who tells him not to eat a hot dog at the game because he’s making franks and beans for dinner. The scene was filmed before the Mets’ game against the Pittsburgh Pirates on June 27, 1967 with future Hall of Famer Bill Mazeroski grounding into the triple play. The Mets new ballpark, Citi Field, was featured in “Sharknado 2: The Second One.” The scenes for the TV movie were filmed in February 2014. A Mets game is postponed because of a storm and then sharks start falling from the sky and killing people. Richard Kind plays Harland “The Blaster” McGuinness, a former seven-time All-Star second baseman and Mets manager for 15 seasons, who takes a bat and hits one of the flying sharks into the scoreboard. Forest Hills Stadium made it into a pair of notable movies. Alfred Hitchcock’s 1951 thriller “Strangers on a Train” was filmed there, as Farley Granger plays Guy Haines, a tennis star who is being framed for a murder by Bruno Antony, played by Robert Walker. In one shot, the heads in the crowd are looking back and forth at the action on the court, except for Antony, who is looking straight ahead at Haines. Fifty years later, “The Royal Tenenbaums,” was filmed at the stadium. Luke Wilson played Richie “The Baumer” Tenenbaum, a tennis star who plays the worst match of his life a day after the marriage of his adopted sister, whom he secretly loves. He fails to win a single game and makes more than 70 unforced errors in the match and even takes off his shoes and one of his socks. A plaque at the stadium commemorates the moment, reading “On these hal-
lowed grounds Richie Tenenbaum played the worst tennis of his life.” “The Basketball Diaries,” starring Leonardo DiCaprio, used Forest Hills High School as a stand-in for Long Island High School in the story of Jim Carroll mixing sports and drugs. The director of the 1995 movie, Scott Kalvert, was an alum of Forest Hills High School. Rego Park saw Scorsese’s 2013 movie “The Wolf of Wall Street” film at the old Shalimar Diner, which was called Kacandes Diner in the f ilm. The f ilm brought DiCaprio back to the borough. In one key scene, Donnie Azoff, played by Jonah Hill, con f ronts Jord a n Belfor t, played by DiCaprio, on how much he makes — and then quits his job to work for him upon finding out Belfort made $72,000 the month before as a stockbroker. “The Comedian,” which was released in 2016, filmed at nearby at what was then Ben’s Best deli. De Niro played stand-up comedian Jackie Burke. Deli owner Jay Parker played the deli owner, who co-owned the business with Burke’s brother, Jimmy Berkowitz, played by Danny DeVito. A portrait of Parker’s father and deli founder, Benjamin, that decorated the wall made it into the movie and depicted the father of Berkowitz and Burke. Staying on Queens Boulevard, Elmhurst’s major movie moment came in the 1988 comedy “Coming to America,” starring Eddie Murphy. Wendy’s, located at 85-07 Queens Blvd., was transformed into McDowell’s, a fast-food chain at which Akeem Joffer, the crown prince of Zamunda, works. In one memorable scene, he disarmed a robber, played by Samuel L. Jackson. Arsenio Hall played Joffer’s best friend, and Louie Anderson was a co-worker who brags about how he started mopping floors but is currently washing lettuce, with his sights on moving up to fries, then the grill and, eventually, assistant manager. Q