My best guess would be the east 40's or 50's between third and second av, based on the final shot where the camera a rising up over the neighborhood and you can see the Chrysler building on the left and the Empire State on the right. My mother lived in a neighborhood like that at the time that movie was made, the west thirties west of ninth av.
I'm not sure where you're talking about...."east 40's or 50's between third and second ave" would be way over on the
east side of Manhattan....but the story is supposed to take place in Hell's Kitchen, which is over on the
west side of the island.
Also, even going by your own observations of that ending shot of the Chrysler building on the left, and Empire State Building on the right, that would have to mean that the neighborhood itself——from which the camera shot rises——would
have to be
west of those two buildings, because the Empire State Building, at 350 Fifth Avenue between 33rd/34th Streets, is essentially below the Chrysler Building at 405 Lexington between 42nd/43rd Streets. This, again, perfectly places the action in Hell's Kitchen....which is where it sounds like your mother lived, if she lived west of ninth ave in the 30's....
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phelpsg1
12 years ago
One of the characters says "There's hardly any shade this side of Columbus" (i.e. Columbus Avenue). Which suggests that it's on the West Side, and the elevated is the 9th Avenue El.
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ginbelt
12 years ago
Correct - it was absolutely meant to take place on the West side of Manhattan. It's simple: if the Chrysler building appears on the left and the Empire State building appears to the right of the Chrysler (as they do), it MUST be filmed to the ~west~ of those buildings, given the fact that the Chrysler building is above (ie, just north of) the Empire State bldg. That's all I was trying to say...
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lacieca
11 years ago
Author Elmer Rice said he based the setting on a tenement block on West 65th Street. The location of the elevated train (the Ninth Avenue Line) on the corner indicates the brownstone is between between Columbus Avenue and Amsterdam Avenue.
The Ninth Avenue Line was shut down in 1940, replaced by the West Side IRT subway (the 1,2,3 line) but there is still a subway stop on that corner. The brownstones in that area were demolished in the early 1960s to create Lincoln Center and new public housing high rise buildings. (It's the same general area where "West Side Story" was filmed, just before the demolition.)
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