I just watched "A Thousand Clowns" for what must be the 50th time. I was just wondering if anyone who knows New York knows where Murray and Nick live. It looks like the Upper West Side, maybe in the 70s or the 90s, but I can't really tell.
shareI am watching "A Thousand Clowns" now on PBS. There are a few references to going downtown while at home ... one is going to see Arnold who appears to work in the entertainment area which was concentrated in the 50's - 60's along 6th Av.
Murry and Sandy also are seen on the bicycle-built-for-two near Grant's tomb. The apartment is also above the abandoned Chinese restaurant.
I am guessing that the apartment IS in the 70's to 90's on the West Side probably on an avenue rather than on a street. Unless it was on one of the major cross streets like 72nd, businesses would be on an avenue.
I'm going to have to say the street that is pictured in the final scene is somewhere in the 90's between Columbus and Amsterdam or Columbus and CPW. Its definitely a cross street because rowhouses and brownstones are not common on avenues.
The final scene shows empty lots and a distinct lack of trees. The upper 90's were the site of widespread urban renewal in the late sixties which would explain the empty lots where rowhouses have been razed for housing blocks.
Today this area is filled with modern high rises with young(ish) trees if any.
I have no idea where the filming is. Leave me alone.
shareYes, I know the area well. I have family members who live in the 90s between Columbus and Amsterdam. I hadn't thought about the empty lots. I'll bet you're exactly right. Looks like one day I'm going to have to take couple of photos and walk around to see if I can figure it out. There is one pretty identifiable old building you can see when Nick is flying the kite on the roof. Boy, I sound like a crazy obsessive, but I really do enjoy visiting locations of favorite films!
Parler du soleil et l'on en voit les rayons.
You have to extrapolate -looking at where old buildings were demolished in the mid-60s and what was built in their place- to figure where most of the film was filmed, since there're so many scenes played in fields of rubble.
Which makes me think that, rather than the 80s or 90s, a lot of the scenes were filmed in the neighbourhood then called San Juan Hill: along B'way and east of it from 60th to 72nd. The actual block they lived in could of course be anywhere from Columbus Circle to 110th, but I do sense it's further south than the posters above have supposed.
[It's tempting to think this field of dreams happened on the demolished grounds that led to Lincoln Center, but the dates are off by at least five years.]
And as long as I'm here, I have to say how much I relish these old NYC films: where the backdrops are as interesting as the foregrounds. "Love with a Proper Stranger" is another good example of that, here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057263/
EDIT: Kathryn, you said, "There is one pretty identifiable old building you can see when Nick is flying the kite on the roof." And that's the San Remo at CPW b/ 74 & 75 [where my grandparents lived at the time], so looking down on it would put that kite-flying roof in the mid- to upper-80s.