A few years ago, I was driving an art director around on a scout when he asked me to take him to a gritty section of New York. Not exactly sure what to do, I drove him to a neighborhood with one of the highest crime rates in the city. He stepped out of the car, looked around, and said, “This isn’t right – this is beautiful! Where are the flaming barrels? The abandoned buildings? The gritty New York City?”
The only place you’ll find gritty New York City these days is in the movies.
William Friedkin’s The French Connection depicts just the kind of New York he was looking for. Made in 1971, the city’s decay is front and center in nearly every frame, from abandoned, grime-covered buildings and derelict cars to crumbling warehouses and trash-strewn lots, and at times, the neglect is nothing short of tragic. Yet New York’s beautification over the past 25 years has come at a price. Gone are many of the classic New York establishments and mom-and-pop stores of the past, replaced by a blandness typically reserved for suburban malls.
Let’s take a look at what has changed over the past 43 years.
After a brief opening scene in Marseille (soon to be covered by sister site Scouting France), the action moves to Brooklyn, where we meet our hero, Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle, in front of the Oasis Bar & Grill. Shot at 914 Broadway on the Bushwick/Bed-Stuy border, the bar today is a Chinese Restaurant called China City:
Popeye and his partner Buddy “Cloudy” Russo are engaged in a drug stakeout at the Oasis…
As Popeye, dressed in a Santa suit, entertains the local kids outside, Cloudy chases a suspect out of the bar. Note the theater in the background, known in 1971 as the Rio Piedras, and the pool hall beside it.
All gone:
This was originally the Loew’s Broadway, built in 1904 with seating for 2,000. Here’s a picture taken in its heyday, courtesy of CinemaTreasures.org.
The theater was torn down in 1988, and the site has been a vacant lot ever since.
Popeye and Cloudy chase the perp into an unusual entranceway two buildings down:
Today, that facade is looking quite different as Senior Loco’s Bargain Bazaar:
The chase jumps to nearby Bushwick Avenue and Arion Place as the dealer flees:
Then, going a bit wonky with the geography, the chase continues on Marcus Garvey Boulevard at Ellery Street:
Popeye and Cloudy finally apprehend the suspect in an enormous vacant lot…
…which today, is occupied by Woodhall Hospital, built about 10 years later in 1982.
Popeye and Cloudy drag the suspect to a vacant lot, and through movie magic, suddenly wind up in in East Harlem. Does anyone recognize this street? Those three buildings are surprisingly distinct – 4-stories, 3-windows wide, an arched entrance on one of them. Then again, they might’ve all been torn down decades ago. I did a lot of searching, but came up empty.
Later while getting drinks at the Copacabana, Popeye and Cloudy notice something unusual: a young couple, the Bocas, dining with noted mob figures. This was not actually shot at the Copa, and I wasn’t able to identify the stand-in location.
On a hunch, Popeye and Cloudy decide to tail the couple, driving through Times Square on Broadway. Note the Circus Cinema on the left, the Trans-Lux theater on the right (playing the 1970 Italian film The Priest’s Wife), and a restaurant offering a flame steak for $1.59.
Today, we’ve got a Sbarro’s, the Hersheys Store, and a souvenir shop:
They continue south into Times Square. Note the famous Times Square Automat on the right, which opened in 1912 and offered pre-cooked food from coin-operated windows:
Today, it’s a Radioshack (although not for much longer?):
The detectives wait outside as the couple dines at Ratner’s, a famous Kosher dairy restaurant on Delancey Street on the Lower East Side.
Today, it’s a Sleepy’s.
Originally opened in 1918, Ratner’s was known for its non-meat menu choices like gefilte fish, latkes, and blintzes. It closed in 2004.
As the detectives wait for the Bocas to leave, we get a nice shot of the Williamsburg Bridge further down – note the changes made in its late 1990s redesign:
Finishing their breakfast, the Bocas take off, with Popeye and Cloudy in tow. Curious what that building was on the far right, now gone. Also, you can see a small sliver of the awning to the Loew’s Delancey Theater on the left, now sadly gutted (but we’ve got a 7-11, an AT&T store, and a Burger King!).
As the detectives drive through Little Italy, we get some street shots that, incredibly, are more or less unchanged over 40 years later. First, we cruise down Grand Street, passing the Alleva dairy, founded in 1892, and the Piemonte Ravioli Co., founded in 1920. Still there!
Further west on Grand Street, we see the Italian Food Center. The grocery store is now gone, replaced by an Italian restaurant going by that name. Note the refurbishment of the adjacent buildings:
We get one final passing shot of Cafe Roma on Broome Street, founded in 1891 and still in business, complete with neon sign and painted wall ad:
The Bocas finally pull over on Mulberry Street south of Broome.
Popeye watches as Boca takes a mysterious briefcase to 177 Broome Street.
Today, the entire facade has been completely redone, and is now home to the Grotta Azzurra restaurant:
Popeye observes the drop from a phone booth at the corner of Mulberry and Broome. All of the businesses across the street are long gone:
Boca gets back in his car, and the pursuit continues over the Brooklyn Bridge…
…and into Brooklyn Heights. This was shot at Columbia Heights and Vine facing the Watchtower building…
…and today, that the trash-strewn field is a dog run:
The car takes a turn onto a street with a view of Manhattan. It took forever before I finally realized why I didn’t recognize this location…
…it doesn’t exist anymore!
This is Middagh Street, and at some point, it was cut off to form this garden. Anyone know why? I know Robert Moses bulldozed through part of the street for the BQE, but that was in the 1950s.
The tail continues down Middagh onto Willow Street, and we get a great shot of the gorgeous home at #24…
Here’s a full look at the Federal-style house, built in 1824 and still looking beautiful nearly 200 years later:
The Bocas, clearly up to no good, switch cars on Columbia Heights in front of an abandoned building. Today, the building is looking refurbished:
The chase finally winds down as the officers turn onto Wyckoff Avenue in Bushwick.
Here’s the reverse shot:
The detectives turn onto Suydam Street, passing a corner deli. There’s still a deli, though that great sign is gone:
Popeye and Cloudy learn that the Bocas are operating a small restaurant called Sal & Angies at #91 Wyckoff. Today, it’s Mesa Azteca, a Mexican restaurant:
Inside Sal & Angie’s restaurant then…
…and now:
Popeye and Cloudy keep watch on the Bocas from the gritty warehouse across the street.
It’s since been fixed up, and is today the Wyckoff Terrace lofts.
The two detectives manage to connect the mysterious couple to Joel Weinstock, a seedy lawyer with a drug rap. Weinstock is shown living at 1009 Fifth Avenue at 82nd Street. We tilt down from the upper floors…
…to the entrance.
We then see Weinstock meet up with Alain Charnier, a notorious drug kingpin, with the MET in the background.
This Beaux-Arts townhouse, built in 1901, was built for industrialist Benjamin N. Duke in 1901. With 8 stories and 20,000 square feet of space, the family finally sold the property in 2006 for $40,000,000.
I love the many decorative flushes, especially around the windows…
…though the statues out front are among the goofiest I’ve ever seen in New York.
From Manhattan, Charnier and Weinstock drive through the Triboro Bridge tolls…
…today, looking more orange:
They then take the ramp for Randalls/Wards Islands, where the detectives lose them:
Popeye and Cloudy then go to meet an informant at a bar, where they learn that a large shipment of heroin is coming into New York (courtesy, of course, of Charnier).
I’d love to know where this was filmed. The subway entrance is part of the BMT, and its strange placement – not on a street corner, which is actually somewhat rare – seems like a giveaway. Couldn’t find anything.
Meanwhile, the heroin shipment arrives hidden in a car at Pier 5 in Brooklyn…
…which has been COMPLETELY transformed as part of the Brooklyn Bridge Park development.
Here’s the reverse shot of the pier. There’s at least one element still in place…
The original mooring!
Meanwhile, the warehouse site has been converted into an enormous playing field, though note that the original girders still stand:
Charnier watches the car unloading from the Brooklyn Heights Promenade at Remsen Street:
Early the next morning, we find Popeye leaving a bar.
Coincidentally, this has also become a playing field.
The bar, the “Ye Olde Market Restaurant” according to the sign, was located at the corner of South Street and Market Slip:
Having obtained a wiretap to bug the Bocas, Popeye and Cloudy soon learn of a meeting to be held at the Westbury Hotel. They follow Boca over the Brooklyn Bridge…
…then catch up with him on 44th and Madison:
As he turns onto Madison heading north, you can just make out the “Pan American” lettering in the background (today, the MetLife building):
Popeye turns the corner of the Roosevelt Hotel at East 46th Street…
…then continues to the entrance (looks like they’ve upgraded the awning):
Cloudy enters the hotel, bumping into Boca, now with Charnier:
The chase continues as Popeye follows Charnier, beginning at the corner deli at 2nd Avenue and 50th Street:
Charnier then walks up First Avenue to the Copain restaurant at 891 First Avenue. Today, it’s vacant:
Here’s a wider shot of Copain, a well-known French Bistro which opened in 1945 (it shuttered sometime in the 1970s).
The interior then…
…and today:
As Charnier dines lavishly, Popey stands in the cold across the street. Note the corner deli, shoe repair, and electronics repair shops:
All gone!
Also gone is the drug store just visible down the block:
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