On March 29, 1971, The Godfather, considered by many to be one of the greatest films ever made, began principal photography in New York City.
Because the film is a period piece, The Godfather actually presents a fascinating record of what 1940s-era New York City locations still existed in the early-1970s. Sadly, many of them are now gone. What still remains? Let’s take a closer look.
The Godfather opens at the wedding of Don Corleone’s only daughter Connie.
This is the Corleone residence today, located at 110 Longfellow Avenue in Staten Island.
The house today is pretty much the same as it appears in the film, except for one detail…
What happened to all the stone walls and the entrance gate?
These were all fake, set up at the end of Longfellow Avenue to give the Corleone residence the feeling of a walled compound. This is what the same angle looks like today:
Another shot from later in the film offers a better look at the layout:
Still later, when Kay arrives at the house, we see a different angle including the guard booth.
In reality, there are actually several houses at the end of the block that were cut off by the fake wall:
As the wedding progresses, detectives show up to take license plate numbers. Our point of view here is toward toward the house…
The wedding sequence was staged on the house’s palatial lawn, which I imagine was a major factor for why it was chosen:
After a quick jaunt to California involving a movie producer and a horse (to be covered someday by sister site Scouting LA), we return to New York and get our first look at Corleone’s business front, Genco Olive Oil, just as Sollozzo arrives for a sit-down.
This was filmed in what was once the heart of Little Italy at 128 Mott Street, known as The Mietz Building.
Built in 1892, the sprawling Mietz & Weiss Oil Engine Building has a wonderful ever-so-slight curve that follows the path of Mott Street:
While the Renaissance Revival building is overall in good shape, some changes have been made over the years, including the removal of fire escapes…
…and most egregiously, the complete gutting of the ground floor facade. I have no idea how this was allowed to happen, but it’s pretty awful.
The interior of Genco Oil was reportedly built on the fourth floor of a warehouse nearby to 128 Mott Street (but not actually in the Mietz building).
We then join Michael Corleone and his girlfriend Kay Adams as they Christmas shop at the Best & Co. Department Store on Fifth Avenue at 51st Street.
After the Best & Co. chain went out of business in the mid-1970s, the building was torn down to make way for the 51-story Olympic Tower currently at the site. Note St. Patrick’s and Saks a block further in both pictures.
Uneasy with the possible introduction of drugs into his business world, Don Corleone sends Luca Brasi to meet with Sollozzo and pledge his loyalty in order to spy on him. Brasi heads down a hotel hallway…
…shot in the rear entrance to the Hotel Edison on West 46th Street btw. 7th & 8th.
Brasi is then murdered by Sollozzo in an upscale restaurant…but where was this shot? There has been a lot of debate over this. Many argue that it was simply done in the Edison’s bar, and logistically it would make sense – except that nothing at the Edison ever looked like this.
In fact, this pivotal scene was actually filmed in the Hotel St. George in Brooklyn.
The tip comes from a 72-year-old Brooklyn Heights barber named Rocco Scali, who recalls cutting actor Lenny Montana’s hair just before the scene was filmed in the hotel’s lobby bar, according to this NY Times article.
What is unbelievable is that I cannot find a single damn picture of the establishment. In fact, about the only pictures you can find of the Hotel St. George, once the largest hotel in New York City, are postcard images taken in the 1930s and 40s. The St. George used to be teeming with theme venues (The Stardust Room, The Bermuda Terrace), but who knows what was still around in 1971 when The Godfather was shot? If anyone has any leads, or has any memories of the space, please let me know!
Carrying on, Tom Hagen is then abducted by Sollozzo as he exits Polk’s Hobby Shop at 314 Fifth Avenue.
Fondly remembered as one of New York’s best hobby shops, Polk’s went out of business over 20 years ago, and is today Empire Pizza.
Back in Little Italy, Don Corleone steps out of the Genco offices and crosses the street toward 135-137 Mott Street.
He stops to buy fruit from the vendor at 137 Mott Street (note the Jake “Raging Bull” La Motta poster in the window):
Today, a Chinese pharmacy:
Just then, two assassins spring out and begin shooting, gunning down Corleone in front of the entrance to Genco at 128 Mott:
Later that night, we find Michael and Kay coming out of a show at Radio City Music Hall:
They exit the side entrance on West 50th Street…
Then, Kay notices a headline on the newsstand announcing the Corleone shooting:
The two run across the street…
…to a telephone booth, where Michael calls home.
Meanwhile, Tom has been taken to an abandoned diner.
I really wish I knew where this was, but it seems that any record of it is long gone. Anyone have any ideas? Not sure if the interior was actually abandoned, or if this was built on a stage:
In retaliation, Sonny orders Clemenza to kill Paulie Gatto, who helped set up the attempt on his father’s life. We see Clemenza leaving his house…
…and here it is today, located at 1999 East 5th Street on the edge of the Gravesend section in Brooklyn.
Other than a few hints about the neighborhood, I couldn’t find any information anywhere on the address, and I almost gave up looking. Finally, I just knocked on a neighbor’s door – and she pointed me right up the block!
We later get another shot of the house as Clemenza leaves to assist in the round of assassinations at the end of the film.
With Gatto in tow, they take off driving down 5th Avenue at 45th Street, passing the Samuel French building on the right…
The killing takes place behind the Statue of Liberty’s watchful gaze in New Jersey…
…today known as Freedom Way, which cuts through Liberty State Park:
Michael goes to his father’s hospital and stays guard out front, helping to stave off a second assassination attempt.
This was shot at Lincoln Hospital in the Bronx – not the current Lincoln Hospital on 149th Street, but its previous location at 140th Street & Southern Boulevard, since demolished.
Finding information and pictures of Old Lincoln Hospital is surprisingly hard – I’m not even quite sure when they tore it down. Here’s a picture of the hospital from its early days (it opened in 1899):
Today, it’s an enormous lot used by the NYPD.
Following his recovery, Corleone heads home via the hospital’s side ramp.
At the Corleone compound, security is tight. Very curious if they added the balcony for filming:
Michael decides to avenge his father by killing Sollozzo and the corrupt police captain McCluskey. A meeting is arranged, and he’s picked up in front of Jack Dempsey’s, a famous restaurant owned by the boxer at 1619 Broadway.
Up until recently, it was a computer store. Today, it’s empty.
They head over the GW Bridge, spooking Michael who wasn’t expecting a trip to New Jersey. Then, the car pulls a u-turn and heads back the other way.
This was actually shot on the 59th Street Bridge, back in a time when you could make a u-turn.
As expected, Sollozzo takes them to Louis Restaurant in the Bronx, located at 3531 White Plains Road.
Today, it’s a fabric store.
For some reason, a rumor has persisted that the scene was filmed in a place called Luna’s, which may or may not have been on Arthur Avenue. This is 100% not true. Louis was very much a real restaurant…
…and today it looks like this.
While most of it has changed, there are some remnants. The tin ceilings are in place…
Also, the owner was willing to pull up some of the carpet when Fox News took a trip up there, revealing that the distinctive tilework still exists:
As for the bathroom, where Michael finds the gun hidden behind the water box?
It’s been completely changed…
…but you can still see marks from where the water box was once mounted.
Michael takes off for Sicily (locations soon to be covered by sister site Scouting Italy) as a gang war breaks out in New York. Back in America, while leaving from a tryst with his goomah, Sonny is given the news that his brother-in-law Carlo is still beating his sister Connie. No clue where this building is – anyone recognize it? Note the distinctive pattern on the green brick. The storefront is for Lenny’s (can’t make out the surname), offering Printers Motor Repair & Maintenance.
Carlo is hanging out on a stoop wearing a killer orange outfit…
…which still exists today at 118th Street east of Mt. Pleasant Ave. You can even see the original width of the steps stretching beyond the new brick railings.
Here’s a full shot of the cobble-stoned street today:
As Carlo spots Sonny, we get a shot of kids playing in front of an open fire-hydrant.
That fire hydrant is still here, though has thankfully been repaired.
Sonny takes Carlo and beats him against a brick wall across the street from his stoop.
According to legend, the fight left actor Gianni Russo with broken ribs and a cracked elbow.
One last shot of Carlo down for the count.
Some time later, Sonny learns that despite his recent punishment, Carlo has again beaten up Connie. Sonny rushes out of the house for vengeance. Tom follows after…
As Sonny speeds toward the tollbooths and the site of his gruesome demise, we encounter one of the most misidentified locations in the film. The tollbooths were fake, but where exactly were they built?
While many will tell you Floyd Bennett Field (which may have been in contention as a shooting location early on), the scene was actually staged at the old Mitchel Air Force Base in Garden City, Long Island on Runway 5/23. Sadly, nearly all of Mitchel Field has disappeared beneath a college, an arena, a park, a museum, etc., etc., and it seem unlikely that the toll booth runway might still remain.
Except – see that strange yellowish u-shaped road in the top right corner? That’s the last bit of abandoned runway left over from Mitchel AFB, along with the small access road curving off of it. It’s on that access road where they shot The Godfather’s tollbooth scene.
Following the Google satellite image, I got as close to the runway as possible, parking in a Nassau County Community College parking lot. But where was it?
I headed toward the embankment…
…fought my way through a bunch of weeds…
…and there it was – Mitchel AFB’s abandoned runway.
Starting from the left, Sonny would have driven toward us, then turned onto that service road and curved around to the toll booths.
Here’s Sonny approaching on the main runway (the embankment has built up somewhat over the years):
Sonny pulls up to the tolls…
Thugs in front get out to shoot him…
…leaving Sonny a bloodied mess. I’d love to know if those white lines are left over from filming.
Don Corleone decides that enough is enough, and calls a meeting of the five families to put an end to the war. The exterior of the meeting was shot at the Federal Reserve building…
…which is looking a hell of a lot cleaner today.
The interior, filmed in the board room for the Penn Central Railroad (hence the painting), has since been gutted.
Michael goes to ask Kay to marry him at her school, a scene filmed in California. Later, he has a heart-to-heart with his father…
…who then dies in his garden while playing with his grandson.
Today, there’s a pool where the garden would have been:
We cut to Corleone’s funeral, which was shot in Queens’ Calvary Cemetery:
They drive along the main road…
…then hang a left and park in front of several vaults.
The mourners then gather in front of the towering Corleone monument, pictured left with the angel.
The key to finding the Corleone monument’s location is the large “Daly” grave seen on the left, topped with a cross.
Unfortunately, while the Daly monument is still there, someone has since rotated it so the name is no longer pointing the right way, and I nearly lost my mind one frigid Sunday morning trying to figure out where the hell it was. VERY HUGE THANKS to writer Mark Thomas, who ran into the same problem and solved it, saving me from a frosty death. Check out his great post on the Calvary Cemetery scene (including a map) here.
Here’s the Daly grave today…
…which means this large empty patch of grass is where the Corleone monument was set up.
At the funeral, Michael notices several of his rivals getting chummy…and realizes what he has to do.
Finally, we reach the movie’s climax as Michael decides to settle all family business prior to the move to Las Vegas. He agrees to be godfather to Connie’s baby, and the baptism ensues…
…filmed in the side chapel of Old Saint Patrick’s on Mott Street (front entrance on Mulberry), just a few blocks down the road from the Genco Olive Oil building.
It appears that they’ve redone the backdrop to the altar at some point:
As the baptism continues, the killings begin. First, Barzini is whacked by a disguised police officer on the steps to the New York Supreme Court building in Foley Square.
Definitely not the type of stairs you want to fall down.
The barber shop was at the St. Regis:
The baptism ends, and people begin exiting the church.
This was shot on the southern end of Staten Island at the Church of St. Joachim and St. Anne.
A close-up of the front doors:
As I mentioned in this recent post, the church suffered a tragic fire just a couple years after filming in 1973, destroying everything but the main facade.
A smaller church was built behind it, creating an unusual match-up:
In the final scene, Michael assures Kay he had nothing to do with Carlo’s disappearance, then closes the door as he assumes his new role as Don Corleone.
Hope you enjoyed this one! It was a thrill to track down some of the most iconic filming locations of all time, and if you can shed some light on the few outstanding ones, I’ll add them to the post.
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