For all you film-loving readers wallowing in that Oscars-induced Monday morning haze?and we feel ya?there is some recourse. Today, Scouting NY (aka Nick Carr) turns his attention to the seminal NYC-set 1960's rom-com, The Apartment. Starring Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine, the former plays an insurance salesman named C. C. Baxter who willingly sacrifices his pad in an Upper West Side townhouse so that his superiors at work can get some action on the side. After Baxter falls for Fran (MacLaine), an elevator operator, the already sticky situation becomes untenable. In a long entry with tons of great then-and-now pictures, Scouting NY outlines where various scenes from the movie take place, and compares them to the same locations today. For one, the row of benches just inside Central Park by the West Drive, to which Baxter retreats after being sexiled from his apartment for the second time in one night, are pictured above... and, comfortingly, the two shots look pretty much the same.
Though finding Baxter's Financial District office at 2 Broadway didn't take too much effort, it took Carr a bit of work to track down where his brownstone home was set. The address provided, 51 West 67th Street, turned out to be wrong, and the answer lay in a photo shot to provide a model for a replica of the block that was built on a sound stage. Baxter lived at 55 West 69th Street, which was at the time lined with grand staircases and curved bay windows. The block has been un-embellished a bit to make room for more apartments, but it too looks largely unchanged today (see above).
You could also revisit an Irish pub where Baxter drowns his sorrows: nearby Emerald Inn, at 205 Columbus Avenue. Not much has changed in this old-timey watering hole, according to Carr, except that the bar has shrunk in size?note the varied placement of the bar's door in the composite above. (UPDATE: You actually only have until April 30 to check out the institution that is the Emerald Inn. Our sister site Eater NY, citing City Room's disconsolate ode, reports that rent hikes are forcing it to close. Nostalgic pints all around.) To cheer up, click through to Scouting NY for more stills from the movie and their modern-day counterparts.
· Love & Sex on the Upper West Side [Scouting NY]
· The Apartment [IMDB]
· Lights! Camera! Action! coverage [Curbed NY]
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