I went back up to the Museum of the City of New York this morning to check out their Charles Addams retrospective (hilarious and hugely recommended) and their exhaustive exhibition on Mayor John Lindsay ("John V. Lindsay and the Reinvention of New York"). I was but a toddler during the time of Lindsay's tenure, but the show is truly a fascinating glimpse of NYC during a turning point. If you're even a passive New Yorkophile, you really owe it to yourself to go check out this show. It's up through October, so make some time for it.
In any case, one of the highlights of the exhibit for me was the space dedicated to Lindsay's establishment of the "Mayor's Office of Film, Theatre & Broadcasting." Here's a quick excerpt from the Museum's page on same.
As late as 1965, New York hardly ever appeared in films. That year, only two features were shot in the city: The Pawnbroker,directed by Sidney Lumet, and A Thousand Clowns, directed by Fred Coe, an adaptation of a Broadway play. But in 1966, the Lindsay administration established a dedicated agency, now called the Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting, the first of its kind anywhere in the world. The permitting process was simplified, the Police Department established a unit to assist filmmakers, and from then on, all city agencies and departments were instructed to cooperate with producers and directors. Today, over 200 films are made in New York City each year, generating over $5 billion a year in economic activity and creating more than 100,000 jobs.
Ironically, many of the films made during the Lindsay era portrayed the city's disarray and decline.
Alongside this part, they showed a telling montage of film snippets ranging from "The Producers" and "Barefoot in the Park" through "Serpico" and "The French Connection" (and about a hundred in between). I started going over all of my favorite NYC-centric films (notably "Wait Until Dark," "Bananas," "Rosemary's Baby," etc.) and realized how many of them were shot during Lindsay's era. And, certainly, other perennial favorites like the original "Taking of Pelham 1-2-3," "The Warriors" and "Death Wish" wouldn't have been able to happen without Mayor Lindsay's agency.
I kept ruminating on this point as I was walking back down Fifth Avenue and was suddenly stopped in my tracks by an appropriate signifier. For the past several weeks, my estimable bloggin' comrade EV Grieve has been regularly posting about the annoyance of the seemingly endless production of the -- god help us -- "The Smurfs Movie," and how it's basically taken over the East Village. Well, get ready, Upper East Side, `cos according to a flyer I spotted taped to a light pole on 101st & Fifth Avenue, them Smurfs are moving uptown as well! I guess you can thank Mayor Lindsay for that too.
Anyway, as an very tenuously-related post-ender, I exhumed the below clips from the 1973 film adaptation of the musical, "Godspell." I'm not going to front -- when I a kid, this record was in fairly regular rotation in our household. In time, I grew wary of its overt Jeezy-creeziness, but its depictions of New York City in the early 70's (much like it's cinematic sibling, "Hair") make it truly worthy of a time capsule. Watching them today, it's amazing how so much has changed .... and how so much hasn't. I don't know how happy you'll be about enduring the groovy (read: slightly cloying) 70's show tunes, but perhaps you'll enjoy the sights of Central Park, Lincoln Center and (very fleetingly) the now-closed Empire Diner. Pay special attention to the footage of the final location of the second clip, "All for the Best." They're surreal to say the least, considering events that would unfold on the same real estate almost three decades later.
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