NEIGHBORHOOD TIME TRAVELING, PT. 5: "NAKED CITY" (SEASON 3, EPISODE 18)

Paul Burke of Naked City ponders the
rules of Password.

The likelihood of spotting my Yorkville neighborhood on Naked City shrinks with each passing episode. But my eyes continue to be open for the Upper East Side in general. 

It isn't always easy to make out the exact street, thanks to newer buildings replacing the old.  So it was nice to see a recent episode with street signs marking the location: 68th Street and 3rd Avenue, a 20 minute walk from my place.

You know by the episode's title, "A Case Study of Two Savages", that this won't be a lighthearted romp, especially when the titular savages are played by "Guest Star" Tuesday Weld and "Special Guest Star" Rip Torn. By the way, "Special" likely meant the producers couldn't pay Torn his normal fee, but promised him that billing in return. It was easier to please actors back then.

 

Detectives Adam Flint and Frank Acaro pull up to a drugstore on 3rd Avenue
on the east corner of 68th Street. While new high-rises are going up, you can still see a little of old New York across the street: a brownstone and the sign reading HAM & EGGS HOT MEALS. I would absolutely have breakfast at any diner today with that sign. The greasier, the better. That elongated streetlamp must have looked pretty futuristic in 1962.

Today, the brownstone is replaced by the white brick high-rise named Frost House, which is a perfect name for its cold, soulless style. The high-rise on the corner of 67th is still there, however. We could use a few ham & egg joints instead. You can't see it in this angle, but the streetlamp is still there, only with LED.

As Flint enters the drugstore, Arcaro exits the car, having no idea that, in one minute, psychopath Rip Torn will plug him with a revolver. More elongated street lamps are on the left side of the shot. See the thin office tower way in the rear center? Upon first viewing, I thought it was the Chrysler Building. Was I right?

I have no idea, since it whatever it was is either obscured by the newer high-rises or was torn down. The streetlamps on the left are gone. The apartment building with the curved corners on 67th are still there, although the windows look different.

A crowd gathers on 3rd Avenue following the shooting of Acaro. So-called "luxury" buildings (meaning elevators and high rents) go north as far as you can see. Did anybody miss the five-story brownstones that used to populate the city?

Few, if any, of these people here are professional background actors. Why pay for a few dozen extras when real people will show up for nothing? Note the guy to the right of the parked car looking straight at the camera. Tacky.

Well, I couldn't rent a crane for this shot, but you still get the idea. It looks like the building on the left was either torn down and rebuilt or underwent a serious facelift; there's a CVS (of course!) on the first floor. The building further north, however, appears to be the same, albeit with different windows. Trees still dot 3rd Avenue now, a sop for nature-lovers. Note how the young woman on the right is looking away from my camera. That's how you do it!

Lt. Mike Parker arrives on the scene. Across the way is the 68th Street Playhouse, a 400-seat indie theater, running the UK import Loss of Innocence. It was my favorite Upper East Side theater in the '80s, where, among other movies, I saw Robert De Niro in Jacknife and Clint Eastwood in White Hunter Black Heart, neither of which anybody else remembers. As with HAM AND EGGS HOT MEALS, you no longer see movie marquees reading CHEERED BY ALL THE CRITICS. Because nobody cares what they have to say.

To the left of the Playhouse is Shannon's, which I couldn't find any information on. It looks like a tavern, but it's difficult to tell from a 60 year-old TV show. 

The 68th Street Playhouse, closed since 1997, is currently bluemercury, a semi-upscale cosmetics/ skincare store which has locations throughout the area. My wife shops at the Yorkville location on Madison Avenue and 88th. Be sure to say hi if you see her.

Shannon's is long gone, as is the rest of the brownstone building it was part of. Today it's one of New York's 140 hideous white-brick apartment buildings that all look like they should be the Russian embassy.

Det. Adam Flint brings a shooting witness into the drugstore on the east side of 3rd and 68th for an interrogation. I couldn't make out the name of the place. Note the ornate carving at the base of the building. People used to take time for little things like that.

And once again we have non-professionals, this time young teens, looking at the camera. There are several schools in the area, so this was likely filmed after 3:00 p.m. when they were going home. Today, they're in their 70s, and still dine out on this.

Today, Det. Flint would have to bring the witness across the street to bluemercury. I have no idea what was here before; it might have closed during the 2020 pandemic. The carving at the bottom of the building is, of course, gone. 

Even in 1962, "old" New York was giving way to the new. In 60 years, New Yorkers watching, say, reruns of Law & Order may find it vaguely familiar. But by then, the 110 year-old Naked City will look like live-action cave drawings. 

One thing the shows will have in common? People looking at the damn camera.

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