OK Why do they always use an awning over a door that says 60 Riverside drive when shooting in New York? I have never been to New York, but is Riverside Drive, something special?? I think I've seen it in like a million movies and I know I just saw it on 30 Rock. If anyone can explain this to me please comment. If not keep your eye out for the awnings, it could be some kind of conspiracy or alien message....
Hi Elise,
ReplyDeleteI found your comment while Googling my former building: Yes, Riverside Drive is special, because it's a beautiful, winding Manhattan avenue on the Upper West Side that faces Riverside Park, the Hudson River, and New Jersey. I lived at 60 Riverside Dr. from 1973-1989. Funny thing, though, I've NEVER seen my former entrance in any movies or TV shows. It's possible that they are "using" the address -- probably with some kind of permission -- but not showing the actual building. If you go to the following link you'll see the building, but not the entrance & awning, because the entrance is not ON Riverside Drive, it's on West 78th Street, which, in this photo, is in shadow in front of the white van -- Is THIS the building you've seen on film?
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.cityrealty.com/graphics/photos/r/rsd60.01.photo.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.cityrealty.com/nyc/manhattan/60-riverside-drive/1754&usg=__JEPuEHWJN2Mj8l2ban3vLqRIPjo=&h=238&w=179&sz=21&hl=en&start=5&sig2=driAZN914QWf7ikJN6Li8w&um=1&tbnid=j2T8Z7gvLOfmyM:&tbnh=109&tbnw=82&prev=/images%3Fq%3D%252260%2BRiverside%2BDrive%2522%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26um%3D1&ei=E3UMSteDGdPflQeCssmICA
Anyway, there are some interesting factoids about 60 Riverside Dr. Back in the '80s, the following sublet apts. there: Tom Cruise, Harry Belafonte, Steven Wright (comedian). Other celebs owned apts. there. Mia Farrow had an apt. there after she and Frank Sinatra split, that was way back before it went co-op.
But the best, most famous -- or should I say INfamous?! -- incident occured in the late 70s and probably gave rise (no pun intended, as you will later see) to the idea of evil forces on the premises, and you may have heard about it, as it was all over the media at the time:
"In the seventies, Oric Bovar was renowned in Broadway circles for his uncannily accurate astrological charts and prescribed meditations that brought inner peace to such disciples as Bernadette Peters, Carol Burnett, the ever-seeking Marsha Mason, and Neil Simon. Bovar became convinced that he was Jesus Christ and claimed that he could endure a year without going to the bathroom. One follower became convinced that Bovar was indeed divine when, during their first telephone conversation, he received an electric shock. On Christmas Eve 1975, Bovar instructed his followers to look up at the sky, and they saw him create a star.
As Bovar went bonkers, some of his followers dropped off, but not Peters. In the summer of 1976, he announced that Christmas would now be celebrated on his birthday, August 29. He began arranging marriages for his devotees--"Someone would come into the room and he would say, 'This is your husband--you must marry him,'" one recalls--and spent his free time watching The Exorcist. He put his followers on strict diets and forbade them to have sex.
Bovar's greatest feat was to have been the resurrection of twenty-nine-year-old Stephanos Hatzitheodorou, a disciple who died of natural causes - cancer - in his New York apartment 17-H at 60 Riverside Drive, in the fall of 1976. After covering the body with a shawl, Bovar and five disciples kept a vigil over the corpse, chanting, "Rise, Stephan, rise, rise, rise." It was only then that Peters, whom the New York Times called one of Bovar's most loyal devotees, jumped ship. For two months, the group changed over the body, until a woman who identified herself as Mary Magdalene called the cops. His arrest for violating the health code by keeping a decaying corpse in the apartment marked the beginning of the end for Bovar, who was now referring to himself as "my son, Oric Bovar." Hours before he was to answer his doubters, he jumped out the bathroom window of his West End Avenue apartment, intending to appear in resurrected glory in court."
BTW: I lived in the same apartment line, a studio, but I was down in 2-H.
Elise, if you feel like responding to this, please email me at phyllischarney@gmail.com .
Wow!! Thanks for the great comment. I loved all the inside info. I checked the the pictures and they weren't the ones I've seen.
ReplyDeleteThanks again!!
You're welcome, it was my pleasure to "share" -- except for my childhood home on Long Island, that was my favorite place to live!
ReplyDeleteMy father was the handyman at 60 riverside drive for many years since I was about 12 years old i'm now 54 his name was victor he would take my brother and I to work with him, I have fond memories of that building and some wild things when on their as I recall
ReplyDeleteactually I still have the framed print that hung in the lobby of 60 riverside drive of washington square park!
ReplyDelete