Michael Lee Nirenberg

The clichés about spring in New York City are true. Even the most jaded, seen-it-all New Yorkers crack a smile in May. It’s the time of year we start heading back outside even when we don’t have to. My job today is to present you with some historic New York movie locations that you can still visit today. I’ve looked high and low, consulted with colleagues, and I promise I will not mention Katz’s like every other movie location list does.  As the author of a new book titled ‘Cinematic Immunity: An Oral History of New York Filmmaking by the Crews Who Got the Shot’, I have some knowledge on this subject. It’s the first filmmaking history book that exclusively features the people that are never interviewed – set dressers, props, makeup artists, assistant directors, camera operators, among many others. The book is full of never-heard-before stories from On the Waterfront to The Sopranos.  Photograph: United Artists 1. The Stone Archway at The Ramble from Cruising (1980) Central Park has starred in too many films to name. However you can lean against the Stone Archway like Al Pacino in Cruising. Sadly, none of the S&M bars featured in the film exist today. Address: Central Park West Side at 77th Street  Photograph: Courtesy of The Plaza 2. The Plaza Hotel from Home Alone 2 (1992) Everyone remembers Macaulay Culkin’s slide across the Plaza Hotel tile floor in Home Alone 2. That tile floor was rediscovered by the film crew. A doorman knew about it and the crew asked to remove som