Queens Goes the Whole Nine Yards in Films

The borough president of Queens got all caught up in a City corruption scandal this week.
No, Claire Shulman did not get into a Donald Manes-type problem. Steve Lawrence, the singer did (yes, the Steve of the Steve and Edie duo). Confused?
For the past week a movie crew has begun shooting a major new Miramax film called "The Yards," a movie that’s not only being filmed in Queens but is about corruption in the Queens commuter rail business. Lawrence plays the Queens Borough President who gets caught up in the scandal.
Although Shulman is reportedly upset that the movie is concentrating on corruption, the movie is another film in a surprisingly long line of motion pictures and television shows that have used the borough as a backdrop or as a major element to their plot. Last years big summer hit "Men In Black" had space aliens living in the old N.Y. State Pavilion in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park and later crashing their space ship into the Unisphere.
Among other memorable films using Queens as the backdrop were Eddie Murphy’s 1988 film "Coming To America" where the king of a mythical country decides the best place to search for his Queen is in, well, Queens of course. Alfred Hitchcock filmed major sequences in Queens for three of his movies: in a 1940 romantic comedy he had Carole Lombard and William Powell stuck on the top of the Parachute Jump at the 1939 World’s Fair in Flushing Meadows; in 1949’s "Strangers On A Train," the climactic scenes take place at the U.S. Open in the Forest Hills Tennis Stadium and in 1957, Hitchcock filmed "The Wrong Man" almost entirely in the Jackson Heights locations in which the true story had actually taken place. The film starred Henry Fonda (see page 5 on "The Wiz" being filmed in Queens).
Television has also had characters and plots taking place in Queens, the most famous being the 1970s #1 hit show "All In The Family" with Queens-raised Caroll O’Connor playing the lovable Queens bigot Archie Bunker. Bill Cosby’s new sitcom is not only taped at the Astoria Studios, his character is supposed to live there as well and opening credits show the Astoria N line subway el, the Rockaways, Shea Stadium and the Unisphere (which has become a familiar sight in dozens of commercials, print ads, music videos and is the symbol of CNN). Then there’s always Flushing-bred Fran Drescher in "The Nanny," where the opening jingle tells the world her character comes from Flushing.
This trend will continue this fall when a new CBS sitcom called "The King of Queens" premieres. The show takes place entirely in the Maspeth home of Queens parcel delivery man Doug Heffenan whose favorite basement TV room is taken over by his recently widowed father-in-law who doesn’t want to go into a nursing home and his sister-in-law is forced to live with him after being forced out of her Manhattan apartment. The father-in-law is played by comedian Jerry Stiller, fresh from his role as Frank Costanza in "Seinfeld." The show will air on Mondays at 8:30 p.m.
"The Yard" then is another movie that will make use of Queens’ unique character. It stars Mark Wahlberg, the star of the recent "Boogie Nights," Joaquin Phoenix, James Caan, Ellen Burstyn and Faye Dunaway. And The Queens Courier even has a featured part in the film.
Local on-location shooting was taking place at the Sunnyside Rail Yards last week — a central part of the film’s plot — with interiors being shot at the Empire Studios in Long Island City. The film’s writer and director is Flushing-raised James Gray who did the acclaimed film "Little Odessa." The atmospheric train yards prove to be the perfect symbolic background for the movie whose theme is it is not just trains that can either be given a second chance at life, or be condemned and left for dead. "The Yards" will hit movie screens sometime next year.
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Richard Vetere (right) with Walter Mattheu and Carol Burnett in L.A. last week during the filming of CBS-TV movie being made from his play.
Queens Author Makes It in Movies, TV & the Stage
Richard Vetere, a Maspeth born and bred author, is making quite a name for himself–and Queens also==in a variety of mediums.