For decades, New York City’s famous Central Park has been the backdrop for some of our most beloved films. Few classic movie lovers will ever forget the central park in the background as King Kong battled planes while hanging from the Empire State Building. Movies have called various NYC hot spots home and used the park as part of their scenes before and after. Here are five of the most well-known.
Anyone who has seen this movie will never forget Sally’s hot and steamy lunch exhibition. It took place at the boathouse restaurant in Central Park. Many scenes took place there including the walk in the park and the films climax at the Temple of Dendur a collection of ancient Egyptian stone masonry at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The exhibit is fronted by a floor to ceiling wall of glass that looks out over the winding trails of the park.
The Home Alone series of movies might be child’s fare, but many adults love it just as much. Along with the hijinx, the familiar sights of Central Park carriages and young Kevin running about causing havoc by Bethesda Fountain and the elderly old pigeon lady of Central Park who helps the child are heart-tugging and fun. Movie lovers will especially enjoy the part where bad guy Joe Pesci and his cohort, the wonderful Daniel Stern, are showered in breadcrumbs and overrun by hungry Central Park pigeons.
This cult classic shares a link to the iconic film Rosemary’s Baby in location choices. Both films had a front row seat to Central Park from their Central Park West home base. Ghostbusters had a lot more outside coverage of the area, and even though it covered a lot of Manhattan terrain Central Park had a lot of screen time. The spooky tower of the apartment building is scene in a night scene from inside central park as lightening hits the peek and begins the ghoulish takeover. While it is hard to actually find the real building from the same vantage point, there’s no mistaking the curved road that runs through the trees at about 72nd Street. No one who loves the movie will ever forget Louis Tully, played wonderfully by Rick Moranis, as he pounds on the glass at the Tavern on the Green adjacent to the park and the monster statue dog come to life.
In 1980 the Kermit and the gang took over. It was the perfect time for a movie to focus on the beautiful centerpiece of Manhattan as the old park was being stripped of its graffiti and revitalized. The Muppet gang made great use of the park and let the world know how really lovely it was again.
Finally there’s one of the most powerful movies of the 20th century. Hair was a cinema masterpiece that brought the horrors of the Vietnam War to viewers through the eyes of love-child hippie George Berger, played by talented Treat Williams. It may have made Central Park a little too romantic, but the vision of dancers cavorting across the grassy fields as choreographed by Twyla Tharp, and police horses prancing majestically while they kept order is as seductive as it is magical.