Washington Heights, Manhattan in popular culture

Washington Heights is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It has been featured and referenced in popular culture on numerous occasions.

Films
  • 1941 – In Citizen Kane, Jedidiah Leland is spending the remainder of his life in the fictitious "Huntington Memorial Hospital" on 180th Street.[1]
  • 1948 – The final scene from Force of Evil, where Joe Morse discovers the body of his brother near the Hudson River, was filmed on location in the park several yards south of the George Washington Bridge.[2]
  • 1953 – How to Marry a Millionaire features the George Washington Bridge entering into Washington Heights when Waldo Brewster, a grumpy businessman (Fred Clark), and Loco Dempsey (Betty Grable), driving back into Manhattan from the "Elks Lodge", are pulled over by motorcycle cops so the bridge commission can recognize "the lucky couple" as the occupants of the bridge's 50 millionth vehicle.[3][4]
  • 1968 – Coogan's Bluff features a scene where Clint Eastwood chases the criminal he is to bring back to Arizona through the Cloisters.[5]
  • 1993 – The Saint of Fort Washington is not entirely geographically accurate, but is set in the neighborhood, with the Fort Washington Avenue Armory in particular playing a large role in the plot.[6]
  • 1995 – Scenes from the film Die Hard with a Vengeance were shot at PS 115.[7]
  • 2002 – The film Washington Heights starring Manny Perez is the story of a young man trying to escape the cultural barriers of Washington Heights to make it as an illustrator.[8]
  • 2005 – The film Get Rich or Die Tryin', with rapper/actor Curtis Jackson, includes scenes filmed in Washington Heights, including scenes that featured "young 50 Cent" filmed around 159th Street and Riverside Drive.
  • 2005 – The documentary Mad Hot Ballroom features students from PS 115 in Washington Heights.[9]
  • 2007 – The film American Gangster was filmed in some sections of Washington Heights.[10]
  • 2007 – The film The Brave One, with Jodie Foster, was filmed in some sections of Washington Heights; she and her boyfriend are attacked in a scene filmed in Fort Tryon Park, and the final scene with Terrence Howard was filmed on Elwood Street between Broadway and Nagle Avenue.[11]
  • 2008 – The film Pride and Glory centers on police corruption in the fictional 31st Precinct of Washington Heights.[12]
  • 2010 – Parts of the film Salt were filmed in the neighborhood, in particular at the 12-story Riviera, a 1910 Beaux-Arts style co-op on 157th Street and Riverside Drive.[13]
  • 2013 – The film Frances Ha ends with the main character moving to Washington Heights.[14]
  • 2020 – The upcoming film adaptation of the Broadway musical In the Heights was shot in many Washington Heights locations, including the 191st Street station tunnel.[15]
  • 2020 – The upcoming film remake of West Side Story was filmed in Washington Heights under the work title "San Juan Hill."[16][17]

Television
  • 1975-1989 – The ABC soap opera Ryan's Hope was set in Washington Heights.[18]
  • 2006 – CSI: NY Season 2 Episode 16 ("Cool Hunter") features a case of a dead man in a Washington Heights playground.[19]
  • 2011 – The Showtime series Weeds features Washington Heights as the location of Nancy Botwin's halfway house in Season 7.[20]
  • 2013 – The short-lived MTV series Washington Heights was set in the neighborhood.[21]
  • 2017-2019 – The HBO series The Deuce chose Amsterdam Avenue between 163rd and 165th streets to recreate Times Square, mostly because of its dimensional similarities, quiet atmosphere, and lack of trees, scaffolding, or chains.[22]

Stage
  • 2008-2011 – The Broadway musical In the Heights was set in Washington Heights.[23]

Music
  • 1971 – In the song "Broadway Baby" from the musical Follies, aging chorus girl Hattie wishes she could be a star all over Manhattan, "from Battery Park to Washington Heights!"[24]
  • 1989 – The song "Halloween Parade" by Lou Reed, from his album New York, mentions a "crack team from Washington Heights."[25]
  • 2001 – In the song "Shiksa Goddess" from the musical The Last Five Years, Jewish romantic lead Jamie Wellerstein states that he had "Shabbas dinners on Friday nights with every Shapiro in Washington Heights!"[26]
  • 2003 – The song "The Movement" by KRS-One, from the album Kristyles, has the lyric "I'm in Washington Heights, puttin' them Dominicans on."[27]
  • 2007 – The song "This Is Why I'm Hot" by MIMS has the line "I hit Wash Heights with the money in the bag".[28]
  • 2008 – The song "A-Punk" by the band Vampire Weekend mentions Washington Heights.[29]

References
  1. Lebo, Harlan (2016). Citizen Kane: Scene by Scene Guide. Thomas Dunne Books. p. 289. Retrieved April 9, 2020.
  2. Carr, Jay. "Force of Evil (1949)", Turner Classic Movies. Accessed April 28, 2016. "The film builds to a jackhammer climax, preceded by a brilliant coup de cinema when Joe and Pearson's good girl in a series of long and medium shots go down, down, down, from the Washington Bridge, zigzagging their way through a descent on stone steps to the rocks at the Hudson River, where Joe finds Leo dead."
  3. "On the set of New York - How to Marry a Millionaire Film Locations". onthesetofnewyork.com. Retrieved April 14, 2020.
  4. "How to Marry a Millionaire (1953) - IMDb". www.imdb.com. Retrieved April 14, 2020.
  5. Carter, Michael. "The Cloisters in Popular Culture: 'Time in This Place Does Not Obey an Order'", Metropolitan Museum of Art, July 22, 2013. Accessed April 25, 2016. "At the film's end, however, Coogan returns to the Museum, where the fugitive has (inexplicably) managed to find a safe hideout. The movie's climax consists of a prolonged motorcycle chase through the Heather Garden in Fort Tryon Park."
  6. "The Saint of Fort Washington (1993) - Plot Summary - IMDb". www.imdb.com. Retrieved April 9, 2020. Matthew, a young schizophrenic, finds himself out on the street when a slumlord tears down his apartment building. Soon, he finds himself in even more dire straits, when he is threatened by Little Leroy, a thug who is one of the tough denizens of the Fort Washington Shelter for Men.
  7. Staff. "Filming at a School Displeases Cortines", The New York Times, June 9, 1995. Accessed April 30, 2016. " The Mayor's office and the New York City Schools Chancellor, ever at odds, now have new grounds for disagreement: the fact that a city public school was used as the site of a terrorist bomb scene in a new film, Die Hard With a Vengeance. The scene was filmed last summer at Public School 115 on West 177th Street in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan."
  8. Rivera, Zayda. "Manny Perez takes on new type of role as gay cop in Love is Strange", New York Daily News, August 14, 2014. Accessed April 14, 2020. "But Perez has made a name for himself in the indie Latino market, starring in such films as the Hector Lavoe biopic El Cantante and 2002's Washington Heights, in which he plays a frustrated artist trying to get out of the Upper Manhattan neighborhood with a large Dominican population."
  9. Armstrong, Lindsay. "'Mad Hot Ballroom' Screening in Uptown Park for Film's 10th Anniversary" Archived November 18, 2017, at the Wayback Machine DNAinfo.com, August 18, 2015. Accessed March 14, 2020. "The award-winning film follows a group of fifth-graders from three different public schools, including P.S. 115 in Washington Heights, as they learn to ballroom dance and compete in a citywide competition."
  10. "American Gangster (2007) - Filming & Production - IMDb". www.imdb.com. Retrieved April 14, 2020.
  11. Story Notes for The Brave One, AMC. Accessed April 14, 2020. "Some scenes in The Brave One were filmed on Ellwood Avenue in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan."
  12. "Pride and Glory (2008) - Plot Summary - IMDb". www.imdb.com. Retrieved April 9, 2020. A family of police officers - patriarch, two sons, and a son-in-law - deals with corruption in a precinct in Washington Heights. The Tierney family is comprised of [sic] many men who work for the NYPD: Francis Tierney Sr. is an Assistant Chief, his oldest son "Franny" Tierney Jr. is the commanding officer of the 31st Precinct in Washington Heights....
  13. Zanzoni, Carla. "Angelina Jolie's Film 'Salt' Also Stars Washington Heights" Archived June 10, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, DNAinfo.com, July 23, 2010. Accessed April 30, 2016. "WASHINGTON HEIGHTS — The neighborhood is now officially a Hollywood star. In anticipation of the opening of Angelina Jolie's spy flick "Salt" on Friday, Sony Pictures released outtakes of the superstar scaling the wall of the 12-story Riviera, a 1910 Beaux-Arts style co-op on 157th Street and Riverside."
  14. Inoa, Christopher (March 28, 2014). ""AHOY SEXY!": NYC Film Locations for Noah Baumbach's Frances Ha - Untapped New York". untappedcities.com. Retrieved April 14, 2020. The film ends with Francis moving into a new apartment, located on 97 Audubon Avenue in Washington Heights.
  15. Vanasco, Jennifer (July 23, 2019). "The Film 'In the Heights' is Shooting ... in (Washington) Heights". WNYC. Retrieved April 14, 2020.
  16. "'West Side Story' - Blog - The Film Experience". thefilmexperience.net. July 19, 2019. Retrieved April 14, 2020.
  17. Anderton, Ethan (March 16, 2020). "West Side Story Remake Photos Reveal Steven Speilberg's Musical / Film Remake". www.slashfilm.com. Retrieved April 14, 2020.
  18. Lawless, Wendy. Heart of Glass: A Memoir, p. 98. Simon & Schuster, 2016. ISBN 9781476749846. Accessed April 25, 2016. "A few days later, I read for the producers of Ryan's Hope, an ABC daytime show about a large Catholic, Irish American family who run a bar and live in Washington Heights."
  19. "'CSI: NY' Cool Hunter (TV Episode 2006) - Plot Summary - IMDb". www.imdb.com. Retrieved April 9, 2020. The other case is of a man found dead on a playground in Washington Heights.
  20. Hinckley, David (June 27, 2011). "'Weeds' review: New York City gives Mary-Louise Parker & Co. room for growth". New York Daily News. Retrieved April 14, 2020. At the risk of a mild spoiler, Nancy starts this season in prison. Briefly, before a convenient series of plot turns get her released. She's transferred to a halfway house in Washington Heights....
  21. "Washington Heights (TV Series 2013) - IMDb". www.imdb.com. Retrieved April 14, 2020.
  22. Rorke, Robert (September 10, 2017). "How 'The Deuce' turned a quiet NYC neighborhood into porn-tastic Times Square". New York Post. Retrieved April 14, 2020.
  23. Isherwood, Charles. "The View From Uptown: American Dreaming to a Latin Beat", The New York Times, March 10, 2008. Accessed April 28, 2016. "Mr. Miranda, as the owner of a corner bodega who dispenses good cheer along with café con leche by the gallon, is not just the brightly glowing star of In the Heights. He also wrote all the ebullient songs for this panoramic portrait of a New York neighborhood — Washington Heights — filled with Spanish-speaking dreamers of American dreams, nervously eyeing their futures from a city block on the cusp of change."
  24. "BROADWAY BABY (Follies: The Musical) - Lyrics - International Lyrics Playground". lyricsplayground.com. Retrieved April 14, 2020. Gee, I'd like to be on some marquee, / All twinkling lights, / A spark to pierce the dark / From Batt'ry Park to Washington Heights.
  25. "Lou Reed - Halloween Parade Lyrics | Genius Lyrics". genius.com. Retrieved April 9, 2020.
  26. "Jason Robert Brown - Shiksa Goddess Lyrics | Genius Lyrics". genius.com. Retrieved April 14, 2020.
  27. "KRS-One - The Movement Lyrics | Genius Lyrics". genius.com. Retrieved April 14, 2020.
  28. "M.I.M.S. - This is Why I'm Hot Lyrics | Genius Lyrics". genius.com. Retrieved April 14, 2020.
  29. "Vampire Weekend - A-Punk Lyrics | Genius Lyrics". genius.com. Retrieved April 14, 2020.
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