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Revenge of Shot on Site Summer - Ghostbusters Locations, Part 4

 By Paul Rudoff on Jun. 30, 2019 at 12:00 PM , Categories: Ghostbusters 1, Filming Locations , Tags:
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In honor of the respective 35th & 30th anniversaries of the original Ghostbusters movies, every Sunday - henceforth dubbed Shot on Site Sundays - at Noon (Eastern) for the next several weeks (schedule here), I will go through the original two movies from start to finish, showing and telling you where everything was filmed in Manhattan, New York and Los Angeles, California. This will be part filming locations rundown, part behind the scenes exploration, and part "Making Ghostbusters". All parts are available here in reverse order: Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II. I will be utilizing the home video cuts of both movies, which can be found on the 2014 Blu-ray Double Feature, as well as the recently-released 5-Disc 4K UHD & Blu-ray with Bonus Disc Set. With that in mind, SPOILER WARNING if you read any further... though I suspect that if you're at Spook Central, you've already seen both movies a million times over.

The majority of real world New York photos were taken by Alex Newborn in July 2014 and Lars Karlsen in July 2018, and are being used with permission. The enlargements for these photos, and for the movie framegrabs, can be found on the various Filming Locations pages elsewhere on Spook Central. Other images are credited where known. Locations were identified by various people and sources over the past 35 years. Those that are not common knowledge are credited on the specific Filming Locations pages (see previous link). The title graphic seen at the top was created by Lars Karlsen, based on an idea by Paul Rudoff. It can be enlarged for a better look at its beauty. Now that that's out of the way, we've got movie sign...

Peter and Ray get out of Ecto-1 and have a chat while walking towards Janine's desk in the reception area. They meet their newest employee, Winston Zeddemore.

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This is the first floor Engine Bay area of the Los Angeles firehouse, as discussed previously. Ivan Reitman broke this scene up, choosing to insert the Lincoln Center scene in the middle of it. Originally, after Ray said "welcome aboard" to Winston, Janine then told Peter that "there's a man from the EPA here to see you", and Peter had his little meeting with Walter Peck. Below is a behind the scenes shot from the head of this scene of Peter and Ray talking right after they get out of Ecto-1. Notice the camera track on the floor.

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Peter meets Dana at Lincoln Center, where she just got done with her orchestra gig, to fill her in on the progress of her case.

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Lincoln Center, which is playing itself, can be found at West 63rd Street & Columbus Avenue in New York.

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(July 2018, credit: Lars Karlsen)

Sigourney and Bill film the scene.

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(source: Ghostbusters 1&2 2014 Blu-ray Digibook)

Back in the firehouse basement, Ray shows Winston how the containment unit works.

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You might think that's a set, but it's actually in the basement at the Los Angeles firehouse. There's no containment unit there now, and you can see where the filmmakers added bits and pieces to the wall upon which they placed the various meters and pipes.

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(March 2004, credit: J. Ryan [aka wwptvboy])

Up on the roof on Dana's apartment building, there are a bunch of drifters, and an ominous dog statue that has seemingly come to life while lightning flashes and thunder crackles.

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This is our first look at the huge temple set created on stage 16 at the Burbank Studios.

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(source: Making Ghostbusters)

In the building, creepy Louis stalks Dana again, before she gets molested by hairy arms that come out from her furniture.

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For the close-up, the simple age-old technique of people sitting out of frame was employed. You'll notice that the close-up chair has no armrests.

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Meanwhile, across the hall, Louis is throwing a party for all of his clients, which he plans to write-off as a business expense on his taxes.

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As previously noted, Louis' apartment is part of the huge soundstage-spanning set that also contains the hallway and Dana's apartment. Here's a look at the layout of Louis' apartment.

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(source: Making Ghostbusters, page 120)

A Terror Dog literally crashes the party, chasing Louis into the hallway.

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The dog is a life-size puppet affixed to the floor of the set.

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(source: The Complete SFX Guide To Ghostbusters, 2014 Edition)

Louis is chased across the street into Central Park, all the way to Tavern on the Green at West 67th Street & Central Park West in New York.

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The famous restaurant is playing itself.

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(July 2004, credit: Chris Buchner)

The police have arrived at the apartment building, and so has Peter for his date with Dana.

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Contrary to what you may believe, this is not New York. Because shooting time ran out in New York, Venkman's entrance into Dana's apartment house was not shot at the 55 Central Park West location, but rather at a facsimile of its ground floor constructed at the Columbia Ranch in Burbank, California for the later sinkhole sequence. Rather than go to the expense of bringing the New York "doorman" to Los Angeles, a different, but similar-looking actor was hired for the pickup scene. You can spy a lighting rig reflected in the rear window of the police car.

Louis has finally made his way out of Central Park, arriving at the southwest corner, right at Columbus Circle.

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The filmmakers were clever in the way they hide the fact that this is the same location where Mr. Stay Puft would appear later. When Louis emerges from the park, he wanders past the Maine Monument, which commemorates the 260 Americans that died when the U.S.S. Maine exploded in the harbor of Havana, Cuba. The Spanish-American War began two months later in April 1898. The war ended in December of that year, resulting in the liberation of Cuba from Spanish rule, ceded Puerto Rico and Guam, and gave the Philippines to the U.S. William Randolph Hearst called for a public collection of funds in his New York Morning Journal towards a monument 4 days after the disaster. The paper received huge monetary gifts and thousands of dollars in pennies from school children. The Bronze figure represents Columbia triumphant riding in a seashell chariot led by three hippocampi. It's claimed that the metal on the statue was reclaimed from the Maine itself.

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(May 2010, credit: Museum Planet)

Does Louis go out on a date with the horse? Find out next week - same ghost time, same ghost channel - when we continue our look at the filming locations from Ghostbusters.

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