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Shot On Site - We Are The Busters Of Any G-H-O-S-T

 By Paul Rudoff on Sep. 14, 2012 at 11:30 PM , Categories: Ghostbusters 2, Filming Locations , Tags:
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I have just completed several small, but significant multimedia updates to the site. On the Ghostbusters Multimedia page I added the Ghostbusters Pay-Per-View Trailer (1985) in the video playlist and a link to the original source. On The Real Ghostbusters: Halloween Door page I added a two-minute video of some promos and bumpers that aired the evening of Sunday October 29, 1989 during the primetime airing of the episode. I added screenshots from the music videos: "Ghostbusters" by Ray Parker Jr, "On Our Own" by Bobby Brown, "Magic" by Mick Smiley, and "Cleanin' Up The Town" by The Bus Boys.

Most significantly of all, on the "Ghostbusters" by RUN-D.M.C. page I added the complete unaltered copy of the music video and lots of screen shots. It is the RUN-D.M.C. music video that is the subject of today's Shot On Site article. Normally I wouldn't cover an entire music video in one of these articles, but since I had done the detective work for my own personal interest, and it's only a small amount of shots, I figured... why not? The music video starts off with Sigourney Weaver and Annie Potts exiting a limousine with the guys from RUN-D.M.C. at a performance venue.

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They need not worry about the crowd, as these three familiar-looking security guards have everything under control. I don't know who these fellas are, but I know that security isn't their only job. I think they're also exterminators of some sort.

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The music video doesn't show very much of the outside of this place, but what it does show makes it very easy to identify. The biggest piece of useful information is a brief glimpse of a huge light-up sign for "The Heidi Chronicles" on the building across the street.

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The Heidi Chronicles was a play by Wendy Wasserstein that was performed at the Plymouth Theatre from March 9, 1989 to September 1, 1990. The Plymouth Theatre (now Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre) at 236 West 45th Street in New York, NY has an upper balcony with a railing that matches the one seen in the music video. (Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre photo taken 2009.)

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If there was still any doubt that that's the Plymouth Theatre in the background, we catch a glimpse of the "Plymouth" name on the marquee/overhang. (The image on the right was taken in 1997 by Bill Badzo on Flickr.)

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This instantly confirmed for me that I found the right spot, but since a few more connections can be made, let's make them... The music video affords us a great view of the "alley" between the Plymouth Theatre and the Booth Theatre (at 222 West 45th Street) on the left, thus showing us the edges of both buildings. Yup, that all matches perfectly with this June 2011 image from Google Maps. Yes, the same silver pole is still there on the right 20 years later!

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We even get to see a little more of the front of the Booth Theatre in the background of one shot in the music video. We see the three arches on the front and the marquee/sign and overhang above the entrance doors. (Booth Theatre image provided by The Bridge and Tunnel Club.)

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Okay, so now that I've positively identified everything across the street, you probably want to know exactly what building it was that Sigourney, Annie, and RUN-D.M.C were entering.

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Spring 2005, provided by the Internet Broadway Database

The RUN-D.M.C "Ghostbusters" music video was filmed in front of, and (presumably) inside of, the Music Box Theatre at 239 West 45th Street, between Broadway and 8th Avenue, in New York, NY 10036. Toward the close of 1919, the prominent theatrical producer Sam H. Harris made a proposition to his friend Irving Berlin: if the popular songwriter would devise a musical revue, Harris would find a theatre for it. Berlin responded with The Music Box Revue and in 1920 the Music Box Theatre was built to house the show. The Shuberts began acquiring shares of the venue from Harris in the 1920s. When Harris died in 1941, his wife sold half the shares in the theatre to the Shuberts, and half to Berlin. From that point on, Berlin and Shubert became equal partners in the ownership of the house. In 2007, the Berlin share of the theatre was sold to Shubert, now the sole owner of the theatre.

We know that it's the Music Box that they're going into because the only thing we really get to see of the place is the distinctive design on the doors.

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image provided by Museum Planet

Well, that, and a little bit of the underside of the marquee overhang and the rectangular sign holders above the doors.

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image provided by EventSeekr

Of course, down the block is Times Square, which is home to MANY Ghostbusters filming spots I've covered before, including two other music videos (Ray Parker Jr.'s and Bobby Brown's). It all comes back to Times Square! (The map below was made for the Ghostbusters II Theater Ghost Shot On Site article. The Music Box Theatre is in the upper left corner.)

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For more information about Ghostbusters filming locations, be sure to check out the rest of Spook Central's Shot On Site articles, Spook Central's Filming Locations page, and Chris Stewart's Shot On Site articles. Thanks Chris for letting me use your awesome title. Title graphic drawn by Paul Kinsella.

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