Grand Central Terminal, a train station in Manhattan, New York City, has been the subject, inspiration, or setting for literature, television and radio episodes, and films. [1] [2]
Many film and television productions have included scenes shot in the terminal. The MTA hosts about 25 large-scale and hundreds of smaller or amateur productions every year. [3] Kyle McCarthy, who handles production at Grand Central, said, "Grand Central is one of the quintessential New York places. Whether filmmakers need an establishing shot of arriving in New York or transportation scenes, the restored landmark building is visually appealing and authentic." [4] Especially during World War II, Grand Central has been a backdrop for romantic reunions between couples. After the terminal declined in the 1950s, it was more frequently used as a dark, dangerous place, even a metaphor for chaos and disorientation, [2] featuring chase scenes, shootouts, homeless people, and the mentally ill. In the 1990 film The Freshman , for example, Matthew Broderick's character stumbles over an unconscious man and watches fearfully as petty crimes take place around him. [5]
Almost every scene filmed in the terminal's train shed was shot on Track 34, one of the few areas without view-blocking structural columns. [6] [7]
The first filmed scene in which Grand Central Terminal appears may be the 1909 short comedy Mr. Jones Has a Card Party , while still under construction. [8] The terminal's first cinematic appearance was in the 1930 musical film Puttin' On the Ritz , [7] and its first Technicolor appearance was in the 1953 film The Band Wagon . [6] Some films from the 20th century, including Grand Central Murder , The Thin Man Goes Home , Hello, Dolly! , and Beneath the Planet of the Apes used reconstructions of Grand Central, built in Hollywood, to stand in for the terminal. [2] [9] The Bollywood film Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna uses other American train stations standing in for Grand Central. [8] Additionally, the terminal was drawn and animated for use in the animated films Madagascar (2005) [10] and Wreck-It Ralph (2012). [11]
Other films in which the terminal appears include:
Notable documentaries about the terminal include Grand Central, a 1982 film narrated by James Earl Jones and featuring Philip Johnson and Ed Koch. [16]
On October 19, 2017, several of these films were screened in the terminal for an event created by the MTA, Rooftop Films, and the Museum of the Moving Image. The event featured a cinematic history lecture by architect and author James Sanders. [17]
Grand Central Terminal's architecture, including its Main Concourse clock, are depicted on the stage of Saturday Night Live , a long-running NBC television show. [8] [18] Warren and Wetmore designed The soundstage reconstruction of the terminal in Studio 8H was first installed in 2003. [19] [20]
Literature featuring the terminal includes Report on Grand Central Terminal, written in 1948 by nuclear physicist Leo Szilard; The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger; The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton; Grand Central Murder by Sue MacVeigh, which was made into the eponymous film in 1942; A Stranger Is Watching by Mary Higgins Clark; [8] and the 1946 children's classic The Taxi That Hurried by Lucy Sprague Mitchell. [1] The infrastructure in Grand Central inspired the novel The Invention of Hugo Cabret , and in turn, the film Hugo . [21] The dangerous life of homeless men and women in Grand Central and its tunnels and passageways inspired Lee Stringer's Grand Central Winter: Stories from the Street and Tina S.'s collaboration with journalist Jamie Pastor Bolnick in the autobiography Living at the Edge of the World: A Teenager's Survival in the Tunnels of Grand Central Station. [22] [23]
Grand Central Station , an NBC radio drama set at the terminal, ran from 1937 to 1953. [8] Among the video games that feature the terminal are Spider-Man: The Official Movie Game, The Incredible Hulk (2008), Marvel's Spider-Man , True Crime: New York City , and Tom Clancy's The Division . [24]
A Lego replica of the terminal is situated in Miniland USA, an exhibit at Legoland California. The cutaway model shows elaborate interior details of the station building. [25]
Bassist Larry Graham, formerly of Sly and the Family Stone, named his own funk band (and their self-titled debut) Graham Central Station.
Grand Central Terminal is a commuter rail terminal located at 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Grand Central is the southern terminus of the Metro-North Railroad's Harlem, Hudson and New Haven Lines, serving the northern parts of the New York metropolitan area. It also contains a connection to the Long Island Rail Road through the Grand Central Madison station, a 16-acre (65,000 m2) rail terminal underneath the Metro-North station, built from 2007 to 2023. The terminal also connects to the New York City Subway at Grand Central–42nd Street station. The terminal is the third-busiest train station in North America, after New York Penn Station and Toronto Union Station.
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Grand Central Terminal, one of the main railroad stations in New York City, features public art by a variety of artists. Through its status as a transportation and architectural icon, the terminal has also been depicted in many works of art.
Grand Central Madison is a commuter rail terminal for the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) in the Midtown East neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. Part of the East Side Access project, the new terminal started construction in 2008 and opened on January 25, 2023. The station sits beneath Grand Central Terminal, which serves the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA)'s Metro-North Railroad.
The Main Concourse is the primary concourse of Grand Central Terminal, a railway station in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The space is located at the center of the terminal's station building.
Grand Central Tower was a scrapped proposal by Penn Central to have a skyscraper built on top of Grand Central Terminal in 1968. It was designed by Marcel Breuer and would have been 950 feet (290 m) tall. The plan itself drew major opposition from the public and architects, especially from Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, as it would have resulted in the destruction of the terminal. The plan was scrapped after it was settled in a court case in 1978, which meant Penn Central could not build the tower.
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