The Movies Come Home to NYC

Hollywood, California has long been the capital of movie making in the United States, an empire of dreams and fantasies burned into celluloid, built in the desert West. 

But like all American myths, its story begins Back East.

The movie business started in New York and New Jersey more than a century ago. Before California almost completely annexed film production for most of the 20th century, there was a thriving movie business in Queens -- specifically the studio spaces of Astoria. Movie stars like Rudolph Valentino even lived in that natural precursor to Beverly Hills called Bayside. 

The Marx Brothers shot their earliest movies at the Kaufman Astoria studios and other movies shot here as well in the 1910s to 1930s. But soon thereafter movie making in NYC became scant, the exception to the rule.   

That's all changed today. Thanks to tax credits and other developments, movie making in NYC is thriving as never before. Over 300 movies were shot here last year! And it's not just because NYC is a great natural location for movies -- there is now extensive studio space in Queens (Kaufman and Silver Cup with outposts in places like the Bronx) and Brooklyn (Steiner Studios). And now the great actor Robert De Niro along with his real estate developer son are planning to open a new studio called Wildflower, also in Queens. If this plan goes through, NYC will rival Hollywood for studio space -- a coming home for the business that started here more than 100 years ago.

Sidenote: I actually briefly went to school with Robert De Niro's son. I didn't know him at all but sat in front of me in math class. He didn't care about math all then but, I guess, that's changed now!