Glengarry Glen Sheepshead Bay!

Let us observe the above frame-grab:

A rain-swept establishing shot from the classic Glengarry Glen Ross (1992), it was filmed on Sheepshead Bay Road in my “hometown,” the neighborhood where I grew up: Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, NY.

Much of which was underwater after the Hurricane… 

Despite my disappointment with David Mamet’s output of late—I think Spartan (2004) was his last good film—and my eyeball-rolling-forehead-slapping disbelief at the neo-conservative rants that seem to compromise his most passionate work these days—

Glengarry Glen Ross is a film I will always love, and although I’ve never seen a live performance, I’ve read the play, and I think the movie is better than the source material.

That said, it was a fuckin’ utter and complete joy to see MY NEIGHBORHOOD as the setting for the flick.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it’s supposed to be set in Chicago, whatever—annnnnnnnnnnd fuggedabodit.

It was filmed on Sheepshead Bay Road in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, MY NEIGHBORHOOD, so fuck you pal.

(FYI, in case my creds are in question: first we lived in Eastern Parkway, then moved to Midwood, and when I was nine, settled in Sheepshead Bay, where my mom still lives…)

And there it is, MY NEIGHBORHOOD in the movies (which makes it more real than real) and getting rained on! Just like last week!

Get well soon, Sheepshead Bay…

BTW, the exterior of the Chinese restaurant in Glengarry Glen Ross was a mock-up constructed in front of a bakery on Sheepshead Bay Road (now gone); while the interiors for it were shot in an actual Chinese restaurant/bar that served the best gin and tonics—perfect with one of their eggs rolls!—I’ve forgotten the name of the place, but it was on 44^th, where the Virgil’s BBQ is now….

The elevated train platform in the photo’s background is the Sheepshead Bay Station—which gets freezing in winter!

Additional BTW: The Bay is named after the sheepshead fish (Archosargus probatocephalus), not because there was some sort of slaughterhouse attached to the water—although that would be a much more colorful history…