As much as it was a show about Italian-American mobsters, 'The Sopranos' was a show about New Jersey. From a mansion in suburban North Caldwell to a strip club in nearby Lodi, the show captured a snapshot of the state in the late 1990s and 2000s.
“The reality factor of 'The Sopranos' is what's so important and so effective,” said Mark Kamine, the show's location director and author of “On Locations,” an upcoming memoir. David Chase, the show's creator, insisted that his New Jersey characters be represented in the real New Jersey.
'The Sopranos' premiered 25 years ago. Over time, some of the interiors were constructed on film sets in New York, but much of the pilot episode and many of the series' exterior shots were filmed in local homes, businesses, and streets.
Among them is Tony Soprano's 520 square meter house. Built in 1987 at the end of a private street in a leafy neighborhood, the home was decadent compared to the house Tony grew up in, appropriate for a character who had become richer than his parents, but who felt he was losing touch with their values.
The first episode was filmed at the house in North Caldwell, although its owner was hesitant to receive a production crew. Kamine convinced the owner to allow the show to shoot only the exteriors and, over time, his attitude changed.
In 2019, the house was put up for sale with an asking price of $3.4 million.
A 10-minute drive from Tony's house, his mother, Livia, lives on a quiet street in Verona. Built in 1926, her house is much smaller and older.
The Bada Bing strip club, where Tony and his team had fun in the front and did business in the back, is a real club called Satin Dolls. The owner was, appropriately, a man named Tony with ties to the mafia.
The owner initially gave the show permission to film there while the business was closed. As the series became more popular, “he would just rub his hands when he saw me coming and say, 'How much money are you going to give me this time?'” Kamine recalled.
Satriale's, the deli and sandwich shop that Tony's father took over when its owner couldn't pay a debt, wasn't always Satriale's. In the pilot episode, the meeting point was Centanni's, a real-life butcher shop in Elizabeth, New Jersey. But the owners of the venue told the producers that the filming was too disruptive to business.
Kamine found an empty store in Kearny. The owner had bought the place to open a cleaning company.
“He said, 'I'm just starting my business, why would I do this?'” Kamine said. “We said, 'We'll pay you good rent to use the store and we'll pay rent for your office somewhere else.'”
Bucco's Vesuvio was a family restaurant where Tony sat with his two families. The original Vesuvius, on the ground floor of a building in Elizabeth, was blown up during the first season.
To film the scene, “we added a wing that exploded and destroyed it,” Chase revealed. “The real restaurant was left intact.”
Every week, in the opening credits, Tony was driving past Pizza Land, a tiny pizzeria in North Arlington.
After the previous owner of the business died in 2010, Eddie Twdroos was passing by when he saw it was closed. He had operated pizzerias before and decided to rescue it.
“You want to keep everything as it was in the series, the same facade, the same sign on the store“Twdroos, 53, said. “It's a reference point.”
ANNA KODÉ. THE NEW YORK TIMES
BBC-NEWS-SRC: http://www.nytsyn.com/subscribed/stories/7092514, IMPORTING DATE: 2024-01-31 03:22:03
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