Entertainment tourism is growing fast and the pandemic has helped.
A sector outlook study by Future Markets Insights finds film tourism was worth $US66b ($106b) last year and is forecast to more than double in the next decade.
The research firm finds that New Zealand major productions such as the
Lord of the Rings, Chronicles of Narnia and The Last Sa
murai, filmed in beautiful landscapes, still attract thousands of tourists. Around a third of holiday visitors do an activity at a film location or a film tour experience, says Tourism NZ.
Just as Hobbiton continues to draw Lord of the Rings fans in from around the world to New Zealand, entertainment tourism in the New York City and across the river to New Jersey is huge. Lockdowns during the pandemic were a boon for quality shows such as The Sopranos as binge streaming attracted new audiences who want to see where it was filmed.
Among other 19 other outings, Onlocation Tours offers the opportunity to walk in the well-heeled footsteps of Sex and the City stars through glamour spots of New York’s West Village or Chelsea or ritzy Gossip Girl locations in the Upper East Side and Midtown Manhattan.
You can go to Ghostbuster and Seinfeld locations although a tour of Succession sites isn’t on the list – yet.
Or, if you’re a longtime Sopranos fan like me following an assignment to cover Qantas’s inaugural Auckland-New York flight you can spend some very worthwhile hours on the other side of the Hudson River, in the badlands of otherwise lovely New Jersey.
James Gandolfini, who played fictional mob boss Tony Soprano in arguably the best TV show ever made, died 10 years ago this month. But 24 years after the pilot episode of The Sopranos aired and 16 years after the final show screened, the power of the show lives on for fans who want to relive it on location in Essex County.
Our guide on a Sopranos Sites Tour, Stefan Zachary, says he’s seeing more fans travelling from further away to experience what is accurately billed as a deep dive into the ‘’iconically gruesome, thrilling, and secret lives of the Sopranos.’’
For me, it turned out to be a wise investment of $US72.
You start in the Garment District of Manhattan. There were 18 fans on our bus, many who had watched the 86-episode run more than three times (some on other tours have watched the six series up 30 times).
You follow in the tyre tracks of Tony in his red Chevrolet Suburban in the title sequence through the Lincoln Tunnel and on to the New Jersey Turnpike and Zachary begins his intensely detailed dive into the show, (a fraction of which is covered here. The tour put together by stand-ins or extras who appeared on The Sopranos.
For the title shoot, Sopranos creator David Chase sat in the back seat of the Suburban and told Gandolfini where to drive where to look and when to puff his cigars. It was Gandolfini, a cigar afficianado who brought them to the role.
‘’If you think about Tony Soprano at his happiest moments, he’s usually chomping on a cigar . He could be in the backyard having a pool party,on the golf course or be throwing Ralph Cifaretto’s body off a cliff.’’
The first stop is at what was the 8m-tall Muffler Man statue from the opening titles and then you’re then driving past Tony Soprano’s ‘’legitimate’' business Barone Sanitation. That’s right next to a brown warehouse where the asbestos debacle was filmed in season six and not far from what was a golf course where Tony played at the start of the run.
You get a glimpse of Big Pussy Bonpensiero’s home, on the edge of a cemetery which Zachary says foreshadows his murder after being exposed as an FBI rat.
On the bus we drove or stopped near the haulage yards and abandoned power stations and other symbols of post-industrial decay. Its extensive transport network means it more diners per capita than anywhere else in the US.
Many of the show’s filming sites are close together and known as cluster locations.
‘’The idea is that you find an area with parking, you park your trucks with your equipment overnight. They’re safe and it’s very cheap - you don’t have to go from a studio warehouse to the location every day.’’
The setting in New Jersey was deliberate. Costs to shoot in New York are exorbitant, permits and equipment hire can run to $US150,000 a day and that doesn’t include any costs of staff and actors.
The tour doesn’t go to the Soprano family home in leafy North Caldwell but there was no filming inside there beyond episode six of the first season.
That moved to Silvercup Studios in Queens. The kitchen splashback and countertop is a different colour and the microwave where Tony heated leftovers is on the bench in the studio instead of being set into the wall. The details are delicious.
The next stop is what was the Skyway Diner where the character Christopher Moltisanti was shot in season two. It’s surrounded by trucking firms and is closed now but you can still imagine him falling to the ground and looking up at the Pulasky Skyway (a massive elevated steel road bridge) that features throughout The Sopranos.
It was from where a very unhappy Tony in season five throws away a gifted painting of the Rat Pack
‘’It took them 23 takes. They had a guy waiting at the bottom of the river, dry off the painting, bring it back up and throw it off again. And the one take they used was awful. It was poorly lit, the painting would not stay in frame,’’ says Zachary, an entertainment publicist.
In the town of Harrison you drive past the Washington Middle School which was (unidentified) in the episode where AJ Soprano trashed the swimming pool – in front of a then-15-year-old extra, now Lady Gaga.
The pizza left at the scene of the crime came from La Pizza, near the school. Around the corner is the location of Cleveland Auto Body owned by Big Pussy (and then his wife Angie after his execution). It’s now spic and span as Mavis Discount Tires.
Not far away and across the Passaic River are locations where Tony has a laugh at the character Bobby ‘’Bacala’' Baccalieri’s weight as he gets out of his car and where Big Pussy plays detective (badly) tracking Christopher for the FBI.
You see the iron bridge where Uncle Junior, suffering dementia is found by police, Zachary points to the spot on docks where there was a mock assassination of Christopher. Across the river is Newark where the Christopher Colombus statue used to stand and was the scene of a riot when the Sopranos crew beat up native American protestors.
You then drive to the pretty town of Kearny, where among other locations ,is the site of Satriale’s Pork Store, a fictional place that has a legitimate front selling gabagool and other delicacies, but scene of a shooting and and a partcularly gruesome dismemberment.
It’s now a carpark but when the building was demolished bricks sold for up to $180 apiece, says Zachary.
The pig on top was taken down after any filming on the location after being stolen on the second day it was put up. The area next door is where the character Artie Bucco confronted Tony with a gun.
Across the road West Hudson Park where Adriana meets her FBI handler when she becomes and informant and Zachary says ducks in the scene had their feet taped together so they swam in perfect in circles.
‘’Very clever, maybe a little abusive.’’
Not far away is St Cecelia Church, one of three churches where Father Phil Intintola is filmed. Its at St Cecelia where Camela Soprano sees fellow Mob wife Rosalie Aprile feed him a dish, which triggers her to dump a serving of ziti she’d also prepared for the priest.
(On food: The extras who had been also been on Martin Scorsese Mob films say he goes all out with catering – veal parmesan and stuffed clams – whereas David Chase was more a chicken, rice and vegetable guy).
The Bada Bing strip club in The Sopranos was always a real venue, part of a chain called Satin Dolls. It’s still there and is the final stop, located on a busy highway between a cannabis dispensary and an exotic pet store.
After photos below the ‘‘Home of the original Bada Bing’' sign you can go in (no photos inside) to buy a drink or pricey souvenir t-shirts, shot glasses and mugs.
The Sopranos used artistic licence to show both topless dancers and alcohol being served because under New Jersey law it’s one or the other. Satin Dolls has opted to serve alcohol and around lunchtime on a Saturday there were half a dozen bikini-clad dancers languidly strutting around the stage in front the same number of real punters, plus 18 bemused tourists.
On big screens there’s baseball playing and lawyers advertising services to settle asbestos lung damage claims.
Zachary explains that for filming days HBO would set up at 2am when the club closed and start filming from 5am until noon. During season one the venue hire fee was $1000, it was $50,000 by season six. Zachary advises cash is best for souvenirs.
Before you get to the Bing, the big stop is at Holsten’s, the ice cream shop in Bloomfield, where the last scene of the series was shot. You can sit at Booth B3 where Tony, Carmela and A.J. sat waiting for Soprano daughter Meadow to join them.
She walks in the door, the screen cuts to black and one of greatest debates in popular culture begins. The place was full of potential killers so would Tony be gunned down or not?
She walks in the door, the screen cuts to black and one of greatest debates in popular culture begins. The place was full of potential killers so would Tony be gunned down or not?
Zachary turns to quantum physics using the theory of Schrodinger’s cat (which ends up both dead and alive at the same time after exposure to radiation) and the theory of threes. There’s a lot of the three of everything in the last scenes including Tony selecting K3 on the jukebox to select the Journey song, Don’t Stop Believin’. Would Tony be shot/shot at for the third time?
Chase introduced the colour orange, the citrus fruit or juice to scenes of imminent death, in the finest Mafia movie tradition.
Zachary says he had a big tiger mural pained at the back of Holsten’s for the final scene.
The booth was modified for Gandolfini who carried the show on and off screen and had packed on weight during the series. The booth was also lowered to make filming easier. A doorbell was installed (it rings constantly as potential hitmen come in) and onion rings were added to the menu especially for the show. They’re still there, a $US6.50 deep-fried treat. You can also buy t-shirts.
Chase maintains it’s up to the viewer to reach their own conclusions about Tony’s fate. Zachary believes that if he was still alive after the family dinner he may not be for long.
‘’That final scene is bringing up the idea that death could approach Tony at any moment.’’
Grant Bradley has worked at the Herald since 1993. He is the Business Herald’s deputy editor and covers aviation and tourism.
The Herald travelled to New York courtesy of Qantas
The airline sold its last slots at Heathrow in 2020.