The Bronx Goes to Hollywood: Neil Simon by Gregory BarryNovember 15, 2016

book cover

Although there are a great number of classic Hollywood films set in Los Angeles (see Chinatown, The Graduate, Magnolia, etc.), including quite a few exploring the Hollywood film industry itself (Sunset Boulevard, Barton Fink, Mulholland Drive, etc.), the list of movies set in New York is likely longer, and possibly even more iconic. Think of the fateful Midtown duel that ends King Kong; the late-night streets of Taxi Driver or Midnight Cowboy; the complex domestic worlds visible from Jimmy Stewart’s Greenwich Village apartment in Rear Window; the vibrant Little Italy of The Godfather Part II; the gorgeous opening montage of Woody Allen’s Manhattan. Clearly, Hollywood loves coming to New York.

The reverse is also true: Looking at a list of the famous actors, screenwriters, and film directors who hail from NYC, it becomes clear that New York loves going to Hollywood as well.

To celebrate the Bronxites who have found success there, Parkchester Library will be viewing films starring, written by, or directed by men and women who were born in our borough. The series will begin on Wednesday, November 16 with a viewing of The Odd Couple, adapted by Neil Simon from one of his own plays.

Although his family moved from the Bronx to Washington Heights when he was young, for a number of years Simon travelled back across the Harlem River on school days to attend DeWitt Clinton High School.1 At age seventeen, as World War II was drawing to a close, he enlisted in the Army Special Training Program, hoping that it would give him the chance to see the world outside New York City: perhaps Arizona, Georgia, or Texas. Instead, he ended up in the Bronx once again, stationed at NYU’s University Heights campus (now home to Bronx Community College).2

After his military service was complete, Simon embarked upon a career writing comedy—something he had dabbled in as far back as his teenage years. Once during high school, he and his older brother Danny wrote sketches for an “annual employee show” at the department store where Simon worked. “We spent two months writing three sketches, with Danny pushing me to work nights and weekends. During the days I slept through my classes at DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx, failing an English Lit class while I was honing my Comedy Lit future.”3

And he honed it well. He has written over thirty plays in his lengthy career, many of which he has also helped adapt for the screen. His work has gained him numerous awards, including a couple of Emmys, a few Tonys, and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Years after first finding fame both on Broadway and in Hollywood, he reflected on his great success in the introduction to a collection of his plays. “Did I sit back and revel in my good fortune?’ writes Simon. ‘Did I relax and watch my boyhood ambitions being fulfilled before my eyes? Not if you were born in the Bronx, in the Depression and Jewish, you don’t.”4 Despite spending so many of his years in Manhattan and beyond, it seems that, at heart, he still saw himself as a kid from the Bronx.

We will watch The Odd Couple at 10 AM on Wednesday, November 16 at the Parkchester Library. Stay tuned for another movie next month!

1 Neil Simon: A Casebook p. 39–40

2 The Play Goes On: A Memoir p. 212

3 Rewrites: A Memoir p. 37

4 Neil Simon: A Casebook p. 47

View all posts by Gregory Barry