The Dakota Building

[romantico]

Posted: 7/17/08 at 4:55pm

I have been obsessed with this building since I saw Rosemary's Baby. Does anyone know anyone who lives there? Has anyone actually ever been in one of the apartments? What famous people live there? (besides Yoko Ono)Any stories?

[PalJoey]

Posted: 7/17/08 at 5:12pm

I was at a party once at Leonard Bernstein's apartment.

Lauren Bacall still lives there.

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 7/17/08 at 5:14pm

And yes, Rex Reed.

[D2]

Posted: 7/17/08 at 5:23pm

And, I think, Connie Chung and Maury Povich. At least, they used to live there. Dunno if they've moved.

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 7/17/08 at 5:36pm

Per wikipedia, these folks once (or still do) live there:

actress Lauren Bacall
composer/conductor Leonard Bernstein
newscaster Connie Chung
sportsman F Ambrose Clark who was also grandson of the original builder
actor José Ferrer
singer Roberta Flack
author Charles Henri Ford
actress Judy Garland
actor Steve Guttenberg
actress Judy Holliday
playwright William Inge
actor Boris Karloff
composer/singer John Lennon
singer Sean Lennon, son of John and Yoko
football player, coach, and announcer John Madden
interior decorator Syrie Maugham
author Carson McCullers
dancer Rudolf Nureyev
artist Yoko Ono
talk-show host Maury Povich
comedienne Gilda Radner
critic Rex Reed
film and television producer Edgar J. Scherick
singer Neil Sedaka
actor Jason Robards
actor Zachary Scott
producer Jane Rosenthal
hockey player Robert G. Shaw
trader/sportsman Sean Goodrich

[PalJoey]

Posted: 7/17/08 at 6:08pm

I posted this in a previous thread about the night John Lennon was killed.

===

I was rehearsing a reading of a new play that evening, in the apartment of the playwright, who lived on 73rd Street between Central Park West and Columbus. The rehearsal started at 7 and finished a little after 10. I stayed and chatted with the playwright for a few minutes. Rather than walk directly down 73rd toward Amsterdam toward the subway, I decided to walk around Central Park West so I could walk around The Dakota, which I had loved since Rosemary's Baby. I liked to walk by it and see if I could see Leonard Bernstein, or Lauren Bacall, or John and Yoko.

The building itself is always beautiful and eerie, but that night there seemed to be something especially creepy about the darkness and the shadows and the Gothic stonework. I remember distinctly feeling that EVERYONE in the vicinity of the building that night seemed creepy--and because I was just standing there looking at it, I probably seemed creepy too.

Of course, there was one person also standing there who genuinely WAS creepy, and he had a gun. I don't remember seeing Mark David Chapman specifically, but he must have seen me, because he was, apparently, there at that time, staking out the perimeter of the building.

I left about 10:30, walked to the subway and got down to my apartment on St. Mark's Place a little after 11. I turned on the television before I went to bed and saw that Lennon was shot at 10:50. He and Yoko got out of the car outside the gates of the Dakota that night--that's how Chapman was able to shoot him. If they had taken the car all the way in through the gates, they would have been safe.

What would have happened if I had stayed there a few more minutes? Maybe I would have seen the creepy guy pull out his gun. Maybe I would have screamed out, "Jesus Christ, he's got a gun!" Maybe Mark David Chapman would have wheeled around and shot me. Or maybe I would have witnessed the shooting itself and felt guilty for the rest of my life.

I sort of do anyway. Like somehow I could have prevented John Lennon's death. And should have. But didn't.

The play was never produced. A few years later the playwright had died, of the Plague.

[romantico]

Posted: 7/17/08 at 6:10pm

Thanks for the list. Pal Joey, I am so jealous of you. I do not think they shot any interiors for Rosemary's Baby, just the exteriors. Still, I love the creepy look of it.