Roosevelt Island - in Popular Culture

In Popular Culture

Literature

• 1867: In chapter 13 of Horatio Alger's novel Ragged Dick: Or, Street Life in New York with the Boot Blacks, the character Mickey Maguire, a young tough from Five Points "had acquired an ascendency among his fellow professionals, and had a gang of subservient followers, whom he led on to acts of ruffianism, not infrequently terminating in a month or two at Blackwell's Island."
• 1893: In the opening chapter of Stephen Crane's novelette "Maggie: A Girl of the Streets", "a worm of yellow convicts" is seen emerging from a prison building on Roosevelt Island.
• 1922: Yank, the main character in Eugene O'Neill's comedy The Hairy Ape, is imprisoned in Blackwell's Island prison, in chapter VI.
• 1925: Roosevelt Island appears in F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic novel The Great Gatsby as Blackwell's Island, in Chapter Four, when Nick and Jay drive into Manhattan via the Queensboro Bridge.
• 2001: Roosevelt Island's ruins, particularly the Smallpox Hospital and the Strecker Memorial Laboratory, play a central role in Linda Fairstein's police procedural novel The Dead House (Scribner 2001).
• 2004: A significant scene in Caitlin R. Kiernan's story "Riding The White Bull" takes place on Roosevelt Island.
• 2005: In the novel by Caroline B. Cooney, Code Orange, the main character, Mitty, is studying smallpox for his own survival. He goes and visits the Smallpox Hospital ruins on Roosevelt Island.
• 2007: In the novel by Cassandra Clare, City of Bones, the protagonist is drawn to the island for a showdown with the elusive villain, Valentine.

Film

• 1932: A Paramount Pictures film entitled No Man of Her Own is released, a light comedy film starring Clark Gable and Carole Lombard. Upon learning that Gable's character is not in South America, but instead learns he has negotiated a deal to serve 90 days and "he's across the river", Lombard's character then looks out of her hotel window to a view across the East River and the Queensboro Bridge, later referring to this as "Blackwell's Island".
• 1939: A Warner Bros. film entitled Blackwell's Island is released. It stars John Garfield as a crusading reporter investigating corruption in the island's prison.
• 1966: In the film Mister Buddwing, a sign posted on a bridge in the film reads: "Stairway to Welfare Island." Suzanne Pleshette, playing the character Grace, tries to throw herself off the bridge wearing nothing but a fitted trench coat and white ankle boots, before James Garner's character saves her.
• 1981: A Roosevelt Island Tramway car is held hostage in the Sylvester Stallone film Nighthawks.
• 1983: The 1983 Italian B movie Escape from the Bronx has a scene filmed at the north end of the island.
• 1985: In the final scenes of the film Turk 182 the Timothy Hutton character swings above Roosevelt Island on the Queensboro Bridge.
• 1990: In the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film, outside shots of the Renwick Ruins are used as the fictitious location for the Foot Clan's secret hideout. A youth clan member informs the police at the end of the film to "check the east warehouses on Lairdman's Island." The name of the island is fictitious – it is a reference to Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, the creators of the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series.
• 1991: In the opening scene of City Slickers Billy Crystal's character "Mitch Robbins" is shown commuting to work via the Roosevelt Island tram.
• 1993: In the film For Love or Money, Doug Ireland (played by Michael J. Fox) wants to buy the "abandoned hotel" at the south end of Roosevelt Island, referring to the ruins of the Smallpox Hospital.
• 1994: In The Professional Mathilda Lando (played by Natalie Portman) takes the Tramway to Roosevelt Island to seek asylum at the Spenser School.
• 1997: The film Conspiracy Theory was shot on location in and around New York City. Sites included Times Square, Union Square, Greenwich Village, the Queensboro Bridge, Roosevelt Island, and the Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla, New York.
• 2002: Near the end of the film Spider-Man, the Green Goblin blows up the Roosevelt Island side tram station and leaves a group of children hanging inside one car. He also brings Spider-Man down to fight with him in the abandoned Smallpox Hospital on the island. The tram and the island make other appearances in Spider-Man media. The island is featured in the video game Spider-Man 2. In The Amazing Spider-Man #161 and #162, appearing on the cover of the latter, and Spider-Man and Hulk fight on Roosevelt Island in The Amazing Spider-Man #328.
• 2002: In the film Gangs of New York, Leonardo DiCaprio's character Amsterdam Vallon is seen leaving "Hellgate House of Reform, Blackwell's Island, New York City".
• 2003: In the film Anything Else, Woody Allen's character, David Dobel, is a schoolteacher who lives on the island.
• 2005: Roosevelt Island is the setting for the film Dark Water by Brazilian director Walter Salles, where Dahlia (Jennifer Connelly) moves into a low-rent apartment with her daughter and then is terrorized by the ghost of a girl that used to live upstairs.
• 2007: In the film The Brave One, starring Jodie Foster, a memorable scene takes place at the Roosevelt Island parking lot. The film mentions the island several times.

Television

• 2005: In the second season episode of CSI: NY called "Dancing with the Fishes", a crime is committed inside the Roosevelt Island tram.
• 2010: On the TV show 24, NY CTU is based on Roosevelt Island.
• 2010: The reality TV show America's Next Top Model filmed a photo shoot on the Roosevelt Island tram on April 7.
• 2011: The television series Unforgettable takes place in part on Roosevelt Island.
• 2012: The season three finale of White Collar is set largely on Roosevelt Island, including a stunt in which the show's protagonist jumps midair between Tram cars to avoid being captured by the FBI.

Video games

• 1992: In the final level of the video game Atomic Runner for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis the level takes place on Roosevelt Island Southpoint Park.
• 2008: In the video game Grand Theft Auto IV there is an island resembling Roosevelt Island, named Colony Island. It also includes the ruins of a hospital, similar to the Smallpox Hospital.
• 2011: Parts of the video game Crysis 2 take place on Roosevelt Island.

Other

• 1973: In most Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon videos, Roosevelt Island can be seen during a sequence in the song "Us and Them" with footage taken on top of the Queensboro Bridge.
• 1986: The King Kong Tramway ride at Universal Studios opens in Orlando, Florida, featuring the Roosevelt Island Tram.
• 2006: The fictional high school which the main characters attend in the GONZO anime series Red Garden is on Roosevelt Island.
• 2009: On May 23, the island was the site of Improv Everywhere's "MP3 Experiment Six". Approximately 4,500 people traveled to the island to take part in a performance art piece where the southernmost point of the island became a "battleground" for the re-enactment of a fictional melee between townspeople and an ancient wolf.