I’m open to anything. I’ve become strangely fascinated with the area. All I can think of is “Radio Days” by Woody Allen - what else is there?
Dang it! I was all set to come in here and say Radio Days… Some of Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman is set in Far Rockaway (since that’s where he was born). Don’t know if you want to count that, though.
Hi, VCO3:
Despite its name the Far Rockaway High School Online Alumni Association’s website is about all things Rockaway. The index page contains some links that might interest you: one link goes to stills from The Detective, a movie with some scenes shot along the beach; another opens some information about a novel calls Chains Around the Grass, set in the Hammels housing project in Rockaway Beach.
The home page also contains links to a couple of message boards, excellent places to pose your initial question. Additionally, you can ask the webmaster to post the query on a couple of subpages. Some of the folks who patrol that website will be more than willing to offer recommendations.
I hope this helps. Peace.
Well, the Dire Straits song Tunnel of Love mentions Rockaway along with Steeplechase (NYC amusement park) and Palisades (which could refer to NY or NJ).
The beach club in The Flamingo Kid is set in Rockaway, NY. It’s the main setting for the movie but I don’t recall much outside the beach club zone being shown in the movie. (No doubt the cost of finding more period settings was a factor.)
I liked it at the time, but I haven’t seen it in quite a while so I don’t know if it has aged well.
The Ramones, of course, have done the definitive song about Rockaway Beach.
Neil Simon’s “Brighton Beach Memoirs” is of course about a different beach, but has some similarities to “Radio Days”.
As someone who was born there and lived there until I was twelve, may I ask why?
The only response I can think of is a dreadful novel called From Rockaway by a very pretentious novelist who’s name escapes me.
Of course The Ramones, being the nice boys from Queens they were, had a song called Rockaway Beach. Like most Ramones songs, theres not a whole heck of a lot of words to it, though…