Cinematical

Eventually every block in Manhattan should have an extra nickname in addition to its actual address. Enough famous things happen in the borough, I'm sure. One of these famous things was the growing up of Humphrey Bogart at 245 W. 103rd Street. Over the weekend, super-fan Gary Dennis, a video store owner who campaigned for the honoring of Bogie and Lauren Bacall, who was married to the actor until his death in 1957, joined other fans in the drizzling rain to declare that block of 103rd Street "Humphrey Bogart Place."

"I'm happy he is honored," Bacall said at the event, "of course, it's only brass on a wall." Only brass? Certainly Bacall has never taken delight in learning about the city's history via plaques, which I've gotten more into since reading Sarah Vowell's Assassination Vacation. Just the other day I learned that a building I pass sometimes in Brooklyn was the first multi-family home in the borough. Okay, so maybe most people don't care about that stuff, but everyone cares about movie trivia, right? With all the movies shot in New York, perhaps the city could put up more plaques and rename more streets to showcase where film shoots occurred. The most obvious I can think of is the corner of N. Moore and Varick, which should definitely be renamed Ghostbusters Place if it hasn't been already.