5. Michael Jackson Filmed “Bad” at Hoyt-Schermerhorn
There are few identifying details in the 1987 music video for Michael Jackson’s song “Bad,” but it’s a little-known fact that it was shot in the mezzanine of the Hoyt-Schermerhorn subway station in Brooklyn. The full-length video is 18 minutes long and was directed by Martin Scorsese, whose picture appears in a Wanted poster in the subway station.
According to IMDB, the choreography is inspired by the dance sequence for the song “Cool” in West Side Story. Jackson was apparently a huge fan of the movie version of the Broadway musical by Stephen Sondheim, Leonard Bernstein, and Arthur Laurents. The story behind the video was inspired by Edmund Perry, a Black honors student shot by a plainclothes police officer after allegedly trying to mug him in Morningside Heights. The 1985 tragedy caused a media sensation.