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Martin Scorsese’s newest film, The Wolf Of Wall Street follows the life of the extravagant self-made stock broker Jordan Belfort who flourished (and fell) on Wall Street. While there has been debate over the authenticity of the film, which is closely based on Belfort’s autobiography of the same name, the over-the-top story makes for great film locations in New York City and the surrounding region. Here’s a look at the locations at which some of the iconic moments where shot.
According to The Daily News, director Martin Scorsese was behind the camera on Nassau Street, right near the New York Stock Exchange. Belfort gets off a typical blue and white New York bus with “Wall Street” on its banner. This iconic landmark has endured its share of chaos–market crashes, bombings, recessions, Occupy movements–in its years as the financial center of New York. The history of Wall Street is an interesting one, its name a tribute to the Dutch wall that once stood in the seventeenth century as protection from hostile British and Native Americans. That Dutch fortification almost wasn’t built, however, because of a few unruly residents: a herd of persistent pigs.
According to the movie, this is the building in which L F Rothschild was allegedly housed, though the most recent address for L F Rothschild was actually at 666 Fifth Avenue. The firm was founded in 1899 by Louis F. Rothschild (1869–1957). Together with partner Leonard Hochstadter, Rothschild took up the offices and business of Albert Loeb & Co. at 32 Broadway. 120 Broadway though is an appropriate choice for the movie, as it has been a premier office destination for nearly a century. Known as The Equitable Building, the property is regarded as one of Downtown Manhattan’s first emblems of power and stature, and its looming stature prompted the development of New York City’s first zoning law.
Inside 666 Fifth Avenue
On his first day on the job as an analyst for the investment banking firm LF Rothschild in 1987, Belfort gets taken to lunch by his boss, Mark Hanna, (Matthew McConaughey), According to Eater, to a casual observer, it appears they lunch at Windows on the World, the restaurant which once occupied the 106th and 107th floors of the World Trade Center. But in fact, the two are dining at Top of the Sixes, a skytop restaurant on the 41st floor of 666 Fifth Avenue, the building in which LF Rothschild was housed. In this scene, McConaughey pounds his chest and hums rhythmically; that flourish is based on an acting exercise that McConaughey likes to do, and was, incorporated into the film after DiCaprio and Scorsese noticed the actor doing it on set.
After climbing the corporate ladder, Belfort and his wife move in to a luxury condo. The set for this extravagant apartment is the Milan luxury condo building on East 55th street between 1st and 2nd Avenues. It also serves as the Van der Woodsen’s home on “Gossip Girl.”
Belfort meets with his private investigator at a restaurant to discuss an on-going investigation on Stratton Oakmont. This was shot at Rao’s Restaurant, on 455 East 114th Street. In real life, Rao’s is reportedly where Hollywood stars go to rub shoulders with actual mafiosi.
This modern beach house is where Belfort meets his future wife, Naomi (Margot Robbie) for the first time. It was filmed in Sands Point, Long Island. It’s worth noting that the Jay Gatsby House in the book and film “The Great Gatsby” was inspired by this crazy feudal-style castle called Beacon Towers (now demolished), built by Mrs. Ava Vanderbilt Belmont in Sands Point.
With his roaring success at Stratton, Belfort and wife Naomi move into a mansion on Long Island. The actual mansion that was used in the film is located at 39 Chestnut Hill Drive, in Oyster Bay. According to Redfin, Belfort’s actual Long Island home, located at 5 Pin Oak Court, Old Brookville was a little less extravagant, though still worth a pretty penny. Belfort sold it in 1991 for $1.55 million.
While Belfort was getting investigated, he invited the officer in-charge Agent Patrick Denham to come visit him on his 167-foot yacht docked near the World Financial Center. But, according to Slate, the meetings likely took place in a less cinematic locale than depicted in the film.
Photo by Michael Perlman
Belfort met with his close friends and potential employees when he was starting his own brokerage firm Stratton Oakmont at a diner called Kacandes Diner (no doubt a nod to Georgia Kacandes, a long time Scorsese-head and an exec producer on the film.). In reality, it was shot at at the Shalimar Diner on 63rd Drive and Austin Street in Queens.
Belfort gets arrested by Agent Denham mid-filming his infomercial and landing on the helipad on W. 30th Street. The helipad has been inactive since December 2012, when Hudson River Park won a court action to enforce the banning of tourism flights from there, making it a perfect film location!
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