Movies - The Apartment (1960) w/Jack Lemmon

Does anyone know if the New York Polynesian/tiki bar in the film was real and, if so, the name? Even the servers were true to form as well as the drinks and food.

I've always wondered about that myself, but judging by the exterior when they walk in, it looks like a set.

Since it was filmed mainly in New York (and some in Hollywood), I thought it could have been Kon Tiki, NY or some other poly there. It looked fanatastic even in B&W. Hope somebody can say for sure.

If you think about it really hard maybe Shirley MacLaine will psychically answer the question for you. :wink:

You must admit she was very beautiful then.:tiki:

Snapshots anyone?

Cough..cough...sniff...weeell, youngens, over the many years that I have been on this board (and they are many!) --Cough!--there have been NUMEROUS posts about the Polynesian restaurant scene in "The Apartment", and many discussions about it being a set or not, with many photos posted. It is sort of THE Tiki newbie discovery of Tiki in a Film. As a matter of fact, "Tikis in Films" should have something in there --Cough!--and other threads too, though regrettably the transient nature of the virtual world might have resulted in the loss of some images. I myself have spent sleepless nights over the "set vs real place" conundrum, but basically the fact that 98% of all Hollywood movies during that period were not filmed on location but on sound stages (they basically didn't know how to light and shoot in original interior locations back then) leads me to believe that some art director who was very fond of Trader Vic's built this interior as a very authentic set. Zzzzzzzz...

Here's the most complete post on the subject of tiki bars in old films (but there may be more specific topics - try a search on The Apartment):

Tiki bar scene in old movie

[ Edited by: thejab 2008-12-18 10:51 ]

Here ya go,
bar scene starts at 4:15 of the film.

The Apartment (1960) - Part 4/12

Party at bar
5:55 of film;
The Apartment (1960) - Part 12/12

Thanks for the links! I'm going with "on the set". I did serch "The Apartment" and didn't find anything or didn't dig deep enough. You know, its a newbie thing.

Hay hay, thought I would chime in. If its a set then I wonder what the inspiration was? This is all I could dig up.

Notes for The Apartment (1960)
http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title.jsp?stid=16634&category=Notes

"Press materials note that exterior shooting all took place at night in New York City, including locations such as Central Park, the Majestic Theatre lobby and Columbus Avenue. The rest of the film was shot at the Samuel Goldwyn Studios in Los Angeles. There, the filmmakers constructed the huge interior set of the insurance office, designed to represent the demoralizing, impersonal nature of the corporate environment.
According to press notes, the set was made of glass and metal and covered more than 25,000 square feet. In a modern interview, Wilder described the techniques they used to create the vast office space, including forced perspective with progressively smaller sized desks that recede into cardboard cutouts. Although Wilder claimed in a modern interview that he placed progressively smaller actors at the desks, finally casting dwarves, art director Alexander Trauner has stated that the actors in the back rows were children. Hollywood Reporter reported in December 1959 that the set included nearly $4 million worth of loaned office equipment, attended to by operators supplied by the IBM corporation.
Press materials add that the artwork seen in the office of Sheldrake, including paintings by Massimo Campigli and Paul Klee, were from the personal collection of Wilder, a well-known art collector, and that the bed in Buddy's apartment was owned by Wilder, who had previously used the prop as Audrey Hepburn's childhood bed in Sabrina"

Edward Boyle

The Apartment [1960]:
Credits: Set Designer
Some Like It Hot [1959]:
Credits: Set Designer
Separate Tables [1958]:
Credits: Set Designer
Gone With the Wind [1939]:
Credits: Set Designer
A Star is Born [1937]:
Credits: Set Designer
Total movies: 5

Academy:
1960 (33rd) - ART DIRECTION - The Apartment [1960] , Won
1959 (32nd) - ART DIRECTION - Some Like It Hot [1959] , Nominated

Wow, so The Apartment won an Oscar for art direction! And thanks for those U-Tube links, it really makes it fun to shuttle through the angles. I always tend to forget that it was shot as late as 1960, because black and white seems so unusual for the time. But Billy Wilder was an old school director, his best films were done in black and white, and so even if by 1960 on location shooting was beginning to happen, he went with in studio sets all the way.

On 2008-12-18 11:53, Unga Bunga wrote:
Here ya go,
bar scene starts at 4:15 of the film.

The Apartment (1960) - Part 4/12

Party at bar
5:55 of film;
The Apartment (1960) - Part 12/12

Yeah, definitely looks like a set. I think it was a wise creative decision on Billy Wilder's to have the Adulterer (MacMurray) and his Mistress meet at a Tiki bar. The loose environment suggests the exotic and 'taboo'. This was definitely something that was done with the story elements in mind.

On 2008-12-18 10:51, thejab wrote:
Here's the most complete post on the subject of tiki bars in old films...:

Quite a few in this thread as well. A lot of dead image links in the first 5 or 6 pages though.