"Men in Black III" Makes Carroll Gardens Be Elmhurst

Carroll Gardens is where Hollywood goes when it need bygone urban authenticity. Last April, Garry Marshall shot his film "New Year's Eve" here because he thought Smith Street would be the kind of place where the fictional old time Italian restaurant in the movie might be.

This past week "Men in Black III" hunkered down along Court Street and remade the place into a late 1960s New York neighborhood. Hey, we've got the brownstone backdrop. All they needed were a few old cars and to cover up the street signs. (See above.)

One problem is, they got the signs wrong. I've seen enough old pictures from Court Street to know that the street signs in the 1960s and 1970s were black with white letters. Oh, well. They look old.

"Men in Black III" also created the amusing circumstance of giving Court Street its first subway stop ever. This fake entrance was built at the corner of Court and Third Place. There was another one a block or so to the south.

However, they weren't really Carroll Gardens subway stops, as you can see. Court Street was subbing for Elmhurst's 179th Street stop in Queens. I know of at least one local merchant who was insulted to have  I'll leave it to the subway experts out there as to whether this entrance looks authentic. 

The pictures here are courtesy of Pardon Me for Asking. I was too slow to get my own. I blinked, and these cosmetic movie changes were gone.