List of references to Long Island places in popular culture

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Below is a list of references to Long Island locations in popular culture.

Books

• F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby takes place on the North Shore of Long Island.
• Several books by Nelson DeMille, including Plum Island, The Gold Coast, The Charm School reference Long Island locations are take place on Long Island.
• E.L. Doctorow's novel World's Fair was set at the 1939 fair in Queens.
• Mary Gordon and Alice McDermott have written novels set in Irish-American Catholic culture of the urban and suburban areas of Long Island.
• Chang Rae-Lee set his first novel Native Speaker (1995) in the Korean-American community in Queens. His third novel Aloft was set in suburban Long Island.
• Fictional characters Joe & Frank Hardy, known as The Hardy Boys in the famous series of detective stories in both books and television, are from Bayport, Long Island.
• The book Jaws originally took place in Long Island, with Amity being a town on it rather than its own island.
• In the Percy Jackson series this is where Camp Half-Blood is situated
• The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt takes place in 1967 Long Island.
• Montauk (1975), an autobiographic novel by the Swiss author Max Frisch, retells his love to an American woman and is situated, among other locations, in Montauk.
• Spider Robinson's Callahan books are set in a bar on Long Island.
• William Gaddis' "novel of voices" J R is set largely in Massapequa.
• Sag Harbor: A novel by Colson Whitehead is set in the Long Island town of the same name.

Film

• Animal Crackers, the Marx Brothers's second hit movie, was set in a Long Island mansion.
• Sabrina, with Audrey Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart, had scenes filmed in Glen Cove and Nassau County.
• The 1995 movie Batman Forever, starring Val Kilmer, Nicole Kidman, Jim Carrey, Tommy Lee Jones, and Drew Barrymore was filmed in part at Webb Institute, in Glen Cove.
• The 2001 independent film L.I.E. (Long Island Expressway), starring Paul Dano and Brian Cox, dealt with an adolescent boy struggling in his life.
• The 2004 movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, starring Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet takes place on Long Island, specifically in Rockville Centre and Montauk.
• The 2004 movie New York Minute, starring Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen, has characters who attend Syosset High School.
• The 1959 movie North by Northwest, starring Cary Grant, has scenes filmed in Glen Cove, Nassau County.
• In the 2008 movie, What Happens in Vegas, Joy (played by Cameron Diaz) retreats to Fire Island.
• In the 1977 movie, Annie Hall, Woody Allen's character remarks to Diane Keaton's character on seeing a pair of gay men walking hand-in-hand: "Oh look, they're on vacation from Fire Island.", a reference to the gay enclaves of Cherry Grove and Fire Island Pines.
• In Final Destination, the movies take place on Long Island. In Final Destination 2, a Mapquest image is shown of the area around Stony Brook University Hospital even though the hospital is made out to be a psychiatric hospital.
• In the famous scene from the 1972 classic The Godfather where the severed head of a horse is discovered in the bed of Jack Woltz was filmed in Port Washington. Also the very memorable scene where Sonny Corleone is gunned down at a toll booth was shot on what is now Nassau Community College
• Although supposed to be set in the fictional town of Greenleaf, Indiana, the 1998 comedy In & Out starring Kevin Kline was filmed in Northport
• The post office scene in the 2002 comedy Men in Black II was shot outside the Fire Island lighthouse
• The 1999 Andy Kaufman biopic Man on the Moon opens with a scene of Jim Carrey who plays Andy narrating his story to the audience which he says begins "In Great Neck, Long Island..." (where Kaufman grew up.)
• The film The Amityville Horror takes place in the town of Amityville.
• Director Hal Hartley made several films filmed on location in his home town of Lindenhurst including The Unbelievable Truth (1989), Trust (1990) and Simple Men (1992).]
• The film "Funny Games" used several outdoors scenes that were shot on Long Island, and the town of Smithtown is noted in the credits.

Comics

• Characters in the comic book Marvel Universe from Long Island include:

• At least three members of the superhero team the X-Men: Archangel (real name Warren Worthington and previously called Angel) is from Centerport; Iceman (real name Bobby Drake) from fictional Fort Washington (unrelated to real-world Port Washington); and Dazzler (real name Alison Blaire) from fictional Gardendale.
• Siblings Susan Storm Richards (the Invisible Woman) and Johnny Storm (the Human Torch) of the superhero team the Fantastic Four lived in a fictional Long Island town, Glenville, early in their careers.

• In the DC Comics universe, the 1970s Teen Titans superhero team was headquartered in a Farmingdale club named Gabriel's Horn. The writer of the series, a Farmingdale native, based it upon an insurance building which he could see from his bedroom window as a boy.^{[citation needed]}

Television and stage

• The fictional Seaver family on the television show Growing Pains lived on Long Island.
• The USA Network show Royal Pains takes place in the Hamptons on Long Island.
• The television series, Everybody Loves Raymond (CBS, 1996–2005) takes place in Lynbrook, Long Island.
• In the Broadway musical "RENT", Maureen Johnson is said to be from Hicksville.
• Growing Up Gotti (2004–2005) on A&E took place on Long Island.
• The characters from Seinfeld (NBC, 1989–1998), in an episode from Season 3 get lost in a parking garage in a mall situated in Lynbrook. In fact, there is no mall located in Lynbrook.
• In an episode of I Love Lucy (CBS, 1951–1957), the Ricardos are visited by Tennessee Ernie Ford who gets lost on Long Island and needs to walk home to the Ricardos' apartment in Manhattan, of which experience he remarks "And danged if it ain't!!". To the question "Ain't what?", he responds "a LONG ISLAND!!!"
• Irving Berlin composed and produced a musical revue entitled Yip Yip Yaphank while he was stationed at Camp Upton there during World War I.
• In the popular sitcom "Friends", it is referenced that Monica Gellar, Ross Gellar, and Rachel Green grew up in Massapequa, Long Island.
• A recurring character on the animated television series Drawn Together is known as Steve from Long Island. Steve is portrayed with the stereotypical laid-back attitude that residents of Suffolk County are known for.

Music

• Billy Joel, a Long Island native, is strongly associated with Long Island, and has made frequent references to its places and culture in his songs. His 1971 solo debut album was titled "Cold Spring Harbor" .His song "The Ballad of Billy The Kid" features the line From a town known as Oyster Bay, Long Island. The hit song "The Downeaster Alexa" is written about fishermen primarily on Long Island who struggle to make a living, and mentions Montauk and Gardiner's Bay.
• The song "Soul Power" off the 2002 album Iron Flag by Wu-Tang Clan features dialogue at the end by Method Man and Long Island-native Flavor Flav of Public Enemy that mentions Westbury, Freeport, Roosevelt, Hempstead, New Castle Park, and Hundread Terrace Avenues
• Several songs by the band Brand New include references to the Island. For example, in the song "Play Crack the Sky," one lyric is, "Four months of calm seas To be pounded in the shallows Off the tip of Montauk Point."
• The band Straylight Run also references the island, such as in the song "Your Name Here (Sunrise Highway)," which references Long Island's own Sunrise Highway, and Carmen's Road: Go east on Sunrise Highway, Turn left at Carman's Avenue, Go right at the first stoplight, And I'll be outside waiting for you, Oh, I'll be waiting for you."
• Hardcore group Silent Majority's song "And They Loved It To Death" off the album You Would Love To Know EP features the lines Head up to the North Shore with Huntington girls and Head down to the South Shore with Babylon girls. The album also features a song entitled "Amityville Horror". The song "Polar Bear Club" off the album Life of a Spectator also features the line I pray that we're still friends, in the sand at Gilgo Beach, which is located in Babylon.
• The 2005 album No Matter Where We Go...! by Latterman features the song "Fear & Loathing On Long Island"
• Public Enemy's hit "Rebel Without A Pause" features the line Strong Island, where I got 'em wild and that's the reason they're claiming that I'm violent
• The song "Vibes & Stuff" off the classic album ...The Low End Theory by A Tribe Called Quest features the lines Found my thrill in Amityville, I'm always in the Island. Fudge and Monkey know the deal, they know who keeps me smiling and ...all the people in Long Island, we got the vibes. The song "We Got The Jazz" also features the line: Make sure you have a system with some phat house speakers. So the new shit can rock from Mars to Massapequa. Cause where I come from quality is job one. And everybody up on Linden know we get the job done.
• De La Soul's album Stakes Is High features the songs "Once Again Long Island" and "Long Island Degrees" which reference many different towns and aspects of Long Island.
• Beirut's 2007 EP is called Lon Gisland.
• Bayside also references Long Island in their song titled "Montauk" with the line meet me in, Montauk which is based on the movie "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind"
• Circa Survive also references the movie with their song entitled "Meet me in Montauk" written and performed by "Anthony Green"
• Dogbowl and Kramer's 1994 album "Hot Day in Waco" contains the song "Tarantula" which contains the line "I was dreaming of that Central Islip field behind the school."
• Wyandanch native Rakim's 1999 album "The Master" contains the song "Strong Island" which references Long Island throughout the song. The chorus repeats the line "Rough enough to break New York from Long Island"
• In "Hard Candy" by Counting Crows the lyrics include "In the evenings on Long Island" and describe time spent on Long Island beaches
• The Rolling Stones song "Memory Motel" is based on the motel in Montauk which the band spent time at while visiting Andy Warhol.
• The Movielife references the Long Island Sound in the song "Ship to Shore" off their 2003 album Forty Hour Train Back to Penn.
• Ron Pope's song "Seven English Girls" Long Island is referenced in the line, "we had our summer on Long Island.. now there's wounds that never heal"

See also

• Montauk, New York in popular culture