WHY LEE GRANT LIVES ON THE UPPER WEST SIDE

Lee Grant in her Upper West Side apartment.

By Eileen Katz

Lee Grant was born on the Upper West Side and has lived up here for most of her life. She made her stage debut at age 4 at the Metropolitan Opera and never looked back! Ms. Grant went on to a tremendous career on Broadway that she parlayed into a film career. She received an Oscar nomination for her role in “Detective Story”, a role she originated on Broadway, and won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for “Shampoo”.

Her second Oscar came with her transition to Directing for the HBO documentary, “Down and Out in America.”

Why the West side, Lee?

I was born here! On 148^th Street. I grew up in lower Washington Heights. It was great. I loved my block. In those days, your block was your block. And my block had the girls. We all grew up together. And after school, we all went down to the block to play. And the next block was where the boys were. And we’d try and get there, but you couldn’t even walk up 149^th Street. You’d interrupt a baseball game, or some such thing. I was raised in a brownstone there 620 West 148^th St.   All my uncles and aunts lived there. Then we moved to 706, which was a big white house.

I went all through the Neighborhood Playhouse and studying to be an actress from that block until I got my first job and then we had to move to mid-town so I could get to the theaters. It was just awful. But after I was blacklisted, Broadway was the only place I could work. Broadway had an agreement with Actor’s Equity. And I taught at HB Studios. It brought in a steady income that helped support the family through that awful time. Well, it was awful and wonderful.

You see, I was extremely uneducated. All I had ever known was adoration from my mother and aunt. And approval from acting coaches. I never went to college. I was a poor student. I was thrown out of two schools for not concentrating. Then the blacklist gave me my education. I had only said a few words at a friend’s funeral. Nobody warned me that it could happen. Our government seemed to confuse someone having a talent agent with being a secret agent. It was a bounce. Going from that world of excitement to being married and the mother of two step-boys. And really falling in love with the people who were Communists at that time. I had so much regard for their thinking, their intellectuality. Zero Mostel, my husband, Trumbo. You know, it was like how did I get lucky enough to get abducted by these extraordinary, talented people? It was an excitement of a different kind. I was re-invented. Flying by the seat of my pants! I was like Alice. Down the rabbit hole and that’s where I was. When that ended, I moved to Malibu so that was really like going to Atlantic City from the Upper West Side! It was the beach and very low key. My daughter Dinah was about 7. I went because I had to do “Peyton Place”, which was the biggest soap opera ever! New episodes three times a week.

What brought you back?

When I moved back here, I had decided that I would become a director. I sensed my saleability as a young actress was passing. As an actress who was blacklisted as a girl, from the time I was 24, when I got my first Oscar nomination, to 36 when I restarted my career, I gained a heightened sense of “ getting it back” and “running with it.” Of letting nothing get in my way. Of staying 36 and not getting older. This was an absolute necessity. It put me on a high alert of looking young, of not having anyone find out that I was getting older – 37, 38, ahh! 40!

This was before the computer so you could really hide and my youth juices were really working for me. It was after “Shampoo” though that I knew it was time.   When I moved back, it was to 74^th and West End Avenue. Harry Belafonte owned it and I called him. Then we had $75,000 down on an apartment on Central Park West, but I saw this apartment with my best friend Marybeth, and she said: “If you don’t take this apartment, you’ll regret it for the rest of your life.” And I knew she was right. I’ve been here almost 30 years since and it’s home. We just blew that money! I came back to my own country! I am not comfortable anywhere else. This is my country. I’ll go to the East side to visit my doctors, who are all on Park Avenue, but that’s the East side. But everything that I hold dear is on the West side. It’s home.

What’s the best part about living up here?

Well, look where I live! This is a building that was built in the 1920’s and maintained brilliantly and carefully. My apartment is my house. It has those long, long doors that are supposed to open up to a Chekhov cherry orchard, but instead it’s a fall. It’s my home. In the summer we take up the rugs and we put on the white furniture covers and it becomes the summer house. And in the winter we bring the carpets back up and take off the white summer covers. We don’t have to deal with the Hamptons. I hate the country. I hate the beach. The only time I liked it was when we were in Malibu. But only because it was a community. Ryan O’Neal lived up the block, everyone wore bathing suits everywhere, even to the market. Like here, that was a community.

What’s the worst part of living up here?

I wrote a letter to the Times and went down to the Mayor’s office. The first one to go was Embassy Florist, right across Broadway where the bank is, where all the banks seem to be now. They raised the rent to $30,000 a month. Then the Vietnamese market went down. They raised their rent $40,000. Then the little bookstores went down and everyplace was now a bank or a drugstore. So I went to this meeting for the support of small businesses and it was like talking to the wind. Everyone was bored, sat around, while the character of the Upper West Side was being ruined. I appreciate Banana Republic and the new high-end stores that have moved in, but I miss the character.

Do you have a favorite routine or walk in the neighborhood?

One of my walks is from this building to Zabar’s. I used to throw in a stop at Filene’s where I would pile up so many cashmere sweaters. You couldn’t walk in there without getting one. Such good deals. This is probably one of them that I’ve got on! The walk, the parade of people, I get lost in it.

Favorite restaurants?

I miss Docks! I don’t know why they had to leave. Do you know Joy Behar lives in the neighborhood? When we get together at her house, we’ll go to Carmine’s afterward.

Ollie’s around the corner is good for ribs.

Favorite shops?

Honey, you have to talk about Barzini’s. It saved us when Food Emporium closed. The fruits and vegetables are beautiful. And nice baked goods. Every time we have company we run right there and get a selection of cheeses. The best collection anywhere. And they’re nice enough so that sometimes, when you get a little rumble in your tummy around 2 o’clock you can say, I’m just going to run in to Barzini’s and just sample a little piece of cheese with a cracker. And it’s so welcoming, so nice. And I like the people who run it. Mensches.

What makes someone an Upper West Sider?

This feeling that I know you, even if I don’t know you. It’s family. I feel it even from the homeless people that are here. I brought home a chicken noodle soup and a roll yesterday that I hadn’t planned on because I saw this man on the way to the market on 85^th street. It was rough out. Starting to snow. So I said, I don’t have any change. He says: “No, I don’t want any change. I want chicken noodle soup and go across the street and get it from over there.” So I explained I was going to the market. He said again, I want it from that place.

Well, I had to go to the market, I had a long list of things to get, there was a long line, but I saw that they had chicken soup, so I bought it with a roll at the market. I didn’t buy it at the place across the street, even though he told me to, which I resented a little, but when I came out he was gone! I really loved his arrogance though that he felt he could tell me where he wanted it from. Like family! I looked all around for him, down the street, around the corner, but couldn’t find him. This is a rotten time for the homeless. It just breaks my heart.

How would you describe Central Park?

Heatbreakingly democratic! It’s the park of the city and that makes it the ultimate of what we can be…the old with the young, rich with poor, roller-skaters with musicians. And old wonderful trees. I walk home from all my doctors appointments that I told you about on the East side and never miss the chance to cross through.

It sounds like you really spend a lot of time walking around the neighborhood!

I am strong! I am sturdy! In order to get what you need, you have to walk here and it’s my curiosity about the people I pass on the street, and what’s going on and the dog population is incredible! It seems like when we got to this building, this neighborhood, most people had children. But they grow up, leave, and it seems like every parent has replaced their children with a dog. That makes for a lot of dogs! All us dog owners know each other and it’s an even greater sense of neighborhood spirit. They don’t know my name, but they know Bella’s!

People don’t recognize you?

There’s a kind of off-handedness, an acknowledgement, of my work, but never rudeness or overstepping my personal space. We’re all in this neighborhood together!

To read all of our “Why the West Side” columns, click here.