List of references to Long Island places in popular culture

Part of a series of articles on
Topics
Geography History Economy Transportation Politics Music People Popular culture Recreation Law enforcement
Regions
Brooklyn Queens Nassau County Suffolk County Municipalities North Shore South Shore North Fork South Fork Long Island Sound Barrier islands

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.
• The book The Amityville Horror by Jay Anson takes place in Amityville, sequel The Amityville Horror Part II takes place in Deer Park.
• 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 & the Olympians series Camp Half-Blood is located on Long Island.
• The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt takes place in 1967 Long Island.
• Montauk 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's "novel of voices" J R is set largely in Massapequa.
• Sag Harbor, a novel by Colson Whitehead, is set in the Long Island town.
• Montauk, a novel by Christopher McKittrick, is set in the Long Island town.

Film

• Animal Crackers was set in a mansion on Long Island.
• Sabrina had scenes filmed in Glen Cove and Nassau County.
• The 1959 movie North by Northwest has scenes filmed in Glen Cove.
• In the famous scene from the 1972 film 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.
• The documentary Grey Gardens took place in East Hampton.
• 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.
• The film series The Amityville Horror takes place in the town of Amityville, in the 2005 remake the Lutz family lived in Deer Park before moving to 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 1995 movie Batman Forever was filmed in part at Webb Institute, in Glen Cove.
• The 1998 film In & Out was filmed in Northport.
• The 1993 film Amongst Friends written and directed by Rob Weiss was filmed entirely on the South Shore of Long Island.
• 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.)
• In Big Daddy Sonny Koufax (played by Adam Sandler) said "I went to Jones Beach got drunk and went to sleep."
• In Men in Black II the post office scene was shot outside the Fire Island lighthouse. In Men in Black 3 the Cape Canaveral scene was shot at Jones Beach State Park.
• In Final Destination, the movie take place on Long Island. In Final Destination 2, a MapQuest image is shown of the area around Stony Brook University Hospital.
• The 2001 independent film L.I.E. (Long Island Expressway), took place on Long Island.
• In the 2002 film Mr. Deeds Babe Bennett (played by Winona Ryder) says shes from Syosset, New York.
• The 2004 film White Chicks takes place in The Hamptons.
• The 2004 film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind takes place on Long Island, specifically in Rockville Centre and Montauk.
• In the 2004 film New York Minute has characters who attend Syosset High School.
• In the 2006 film Hatchet one of the characters said they went to Hofstra University.
• In the 2008 film What Happens in Vegas, Joy (played by Cameron Diaz) retreats to Fire Island.
• The Bounty Hunter had scenes shot on the Seaford–Oyster Bay Expressway.
• The 2011 film Something Borrowed had scenes shot in Centerport and The Hamptons.

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.

Television

• In an episode of I Love Lucy, 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!!!"
• Growing Pains takes place in Huntington.
• In an episode of Seinfeld The characters get lost in a parking garage in a mall in Lynbrook.
• On Friends, it is referenced that Monica Gellar, Ross Gellar, and Rachel Green grew up on Long Island and Phoebe Buffay's birth mom lives in Montauk.
• The television series, Everybody Loves Raymond takes place in Lynbrook.
• The A&E reality series Growing Up Gotti took place on Long Island.
• In an episode of Everybody Hates Chris Chris and his brother Drew skip school to go to Long Island to try and meet Wayne Gretzky.
• A recurring character on the animated television series Drawn Together is known as Steve from Long Island.
• Royal Pains takes place in The Hamptons and the mansion scenes are shot in Oheka Castle in Huntington.
• On Castle Richard Castle's favorite vacation spot is The Hamptons.
• The HBO film Grey Gardens takes place in East Hampton.
• The MTV documentary series True Life had an episode called True Life: I'm Hustling in The Hamptons.
• The E! reality series Living Lohan was shot around Merrick and other places on Long Island.
• The A&E reality series Growing Up Twisted took place on Long Island.
• Revenge takes place in The Hamptons.
• In the "Chicago" episode of New Girl, Schmidt exclaims "Long Island, son!" when Nick's cousin told him to go away ("Hey beat it, Cali!").

In HIMYM, Lily and Marshall, temporarily move to Long Island.

Stage

• 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 Broadway musical RENT, Maureen Johnson is said to be from Hicksville.
• The musical Grey Gardens takes place in East Hampton.

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 Luckey 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 "Long Island Degrees" and "Wonce Again Long Island" which references many different towns (specifically "East Mass" (E. Massapequa), Amityville, Wyandanch, Bayshore, "C.I." (Central Islip), Brentwood, Hempstead, Roosevelt, Freeport, Uniondale, Long Beach, and Huntington) 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